Workers’ Party intends to contest elections in Republic and North

The Workers' Party will publish a series of policies and run candidates in the next general election, according to its president Michael Donnelly.

The party, which held a ‘relaunch’ in Dublin on Saturday, also plans to run up to five candidates in the general election in Northern Ireland in May.

Mr Donnelly said the party, which traces its roots back to the foundation of Sinn Féin in 1905 but has been struggling in recent years, was now “growing”.

“We have in excess of 200 members nationally and have seen an influx of new young members in the past year,” he said.

“We will be running candidates in the North in May, in west Belfast, north Belfast, Derry, Antrim and Upper Bann. We certainly intend to run candidates in the general election here next year - or even possibly this year depending on how things go with this Government.”

The party has had a complex history. It split from Sinn Féin The Workers' Party in 1982, forming the Workers' Party. A minority of its members left in 1992 to form Democratic Left which itself merged with the Labour Party in 1999. Despite its aging membership and decline in recent years it has maintained offices in Dublin, Belfast, Waterford and Cork.

It currently has two elected representatives – Eilis Ryan on Dublin City Council and Ted Tynan on Cork City Council.

The party on Saturday published three discussion documents on housing, industrial policy and urban policy. A process of debate would take place within the party around these “key policy areas” and the results would form the basis of the party’s platform going into the general election, said Mr Donnelly.

Ms Ryan, who ran and was elected as an Independent councillor last May, joined the party at the end of last year. She joined as she was looking for an alternative to the current array of left parties, such as the Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party, she said.

“No new left party has been founded here in the last decade. I believe the established left parties put far more emphasis on resisting austerity and not enough on offering alternatives to what’s currently in place. There’s a real grassroots energy in the Workers’ Party and I believe we can offer pragmatic policies which will offer a realistic, socialist alternative.”

Mr Donnelly, who teaches politics at NUI Galway, said the party was small but he was confident it would continue to grow.

Asked about the party’s reputation among some detractors as ‘Stalinist’, he said he was “not entirely sure what people mean when they say Stalinist”.

He said it would be a party that encouraged critical thought and debate.