Workers Party joins Lough Neagh protest at Stormont

The Workers Party has taken part in a large demonstration outside Stormont over the environmental crisis at Lough Neagh. Lough Neagh supplies a substantial part of Newry and surrounds with drinking water and current issues with blue green algae are causing major concerns.

Lough Neagh is the largest wetland in Ireland or Britainsupplying 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water and has been a source of income and recreation for local fishing communities for generations.

The lough, like many other lakes and waterways in Northern Ireland, is now threatened by pollution from sewage and chemicals. The party pointed to falling fish populations, vanishing bird life and deteriorating water quality. It said the water turned into a thick green mass of blue green algae this summer, fed by high levels of nutrients from farmland and sewage, and that wildlife and domestic animals were killed as a result.

The party said protection of the environment has become a key concern for people all over the world. It argued that in Northern Ireland the main political parties, "both orange and green", cannot address the fundamental problem of environmental destruction and instead blame the individual habits of working people.

According to the Workers Party, environmental degradation, water contamination, unsafe working conditions and public health consequences are treated as someone else's problem rather than the responsibility of large companies. It said the social costs are borne by workers, consumers and public health systems, while profits remain private.

The party said working-class, local and fishing communities will pay the cost of the crisis. It also rejected the "green transition", green growth and carbon markets, arguing that they divert public funds to private companies and cannot provide a solution.

The Workers Party said no lake or waterway should be in private hands. It called for a system based on collective ownership and central planning, and said the environmental struggle cannot be separated from the class struggle. In the party's view, real solutions to environmental problems demand "the overthrow of capitalism itself".