Here’s your chance to put forward your plan for government! Most of us have no clue what your policies are! Why should we vote for AAA/PBP?

Why would you vote for FF or FG Anto?

@Dusty Mooney:
Is that PBP/AAA I see on 2%?

Probably the worst government in the history of the state bou people still will not vote hard left

Rainbow so by the looks of it.

PJ, Tell us who you voted for in the last General election and show us how smart you are?

Dusty are you using all your accounts to vote ? Well done you have them up to 4% in this poll.

Doorhandler, Same question to you. Who did you vote for in the last GE. Inspire us with you political insight.

I voted AAA/PBP

It’s notable how shy the FF and FG voters are. Topping the poll above but none prepared to admit voting for them in the comments. Sensitive little snowflakes indeed.

Excellent choice doorhandler.

@doorhandler: I am the leader of the Stay at Home Party. Promoting not voting in the next election. I am calling for support. I voted in this for Independents because I wanted to see the results. There should be a tab for staying at home. In fact, if 35% of voters do stay at home that will make us the largest party .

Thank you for sharing Val. I can’t join you as too many ppl died in order for us all to have a vote in this Republic.

So put your name on the ballot paper!

Wally, I guess people don’t want to be bashed over the head with your 2%.

Invited to explain why we should vote for AAAPBP, all their stooge can come up with is “Who did you vote for?” and “Democracy is a tool of capitalism to oppress the working class”. That might be your problem, right there.

@Dusty Mooney:
I went right through the preferences from 1 to I think it was about 13. At the top was an independent who wasn’t elected but more importantly PBP/AAA was number 13

@jane:
I guess people don’t want to admit voting for FF or FG but credit to doorhandler for nailing his political colours to the mast. I also voted for the AAA (Ruth Coppinger) though I I guess my political allegiance is already known around here.

@P.J. Nolan:
Ah yes. Some unnamed “indpenedent” who covbeninetly shares your neoliberal ideals.
It wasn’t Stephen Donnelly was it?

conveniently

@Ben McArthur:

The policies and vision of the AAA and socialism generally has been explained many times by myself here. We advocate for a radical transformation of our socioeconomic system where we democratically mange our resources with the objective of meeting human need rather than the current model which has the sole purpose of profit accumulation.

Capitalist enterprise will not create a single job or produce a single product or service without the expectation of profit. Therefore capital only ever employs labour in order to exploit it to a greater or lesser degree. The sole objective of capitalist enterprise is the accumulation of profit and that profit is generated by the workers in the excess value they create over and above their wages. That is the essence of capitalism and it’s inherently exploitative. That profit is maximized by paying labour as little as possible and working people as hard as possible. This is the class divide and why the interests of the classes are always opposing.

So labour never receives the full value of the wealth it has created and over time this inevitably leads to the vast inequality with the majority labour class working to enrich an obscenely wealthy oligarchy. In addition, capital rents out its accumulated assets (e.g. money, property) back to the working class garnering further profit for itself while producing nothing. It’s also very adept at the privatizing collectively held infrastructure and resources owned and built by the working class and extracting huge profit from that etc etc.

We can see the logical result of this system where the 8 richest individuals on the planet now collectively hold the same wealth as 3600 million people, the poorest half of the globe’s population many of whom starve to death or survive in abject poverty. None of this in inevitable. But it’s the inevitable result of the dominant socio economic model which will ultimately have to be replaced by a system which gears economic activity to meeting peoples’ needs if we want to improve the conditions for the vast majority of humanity.

The capitalists profit is manifested primarily in the form of money and it’s crucial to understand that there can never be a shortage of money at a macro level. It’s also important to differentiate between money and real wealth/ resources. Money is how we measure wealth and also a claim on society’s resources. Our fiat currency money is created (and deleted) at will on the computer keyboards of the world’s commercial and central banks. At a macro level there can never be a shortage of a fiat floating currency like the Euro, sterling dollar etc.

In contrast to the instant availability of money, the real wealth of goods and services that we all depend on is created by the labour and skill of the working class from the raw material of the planet. Everything from the food in our bellies to the clothes on our backs right up to the most sophisticated technology is made by the workers.

