The Socialist Party is a revolutionary organisation committed to ending the rule of capitalism — the source of the exploitation, oppression, war and environmental destruction in the world today.
The Socialist Party has been at the forefront of all major movements in Irish society in recent years, from the household and water charges campaigns, in which we led the call for a mass boycott of the bills; to the struggle for repeal of the 8th amendment and abortion rights, in which we — with ROSA – Socialist Feminist Movement — organised mass awareness and distribution of abortion pills; forcing change from the right-wing establishment.
We have an unrivalled record of supporting workers and communities in struggle, and of engaging in effective campaigning against all forms of injustice — racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia — while promoting a programme of ideas and action to organise working-class and young people into a movement to transform society along socialist lines. Read our constitution here:
What we stand for:
“The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go.” James Connolly was right. The immense social, political and economic crises that dominate life in the 21st century all testify to this truth, but the climate emergency gives added urgency to its meaning. That’s why the Socialist Party stands for revolutionary socialist change, and why we are organising to bring it about. We support every right and reform that can improve life for working-class people, while fighting for what’s needed. We say: if capitalism can’t afford to provide for our needs then we can’t afford capitalism.
Workplace
• All workers need double-digit wage rises. For a €17 an hour minimum wage, with no exemptions.
• End precarity and bogus self-employment. For guaranteed hours with permanent contracts for all workers.
• A four-day work week with no loss of pay.
• Reduce the pension age to 60. A guaranteed decent pension for all.
• No layoffs. Open up the books and take large job-shedding companies into public ownership, under democratic workers’ control and management, with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need.
• Repeal the Industrial Relations Act. For the right to organise and effective action.
• For a fighting trade union movement that organises the unorganised and mobilises the power of its membership. All officials should be elected, subject to recall and live on the wages of the workers they represent.
Housing
• Reduce and freeze rents at affordable levels. Ban evictions.
• For a massive programme to build public homes. Take the major construction companies into public ownership. Seize vacant properties and unused land being hoarded for profit.
• Provide culturally appropriate accommodation for Travellers.
• Nationalise the banks and repudiate the odious debt. Reduce mortgage payments to affordable levels.
Public services
• End church control of schools and hospitals – full separation of church and state.
• For a major public works programme to build public schools, hospitals and childcare facilities.
• For a one-tier, national health service free at the point of use. Bring all private hospitals, nursing homes and pharmaceutical companies into public ownership.
• Free publicly-run childcare scheme for every community. Extend fully-paid parental leave to two years and provide high quality early-years education.
• For 24-hour free counselling services and education programmes to begin to tackle the mental health crisis.
• Free education and training for all. Abolish the Leaving Cert system and provide a Third-level place for all who want one, with a living grant for all students. Build affordable, accessible student accommodation.
Environment
• For substantial investment in an expanded, reliable and free public transport system.
• End the reliance on fossil fuels — keep them in the ground. For extensive state investment in renewable energy, retrofitting homes and public buildings, and green jobs.
• For a just transition to a zero carbon economy, with no job losses or regressive carbon taxes.
• Take the fossil fuel companies, big agribusinesses and corporations into democratic public ownership to stop the destruction of our planet for profit.
Equal rights for all
• Oppose all forms of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia.
• For LGBTQ-inclusive, consent-based sex education in schools. Fully fund trans healthcare.
• Reduce the voting age to 16.
• Defend the right to asylum. End Direct Provision. Abolish all racist immigration laws.
• Black lives matter! Oppose far-right division.
• Fight to end gender violence, abuse and harassment in all its forms.
• For a socialist feminist movement that unites the whole working class in the struggle against oppression.
For workers’ unity in Ireland
• For the unity of the working class, Protestant and Catholic, North and South, in opposition to all forms of sectarianism, paramilitarism and state repression.
• For a socialist Ireland, with no coercion and the rights of minorities guaranteed, as part of a free, equal and voluntary socialist federation of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, as part of a socialist Europe.
End the rule of the billionaires
• Take the wealth off the 1%. For real progressive taxation on incomes, assets and profits to fund public services. Stop tax avoidance and evasion by the wealthy.
• Double corporation tax. End corporate welfare policies.
• No to all forms of privatisation in health, education, transport, housing, energy, sanitation, water and broadband provision.
For socialist change
• Capitalism produces inequality, environmental destruction and war. We need an international struggle against this system.
• Solidarity with the struggles of workers and oppressed peoples internationally.
• Oppose all imperialist powers, wars and occupations. No to NATO and EU militarisation. US military out of Shannon.
• No to corporate “free trade” agreements. No to the bosses’ EU and “Fortress Europe”.
• Build a new mass party that organises workers and young people in struggle against all injustices and for a socialist alternative. For a working-class movement to bring about a left, socialist government that breaks with capitalism.
• Take the key sectors of the economy — the monopolies in banking, industry, services, agriculture and big tech — into public ownership under the democratic control of the working class.
• Replace the capitalist market with a democratic socialist plan for the economy based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and the environment.
