Solidarity (Ireland)

Political party in the Republic of Ireland

Solidarity

Neart le Chéile[1]

Leader| Collective leadership
Founded| 2014 (2014)
Ideology|

* Socialism
* Eco-socialism
* Left-wing populism
* Trotskyism[2][3][4][5]

Political position| Left-wing[6] to far-left[7]
National affiliation| People Before Profit–Solidarity
Affiliate party| Socialist Party
Dáil Éireann|

1 / 174

Local government in the Republic of Ireland|

3 / 949

Website
www.solidarity.ie

* Politics of the Republic of Ireland
* Political parties
* Elections

Solidarity (Irish: Neart le Chéile), formerly known as the Anti-Austerity Alliance[8] (AAA), is a Trotskyist political party in Ireland, launched in 2014.[9][10] It had been registered as a political party to contest local elections,[11] and ran at least forty candidates in the 2014 Irish local elections.[12] All of Solidarity's elected representatives are members of the Socialist Party. It is part of the People Before Profit–Solidarity electoral alliance.

## History

[edit]

### Anti-Austerity Alliance

[edit]

The group's original branding

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".[13] As the party's elected representatives were members of the Socialist Party, its rebranding as AAA was criticised by The Journal columnist Aaron McKenna as a front organisation for the Trotskyist Socialist Party.[2]

Paul Murphy was elected to Dáil Éireann for Dublin South-West under the Anti-Austerity Alliance banner at a by-election in October 2014. In September 2019 he resigned from the party.[14] Ruth Coppinger was elected for Dublin West as a TD at the 2014 Dublin West by-election. Both were re-elected at the 2016 Irish general election. Coppinger became the first woman to be nominated for the role of Taoiseach. Mick Barry was elected as TD for the Cork North–Central constituency in 2016. According to the Irish Examiner, Barry had been "a leading figure in the Cork and national campaigns" against household and water charges.[15]

On 7 August 2015, the party was removed from the Register of Political Parties.[16] It held discussions in August 2015 with the People Before Profit about forming a new political grouping.[17] On 17 September 2015, the two parties announced that they had formally registered as a single political party for electoral purposes.[18] The new organisation was called "Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit" and subsequently renamed as Solidarity–People Before Profit. In 2021, it was renamed again as People Before Profit–Solidarity.

### Relaunch as Solidarity

[edit]

On 10 March 2017, the Anti-Austerity Alliance called a press conference and announced that it would now be relaunched as Solidarity. This name change was made to reflect the "many movements emerging on workplace, economic and social issues" and that while "the AAA has played a key role in campaigns like the water charges and housing", that the organisation under the name of Solidarity "will continue to do so, but the name will now better reflect our campaigning work on Repeal, LGBTQ issues and equality generally."[19]

Cork City Councillor Lil O'Donnell left the party at the time of the rebranding as Solidarity.[20]

Rita Harrold unsuccessfully stood in Dublin at the 2019 European Parliament election.[21]

At the 2020 general election, Coppinger lost her seat, leaving Barry as the party's only TD. The party suffered a significant drop in its vote share.

## Ideology and policies

[edit]

Part of a series on

Trotskyism

Concepts

* Anti-fascism
* Anti-Stalinism
* Bureaucratic collectivism
* Critique of political economy
* Cross-class alliance
* Deformed workers' state
* Degenerated workers' state
* Democratic centralism
* Decentralized economic planning
* Entryism
* Leninism
* Permanent revolution
* Political revolution
* Proletarian internationalism
* Social revolution
* Soviet democracy
* State capitalism
* Substitutionism
* Transitional demand
* Uneven and combined development
* Union democracy
* United front
* Vanguard party
* World communism
* World revolution

Variants

* Orthodox Trotskyism
* Third camp
* Posadism
* Pabloism

People

* Trotsky
* Abern
* Ali
* Antonov-Ovseenko
* Bensaïd
* Blanco
* Callinicos
* Cannon
* Deutscher
* Dowson
* Draper
* Duxiu
* Cliff
* Frank
* Grant
* Hallas
* Hansen
* Healy
* James
* Khan
* Lambert
* Maitan
* Mandel
* Moreno
* North
* Novack
* Pablo
* Posadas
* Preobrazhensky
* Rakovsky
* Sedov
* Shachtman
* Smirnov
* Tạ Thu Thâu
* Taaffe
* Woods