Money is a claim on that real wealth produced by the working class and this is where money derives it’s power. The capitalist system peddles the illusion that there is a shortage of money (balance the books, reduce the deficit, live within your means etc) in order to oppress and control the working class who are the real creators of wealth.

And the working class has produced more than enough real resources to provide everyone on the planet with proper nutrition, a decent home, healthcare, education, recreation and a job. It’s a political and ideological choice to deny people these basics.

So following the logic, society as a whole has no requirement for and can no longer sustain a system of productive activity with the sole purpose of accumulating money. The money is instantly available at a government/central bank level and is just a tool to measure and allocate the real resources that society has produced collectively. Instead the focus of productive activity should be to meet human need rather than to generate profit for private capital owners. This is the sustainable future for humanity and it’s called socialism.

Capitalism is the root cause of most of the problems faced by humanity. It’s an absurd and highly dangerous and destructive system which exploits the majority working class, our public infrastructure, our political systems, our human resources, our environment and anything else it can in the pursuit of money. The money that private enterprise seeks to accumulate originates in the central banks of the nation states and is created by the simple act of pressing a computer keyboard and a small portion which exists as physical cash.

And those same nations (in reality their ruling class) facilitate and enforce this looting of the planet in pursuit of the currency which they create at will by pressing computer keyboards. It’s long past time we woke up and replaced that economic system which exploits the majority in order to accumulate computer keystrokes for the few with a better model which democratically plans and manages our resources to meet human need.

As the nation states are the origin of the money with private capital seeks to accumulate it follows therefore that a working class which democratically controls the nation state/central bank will no longer be required to sell it’s labour to private capital and be exploited. Capital is utterly dependent on the labour class. The working class in contrast does not need capital which is a reality our media and academia etc desperately tries to hide. This fundamental truth represents an existential threat to capitalism and it’s the job of the Left to explain this to the working class.

Now are you proposing a continuation of the current model where children with scoliosis twisted spines wait in agony so that bondholders, corporate tax dodgers and vulture funds can continue to loot the country?

Ruth Coppinger??? I’m morto for ya.

Wally/Dusty: I’m not saying people should, I am just asking why people should vote for AAA/PBP. Policies? Plans? Would you go into government? Ya know…things people need to know for an informed vote as you put it

And please not what you’ve said to Ben McArthur which was essentially “we will do it differently” and the heading off on a ramble. How differently? What’s your tax plan? Health Plan? Any plan?

And what is not voting going to achieve? A prime example of how stupid this is is in the USA with 60% staying at home not voting, and then crying about the outcome of the elections

@dusty money God I love a good cliché!

Yes Brian But which colours

Dusty, instead of asking people who they voted for, why don’t you outline why people should vote for the alternative that you propose?

@ Dusty Mooney i read the first 3 lines of your last copy and paste essay. I’ve finally realised why the AAA are getting such low numbers. Their letting trolls like you be their Spokesperson. Keep up the good work lad your doing an outstanding job pushing the voters away.

@Dusty Mooney ; Unfortunately in your romantic whimsical view of Utopia, you are basically advocating a Bog Brother 1984 type society where everyone clocks into a job at 9am, does a robot like job, and leaves at 7pm on the dot. Everyone takes the same holiday every year.
There is zero incentive for any enterprising individual to put his head above the parapet, and dare to improve themselves, or society, anyone who did would be summarily dealt with.
All attempts at variations on your model have ended in catastrophic failure, North Korea is as good as it gets.
…..Yes our current socio-capitalist model does not work very well, but for all of its flaws and wrongful inequalities it generates, it’s nothing like the monster utopia society you dream of.

@jane:
Why? Is Ruth Coppinger backing the senor Gardai who slandered McCabe as a pedophile for daring to blow the whistle on police corruption and incompetence. It’s the people who vote for FF and FG who support this obscenity should be morto don’t you think ?????

@Ben McArthur:

I’ll ask again as Ben appears to have gone missing. Are you proposing a continuation of the current model where children with scoliosis twisted spines wait in agony so that bondholders, corporate tax dodgers and vulture funds can continue to loot the country?
Because the people who vote for FF, FG, Labour and bogus Independents are voting to continue with this brute exploitation of the majority to enrich the elite.

