People Before Profit is proposing a “Vote Left” transfer pact to operate in the June 2024 Local and European Elections, 26 Counties

Presenting this positive initiative Paul Murphy TD said

He was fully aware that there would be different perspectives and, but People Before Profit “sees this as just the start of a process to form a left alternative.”

Paul Murphy TD

Link :

PBP Vote Left Transfer Pact Proposal

A useful detailed discussion is taking place on the Cedar Lounge Revolution Blog

(Link : The Cedar Lounge Revolution)

A correspondent, IrishElectionLiterature, opened the discussion on a positive note :

Link :

Vote left, Transfer left, Then What?

In the article below, important points from the discussion are highlighted.

This is a serious matter, especially in a context where it is necessary to confront and defeat the extreme racist right.

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Colm Breathnach offers a very good template :

Just a personal thing, but here’s my own general set of rules when it comes to voting where a Proportional Representation system is in operation (obviously First Pat The Post system is much more challenging in terms of decisions):

1. Start with the furthest left and keep voting until you reach the border of what you consider to be the left (for me, that’s social democratic or social liberal parties). Of course that border can shift – the Irish Greens were once inside my border of “left”, now they are definitely outside.
2. Exclude candidates who consistently hold reactionary positions regardless of their ostensible politics – favour genocide, homophobic etc etc. So the Daly’s of the world don’t feature or let’s say a centre left candidate who justified Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
3. Adjust to take account of specific concerns which one might deem important for progress to radical transformation of society. So for example you may alter your ranking to the take into account the candidates position on climate change or Irish unity etc.

Colm continues :

In current circumstances, in local or Euro elections, I think this would mean I would start with candidates such as Cllr. John Lyons of Independent Left or those of An Rabharta Glas and moved down through PBP, SDs, SF and Labour but stop there – definitely not the Greens and never, under any circumstances, Daly or Wallace.

Of course this is all a matter of personal choice – I can stomach a high preference for PBP, Banjo (another CLR Correspondent) can’t, even though we agree that they have a terrible position on Ukraine. I could stomach a lower preference for Labor, though others wouldn’t give them any vote because of their record in gov. etc.

Colm’s justified reason for excluding the MEP’s Clare Daly and Mick Wallace from a “Transfer left” platform is that these two politicians give political cover to Putin’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine, Assad’s bombing of his own people in Syria, and so on.

John Meehan replied :

I substantially agree with Colm on the above. I tend to include Sinn Féin on Colm’s left borderline. Becoming more fine-tuned : when an SF candidate opposes racist marches on buildings which house immigrants, give that person a preference. If a candidate openly encourages racist activities – such as the awful Laois councillor Mr Mullins – campaign against him and demand that his party expel

Mr Holohan in Tallaght left after being disciplined. (Notes at the end of this article explain the Mullins and Holohan references)

And Colm responded :

I am definitely with you there John.

Even after I left the Workers’ Party/Democratic Left, I never used to vote SF, hanging onto that party line that the Provos were really right-wingers and that they were the source of all evil. But gradually, partly through working with SF people In Finglas during the anti-bin tax campaign and, indeed working with other leftists like yourself John, Des Derwin etc. who had a different perspective on SF, and just by thinking it through a bit more, I came to the conclusion that SF, whatever they had been in the past were now a centre left party, albeit a nationalist one. Of course, they are now veering dangerously to the right on immigration, to try to stop voter leakage to the far right. So I guess one has to always adjust ones perspective according to the realities of the current situation.

The realities of the current situation

The PBP statement makes excellent points about refusing “to enter into ruling Council groups after the local elections that involve FF or FG” and numerous related issues. However, voters who support parties such as Labour and the Social Democrats, or assorted left independent candidates, must be offered credible unity initiatives by parties on the far-left (such as the PBP).

There is no justification for using this exclusion criterion in a Left Transfer Pact : “propping up austerity budgets in the past”.

An examination of the facts, allied to an All-Ireland framework, puts that condition to bed. Sinn Féin, which should be included in a Vote left transfer pact in the June 7 elections, regularly props up austerity budgets in the six county bit of Ireland : in councils and the Stormont Assembly, where an SF member is the Minister for Finance (Austerity).

