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Anti-Austerity Alliance is planning to put forward a candidate in almost every constituency in the next general election.

TDs Ruth Coppinger and Paul Murphy today launched an appeal to people to join the party and form a real left alternative in this country.

Both ruled out aligning with Sinn Fein claiming they would not agree to a genuinely left programme.

Ms Coppinger said: “We are appealing to people to come on board. People talk about unity of the left. The existing left is quite small.

“We have been talking to people. Even if we joined together with People Before Profit and a small number of other left TDs, you are talking about a dozen TDs in the Dail.

“We have to grow the left. This is the biggest anti-austerity alliance we have seen in years.”

People who want to join the AAA will have to pay €10 if they are working but only €5 if they are out of work.

Ms Coppinger said people who have been out campaigning against the imposition of water charges and austerity need to now challenge Government TDs in the next election

Cllr Mick Barry said 200 people joined the AAA after the protest on Saturday in Dublin’s city centre.

He said hundreds have flocked to them since the success of Mr Murphy and Ms Coppinger in recent by-elections.

He said: “We are making an appeal to non-payment to discuss the idea of running non-payment anti-water charges and anti-austerity candidates in the next general election.

(Image: Angela Halpin)

“Together and alongside the Anti-Austerity Alliance and others, we think this could be a major political development encompassing more than the existing left parties and individuals.”

This will be the third party to join the field in the next general election after Lucinda Creighton’s Renua Ireland and Shane Ross and Michael Fitzmaurice’s alliance.

It fielded up to 40 candidates in the local elections in may and was successful in last year’s by-elections.

But it will be new to the next general election and will campaign on an anti-water charge platform and also a repeal of the eight amendment.

Mr Barry said: “The AAA is growing quickly right around the country.

“We can become a major political force which uses the platform of the Dail and Councils to mobilise working class people power on all the key issues.

“The AAA is not just its TDs or Councillors, it is made up of working people who have had enough and want to get involved in fighting back.

“We can be a significant force in the next Dail, as part of a wider challenge flowing from the struggle for non-payment of the water charges.

“While other parties engage in horse trading, we will be clear – the only government we will enter is one that breaks from the logic of austerity and capitalism, which refuses to pay the bankers’ debt and takes immediate emergency action through public investment to tackle unemployment and the housing crisis.”