Works

* 1905 (1908)
* Terrorism and Communism (1920)
* Trotsky's Military Writings (1923-1925)
* Literature and Revolution (1924)
* New Course (1924)
* Lessons of October (1924)
* Towards Socialism or Capitalism? (1925)
* Leon Trotsky on China (1925)
* History of the Russian Revolution (1930)
* The Spanish Revolution, 1931-1939 (1931-1939)
* The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany (1931-40)
* The Revolution Betrayed (1936)
* Their Morals and Ours (1938)
* Transitional Program (1938)
* In Defence of Marxism (1942)
* Thesis of Pulacayo (1946)
* The Stalinist Legacy (1984)
* The Dilemmas of Lenin (2017)

History

* Russian Revolution
* October Revolution
* Joseph Stalin's rise to power
* The Declaration of 46
* Left Opposition
* Lenin's Testament
* Bloc of Soviet Oppositions
* French Turn
* Minneapolis general strike of 1934
* Great Purge
* Moscow trials
* Proletarian Military Policy
* New York Intellectuals
* May 68
* 1968–1969 Japanese university protests
* 1970s Hong Kong student protests
* Militant in Liverpool

Parties

Active

* Internationalist Workers' Left (Greece)
* Lanka Sama Samaja Party
* Lutte Ouvrière
* People Before Profit
* Socialist Action (Hong Kong)
* Socialist Alternative (Australia)
* Socialist Alternative (U.S.)
* Socialist Equality Party
* Socialist Party (England and Wales)
* Socialist Workers Party (UK)
* Solidarity
* The Struggle Pakistan
* Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
* Workers' Cause Party
* Workers' Left Front
* Workers Revolutionary Party (UK)

Defunct

* Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma
* Communist League of America
* International Marxist Group
* International Socialist Organization
* League for Socialist Action (Canada)
* Militant tendency
* Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944)
* Socialist Appeal (UK, 1992)
* Socialist Workers Party (U.S.)
* Young Socialist Alliance
* Workers Party of the United States

Internationals

Current

* Committee for a Workers' International (refounded)
* Fourth International (post-reunification)
* International Committee of the Fourth International
* International Communist League
* International Revolutionary Left
* International Socialist Alternative
* International Socialist Tendency
* International Workers' League
* Internationalist Communist Union
* League for the Fourth International
* Revolutionary Communist International
* Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International

* * *

Historical

* Committee for a Workers' International (1974–2019)
* Fourth International
* Fourth International–Posadist
* Permanent Revolution
* Revolutionary Workers Ferment

By country

* Argentina
* Australia
* China
* Denmark
* France
* Greece
* Ireland
* Japan
* Pakistan
* Russia
* Soviet Union
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Vietnam

Related topics

* Betrayal thesis
* Campism
* Chavismo
* Democracy in Marxism
* Fifth International
* Johnson–Forest Tendency
* Leon Trotsky bibliography
* Maoism
* Marxism–Leninism
* Orthodox Marxism
* Shachtmanism
* Socialist economics
* Socialist Equality Party
* Socialist Worker
* Stalinism

* Communism portal
* Socialism portal
* Politics portal

* v
* t
* e

Solidarity is a front for the Socialist Party, which is ideologically a Trotskyist group.[2][3][4][5]

The party intends to end "Ireland's status as a tax haven", introduce a financial transactions tax, abolish property tax, increase corporation tax, increase income tax on high earners, and introduce a ‘Millionaire's Tax’ on net personal wealth in excess of €1 million.[22]

Solidarity opposes a referendum on Irish reunification as a "border poll" on the grounds they believe it would further entrench sectarianism, and has stated it would campaign for a boycott of any such referendum if it were held.[23][24] Solidarity believes that Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales should merge and form a socialist federation, which should aspire to be part of a Socialist Federation of Europe.[24] The Phoenix has opined that this position is a "bizarre fusion of Trotskyism and British Unionism" that "articulates a unionist outlook dressed in socialist rhetoric".[4]

## Election results

[edit]

### General elections

[edit]

