Anti-Austerity Alliance

Anti-Austerity Alliance An Comhaontas in Aghaidh Déine[1]
Founded	2014 (2014)
Ideology	Anti-capitalism Trotskyism Left-wing populism
Political position	Left-wing to Far-left
National affiliation	Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit
Dáil Éireann	3 / 158
Local government in the Republic of Ireland	14 / 949
Website
http://antiausterityalliance.ie
Politics of Republic of Ireland Political parties Elections

The Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA or Triple A) is a broadly anti-capitalist, launched in 2014.^[2][3] It has been registered as a political party to contest local elections,^[4] and ran at least forty candidates in the 2014 Irish local elections.^[5] This included all of the Socialist Party's sitting councillors, which has led to criticism that the AAA is a front organisation for the Socialist Party.^[6]

The party contested the 2014 local elections on a platform of job creation. On 8 April 2014, it launched a plan to create 150,000 jobs across Ireland by replacing the controversial JobBridge and Gateway initiatives with a "real jobs programme of public works, free education and genuine training schemes".^[7]

Paul Murphy was elected to Dáil Éireann for Dublin South-West under the Anti-Austerity Alliance banner at a by-election in October 2014. It also contested the Carlow–Kilkenny by-election in May 2015. The AAA candidate in that by-election Conor MacLiam, also of the Socialist Party. MacLiam polled 2,194 first preference votes (3.3% of the total) and came ninth out of 13 candidates.^[8]

Ruth Coppinger is an Irish Anti-Austerity Alliance politician. She was elected for Dublin West as a Teachta Dála (TD) at the 2014 Dublin West by-election. She was re-elected at the 2016 general election and became the first woman to be nominated for the role of Taoiseach. She is a member of the Socialist Party. From 2004-2014 she was local councillor in Mulhuddart and has been a leading fighter for workers and women’s rights in and outside the Dáil. As a founder of the local We Won’t Pay campaign in Dublin West she has been a strong force against water charges, organising both locally and nationally. In Dublin West she has led community campaigns on pyrite, management fees and Defend Blanchardstown Hospital as well as occupied NAMA properties with those affected by the housing crisis, in an effort to raise the issue and highlight the lack of social housing for people across the country.

In the Dáil Ruth has published three Bills alongside her AAA colleagues on extending employment equality for LGBTQ workers in education and heath, ending religious discrimination in school admissions and for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment, a barbaric law banning women from accessing safe and legal abortions.

Mick Barry is an Irish Anti-Austerity Alliance politician who has been Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork North–Central constituency since 2016. According to the Irish Examiner, Barry has been "a leading figure in the Cork and national campaigns" against household and water charges.[1]

Barry was first elected City Councillor in June 2004 and re-elected in June 2009 and May 2014 (both times on the first count).[3] He also stood as a candidate in the Cork North–Central constituency at the 2002, 2007 and 2011 general elections.[2]

On 1 May 2013, gardaí arrested five members of the Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes, including Barry and fellow Cork City Councillor Ted Tynan of the Workers' Party, during a midday protest inside the Patrick Street branch of the Bank of Ireland in the city. People gathered on the street. Cllr Tynan said he felt a need to stand up against austerity.[4]

Barry has campaigned on a number of issues locally and nationally, notably the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign with the Householders Against Service Charges (HASC) in Cork. In support of local services in the Cork area such as the cutbacks in Bus services, and against the building of a Private Hospital on the public hospital grounds of Cork University Hospital.[5] and social housing.[6] He has called for a ban on home repossessions and considers the controversial Gateway employment scheme to be "slave labour".[7][8] He called for standing orders to be suspended[9] and proposed a motion condemning the jailing of five activists opposing a proposed tax on water.[10][11][12]

A founding member of the Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA), Barry was elected for the AAA-PBP group, in the 2016 general election.

On 7 August 2015, the party was removed from the Register of Political Parties.^[9] It held discussions in August 2015 with the People Before Profit Alliance about forming a new political grouping.^[10] On 17 September 2015, the two parties announced that they had formally registered as a single political party for electoral purposes.^[11] The new organisation is called the Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit.

See also

• United Left Alliance

References