We are the Workers’ Party

We are your Party

The Workers’ Party is committed to the transformation of society in Ireland, to the building of a Democratic, Secular, Socialist Republic in which power is firmly in the hands of the working class.  For a more detailed list of our policies, see our Manifesto for the 2016 Republic of Ireland General Election.

In recent years, working people in Ireland and across the world have been confronted with mass unemployment, precarious work, a dramatic decrease in real income, and increasing prices for food and the essentials of life. At the same time we are seeing decreasing expenditure on the public provision of health, education, housing, welfare and social services, raised retirement ages, attacks on pensions, increased levels of poverty, homelessness and emigration.

This is no accident. It is an inevitable consequence of the present system in which we live. The problem must be tackled at its root by challenging the ownership and control of the economic system.  Those who produce the wealth of the country, the working people, do not own it.

The Workers’ Party believes in a different world view, a society in which the working people who create all wealth own and control it and use the significant productive potential of the country for the benefit of the working class. However, we recognise that the state and its institutions are not neutral. As James Connolly explained 100 years ago, governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class.

The Workers’ Party recognises that real and fundamental change requires a break with the present system in which workers are exploited and abused – a transformation of society to create a world which maximises human potential, dignity and development rather than a system driven by the relentless pursuit of profit for the benefit of the few.

Our policies are put forward in the knowledge that they can only be fully implemented through successful political and social struggle with a view to winning state power for the working class and completing a programme of fundamental change.

However, the Workers’ Party immediately demands a decent and dignified life for working people and their families. It is in this context that the Workers’ Party demands an economic strategy which defends the working class and the role of the state within the economy.  It is within this framework that the Workers’ Party puts forward our platform of progressive policies and demands in Election 2016.

Download the Manifesto