People Before Profit Alliance

Infobox_Irish_Political_Party
party_name = People Before Profit Alliance
party_articletitle = People Before Profit Alliance
party_|Motto: A voice for people, community and environment
leader =
foundation = October 2005
ideology = Left-wing | international =
european =
europarl =
colours = Green, white, red
headquarters = Lower Cherry Orchard Community Centre, Lefanu Rd, Ballyfermot, Dublin
website = [http://www.people-before-profit.org/ people-before-profit.org]

The People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) is an Irish political party, formed in October 2005 [ [http://www.people-before-profit.org People Before Profit] ] although it has yet to register with the Clerk of Dáil Éireann, a legal requirement for entities seeking to form political parties in the Republic of Ireland [ [http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/government-in-ireland/national-government/houses-of-the-oireachtas/registering_a_political_party Registering a Political Party in Ireland] ] .

It was established as a broad left alliance that seeks to gather support against neo-liberalism, war, and other right-of-centre issues, but does require members to subscribe to a revolutionary socialist programme. The largest and apparently only political group in the alliance is the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

It contested several constituencies in the 2007 Irish general election, polling around 9,000 first preferences, with Richard Boyd Barrett, an SWP member, the candidate in the Dun Laoghaire constituency narrowly missing out on a seatFact|date=July 2008.

People Before Profit unsuccessfully ran one candidate, Sean Mitchell, an SWP member, in the Northern Ireland election to the Stormont Assembly in 2007, polling almost 800 first preferences for the West Belfast Constituency. At age 19, he was the youngest candidate to stand in an election on the island of IrelandFact|date=July 2008, and 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).Fact|date=July 2008

The Alliance launched a No to the Lisbon Treaty Campaign in May 2008.Fact|date=July 2008

Front or Alliance?

It was established by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and three of its five electoral candidates in 2007 have previously run as SWP candidates (another, Rory Hearne was an elected President of the University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin) Students' Union and was a member of the Socialist Workers Party at the time and continues to be). They include;

:Gino Kenny [http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?id=5083] :Brid Smith [http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=4293] :Richard Boyd Barrett [http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=4801]

Elected Student Leader (SWP member)::Rory Hearne [http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=4801]

The exception was Carmel McKenna of the Labour Party::Carmel McKenna [http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=6889]

It is unknown of which party, if any, she is currently a member.

Finally, many of the contacts for the SWP [http://www.swp.ie/branches.html] are identical to those of People Before Profit [http://www.swp.ie/branches.html] , which includes former SWP 2004 local election candidates [http://www.electionsireland.org/party.cfm?election=2004L&party=SWP] . These observations and others lend to the commonly-held view that 'People Before Profit' is a front of the SWP, which has never won an election under that moniker in Ireland.

References

External links

* [http://www.people-before-profit.org/ Official site]