@Anthony Toby Kielthy: Absolutely agree, since the last election not one of our constituency TD’s have shown their faces and do absolutely nothing for our communities, it is total hypocrisy to call them representatives.

Still waiting on your plans and policies other than generic “we will do it differently”…..

@Dusty Mooney: Jaysus Wally – your crowd are doing terribly . WIth FF and FG clowns and village idiots running rings around you .

Have you every ran for election yourself ? If so – were you embarrassed by your lack of votes ?

Wally, have you not copped on yet?
Nearly everyone that bothered to respond to your stupid posts was not interested in what you were trying to say but was the polar opposite. Some may have voted the same way you did but have totally different views than you do. There is a story several posts below this one about North Korea, a place that in principle you never stop posting about, the same type of economy, political class, totalitarian state that you keep promoting here. I suggest we do a bit of crowd funding and pack you off there. You’d really enjoy it, you and that nut job Kim.

@Anto Curran: Anto, not to speak on dustys behalf, but I would have no problem with AAA/PBP forming part of a broad coalition government, to keep manners on the largest party in it. Had they been in government at the time of the banking collapse, they would have pulled the plug before FF signed us up to shoulder private banking debt, which FG then turned into 40 years worth of debt servitude for our kids and grandkids.

@Dusty Mooney: It shouldn’t matter who you vote for as long as your constituency candidate doesn’t walk away into the sunset after the election is over like our lot did. All the parties are the same in my view self serving bunch of chancers where nothing changes except their salaries.

FF and FG have 4800 or so votes combined above and still not one person prepared to admit voting for them in the comments section. Interesting.

@Anto Curran:

Here’s a link to AAA policies:

http://antiausterityalliance.ie/category/what-we-stand-for/

Now can you tell us why you voted for FF or FG in the last GE?

@Tony Canning: stop and remind yourself Jim O’Callaghan Finna fail has supported the current Garda commissioner in her role. I never vote Finna fail

“Socialist ideas are again enjoying a growing appeal as shown by the increased support for Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party.” – from your manifesto Wally. You must be more out of touch than FG if you think Corbyn is popular. He’s one of the worst opposition leaders ever.

If you like cronyism and corruption vote ff fg.

A true poll representation of this site….sigh

@Rory: Whats the matter rory, you sad that the FG fraperoom minions aren’t lamping the votes out of it like they usually do monday-friday?

Never mind, I’m sure overtime will be offered soon as an election is called.

@Dusty and your essay explanation bores us to death.

@JFN:
Not teally . Hundreds of thousands of people joined the Labour party specifically to elect Corbyn to the leadership. Labaour are now the largest political party in Europe in terms of membership as a result. Our issue with Corbyn is that he’s not Left enough and is trying to appease the red Tories within his party.

@Dusty Mooney: Voting is anonymous for a reason.

@dusty: when did I say I voted for any of them? Please don’t try and put words in my mouth.

@Anto Curran: Read Das Capital, the a Wealth of Nations and Political Economy to be able to understand the ecomonics proposed by the socialists, to understand socialist anthropology read Ancient Society, the orgin of the family, private property and the state and Animal Society, to understand socialist philosophy read the Dialetics of Nature, the Communist Manifesto and the development of the monist fiew of history, and finally to understand socialist statregy read The New Course, the third international after lenin and reform or revolution.
Then get back to me once this is achieved so you at least you can have a basic understanding of socio-political science.

To note on the relation of the AAA/PBP to Stalinism in the name of North Korea, firstly the AAA/PBP are trotskyist so North Korea and other stalinist states are in no way representative of trotskyism, to say that they are the same as their both ‘left wing’ would then be to say that liberalism and fascism are the same as their both ‘right wing’. Hence Liberals, why do ye think yer system works since Nazi Germany is a product of it? In fact Liberal voluntarially gave power to fascists, the trotskyists had to be mass murdered for stalinism to take power.

