People Before Profit
People Before Profit | |
|---|---|
| File:People Before Profit Logo.gif | |
| Leader | None |
| Founded | October 2005 |
| Headquarters | 26 Elmwood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 |
| Ideology | Democratic Socialism |
| National affiliation | United Left Alliance |
| Colours | Green, White, Red |
| Dáil Éireann | 2 / 166
|
| Local government in the Republic of Ireland | 5 / 1,627
|
| Website | |
| peoplebeforeprofit.ie | |
The People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) is an Irish political party formed in October 2005.[1][2] It is active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
It was established by the Socialist Workers Party. The Community & Workers Action Group of south Dublin (CWAG) joined the Alliance in 2007 and brought along the party's only elected representative, Joan Collins, anti-bin tax campaigner and a former member of the Socialist Party. At present, it is a broad left alliance that seeks to gather support against liberalism, war, and pursues other left-wing issues, but does not require members to be Marxists or to subscribe to a revolutionary socialist programme.
The Alliance contested several constituencies in the 2007 Irish general election, polling around 9,000 first preferences, with Richard Boyd Barrett, a member of the Socialist Workers Party and the candidate in the Dun Laoghaire constituency, missing a seat on the 10th and final count by 7890 votes to 9910.[3][4] Some of its general election candidates in 2007 previously ran as SWP candidates (another, Rory Hearne[5] was an elected President of the University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin) Students' Union and was a member of the SWP at the time but no longer is). They include Gino Kenny,[6] Brid Smith[7] and Richard Boyd Barrett.[5]
People Before Profit unsuccessfully ran one candidate, Sean Mitchell, in the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election, polling 774 first preferences in the Belfast West constituency. He successfully gained the right to stand in an election by threatening to take the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, to court if the legal loophole preventing him from doing so was enforced. (England, Scotland and Wales had secured the right to contest candidates under the age of 20, providing they were over 18, for constituencies for devolved government, whereas Northern Ireland had been simply excluded).[citation needed]
The Alliance launched a No to the Lisbon Treaty Campaign in May 2008.[8]
In the 2009 Republic of Ireland local elections the Alliance ran thirteen candidates across Ireland, and secured five seats in three out of four of Dublin's councils. As well as ten members of the SWP, the Alliance ran Joan Collins and Pat Dunne of the CWAG in Dublin,[9] and Donnie Fell (a former Waterford Crystal worker and trade union representative) in Waterford.[10]
In the 2011 Irish general election, both Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins were elected as TDs to the Dail running under a joint People Before Profit and United Left Alliance banner.
Elected representatives
- Joan Collins T.D. – Dublin South-Central
- Richard Boyd Barrett T.D. – Dún Laoghaire
- Councillor Hugh Lewis – Ballybrack, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
- Councillor Gino Kenny – Clondalkin, South Dublin County Council
- Councillor Brid Smith – Ballyfermot/Drimnagh, Dublin City Council
References
- ^ People Before Profit
- ^ http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/government-in-ireland/national-government/houses-of-the-oireachtas/registering_a_political_party
- ^ RTÉ Election website
- ^ "Ciarán Cuffe". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
- ^ a b http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=4801
- ^ http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?id=5083
- ^ http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=4293
- ^ "People before profit alliance". Retrieved 4 June 2010. [dead link]
- ^ Pat Dunne Election History www.electionsireland.org
- ^ Left alliance to run 13 candidates by Olivia Kelly, Irish Times, 7 May 2009