Writing for Belfast Live, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll reflects on 2025 and the year ahead
As we head into 2026, it seems like many people are questioning whether Stormont is worth saving in its current form. For too long, the political and media establishment have parroted the line that our political institutions must be maintained at all costs. But since their inception, those same political institutions have repeatedly let ordinary people down. From overseeing a deepening housing crisis to sitting back while patients die on healthcare waiting lists, it’s clear that Stormont isn’t meeting people’s material needs.
The Paul Givan scandal laid bare everything that’s wrong with our institutions. Despite a clear majority of MLAs (39 out of 75) expressing no confidence in him, the Minister remains in post because our political system is designed to protect power and entrench sectarian division, rather than deliver real accountability. When the mechanisms meant to hold ministers to account clearly don’t work, it’s no wonder people lose faith in this rotten system.
This year has shown us what the Executive’s priorities really are. While Paul Givan was jetting off on his whitewashing propaganda trip to Israel, classroom assistants in the North were using food banks, children were being taught in schools riddled with damp and mould and the EA was ordering principals to make £300 million worth of cuts.
Stormont continues to follow in the wake of the Labour government’s disastrous policymaking, including inhumane cuts to social security for sick and disabled people and punitive reforms to the asylum system. This summer, the British Government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. In a completely regressive move, activists trying to stop arms sales to a genocidal regime are branded terrorists while the real terrorists, those dropping bombs on children, get the red carpet treatment by Westminster, the Dáil and Stormont.
This Christmas, we should also remember the political prisoners languishing in British prisons, held without charge under draconian anti-terrorism laws for throwing sand in the gears of the Israeli war machine. At the time of writing, two of these prisoners are on day 47 of their hunger strike. Their bodies are on the line for Palestinian liberation, but the mainstream media maintains its deafening silence. The British Government hopes we’ll all look away while they let these activists starve to death in their jails. We won’t let that happen. We’ll continue to share their struggle, and we’ll take up their demands.
Meanwhile, Invest NI remains complicit in genocide through its material support for arms companies supplying Israel. US military planes continue using our airports to facilitate Israel’s war machine.
The so-called ceasefire that began on 10th October is nothing more than a sham designed to provide cover while Israel continues its brutal regime of occupation and ethnic cleansing. According to Al Jazeera, Israel has violated this ceasefire agreement at least 738 times, killing at least 394 Palestinians and wounding another 1,075.
Now isn’t the time to let up the pressure. The Palestine solidarity movement has been one of the most inspiring developments in recent years. This is a truly diverse and cross-community campaign for liberation, despite desperate attempts by the DUP and TUV to paint it as sectarian. In June, thousands of people took part in the Great March for Gaza, walking from Lurgan to Omeath to demand justice for Palestine. This is true unity and solidarity in action.
Locally, the housing crisis has reached new depths of cruelty. Evictions continue at a frightening pace; not only in the private rented sector, but in social housing too. Across West Belfast, Housing Executive tenants are being thrown out of homes they’ve lived in for decades. Rents are spiralling completely out of control while Stormont refuses to implement rent controls. They’ll tell you it’s complicated and that the market must be respected. In reality, there’s nothing complicated about it. Landlords are making a killing while working-class families are made homeless. We urgently need rent controls and a no-fault eviction ban, in order to get a grip on this crisis. The question is whether this Sinn Féin-led Executive will finally crack down on profiteering landlords and ensure people’s basic right to safe, secure and affordable housing.
The British Government’s asylum reforms represent a new level of inhumanity. We’ve already seen the threat of deportations hanging over families who have built their lives here, terrorising communities across Belfast. When Labour’s reforms are enacted, Temporary accommodation provided to asylum seekers – and many other people who find themselves homeless with nowhere to go – is abysmal. Families are crammed into unsuitable, damp and mouldy housing while the state pays extortionate rates to private landlords and accommodation providers. It’s a disgrace, and it shows how the asylum system is designed not to help refugees but to extract profit, while treating desperate people as a problem to be managed.
Workers have shown tremendous courage this year. The Diageo picket has highlighted the two-tier system operating even within workplaces – different pay for the same work, based on where you live. The workers who came out on strike before Christmas have my full solidarity, and People Before Profit is asking everyone not to buy Guinness 0.0 until Diageo grants pay parity. When workers stand up and fight, we all need to stand with them.
The groundswell of people demanding change fills me with hope. They’re sick of the same old parties offering the same old politics. We should look beyond our shores to Zohran Mamdani winning the New York mayoral election off the back of socialist policies, and movements like Your Party showing that popular, principled ideas can capture the public imagination.
That’s why it’s so crucial to reshape politics in the vision of ordinary people. From Palestine solidarity groups to tenants’ unions, from picket lines to our strong anti-racist movement, ordinary people organising together have achieved so much more than Stormont ever has. These campaigns show us that real power comes from below, not from the corridors of power in Parliament Buildings.
The establishment will caution people to be realistic and to accept what’s possible under our current social and political system. But that system is the problem. It’s designed to fail working-class people while protecting wealth and privilege. Real change won’t come from more stability at Stormont. It will come from building movements powerful enough to force change, whether Stormont likes it or not.
As we head into 2026, the choice is clear: more of the same, or grassroots resistance that fights for the world we deserve. History will show which side will win.
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