by Cian Prendiville and Patrick Flynn

This year’s People Before Profit AGM was an important step forward in building People Before Profit as Ireland’s 32-county ecosocialist party. Here, outgoing PBP Steering Committee member Cian Prendiville and Galway-based PBP member Patrick Flynn report on some of the key highlights from the conference.

The 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of People Before Profit illustrated the growth of the organisation in the last few years, with numerous attendees from across the country queuing on Saturday morning to collect their delegate packs outlining the agenda for the weekend, with forty motions and a lengthy policy on animal rights submitted to be debated.

Around 200 or so delegates engaged in the different sessions in person and online, and a total of over 350 voted in the Steering Committee Elections. Over forty branches, from Derry to Cork and Galway to Greystones, were represented, including several fledgling branches sending delegates to an AGM for the first time and young members who had not participated in an AGM before. We in Rupture together with our comrades in Rebel (affiliated to the Socialist Workers’ Network), organised a successful book stall which spanned the entire bottom of the hall, illustrating the enthusiasm for engaging with socialist ideas among comrades present.

The AGM kicked off with sessions on topics including strikes and struggles, challenging the far-right and elections and housing, which restated core policies of PBP. Key priorities for us in the year ahead will include pushing for a people power movement to fight the housing and cost of living crisis and highlighting how this is driven by capitalist profiteering by corporate landlords and big business, with comrades agreeing to build for the major cost of living and housing demonstration in Dublin this Saturday, 7 October. As Paul Murphy TD emphasised, we must ensure these struggles are infused with an ecosocialist politics, continuously connecting them to the climate and biodiversity crises, and failure of capitalism.

Several contributions from the floor emphasised the continued need for People Before Profit to focus on socialist feminist struggle, building a movement on the streets to fight for the full decriminalisation of abortion and other liberalisation measures advocated in the recent abortion bill advanced by Bríd Smith TD. Key tasks coming out of the AGM include building PBP’s Women and Gender Equality Caucus ahead of coming pro-choice mobilisations and the forthcoming ‘Women in the Home’ constitutional referendum.

By building real mass, working class movements on these issues we can expose the far-right as allies of capitalism, and highlight the real enemy of workers and climate: big business, the billionaires and the politicians whose strings they pull. In the elections in the south next year, AGM emphasised the task of highlighting Sinn Féin’s refusal to rule out coalition with FF and FG, and their continued shift to the right, while in the north, comrades spoke on the need to build a strong socialist alternative to Stormont inaction and Tory austerity amidst an ongoing working-class fightback in the union movement. AGM emphasised the need to fight for a left government that actually takes on the corporate landlords and billionaires and fights for socialist change, rather than simply managing capitalism.

Capitalism breeds war and environmental devastation

A session on the international crises discussed climate and war in particular, hearing from Andreu Coll of the Anticapitalistas, section of the Fourth International with an MEP and other elected reps in the Spanish State, and Paul Murphy TD. Resolutions underlined the importance of building PBP as an ecosocialist party, challenging the betrayals of the Green Party and pushing for protests around the upcoming COP 28 gathering. We also discussed the important work of environmental campaigners, including PBP members, in highlighting the devastation of Lough Neagh by a spreading algae bloom and how Stormont Ministers have ignored warnings about this for years. The work of our comrades in the north, particularly in newer branches in areas like Tyrone and Armagh, was commended, and the entire organisation must help build an all-Ireland movement to ensure the Lough is brought into public ownership, and support the upcoming Belfast mobilisation on 21 October.

Our anti-war and anti-imperialist stance was also reinforced; indicative is a motion from the Dublin Bay North branch recommitting the party to working to build Palestine solidarity campaigns across the country. The crucial need to campaign to defend Irish neutrality against the step-by-step push towards joining NATO was repeatedly emphasised, and the courageous stand of our TDs against this militarisation drive, and their strong advocacy for neutrality was commended. National Secretary Kieran Allen noted the importance of this on the European socialist left, a point underscored by Andreu Coll’s comprehensive survey of the international situation. While important socialist formations like Norway’s Red Party have capitulated into supporting their states’ sending arms to Ukraine, PBP has maintained a principled anti-imperialist stance towards both Russian and NATO imperialisms against the increasingly desperate attempts by the establishment to smear us as ‘pro-Putin’.

