Socialist Party (Ireland)
The Socialist Party (Irish: Páirtí Sóisialach) is a socialist political party active in Ireland. It is a member of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).
The party was founded in by 1972 as a tendency within the Labour Party, grouped around the newsletter Militant Irish Monthly, and duly became known as the Militant tendency, the name by which its co-thinkers in the British Labour Party were also known. Militant organised within the Labour Party throughout the 1970s and 1980s as an entryist group attempting to win the party to socialism. The group briefly controlled Labour Youth from 1983 to 1986. People associated with Militant included John Throne, Clare Daly, Dermot Connolly, Joe Higgins and Finn Geaney.
In the late 1980s, a number of known members of the Militant tendency were expelled from Labour. Considering work in the party to no longer be viable, in 1989 the organisation took an "Open Turn" and established an independent party, adopting the name Militant Labour, also used by other sections of the Committee for a Workers' International at the time. In 1996 the party merged fully with the Labour and Trade Union Group of Northern Ireland and changed its name to the Socialist Party.
The Socialist Party is a member of the national left-wing coalition United Left Alliance. The party is currently represented by 1 TD, 1 MEP and 6 councillors.
Read more about Socialist Party (Ireland): Electoral History, Trade Union, Campaigning and Other Extra-parliamentary Activities, Youth Wing, Policies, 2012 Controversies, List of Newspapers and Publications, List of Elected Members
Famous quotes containing the words socialist and/or party:
“Men conceive themselves as morally superior to those with whom they differ in opinion. A Socialist who thinks that the opinions of Mr. Gladstone on Socialism are unsound and his own sound, is within his rights; but a Socialist who thinks that his opinions are virtuous and Mr. Gladstone’s vicious, violates the first rule of morals and manners in a Democratic country; namely, that you must not treat your political opponent as a moral delinquent.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The real grounds of difference upon important political questions no longer correspond with party lines.... Politics is no longer the topic of this country. Its important questions are settled... Great minds hereafter are to be employed on other matters.... Government no longer has its ancient importance.... The people’s progress, progress of every sort, no longer depends on government. But enough of politics. Henceforth I am out more than ever.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)