'We Demand Better' rally in Guildhall Square

Rail boss, Mick Lynch, has asked people in Derry to join the planned 'We Demand Better' rally in the city

The rally, which has been organised by Derry Trades Union Council, is taking place in Guildhall Square, on the Saturday (November 26) at 1.30pm.

Mr Lynch who is the general secretary of the RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) said Derry and the North West had had enough of the 'cost of living' crisis.

In a specially recorded video, Mick Lynch said: "As many of you will know, we have been fighting a campaign for the last six months or so on the national railway in Great Britain, to safeguard our jobs, our conditions of service and to safeguard a pay rise for the future. We are still battling away with that. We have motivated our members in two ballots and a succession of strike action and it looks like we will be taking that into the New Year.

"In doing so, we think we have inspired millions of trade unionists and ordinary men and women of the working class here in Britain. I am hearing that in Ireland people have picked up on that and also around the world people are now fighting back as workers and as working class people in their own organisations. 

"This Saturday you have got an opportunity, in Derry and the North West to join in to that campaign and that movement of working class people at the 'We Demand Better' rally, which is  trying to bring together trade unionists, community organisations, activists and the ordinary women and men of Derry and the North West in a campaign that says, 'We have had enough of what the ruling class is giving us and enough of the cost of living crisis.

"We have had enough of the rich telling us what to do and that we have got to pay for the crisis they have created and the incompetence of this Tory government that we are all suffering under. So, this is your opportunity to get out and get your voice heard, to join in with your fellow working class people from around the region and throughout the city.

"I am calling on you to get pout there and join into the campaign and support Derry Trades Council, the other trade unionists and the other progressive people who are looking for a better deal for workers across Ireland and across Britain and anywhere else where working people are suffering. 

"So, get yourselves down to Guildhall Square this Saturday and join in the campaign. Make your voice heard. We demand better. Enough is enough."

Ellen Moore, spokesperson of the Cost of Living Crisis Campaign called for support for Saturday's rally.

She said: "If you are sick of the profiteering of the big energy companies while fearful of being able to feed your kids this winter then you need to march beside us on Saturday.

"We need to send a clear message to Stormont and Westminster that we’ve had enough. The mini budget was a pitiful attempt by the Tory government to make us believe they are on our side, we shouldn’t be fooled.

"The announced increase of 10% in benefits from next April won’t make a dent in the massive hole left in family finances by 12 years of Tory austerity.

"Working families and those on benefits will march side by side on Saturday calling for real inflation busting living wage and also benefits rate that lifts families out of poverty. Bring your drums and whistles and voices and become part of the fight back."