Numerous examples exist of left parties which have done terrible things in the past, but which then turn left. The rational approach is to welcome turns to the left, and avoid harping on about past differences which get in the way of future positive actions.

We must also be clear that all the left has a duty to draw a line between itself and the extreme racist right – which has become a dangerous menace in the last twelve months. We must be clear that a “moderate” Labour, or Sinn Féin, or left independent councillor who cuts deals with the bourgeois right is preferable to an extreme-right racist who endorses the burning of accommodation centres housing migrants.

We will have a clearer picture after the June 7 elections.

Until now the 26 county bit of Ireland has been an exception to a dangerous European and Global trend – rising electoral support for the far right such as Putin in Russia, Wilders in Holland, the AFD in Germany – and so on. Let’s do our best to keep it that way by getting a “Vote left, Transfer left” platform adopted by many parties standing on the left.

John Meehan, May 6, 2024

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Dublin People news report, Mike Finnerty, May 1, 2024

A similar pact, known as #VoteLeftTransferLeft was used in the 2020 general election.

Party TD Paul Murphy has written to Mary Lou McDonald and Holly Cairns, as well as various left-wing independent councillors and candidates, to take part in the pact for June.

Labour and the Greens, as well as some independents, were specifically left out of the pact after “propping up austerity budgets” in the past.

Murphy said that June is a chance to “serve an eviction notice on the government and elect Councils which will use their power to ensure social and genuinely affordable homes are built on public land and to invest in our communities.”

He also stated that he would be interested in entering into further discussions for a pact in the next general election which must take place before next March.

The Dublin South-West TD said the pact is “all the more important as a concerted effort is being made by sections of the establishment to turn the anger of Irish society onto migrants and foster racist sentiment.”

“By presenting a coordinated left alternative we can help to ward off this threat. People Before Profit believes that we should start with the local elections and then enter further discussions for a pact for a general election.”

He pointed to a “widespread disillusionment with parties that say one thing before an election and another afterwards. We therefore believe that a Vote Left-Transfer pact should carry with it a commitment not to enter into ruling Council groups after the local elections that involve FF or FG, support their austerity budgets, or partake in council junkets. Instead of propping them up, like Labour, the Greens and some independents have in the past, we should fight for a left alternative.”

“We think that the best way to achieve this is a pact among left-wing parties and independents, calling for Vote Left -Transfer Left. This is all the more important as a concerted effort is being made by sections of the establishment to turn the anger of Irish society onto migrants and foster racist sentiment.”

“By presenting a coordinated left alternative – whatever our own differences in approach – we can help to ward off this threat. People Before Profit believes that we should start with the local elections but enter further discussions on a general election.”

Murphy said he was fully aware that there would be different perspectives and, but People Before Profit “sees this as just the start of a process to form a left alternative.”

“We hope that this will start a conversation that can lead to an agreement that will help to get Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out and pave the way for transformational change”

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Councillor Aidan Mullins, Sinn Féin, Laois

A quote :

“Cllr Mullins said: “In many cases they are unvetted. But the government don’t want you using the word unvetted. Their fingerprints might be taken and checked against the Eurodac (An EU database that stores fingerprints of international protections applicants and irregular migrants).  But it is not a criminal database. It’s not Interpol.  So there are no checks regarding to possible criminal backgrounds.

“I’m not suggestion that people coming here are all criminals,” said cllr Mullins. “But we can be sure that some of them are, as has been shown in the courts here in Ireland. But it’s the concern that, we don’t know. So when the government say that they are not unvetted, it’s a blatant lie. And that gives rise to concerns in communities.”

Aidan Mullins, Laois Nationalist, unvetted politician

Enough said – Sinn Féin should expel councillor Mullins

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Former Sinn Féin councillor Paddy Holahan – Sinn Féin correctly disciplined this man :

“Holohan was suspended by the party early last year following a number of comments he made on his podcast. The former MMA fighter had said that Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar was “separated from society” because of his Indian heritage, despite Varadkar being born and raised in Dublin. 

Holohan also claimed that “loads” of underage girls were having sex with men in order to blackmail them.” Paddy Holohan leaves Sinn Féin