Finally, the reference to 1984 novel in this trend… Liberals love making reference to George Orwell, Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin for their agruments but all of whom were far left Revolutionary Socialists! But the most amusing think about Martin Fahy’s comment is that his ill informed reference to 1984 sounds more like now under Capitalism than a “Socialist Upotia” in which Orwell fought for such as in the Spanish Civil War.

It’s people like you who don’t vote for an alternative that get FF in

Here’s PBP’s immigration policy – it’s the abolition of borders and the state:

“We believe that Europe should open its borders…
* …We oppose all deportations.
* People Before Profit supports the right of all residents to vote regardless of race and citizenship.”

http://www.peoplebeforeprofit.ie/2015/08/immigration-racism/

The Social Democrats have no immigration policy. They’ve been ever so busy.

@Frank McDonagh I read Das Capital many years ago at college and l thought it was a complete load of bollix. But how dare I, especially being a non FF and non FG voter, disagree with the esteemed comrades

@Martin Fahy: Most theortical Economists, antropologists, sociologists and most other social sciencists reguardless of political ideology would say that Capital is one of the greatest economical texts ever wrote in the history of man equal if not better then the works on political economy but your critiqe of this work as “a complete load of bollix” must be so well informed that you’ve managed to surpass all other critiques to deduce a superior synthesis; looking forward to your new theory of value and the nature of capital.
However your summary of George Orwell’s 1984 was a bit of a led down since you didn’t even understand that it was a novel in support of communal socialism so i’d queary your similar understanding of capital.

It has less to do with un critical adhearance to Marx etc but more to do with an indept scientific understanding of social relations…

No Frank most people would not and do not Sumatra that, I appreciate that you and others think it’s the greatest book ever written but not everyone agrees, that’s not to say some of the aspirations of the book are very admirable.
I’d just love, as some others have asked, for you guys to come forward with some realistic and financially viable policies, especially given your only viable option of government is to go into coalition with people who mean the same way.
You guys mean well but you and Wally etc do your party a great disservice by just constantly cutting and pasting 19th Century writings instead of telling us what you would do differently if you for example were in a coalition government.
There is very little published literature from you on specific policy, it’s largely just complete waffle.

@Martin Fahy:

Most nations issue their own floating currencies (e.g. Britain) and face precisely no financial constraint within that currency. They spend their currency into existence by crediting bank accounts via keystrokes and then tax the money back out of circulation in a continuous flow. There is no limit to the keystrokes they can press. The only limit is the availability of real goods and services. Taxes or borrowing are not required to finance government spending. The only limitation the currency issuer faces is the availability of real resources (e.g. energy, labour etc.). Fundamentally the currency is just a tool of the state which is used to measure and allocate those real resources.

Here’s 2 economics professors Michael Hudson and Stephanie Kelton explaining this macroeconomic reality:
“The U.S. government taxes in dollars. It spends in dollars. And it controls its own currency. Why is this important? What are the benefits of issuing your own currency? They are extraordinary…..
The government, when it issues its own currency, and goes into debt in that currency can always pay its debt, can never go broke, can never run out of money. It can afford anything that is for sale in that currency. It doesn’t need to borrow its own currency. And it can set its own interest rate. It does not have to pay what markets want. It does not become a victim to speculation, to bond vigilantes”

http://michael-hudson.com/2012/03/mmt-as-the-austerity-alternative/

@Martin Fahy:

That’s in response to your comment
“some realistic and financially viable policies”

So at a macro currency issuer level, there is no such thing as a non viable financial policy.

@doorhandler: They did indeed die but not for this shambolic mess. Does anyone remember a few short years ago Fianna Fail sold the Sovereignty of the state? Fianna Gael has all the conservative elements of Edmund Burke “Father of British Conservativeness” Tories and Fine Gael should amalgamate and all take a running jump over Beachy Head and do the world a favour.

@Anto Curran: On the website!

@Martin Fahy: I said capital is one of the greatest economic texts ever wrote equal of that to political economy or the wealth of nations; which you’d be hard pressed to find a social sciencist whom specialises in economic relations to disagree with prior statement.

