Eamonn McCann confident of taking a seat for People Before Profit

He said: “I am proud to be standing for People Before Profit, an all-island party that is fighting austerity on both sides of the border.

“People Before Profit is building a new politics, the kind that is emerging all over Europe from people on the ground.

“It isn’t only in the North that growing numbers are fed up with the manoeuvres and antics of the old guard.

“Millions of mainly young people coming onto the streets have opened up new hope. Northern Ireland needs this hope more than any part of these islands.”

Mr McCann said the time is ripe for a “different politics” and claimed People Before Profit offers this alternative.

“We base ourselves on the interests of the broad mass of people of all communities. We don’t set out to represent one community vis-à-vis the other.

“Working class people are faced with more important problems than the issues which fascinate the established parties and hold the rest of us back. We have a horrendous housing problem.

“There are as many people in the Derry area in need of housing as there were back in the 1960s, when homelessness helped spark the civil rights movement.”

He also addressed the problem of chronic unemployment in Londonderry.

“Derry city is a jobs desert and the few jobs that are available do not pay a living wage. Promised jobs tend not to materialise. But real jobs are being lost week in and week out through cuts in public provision.

“An expanded university is vital for the future economic and social well-being of our area. Yet jobs at Magee are being cut, even as the misconceived Belfast expansion drains resources away. The establishment parties have put up very little fight on this issue and few have any faith in the latest promises in that regard.

“I will be raising these and other issues that are close to my heart – like the rail line, defence of the public sector and the ruination of our local environment through large-scale illegal dumping – at every opportunity in the Assembly.

“I am looking forward to joining Gerry Carroll (West Belfast) and Fiona Ferguson (North Belfast) in the Assembly. We came very close to taking a seat in Foyle at the last Assembly election. This time, we are confident of taking a seat.”