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Richard Boyd Barrett
the Greens face electoral dis-
aster at the next general election.
Fianna Fáil promoted the greed of bankers,
developers and the super-wealthy, which has
brought the economy to its knees. They champi-
oned the neo-liberal economic madness of ‘light
touch-regulation’, tax cuts for the rich and priva-
tisation, which facilitated that greed.
Now, they and the Greens want working peo-
ple and the vulnerable in our society to pay for
the crisis, with unemployment and savage cuts
in incomes and public services, pouring tens of
billions into bailing out the bankers who created
the crisis in the first place.
The public are just waiting in the long grass
to take their revenge when an election is finally
called.
But what is the alternative?
Looking to the mainstream opposition parties
for alternatives and a way out of the economic cri-
sis offers little inspiration.
Fine Gael and the Labour Party, will undoubt-
edly make very significant electoral gains, and
almost certainly form the next government.
However, Fine Gael embrace the same poli-
cies of low taxes on wealth and privatisation as
the government, and, if anything, are even more
gung-ho about slashing public spending - which
means more cut backs and attacks on working peo-
ple and the less well-off.
The Labour Party mouth some opposition to
the neo-liberal economic doctrines that have led
us into the current mess, but their criticism is for
the most part cleverly crafted rhetoric that fudges
the key issue of whether to tax the wealthy or cut
public spending and workers pay, to deal with the
crisis. They do this, of course, because to commit
to any real challenge to wealth inequality or the
dictatorship of the international financial markets
would render impossible their central project of
entering a coalition government with Fine Gael
in a year or two.
The bitter experience of Fine Gael/Labour-
controlled councils across the country, who vote
through budgets that include bin charges, priva-
tisation of services and cut backs in community
amenities, confirms that an Fine Gael/Labour gov-
ernment will be little different to the present one.
Sinn Féin, who have in the past presented
themselves as a radical left alternative, recently
voted down a motion from some of its own mem-
bers at its annual Ard Fheis, which called for the
party to rule out future deals with FF or FG. Like
Labour and the Greens before them, Sinn Féin are
keeping their options open on doing deals with
the devil.
If we are to have a genuine political alterna-
tive that will challenge the status quo, and will not
compromise that challenge for a shoddy coalition
deal, we need to look beyond the traditional politi-
cal establishment.
Some suggest this will require a new party. But
why re-invent the wheel?
The People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) and
other Socialists, have argued for years that a de-
regulated, privatised, profit-driven economy was
not simply unjust but would inevitably crash. They
have been proven totally correct. They propose a
genuinely alternative set of policies based on social
equality and democratic, rational planning of the
economy, which in the wake of the current disaster
is surely the only credible approach for organising
an economy and a society.
Importantly, they opposed the neo-liberal eco-
nomic model when was it was neither profitable
nor politically fashionable to do so, and this sug-
gests, not only good ideas, but principles that don’t
bend with every passing wind. These Left forces
also have a long record of practical campaigning
and mobilisation, involving themselves in grass-
roots campaigns on local, national and interna-
tional issues. In other words, they don’t just spend
their time making point-scoring speeches - they
actually do things!
Of course, the Left has its failings –
the biggest of which is being too divided
and failing to communicate its message
in a language that ordinary people can
understand.
PBPA is a serious attempt to over-
come these problems. It has united
different socialist and environmental strands
and as its name suggests seeks to present prin-
cipled left politics in new and easily understand-
able manner. They are actively engaging with
other socialist and progressive forces on the
Irish political scene with a view to establishing
a credible independent left electoral alliance
at a national level. Between PBPA, the Socialist
Party and a number of left independents, such
an alliance is in with a real chance of winning a
number of seats in the next Dail.
A left block with half a dozen Dáil seats, that
is also building practical grass-roots’ movements
of opposition to unjust cut-backs and the policies
of bailing out the banks, could quickly become a
major focus for the huge numbers of ordinary peo-
ple desperately seeking a real alternative.
If we want to see a genuine political alternative,
that is the one to build.
Richard Boyd Barrett is a Councillor for the People Before Profit
Alliance and a member of the Socialist Workers Party.
“Why reinvent the wheel?”
On balance we should use
existing parties and not
form a new party
End division of Dáil representatives on the
real left, from grass-roots campaigners