Important steps to the left

A number of important leftward steps were taken at this year's AGM. In the session discussing fighting the far-right, AGM emphasised that a key priority for the year ahead is building broad united fronts capable of calling mass demos and anti-fascist cultural events, while also working with others to organise direct counter protests to protect our libraries, hospitals, accommodation centres and communities.

When and how to counter-protest the far-right has been an important discussion and debate on the left over the last year. Some NGOs have argued against counter-protesting, while PBP together with others have actually had good success exposing the far-right through these demos, or even sending them packing as happened recently in Limerick. The role of our comrades in Cork in opposing the homophobic and transphobic protests harassing library staff in the city - indicative of a wider growth of homophobic and transphobic far-right activity across the country - is particularly to be commended, with Cork member Joe Moore addressing AGM on the situation locally.

AGM resolutions with very broad support underlined the importance of confronting the far-right when they attempt to whip up hatred and fear in our communities. An important part of this will be working with and helping to build anti-fascist organisations, both broad alliances like Le Chéile and Ireland for All which have helped organise some of the large central mobilisations and also the narrower and more militant groups such as United Against Racism which can be an important radical wing of the anti-racist movement.

AGM also emphasised our commitment to building an activist party, based on an organised, fee-paying membership, and conscious of resisting the bureaucratic pressures and perks of parliamentary work. AGM agreed an important plan for a membership renewal drive to firm up our membership base and numbers, while allowing supporter status for a broader layer who are sympathetic but perhaps do not at this time wish to be full paid-up members. This is a crucial step in building People Before Profit as a party of ecosocialist struggle active in struggles of workers, women and LGBTQ+ people, and climate and biodiversity.

Some missed opportunities

At the same time, the authors personally feel there were also some missed opportunities at AGM, where some important and radical proposals failed to pass.

In a key discussion on the first day of the AGM, a lively and fraternal debate on how to relate to the mass boycott of the RTÉ licence fee saw the party unite in opposition to the fee. Everyone backed the PBP call for the replacement of this unjust flat charge on ordinary people with a tax on the big tech companies to fund a transformed public service media run for the people rather than profit and privilege. However, a majority felt we should not go further and throw our weight behind the boycott, encouraging more to join. Of course, many PBP members, including TDs and councillors, are not paying this charge and the party is firmly opposed to the waste of money, staff and court time trying to bully and intimidate people into paying what is a fee that is in reality on its last legs.

Welcome proposals for an all-encompassing member-led caucus for Trade Union members, to complement the work of our Trade Union department and the left caucuses in the various trade unions, also narrowly failed. The party has strengthened our work in the unions in recent years, doing great work supporting workers in struggle, and beginning to develop rank and file networks in key unions and PBP members that are leaders in their workplaces and unions. Hopefully over time, this work can be brought together in a caucus to help share lessons and experiences and develop more organisers and work in other unions where we do not yet have a strong presence. However, for now the party decided against such a caucus, in favour of continuing with the current structures.

The importance of clarifying and comradely political debate

On all these issues, which took up much of the Saturday of the conference, we saw very lively and friendly debates. Time was given to both sides on various questions to outline their arguments, and respond to the arguments of others, and then democratic and transparent votes took place. Such an approach is important so there is a broad buy-in from all, including those on the losing side of the votes. This reflects important growth of the party, and the development of a more vibrant internal culture.

Indicative of this was a comprehensive successful motion by the Galway branch committing the party to producing a policy on worker cooperatives, which prompted an interesting debate on their potential role in advancing socialism; several contributions from the floor cautioned on this, noting the failures and limitations of co-operatives internationally, such as the Mondragon federation of worker cooperatives in the Basque Country. This culture of healthy disagreement is an important asset of People Before Profit, allowing us to refine and sharpen our ideas through internal discussion. Similarly, a motion by the Cork branch on the role of policing in Irish society and international debates on police abolition led to a debate which will feed into a proposed policy document on the matter to be presented to AGM next year.