There is many fields of communal economic statergy, one such field is gerogist economics which Albert Einstein and Leo Tolstoy supported. Which if you’re interested you should read about. The issue of Micro and Macro Economics is where i believe a lack of understanding is had. Liberal parties in Ireland etc have already achived a state of their Macro economy, that of private property and private exchange and thus their have concluded in any further change in that change and thus are involved heavly in the upkeep of the status quo of private property hence they will only invest in Mirco economics in changing this or that factor of private economy.

In contrast communal Socialists intend on changing the Marco economic stysem in favor of communal property and communal exchange which only exists in small scale experiments but has existed in large regions for a short period of time such as the munich workers council, republican spain, limerick soviet, all russians workers and soilders councils etc. The goal of Marco economics is revolutionary transformations of economic relations and thus mirco economics would be sought either in after Marco economic transformation or by reformist communal stategy ie georgism or documemts releast by the AAA/PBP many times which would be on their websites. But is pretty generic with the obvious ‘repudiate the national debt’, ‘progressive income tax’, ‘increase corperate tax’, ‘invest in services and industy’, ‘renationalisation of ex-state services with compinstation’, ‘HUGE dismantleing of bureaucracy in favour of elected managment’ etc.

@Frank McDonagh: edit ‘without compinstation.’

@Anthony Toby Kielthy: Exactly. Ask yourself, what difference did my last vote make. The answer is “none”. Stay at home, spread the word. Let them off, make a pancake,.

@Dusty what a pile of sh..te.

@Dusty Mooney:
kim jong un, would love you

The parliamentary democracy system is the preferred form of rule for the capitalist class. It gives the majority working class the veneer of democracy while suppressing the possibility of any fundamental systemic change. This is typically achieved by having 2 parties with superficial differences but which both represent the capitalist ruling class. Tory Vs Labour in Britain, FF Vs FG in Ireland, Republicans Vs Democrats in the U.S. etc etc.

Big capital has always largely owned “democracy”. It’s a more resource efficient way of controlling the majority working class in comparison to brute force oppression. Democracy is not possible without an informed electorate and that is why the capitalist elite expend so much effort in keeping the majority misinformed as to the nature of the socio economic model which exploits them. The strategy is to control the information rather than direct control of the population by force which cannot be sustained indefinitely in any case.

Everyone owns democracy dusty, hence why we have elections. If AAA pbp sp SWP want power you must convince the people. There is no difference between FF and FG

@Dusty – now rejecting parliamentary democracy and the concept of one man-one vote. Ultimately not enough people ever vote for your nonsense to put you into government, so your excuse for this is to so label the people you aspire to represent as STUPID, in the guise that they cannot think for themselves due having the wool pulled over their eyes.
Irish people from whatever background are not idiots, they educationally choose to restrict the AAA/PBP to about 5% of the national vote.
So you reject our one man-one vote system because it does not give you the result you want.
By implication you therefore accept an Orwellian 1984 type system where you disallow people a fair democracy but will impose your version of society on them, exactly what’s happening in North Korea right now.
(And by the way I do not vote for FF/FG or any of that lit either)

@Tony Daly: There isn’t one. They just play ‘tag’ with power to ensure they keep their wages and expenses.

@Jeanster:
Because we as an electorate are morons. Martin will head the next government after being a minister in the most inept government in the history of the state, which destroyed the country. Donnellan who was elected as a independent and SD TD criticising the same said FF administration will be a FF minister in the next government, you could not make this up, however it is the electorate that make this possible, we have no one to blame but ourselfs.

@Jeanster: A Fianna Fail vote is a funeral / pothole vote. There is no difference between FF and FG. In fact there is now no right wing party in Ireland. There is no one to speak out against ISIS and the slaughter of non-muslims in the middle east. No one to speak up for the environment and no one to manage the Health service.

This with all the universities being paid for by us

Not correct Val. One FG backbencher exposed the fact that ISIS had infiltrated the water charges ( banker tax ) campaign.

FF led a boom period in which the entire country prospered, FG led a recovery in which only Dublin benefited. I think the better option for anyone outside the Dublin area is quite clear.
In regards to the recession I don’t see the point in blaming FF when the opposition failed to flag the housing bubble and banking corruption in advance as well. We had a multi party 18 month long Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis as well which concluded no blame could be apportioned to FF and yet people still persist with their ignorance out of convenience at “FF ruined the country”.
I’m sorry but that doesn’t hold up and the public realises this, repeating the same lie over and over won’t convince anyone.

