Assembly Election Results:

Foyle: Eamonn McCann 3120 first preference votes (8.3%) (Final vote: 3,915)

West Belfast: Gerry Carroll 1661 first preference votes (4.8%)

South Belfast: Brian Faloon 414 first preference votes (1.3%)

Mid Ulster: Harry Hutchinson 398 first preference votes (0.9%)

Amnesty International UK has announced the shortlist for its prestigious annual Media Awards, this year celebrating its 20th year. Among those on the shortlist is freelance journalist Eamonn McCann for a series of articles on Bloody Sunday and the conclusion of the Saville Inquiry.

People Before Profit Council candidate Colm Bryce last night highlighted the case of a pensioner in Foyle Road, who has still not been compensated after severe flooding in his flat over Xmas.
Michael James Murray, who has lived at 42 Foyle Road for 26 years, had his flat extensively damaged when the pipes in the flat upstairs burst during the freeze over Xmas. New carpets and a suite of furniture were damaged beyond repair. For months he has been left with a single chair and a TV as his only furniture. He has since managed to borrow a suite of furniture from a friend, on a temporary basis. He still has no carpets in the main living room or the hallway.
Mr Murray’s Housing Executive flat sits directly below a privately owned flat. The tenants were spending Xmas with family and Mr Murray could not gain access to the flat above which was flooding, after frozen pipes thawed. Water poured through the ceiling. The damage was so bad that he was forced to move in with his niece for 5 weeks, having no access to any other accommodation.
Both the Housing Executive and the private landlord have denied any responsibility or liability for the damage. The Housing Executive, when contacted by Mr Bryce yesterday, said that they are not responsible for water leaking into their property from a privately owned flat. They say that Mr Murray might have the right to make a claim under their public liability insurance but “going on previous experience, it is unlikely to be successful”.

Christy Moore is backing Eamonn McCann for an Assembly seat in Foyle. In a statement at the weekend, the popular singer said: "I have known Eamonn McCann and have stood with him in many campaigns since 1967. He has always stood for people before profit. I wish him every success in the election on May 5th. I hope to see him in the NI Assembly come May 6th.”

The popular singer and the long-time left-wing campaigner have been involved together in a wide range of causes over more than 40 years. Said Eamonn McCann yesterday: “I first met Christy while selling a left-wing Irish newspaper at Hyde Park Corner in London. It seems amazing to me now that that was all of 44 years ago. “I am delighted that we are still friends and that we still share the old radical spark of the sixties. I hope I can invite him to chew over old times in the Stormont cafe in a couple of weeks time.” Christy Moore added:" I might also remark that I sang with him in the Rialto one night, which is another reason why I think he should be in the Assembly".

People Before Profit will be taking part in the May Day Rally and March in Derry tomorrow, Saturday 30th April 2011. We call on everyone to join us.

Meet in the People Before Profit Office in Shipquay Place beside Cafe Del Mundo at 12.30. The rally will then begin outside the front of the office in Guildhall Square at 1pm.

Here is the text of the May Day leaflet we will be distributing at the Rally:

• A fighting chance to reject the cuts agenda
• Eamonn McCann could win an Assembly seat

Eamonn McCann has a very realistic chance of winning a seat in the Assembly on 5 May, provided that everyone who wants to challenge the Westminster and Stormont cuts gives him their number 1 vote.
Eamonn got almost 3,000 first preference votes at last years' Westminister election. The quota for an Assembly seat last time was around 5,800. The final seat was won with a total of 4,400.
If Eamonn is able to increase his vote from last year and pick up preferences he will be in the running for a seat.
Every vote for Eamonn is a vote against the rotten cuts agenda proposed by the Tories at Westminster and imposed by Stormont. It is a vote for an alternative that demands that public services and jobs are protected and the bankers and the rich made to shoulder the burden of the economic crisis they caused.
A radical campaigner and trade unionist like Eamonn winning a seat would be a powerful message to the next Executive that there will be opposition to the cuts. It would give heart to every trade unionist and cuts campaigner. That is what is at stake on 5 May. We urge every trade union activist to do all they can to encourage people to vote for Eamonn McCann on 5 May.

We appeal directly to Protestant voters to seriously consider voting for People Before Profit this time.
The neglect in Protestant working-class areas is there to be seen walking around the streets. During canvassing, it was made abundantly clear how discontented many people are at the way they have been represented and how little has been done to improve their lives.

THE PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT ALLIANCE today launched its Council election manifesto. The main demand of its manifesto is the abolition of ILEX, the urban regeneration company, in favour of more democratic control of the future of the City.
People Before Profit are standing four candidates for Derry City Council, Connor Kelly (Cityside), Colm Bryce (Northland), Davy McAuley (Waterside) and Diane Greer (Waterside Rural). Below are the candidates pictured with Assembly Candidate Eamonn McCann.

Candidate for Northland, Colm Bryce, said, “The recent review of ILEX, the first in its eight year history, was a damning indictment of a company that has not delivered on what it was tasked to do, despite using £21 million of public money on inflated salaries and other costs. The essential problem is that that ILEX was based on a flawed model of attracting multinational companies and propping up a property-speculation bubble. Then the recession hit and the property market collapsed. Yet ILEX still envisage this sort of development for Fort George.

“The vast rows of empty and unfinished office blocks along the Liffey in Dublin should be a salutary lesson to anyone who still clings to these pie-in-the-sky dreams. In the absence of attracting any development to the City for 8 years, ILEX has now immersed itself in the City of Culture project. There is a deep concern that ILEX view the City of Culture simply as a way of developing Ebrington, rather than encouraging the development of existing arts and cultural organisations in the City."

Also please check out: "Spirit Of '68: Beyond The Barricades" Fundraising Appeal for Election Campaign

“Margaret Ritchie’s address to business leaders in Belfast at the weekend was the most right-wing speech from any party leader in this campaign so far”, according to People Before Profit candidate for Foyle, Eamonn McCann.

“I challenge the SDLP candidates in Foyle to say whether they support her demand for ‘small government’, the privatisation of public services and for civil servants to makes decision on the basis of free market, neo-liberal philosophy”, he says.
“David Cameron could have made the speech delivered to business leaders without changing a syllable.
“Ms. Ritchie wanted ‘outsourcing...the disposal of assets and, where it makes sense, the privatisation of certain undertakings’. This raises the questions – what services does she want ‘outsourced’, what assets does she want the public sector to get rid of, what ‘undertakings’ does she want privatised?”, Mr. McCann asks.
“The lack of detail suggests strongly that neither health nor education would be safe in the hands of the SDLP under Margaret Ritchie”, he claims.
“Over the past four years, the SDLP has tried to present itself as more progressive than the DUP/Sinn Fein Coalition for Cuts – which isn’t difficult. But Friday’s speech leaves no room for doubt that Ms. Ritchie has shifted the party so far to the Right that it is has bypassed the DUP, never mind Sinn Fein.
“I do not believe Mark Durkan would have made this speech. I don’t expect him to repudiate his successor as leader. But I think it fair to ask the party’s Assembly candidates to say clearly whether they are asking for votes on the basis their leader has set out.”