The reality of the situation in Derry is broken promise after broken promise from both Stormont and Westminster. The latest outrage? Yet another decision to abandon the most vulnerable in our city.
Back in 2020, “The New Decade, New Approach” agreement – hailed as a new beginning after a long impasse in Stormont – promised funds for a range of projects tackling issues in our communities in the North of Ireland, including “additional funding to support the Derry/Londonderry addiction centre”. By 2022, the Government confirmed £1m was available for Northlands to open a new addiction treatment centre in Derry.
Where is it now?
Well, in a disgraceful, last-minute U-turn, the Department of Health has backtracked from its long-standing promise. You see, they now claim that a centre is no longer necessary in the north-west! Quite the statement, given 81 people died from drug-related causes in Derry between 2019 and 2023, and that such deaths have surged by 50 percent over the last decade, according to NISRA!
So, no funding available for the addiction treatment centre, that the city has been crying out for, but we have plenty of money in the budget for weapons deals to supply Ukraine with missiles? No money to save lives, but plenty to destroy some more! It sounds illogical, but in truth, it’s the inescapable logic of a system that puts profits before people.
What’s more, it is capitalism that is responsible for the rise in levels of addiction in the first place. Derry’s district is feeling the crushing weight of austerity, deprivation and capitalist crisis: high unemployment, lack of social programs, poverty, the rising cost of living with no meaningful wage increase for those who have managed to find employment, and more. It is no surprise that many are pushed to find a temporary escape.
Such is the rottenness of the system, that the ruling class cannot even afford to employ the usual tactic of quelling the public’s frustrations by, at the very least, putting a band-aid on the symptom. On the contrary, the conditions in Derry are only going to get worse as a consequence of austerity policies. More people will lose their lives, and the ruling class is offering nothing but platitudes and broken promises.
Workers and students are in need of solutions to the problems in their communities, problems that have been promised solutions for years. There is, unsurprisingly, an increasing sentiment of disillusionment against the establishment. Capitalism is responsible for the social decline. That is why we need to fight for socialism!
