Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by DJ Silverfish (talk | contribs) at 19:47, 6 September 2011 (→Key policies). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Socialist Party" Ireland – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (June 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Socialist Party (Template:Lang-ga) is a socialist political party active in Ireland. It is a member of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).

Formerly known as Militant Tendency, then Militant Labour, it adopted the name The Socialist Party in 1996. From their foundation in 1972 until the 1980s members of the organisation practiced entryism in the Labour Party. In the late 80s and early 1990s a number of it's members were expelled from Labour, and it was at this point they took an 'Open Turn' and established an independent organisation with the name Militant Labour. It is a member of the national left-wing coalition United Left Alliance.

Electoral history

Through campaigning work it has built some electoral support, Joe Higgins first being elected to Dáil Éireann - the lower house of the Irish parliament - in 1997 and to the European Parliament in 2009 along with five other members elected to local councils in Dublin, Cork and Drogheda. It has found it harder to gain an electoral foothold in Northern Ireland, but it has a minor presence in the trade union movement there and a youth wing.

In the 1997 election the party returned one TD to Dáil Éireann - Joe Higgins (Dublin West), who became prominent during the Anti-Water Charges Campaign. In the 2002 election, Joe Higgins retained his seat, and in the Dublin North constituency Councillor Clare Daly narrowly missed out on a second seat.

In the 2004 local elections the party gained two council seats, one in Dublin (Mick Murphy in the Tallaght area and another in Cork (Mick Barry in the Cork North Central area). They also retained their two previous seats in Dublin's Fingal areas of Mulhuddart (Ruth Coppinger) and Swords (Clare Daly). In the European elections held on the same day, Joe Higgins received 23,200 (5.5%) votes in the Dublin constituency, double his 1999 result, but missed out on a seat. In the 2007 Dail election, Joe Higgins failed to retain his seat in the Dublin West constituency. Higgins ascribes the loss of his seat to the fact the constituency boundaries had not been redrawn to allow for the population increase.

In the 2009 European and local elections, Joe Higgins took a seat in the Dublin European constituency with 50,510 (12.4%) first preference votes, as well as gaining a seat in the Castleknock area of Fingal County Council. Elsewhere, Clare Daly, Ruth Coppinger and Mick Barry retained their seats while Terry Kelleher and Frank Gallagher won seats on Balbriggan Town Council and Drogheda Borough council respectively. Mick Murphy, however, lost out on the final count in the redrawn Tallaght Central area.

In the 2011 2011 general election the Socialist Party returned two TDs to Dáil Éireann. Clare Daly was elected for the Dublin North constituency, while Joe Higgins regained his seat in Dublin West. Mick Barry polled strongly in Cork North Central but was not elected. The party contested these elections as part of the United Left Alliance, a broad left alliance also including the People Before Profit Alliance and the Workers and Unemployed Action Group along with independent activists. The ULA took five seats in total. Higgins' seat in the European Parliament was filled by Paul Murphy.

Trade union, campaigning and other extra-parliamentary activities

The Socialist Party is active in the trade union movement, arguing for more militant action in defence of workers’ interests. It also holds influence in the Northern Irish branch of the FBU where its members played a key role in encouraging the FBU's split from the British Labour Party in 2004.

The Socialist Party is also involved in many community campaigns, including the Anti Water Charge campaign in 1996 and the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign in 2003-2004. It has been involved in the movement against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the occupation of Palestine and continues to be active in campaigns against fascism, racism, low pay exploitation and religious sectarianism. They advocate and support rights for workers, women, ethnic minorities and homosexuals.

In Autumn 2003 Joe Higgins and Cllr. Clare Daly were sent to Mountjoy Prison for a month for refusing to abide by a High Court injunction relating to the blockading of bin lorries. This was part of the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign. Other members (along with people from other parties, and non-aligned activists) also went to prison for varying amounts of time for similar reasons.