Notably, AGM on Sunday morning saw a healthy debate concluding in the adoption of a new Animal Rights and Welfare Policy which situates cruelty to animals in the exploitation of nature by capitalism. The product of extensive work by the Animal Rights and Welfare Policy working group, its supporters argued it is a significant improvement on PBP’s previous document on the subject, proposing comprehensive policies, including opposition to the industrialised model of agriculture and the animal cruelty which goes with it, against the use of animals for ‘entertainment’ in the form of greyhound racing, hare coursing and circuses, as well as proposing a public veterinary service. Opponents of the policy argued that, in failing to support the full phasing out of animal agriculture and the keeping of animals in captivity in zoos, aquatic parks and similar institutions, it does not go far enough in recognising animal sentience, animal welfare as part of the struggle to overturn the capitalist system, and an eco-socialist society free from exploitation.

There are, however, still some teething problems as we develop this culture of debate, which came out more so in some of the organisational debates on Sunday. With a large glut of motions to deal with on the Sunday afternoon, debates understandably ended up very compressed and rushed, raising the danger of speaking past each other. In the buzz of rapid-fire debates there is a danger of losing information about the actual details of what is being discussed, or what the arguments for and against different motions are. We must build a culture of debate that brings all the key information to the members, so even new members can follow the debates, and where each side attempts to understand and respond to the arguments of others.

We have seen time and time again how sectarian socialist organisations have ripped themselves apart resorting to strawman arguments and personalised debates. PBP’s strength lies in its break from the narrow-minded sectarianism that has held back much of the radical left. For instance, the break with the ‘slate system’ of electing a Steering Committee, and instead using a PR system has been important to reflect the pluralism within PBP and ensure minority tendencies have a stake as well. Similarly, a healthy culture of honest debate is the only way to really develop our members and build PBP as a strong, growing organisation of activists from different movements, outlooks and traditions who are all committed to the shared project of building a mass ecosocialist party for workers in Ireland.

An all-island, pluralist and socialist Steering Committee

The AGM also elected a new 14-member Steering Committee which coordinates and leads the party between AGMs and National Councils. For the second year, a Proportional Representation system was used in the election, which saw 9 members of the Socialist Workers’ Network, 2 members of RISE, 2 members of the Red Network and a non-network member elected.

As a 32-county party, it was good to see the new SC having stronger representation from the north, with a member from the Derry branch elected in addition to the re-election of three Belfast-based members. It is crucial we build a unified organisation, learning from the experience in the two states we operate in, and building all-island struggles wherever possible. Unfortunately, however, no members from the southern branches outside Dublin got elected this time, reflecting the need to develop our branches and develop more experienced organisers in those areas, so PBP can make breakthroughs in areas like Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford as we have in Dublin, Belfast and Derry.

A year of challenges and opportunities

Concluding with applause from delegates for the tireless work of Bríd Smith, who will not be defending her seat in the next election, the AGM has set the party up for a busy, challenging and energising year ahead. One example of this is the fact we are facing potentially four different elections in the south in 2024; local, national, European and the mayoral election in Limerick. In these elections, People Before Profit has important opportunities to expand our representation on councils, potentially making breakthroughs in key areas outside of Dublin for instance. But we also face a challenge to defend our TD seats and resist the ‘squeeze’ from Sinn Féin. To do that we will need a bold, socialist approach in the elections, and for every member to actively engage in the campaigns.

In addition we have the crucial fight against the rise of the far-right, important opportunities to strengthen PBP among young people and in the trade unions and a massive job of building strong campaigns and united fronts on issues such as climate and biodiversity, housing, cost of living, neutrality and abortion rights.

We must rise (no pun intended) to this challenge, and grasp these opportunities - but to do that we need more people getting involved, helping to build PBP and strengthen our branches and our campaigns, and for our current activists to continue their development and be empowered as political and organisational leaders.

PBP AGM 2023: Debate, discussion & decisions on key tasks for the left