The decision of Paul Murphy’s Rise movement to join People Before Profit along with membership growth is “the best opportunity since James Connolly was alive to put radical, genuine socialist politics on the political agenda in a serious way,” Richard Boyd Barrett has said.
The Dun Laoghaire TD made the remarks as Mr Murphy was officially unveiled as a People Before Profit TD at a press conference at the statue of socialist 1916 Rising leader Mr Connolly in Dublin on Monday.
Mr Boyd Barrett said the party’s membership has grown to some 3,000 members and argued that this and that the addition of Rise will help challenge what he called the “Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael establishment”.
He said the party is pursuing the possibility of a “genuine left Government” after the next election.
Mr Murphy said the merger is the left “coming together to fight for workers rights and to fight for the eco-socialist policies that we need to avoid catastrophic climate change.”
The Dublin South-West TD has fought elections under a number of different banners but insisted that he will be a People Before Profit candidate on the next polling day.
Solidarity
He was a member of the Socialist Party and was elected to the Dáil in 2014 when took his seat as an Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA) TD. The AAA name was changed to Solidarity in 2017.
Mr Murphy left the Socialist Party in 2019 and set up Rise (Revolutionary, Internationalist, Socialist and Environmentalist).
He said that Rise is joining People Before Profit to fight for a government that’s “based on people power” that he claimed will resolve the housing crisis, build a national health service and reduce carbon emissions by 10 per cent a year.
He said that Rise had already been working with People Before Profit in campaigning for a ‘Zero Covid’ strategy in response to the ongoing pandemic.
Mr Murphy said: “We’re calling for others who are receiving votes on the left like Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats to rule out coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
“We need to put on the agenda the idea of a genuine left government... that excludes Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that actually implements the eco socialist polices that will transform people’s lives.”
Merger
Mr Boyd Barret played down the prospects of a merger with Solidarity and the possibility that its last remaining TD, Cork North Central’s Mick Barry, could be brought into the fold.
People Before Profit support the holding of a Border poll to bring about a united Ireland whereas Solidarity does not advocate this approach.
Mr Boyd Barrett said People Before Profit has worked well with Solidarity. He said the issue of a border poll is important “because we do think the ending of partition is on the political agenda after Covid and after Brexit”. He said there remains a “genuine principled difference” with Solidarity on the issue. But he added: “That won’t stop us cooperating with a whole range of things.”
Mr Barry told The Irish Times: "Solidarity and People Before Profit will continue to work together to provide a radical Left alternative to Fianna Fáil , Fine Gael and the Greens.
He said the arrangement will allow for “important differences of opinion on some issues” but aims to provide the “maximum unity” in challenging the Government which he claimed represents “capitalist elites”.