ISIS and the Water Tax Campaign?? Source please.

Better to keep your mouth shut and let us think you’re a moron than speak and prove it..

I am amazed after all the history of Gerry Adams he is still leader of SF.

@Rochelle: wouldn’t be great if Bertie came back. By his own modest admission if he had still been at the helm there would never have been a recession and all those suicides would never have happened.

Stephen morons are the ones who follow the same system and expecting different results. Stephen Donnelly is proof that there’s no honest politician’s left. I for one am glad I don’t vote. I didn’t put any of them into office. Where as you put them there then complain about how they do nothing.

Even though from your posts Roy, I agree with a lot of your views, I have to say it’s pretty pathetic you do not bother to vote and then whinge about it afterwards.
As much as I agree or disagree with the posters on here I think we most of us get off our arses to vote.
We had 26 candidates in the last election in my constituency in the last election for 5 seats representing almost every shade of opinion from the far left to the far right.
If your really not bothered about engaging with the system why bother getting worked up about it.

@Roy Dowling: You are not even at the table.

@Stephen murphy: There is no connection between being grateful for having a vote and actually using it. I am grateful for having my passport, but I only use it occasionally. I you want a small saucepan to boil your egg, You go to town but if no shop sells them, you don’t buy something a mug. If you go to Dunnes and they only have large saucepans, you don’t buy it. You only buy if you find the one you want.

Show me one benefit to self or country from the 2 millions votes cast last time? There is none, so stay at home.

@Martin Fahy: Ok, Take an extreme hypothetical case. Supposing you are a voter in Dublin Heights. Three gangland mobs decide to run candidates in the election supported by drug/crime money. In the election year the Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and Labour candidates are murdered and no one has been caught. So you have 3 criminals running. Would you vote?

Surely voting requires two sets of participants. 1) You the voter and 2) your selected candidate. How do you select your candidate? You check the list, what if there is no one one it you want to represent you? You don’t vote

Doorhandler – in the subject matter of endemic garda corruption that reaches the very top of the organisation and government, then no I don’t think we can wait, nor should we have to. It is time to lance the boil of politicians kicking to touch with commissions and enquiries. Is there any can that we will not allow them to kick down the road?

@,Paul If that is proven then of course the government need to be kicked out. At the moment we have allegations with nobody admitting these are true. It will not take long for the truth to out. An election now will do nothing for the country and will only prolong us getting to the real truth.

@Charlie Wrex: I might arrange a meeting with all the kids who had to grow up without a father after your Sinn Fein buddies murdered them.

@val will you do the same for the kiddies who lost their daddy’s to suicide caused by the austerity brought in by ff / fg and their corrupt policies of supporting bankers so much so that we have yet to see a proper conviction of any of the people that ruined this country ?? And by successful conviction I mean 10-20 years not the slap on the wrist those who have been convicted have received so far

@doorhandler: ahh the resident f.f troll in early making excuses for supporting a corrupt government. Was there a secret meeting with f.f and f.g on how to handle a crisis. Hi say nothing, nobody told me, that file must have fell in the bin, I was drunk that night, the money was only resting in my account, I don’t have a bank account, I won it on a horse, I never saw her before.

Early to be on the beer Joe. Enjoy your day. Be careful what horse you back.

@doorhandler: plenty of horses in the galway tent area a few years back..are you hoping for those days again?

@Tommy Byrne: Not the same. There is no evidence that Sinn Fein would ease poverty, if that was their plan why are they supporting carbon taxes, wind farms and 5,000 km of unnecessary cables. Why did they oppose the EU for most of my life and then suddenly change to supporting it? No one ever explained to me why violent republicanism was centrist until 1970 and then went communist/leftie / greenie. What caused that?

@doorhandler: There you go. You are hoping a politician will deliver something to your liking. Deluled

Don’t forget Wilders – leader of largest party (say the polls) in the Netherlands, where there is election next month

@jane: @jane: sunday midday update sf at 24%..doesnt look like sf need my pity eh rochelle..have a nice day