| People Before Profit Alliance | |
|---|---|
| Leader | None |
| Founded | October 2005 |
| Headquarters | 26 Elmwood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 |
| Ideology | Democratic Socialism |
| Political position | Left Wing |
| National affiliation | United Left Alliance |
| Official colours | Brown |
| Dáil Éireann |
2 / 166
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| Local government in the Republic of Ireland |
5 / 1,627
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| Website | |
| peoplebeforeprofit.ie | |
| Politics of the Republic of Ireland Political parties Elections Politics of Northern Ireland Political parties Elections |
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The People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) is an Irish political party formed in October 2005.[1] It is active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
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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 first 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 neoliberalism, 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 7,890 votes to 9,910.[2][3] Some of its general election candidates in 2007 previously ran as SWP candidates (another, Rory Hearne[4] 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,[5] Brid Smith[6] and Richard Boyd Barrett.[4]
The Alliance launched a No to the Lisbon Treaty Campaign in May 2008.[7]
In the 2009 Republic of Ireland local elections the Alliance ran twelve candidates, ten in County Dublin , 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,[8] and Donnie Fell (a former Waterford Crystal worker and trade union representative) in Waterford.[9]
In the February 2011 general election in the Republic of Ireland, both Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins were elected as TDs (deputies) to the Dáil Éireann running under a joint People Before Profit and United Left Alliance banner.
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).
The Alliance ran four candidates in the Northern Ireland Assembly election of May 2011, winning 5,438 first-preference votes between them but no seats in the new Assembly. Its most successful candidate in this election was Eamonn McCann, who won 3,120 first-preference votes, or 8% of the total, in Foyle.
In the June 2011 Belfast West by-election, Gerry Carroll won 1,751 votes (7.6%), coming in third place.
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