Independent Left is a party of people who want an end to policies that favour the wealthy at the cost of badly needed investment in housing, health services, and community facilities. Independent Left have five priority policies, all of which have been created in partnership with those with experience and expertise in campaigning on these issues.
For John Lyons Dublin Bay North 2024 election campaign please click the link.
Independent Left Councillor John Lyons
John Lyons was first elected to Dublin City Council in 2014 after many years of community activism: campaigning to defend people’s living standards and public services in the areas of housing, health, water and public transport, all which were targeted as part of the austerity agenda that resulted from the bail out of the bankers and developers of 2008.
In his ten years representing communities on the northside of Dublin, Councillor John Lyons has campaigned for public and affordable housing on public lands, like Oscar Traynor Road; supported communities as they resisted the imposition of water charges; called for the compulsory purchase of vacant and derelict sites like Chivers in Coolock; ensured Dublin’s revolutionary heritage was protected when he successfully proposed the addition of several buildings on Moore Street linked to the 1916 Rising were added to the Record of Protected Structures (RPS); worked to ensure that Dublin City Council adhered to international standards in procurement when he successfully proposed that Dublin become the first local authority in Ireland to endorse the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment & Sanction (BDS) movement; has consistently engaged with local sports and community groups to campaign for capital investment in new community facilities; and has consistently called for the city council to end its reliance on private economic actors to deliver a range of services, primarily housing, and instead enhance the capacities and responsibilities of the local authority.
Believing that we should always being thinking globally whilst acting locally, John Lyons will continue to fight for a Dublin for all, a city where everyone has a secure place to call home, a community to enjoy, a city to travel around safely, a country that takes seriously its responsibilities to tackle climate change, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia.
Independent Left on Housing
We want decent, affordable housing and an end to homelessness. The main reason that Ireland has a massive housing crisis is simply that from 1990 successive governments stopped investing in state-built homes. The government parties are highly networked among developers and landlords (the majority of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail TDs are landlords). Instead of using public land like that at Oscar Traynor or Chivers for the creation of housing for the public good, they sell it off to private developers and, in due course, international vulture funds end up renting the new builds back to us at extortionate rates. In the long run, we need a fundamental change to how housing is created in Ireland, with local and national government building houses again (as we used to from the founding of the state to the 1980s). In the short term, community action is needed to prevent the giveaway of public land and to ensure that the plans for it are focused on the creation of affordable housing.
Independent Left is for Disability Rights
We want people with disabilities to be able to live independently and with the same access to jobs, education, and amenities as everyone else. They rarely say it openly, but from the point of view of managing capitalism – Fine Gael’s perspective – people with disabilities are an unaffordable burden and the funding priorities of the Irish state reflect this. Even when we do have theoretical rights, such as to ‘reasonable accommodation’ in the workplace, it’s a non-stop and exhausting battle to obtain them. Independent Left support the goals of Disability Power Ireland, the Independent Living Movement Ireland, Neuropride Ireland and all those campaigning for disability rights.
Independent Left is Against Imperialism
The world is descending into a hell of war and genocide and no one, even in a relatively wealthy neutral country on the edge of Europe, is safe. For decades it seemed as though the horrors of events like the Second World War were behind us. But the world’s imperial powers are once more resorting to state violence in a race to control the world’s resources. The unbearable suffering of Palestine has its origins in the creation of Israel as a watchdog for US interests in the Middle East. That savage dog has escaped its leash but the US will never disown it. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is another act of imperialism and it’s a shame that the socialist left in Ireland can’t see that. Given our own history it should be obvious that any party that honours James Connolly should be on the side of the Ukrainian people as they fight for independence.
Independent Left: Climate Change and Animal Rights
Capitalism is like a destructive steam engine spinning faster and faster, with no way of slowing it down. At the same time as governments formulate policies and international agreements, they allow big business to carry on throwing fuel into the steam engine. Instead of transitioning to a harmonious relationship between humans and the environment, the planet continues to heat up and wildlife continues to be driven to extinction. Agriculture has to change. And at the heart of that change has to be a fundamental reappraisal of our relationship to animals. All the scientific evidence points to the fact that animals are sentient, they suffer rights violations from being farmed. So long as we mistreat animals, we will mistreat each other and view the environment only as a resource to be used up for profit.
Independent Left’s policy on climate and animal rights is inspired by the work of the National Animal Rights Association and Animal Rebellion.
Independent Left supports LGBTQ+ Rights
Ireland has changed from being a country dominated by conservative values on divorce, abortion and sexuality to having some of the most positive policies on LGBTQ+ rights in Europe. Independent Left were founded in the wake of the successful Repeal the Eighth campaign of 2018 by activists wanting to keep up the momentum towards the creation of a country with more freedoms. That momentum is in danger of faltering, especially on the issue of trans rights, where the hatred and violence of conservatives is unchallenged by a state that is last in Europe on gender-affirming healthcare. Independent Left support Trans & Intersex Pride and all organisations striving for Ireland to be a place of safety and equality for the LGBTQ+ community.
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