United Left Alliance will be radical left opposition to Fine Gael/Labour Coalition for Cuts
Dail positions will be used as platform to advocate for ‘people power’ opposition against cuts
In a statement today the United Left Alliance (ULA) predicated that it will make a significant breakthrough in the General Election on Friday. The Alliance intends to provide a radical and a principled opposition to the Fine Gael/ Labour coalition of cuts. The Alliance will use the Dail as a platform to build the widest opposition to the cuts agenda of the new government.
Cllr. Richard Boyd Barrett, People Before Profit / ULA candidate for Dun Laoghaire, said: “We have had a fantastic response from the public. There is no doubt that there is an appetite for real change. We are confident that we can win between six and ten seats and provide a real opposition to the agenda of cuts. We will use the Dail as a platform to mobilise people power to stop further cuts. This is an historic election. For the first time the electorate have the chance to put a significant group of principled TDs in the Dail who will stand up against the Coalition for Cuts”.
Joe Higgins MEP, Socialist Party/ULA candidate for Dublin West, said:
“The ULA will stand firm against the IMF/EU austerity plan. All the main parties have gone along with the agenda of cuts. Disgracefully the Labour Party have rolled over to the IMF. They are prepared to jump into bed with Fine Gael and unleash a torrent of cuts on working people, the unemployed and the poor. The ULA says enough is enough. We are giving a commitment to the electorate that we will stand up to the cuts. We will campaign inside and outside the Dail to make the developers, bankers and the wealthy pay for the mess they have created.”
Cllr. Gino Kenny, People Before Profit/ULA candidate in Dublin Mid-West, said: “The real issue in this election is jobs. There is close to half a million people on the dole and there is no real strategy to put them back to work. Throughout the country families are being destroyed and broken up by the return of mass emigration. We say jobs are the priority. We will fight to stop putting taxpayers money into broken banks and bailing out property developers. Instead we want investment in jobs that benefit society. This is the real choice facing the electorate in this election.”
Cllr Claire Daly, Socialist Party/ULA candidate in Dublin North said: “The ULA will be a real force in the new Dail. We have shown that the Left can come together to work for real change. People have had enough of the empty rhetoric of Labour. In the last ten years there has only been one politician who has held any government to account and that’s Joe Higgins. This election is not just about electing a government; it will determine who will be the opposition. We say we will provide real opposition of the kind the Dail has never seen. The United Left Alliance will be that opposition.”