People Get Ready - Richard Boyd Barrett: People Before Profit are Fighting for Change

Unless you live in a mountaintop hut with no radio, TV or internet you’ll know who the Anti-Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit are, and broadly what they stand for. A right royal pain in Enda’s backside due to their starring roles in the water tax protests, their current tally of three TDs could double post-February 26 – making them potential powerbrokers if, as looks likely, no single party is able to form a government.

But do they have any interest in being part of a coalition, which by its very nature would require a significant amount of compromise on their part? It’s a key question that People Before Profit’s de facto leader Richard Boyd Barrett, seemingly a cert to hang on to his seat in Dún Laoghaire, is perfectly placed to answer.

First, though, something even more fundamental; are the Anti-Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit a party or a political protest movement?

“I wouldn’t call People Before Profit a protest movement; I think we’re a movement that has a political expression and is fighting for change,” says Barrett, who’s spent the morning meeting striking Luas workers and, following his lunchtime natter with Hot Press, will be ringing another few hundred Dún Laoghaire doorbells.
“We’re different from conventional political parties in that we believe it’s the coming together and campaigning of people affected by issues that brings about change. You had the Labour Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly, crassly saying the other day that he gets off on the power of politics. It’s not the pursuit of power but the pursuit of equality that motivates us or the Anti-Austerity Alliance.”

Which suggests they probably won’t be doing any backroom deals in smoky rooms with Labour.

“We’re not interested in being in government for its own sake; we’re only interested in being in government if we can implement the sort of policies and priorities that we think will genuinely make a difference to the people who elected us,” Boyd Barrett states. “If we can achieve that, yes, we’d take part in government with similarly-minded people. But we’re not going to trade away our policies or principals just to be a minister, as Labour have done.”

Do those ‘similarly-minded people’ include
Sinn Féin?

“It depends on what Sinn Féin, who are keeping their options open, do. They’ve said they won’t rule out going in with Fianna Fáil, which is an absolute non-runner for us, because we regard Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael as being part of the problem in this country, not part of the solution. We think that’s a mistake on Sinn Féin’s part but, on the other hand, they’ve also articulated opposition to austerity policies. If they’re serious about left-wing or progressive policy, we’ll talk to and work with them as we have over the water charges.”

Does Boyd Barrett consider Sinn Féin to be a left-wing party?

“That’s a really interesting question,” he reflects. “Our comrades up the north would say ‘no’ because they’ve gone into government there and implemented austerity policies. Here, as I just said, they’ve taken a different position. There’s a tension in Sinn Féin between the section of the movement that just wants to be in government, and the section that genuinely leans to the left. I think that one way or another that tension will relieve itself, and we’ll work with those who break to the left.”

Asked whether Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald have scared potential voters off with their support of “good Republican” Slab Murphy, Boyd Barrett pauses for a moment and then says carefully: “I’m not judge and jury on the particulars of that case, but it would certainly appear to be loyalty to another Republican as opposed to judging the rights and wrongs of what is alleged to be tax evasion.”

Is it possible that Adams and McDonald’s refusal to condemn Murphy is part of the Sinn Féin leadership’s need to keep dissident Northern Irish Republicans on side, and maintain a peace that many consider to be fragile.

“The peace in the North is fragile in that the political set-up there copper-fastens tribal and sectarian divisions. I don’t think Loyalism or Sinn Féin are capable of bridging that sectarian divide. People Before Profit’s Gerry Carroll getting elected as a councillor in West Belfast demonstrates the same desire for a different type of politics there, as there is in the south. We want to break through the Orange and Green politics that have failed, and unite working-class people.”

Presuming that Boyd Barrett doesn’t go the Jackie Healy-Rae parish pump route and demand a new airport for Dún Laoghaire, what are the redline issues in terms of him being prepared to enter into coalition?

“We would have to have a really quite dramatic upscaling of the social housing programme, and move away from the privatisation that’s had such disastrous consequences,” he states. “Take all of the NAMA properties and transfer them to local authorities to be used as council housing. Another bottomline is a universal national health service paid for by central taxation and free at the point of use. Abolishing water charges and the property tax and serious relief for low and middle earners from the USC are bottomline too. Campaign to repeal the 8th Amendment and solve the constitutional prohibition on women making decisions about their own lives, health and bodies. Let it become a matter between a woman and her doctor.”

Would Boyd Barrett attach time limits or any other conditions to new abortion legislation?

“There’s always problems if you start drawing lines and boundaries,” he insists. “I don’t believe we can or should legislate on those sort of details. I trust women to make decisions for themselves and consult with medical experts, once those doctors are free from constitutional and legal fears and threats.”

Also on the People Before Profit’s list of coalition essentials are binding targets for CO2 emissions and forestation; a minimum hourly wage of at least €11.50; legislation to make multinationals like Google and Facebook pay the full Irish tax whack; the reversal of social welfare cuts that Boyd Barrett believes have unfairly impacted on young people, lone parents and the elderly; and getting rid of direct provision for asylum seekers.
“These are the Magdalene laundries of the future,” he charges. “We need to take in as many refugees as need to come here. I’m firmly of the ‘No human being is illegal’ persuasion. The appalling situations from which Syrian and Afghani people are fleeing are to a very large extent the result of Western powers bombing their countries with the support of the Irish government at Shannon Airport. We owe them safety and refuge.”

My Leinster House spies tell me Boyd Barrett was vocal in his support before Christmas when Tony Duffin from the Ana Liffey Drug Project briefed TDs on the need for medically supervised injecting rooms. Given the major heroin problem that exists there, would he be prepared to have one in Dun Laoghaire?

“I would indeed, yeah,” he nods enthusiastically. “We have to support people with addiction problems and help them find pathways out of that. In the meantime, let’s try to make it as safe as possible and limit the danger of disease. When you look at all the gangland violence that’s taking place at the moment, it’s obvious that the so-called ‘war on drugs’ has not worked and is actually creating a social war. Treat hard drugs as a medical issue rather than a criminal one, and similarly decriminalise soft drugs. The communities affected most by drug-related gang violence are the ones who’ve been most devastated by social cuts. There’s a real feeling of abandonment.”

Boyd Barrett and People Before Profit intervened in November 2014 when in an attempt to get the local methadone clinic closed, the Dúnlaoghaire-Rathdown Ratepayers’ Association distributed a postcard depicting its clients as zombies.

“There was a campaign against the methadone clinic that exists up in Patrick’s Street, and we made it clear to the people who put out that leaflet that it was very insulting and misdirected, and they backed off a little bit. We can’t treat people like they’re subhumans because they’ve developed an addiction problem that goes back to the recession of the 1980s.”

The TD has a similar attitude when it comes to tackling prostitution.

“We’ve campaigned to end the exploitation of women, but we don’t believe that criminalising the purchase of sex is the answer. It’s much more about listening to women in that situation who, short-term, want their basic health and safety issues addressed and, long-term, might want paths out of sex work.”

Does he support legislation to end church or faith control of schools?
“Absolutely. We’ve also campaigned on that issue and are very committed to it.”
If People Before Profit’s demands are really as red/bottomline as Richard Boyd Barrett says they are, you imagine that they and their Anti-Austerity Alliance colleagues will be remaining on the opposition benches for the next five years. Realistically, will there ever be a day when they’re able so say, “We’re happy with this government”?
“That’s a tough question,” he concedes. “I really don’t know. There’s no end point, there’s no utopia: that’s a myth. But I do think we can get to a stage where at least the basic things are solved.”