LOYALIST and Nationalist community leaders united with one voice this week to jointly lobby for U.S. investment to help working-class communities across Belfast.In May Belfast is set to host a major business conference aimed at attracting American companies to invest in Northern Ireland.The conference, with the support of the U.S. government, is being seen as an essential part of efforts to boost the Northern Ireland economy following the re-establishment of the Stormont Executive last May.In December First and Deputy First Ministers Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness traveled jointly to New York to encourage U.S. business leaders to take part in the May conference.Invitations to the event have been extended to President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former leaders Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.But with concerns that working-class communities could miss out on the financial benefits from the conference, Loyalist and Nationalist community leaders came together this week to ensure that deprived communities are given an effective voice among the decision makers."Our communities are not asking for charity or a hand-out," said community worker John Loughran. "We are asking for a hand-up so that we can help ourselves."The reality is that working-class communities have not enjoyed the benefits of the peace process as much as other more affluent communities."We are not criticizing those who have prospered from the peace. We are just asking that deprived communities are allowed to share in it."The cross-community lobby group, known as Future Together, is meeting with senior officials from the British, Irish and American governments. The group will hold its own conference, Investment with Fairness, Hope and Opportunity, in March.This week it will meet with officials from the Department of Enterprise Trade and Industry at Stormont."We want the governments and U.S. investors to know that working-class communities have huge untapped human resources available and that we are open for business and willing to play our part," explained west Belfast community worker Sean Murray. "We need a program of action to address the deprivation and unemployment."Mount Vernon community worker Billy Hutchinson said that working-class communities wanted to be able to grow economically."Unless we do something collectively now deprivation in working-class communities is just going to get worse," he said."We are asking government to help with international investment, but we also want to be able to grow and sustain our own home-grown companies."This is not working-class communities whinging. It is people asking for a helping hand so that they can begin to help themselves."