In 2005 the Socialist Party and in particular Joe Higgins TD and Mick Murphy were instrumental in exposing the exploitation of immigrant Turkish construction workers working for the Turkish multinational GAMA on Irish state projects. Workers were being paid as little as €2.20 an hour (minimum wage in Ireland is €8.65) while being forced to work up to 80 hours per week. This led to a strike by immigrant workers in Ireland. The strike ended, with the workers winning tens of thousand of euros each in unpaid wages and overtime.

Youth Wing

Socialist Youth is the youth wing of the Socialist Party. One of its members was also imprisoned as a result of the events around the anti-bin charge campaign.

Some members of Socialist Youth have been supportive of the Shell to Sea campaign and anti-war movements.

Key policies

Both Socialist Youth and the Socialist Party itself have as key policies the taking of economic power out of the hands of the bankers, speculators and wealthy industrialists and instead transfer that power to working class people. The Socialist Party stands for public ownership and democratic economic planning of the key areas of economic activity. One criticism that has been raised of the party is the claim that it doesn't adequately explain the mechanisms by which it would bring these policies into effect.

In relation to Northern Ireland, the Socialist Party advocate a radical alternative to the status quo. They wish to transcend borders and bring working class unity in Ireland. They argue a capitalist united Ireland would mean continuance of capitalist exploitation of the working class and that capitalism is incapable of overcoming sectarianism. The socialist Ireland that they propose would be a voluntary part of an international socialist federation. This policy has been described by Seamus Ó Sionnagh of the political magazine Forth as Unionist.

In the 2008 and 2009 referendums on the Treaty of Lisbon, the Socialist Party campaigned for a 'no' vote.

List of Newspapers and Publications

• The Socialist (formerly Socialist Voice, The Voice, and Militant) – Monthly newspaper
• Socialist View (formerly Socialism 2000) – Quarterly Theoretical Journal
• International Socialist Voice – E-Zine
• Fingal Socialist – Free paper distributed in Northern and Western Fingal
• Cork Socialist – Free paper distributed in Cork city

List of elected members

• Clare Daly, TD – Dublin North
• Joe Higgins, TD – Dublin West
• Paul Murphy, MEP – Dublin (co-opted in place of Joe Higgins on his election to the Dáil in February 2011)

Councillors

• Mick Barry – Cork City Council
• Eugene Coppinger – Swords, Fingal County Council (co-opted in place of Clare Daly on her election to the Dáil in February 2011)
• Ruth Coppinger – Mulhuddart, Fingal County Council
• Frank Gallagher – Drogheda Borough Council
• Terry Kelleher – Balbriggan Town Council
• Matt Waine – Castleknock, Fingal County Council (co-opted in place of Joe Higgins on his election to the European Parliament in June 2009)

See also

• Category:Socialist Party (Ireland) politicians
• United Left Alliance

References

1. http://www.parties-and-elections.de/ireland.html
2. http://forth.ie/index.php/content/article/a_unionist_wolf_cub_in_a_red_hiding_hood
3. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/uk-ireland/politics/leftwing-groups-launch-antilisbon-campaign-14456955.html
4. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/voting-watchdog-vows-to-clean-up-lisbon-debate-1374938.html

External links

Audio

• The History and Politics of the Socialist Party - Interview with Socialist Party Councillor Mick Murphy on Dublin City FM (Dublin)

Websites

• Socialist Party – Official website
• Socialist Party Northern Ireland – Official website
• Socialist Youth – Youth section website
• The Socialist – Newspaper of the Socialist Party
• Socialist View – Political journal of the Socialist Party
• International Socialist Voice – Socialist Party E-zine
• The Socialist Party's political manifesto
• Committee for a Workers' International – to which the Socialist Party is affiliated

Template:Socialist Party (Ireland) Elected Representatives

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from June 2011
• All-Ireland political parties
• Committee for a Workers International
• Trotskyist organisations of Ireland
• Trotskyist organizations of Northern Ireland
• Political parties established in 1996