Election  | Dáil  | First preference vote  | Vote %  | Seats  | Government

|
|
|
|
|

2016 | 32nd | 41,994  | 1.9%  |

3 / 158

| Fine Gael–Independents
with Fianna Fáil confidence & supply
2020 | 33rd | 12,723  | 0.6%  |

1 / 160

| Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael–Green Party
2024 | 34th | 13,137  | 0.6%  |

1 / 174

| Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael–Independents

### Local elections

[edit]

Election  | First preference vote  | Vote %  | Seats

|
|
|

2014 | 21,097  | 1.2%  |

14 / 949

2019 | 10,911  | 0.64%  |

4 / 949

2024 | 4,952  | 0.27%  |

3 / 949

### European Parliament

[edit]

Election  | Leader  | 1st pref
Votes  | %  | Seats  | +/−  | EP Group

|
|
|
|
|
|

2019[a] | Collective leadership | 38,771  | 2.31 (#7)  |

0 / 13

| New  | −
2024[a] | 31,802  | 1.82 (#11)  |

0 / 14

|  0

1. ^ a b Run as part of the People Before Profit–Solidarity coalition.

## See also

[edit]

* Socialism portal
* Environment portal

* United Left Alliance

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Clár nua Gaeilge 'Solidarity' le seoladh ag Oireachtas na Samhna inniu". Tuairisc.ie. November 2019. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
2. ^ a b c McKenna, Aaron (22 February 2014). "Column: Is the Socialist Party cloaking itself as 'Anti-Austerity Alliance'?". The Journal. Archived from the original on 13 March 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
3. ^ a b "The PBP/Solidarity explainer: from Campaigns to Revolution". Village Magazine.ie. 6 February 2020. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
4. ^ a b c "PROFILE: CLARE DALY TD". The Phoenix. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
5. ^ a b "Far-left Coalition Splits". The Phoenix. 27 February 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
6. ^ Gannon, Colin (23 January 2019). "Parties 'out of step' with Ireland on birthright citizenship". The Irish World. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
7. ^ Tom Lansford, ed. (23 March 2021). Political Handbook of the World 2020-2021. CQ Press. p. 802\. ISBN 978-1-5443-8472-6. "The Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA) was launched in 2014 as a far-left, anti-capitalism grouping."
8. ^ "AAA to rebrand as Solidarity". Businesspost.ie. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
9. ^ "Anti-Austerity Alliance launches election campaign". RTÉ News. 20 February 2014. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
10. ^ "'We are the Triple A': New party says it will target Labour in local elections". The Journal. 20 February 2014. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
11. ^ "Iris Oifigiúil, 14 February 2014" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
12. ^ "Anti-Austerity Alliance launches as new party". 20 February 2014. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
13. ^ "Anti Austerity Alliance seeks 'real jobs' action for Limerick". 10 April 2014. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
14. ^ Lehane, Mícheál (26 September 2019). "Paul Murphy leaves Socialist Party to set up new group". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
15. ^ English, Eoin (14 June 2012). "Free legal aid for those not paying €100 levy". Irish Examiner.
16. ^ "Iris Oifigiúil" (PDF). Iris Oifigiúil. 7 August 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
17. ^ "Could we be about to get another new political group?". TheJournal.ie. 8 August 2015. Archived from the original on 20 September 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
18. ^ "Anti Austerity Alliance and People before Profit to launch new party". The Irish Times. 17 September 2015. Archived from the original on 10 October 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
19. ^ "Anti-Austerity Alliance rebrands as Solidarity". RTÉ. 10 March 2017. Archived from the original on 7 August 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
20. ^ "City Councillor Lil O'Donnell opts to leave newly named Solidarity party". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
21. ^ "European Election Candidate - Rita Harrold". Spunout.it. 9 May 2019. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
22. ^ "Ireland's rigged economy for the 1% and Solidarity's socialist alternative". Archived from the original on 28 June 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
23. ^ Ryan, Órla (17 December 2016). "We asked every TD if they want a vote on a united Ireland, here's what they said". TheJournal.ie. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021.
24. ^ a b Waldron, Daniel (2016). "Border Poll would only heighten sectarianism". The Socialist (Magazine). p. 10\. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021.

## External links

[edit]

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