SWP FLOATS IDEA OF NEW PARTY IN IRELAND
The SWP in Ireland are floating the idea of a new left party, as reported in the Irish Times. thanks to Declan o’Neil for this.
Talks in progress on forming new Irish left party, says activist
STEVEN CARROLL
Sat, Jul 19, 2008
DISCUSSIONS AIMED at forming a new and united left-wing political party in Ireland are “ongoing” and such a group may be assembled in time to contest next year’s local and European elections, a prominent left-wing activist has said.
Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance said the success of a broad coalition of left, anti-war and trade union movements in securing a No vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum highlighted the potential for an established left movement, and he is working to form a new left choice for Irish voters.
“I think the Lisbon Treaty vote clearly demonstrates the need for a new left because the entire political establishment, including the official left in Ireland - the Labour Party - backed an agenda for Europe which was rejected by the majority of Irish people,” he said.
“This shows a massive gap between the political establishment and the aspirations of the majority of people in this country, and it is in that space we believe a new left is required, and now is the time to grasp the opportunity.”
Mr Boyd Barrett said Ireland currently had an “active but fragmented left” and he would like to see, for example, members of the Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, Independent left TDs and like-minded trade unionists joining in such a development.
Mr Boyd Barrett said such a party would oppose privatisation and neo-liberalism, and fight for workers’ rights and a democratically planned economic system.
He said he would like to see the new group in place in time to contest the local and European elections next summer, and indicated that “voting pacts” and “a broad manifesto” would be agreed upon between those involved.
Joe Higgins, a former Socialist Party TD, said that for a long time his party has seen a vacuum in the left-wing movement and a need for a new mass workers’ party.
However, he said the difficulty lay in how such a grouping would come about and over the past 10 or 15 years conditions for the formation of a new left-wing movement had not been favourable.
“Unless the conditions are correct it would be wrong to launch a new left party . . . We always co- operate in campaigns with groups from the left and community groups and in the run-up to the elections next summer we will discuss the possibilities of co-operation, and what could be achieved.”
© 2008 The Irish Times
More on this over at the Cedar Lounge
Meanwhile - over at Harry’s Place, David T discusses the Irish SWP’s unusual approach to poetry criticism.
I wonder which hapless minority group they’ll try to con into this one?
Comment by David T — 22 July, 2008 @ 9:48 am
I’m guessing Lefebvrist catholics
Comment by David T — 22 July, 2008 @ 9:52 am
From www.lefebvrephobia-watch.com:
“Harry’s Place is trying to smear Archbishop Lefevbre and his followers for their insistence that the Jews bear the guilt for the killing of Christ, for endorsing Franco and Pinochet, and for urging a vote for Le Pen. We should not forget that many leading Zionists adopted just these positions, yet Harry’s Place is silent on them.
It is clear what lurks under the surface of Harry’s Place’s Lefevbrephobia. Naked anti-Irish racism, and a barely hidden desire to reconquer the South of Ireland”
Comment by David T — 22 July, 2008 @ 10:10 am
(for oil)
Comment by David T — 22 July, 2008 @ 10:11 am
Right-wing fascist Jews maybe?
Comment by joe90 — 22 July, 2008 @ 10:11 am
Talking of which, is my memory correct that in the 1979 general election the NF TV election broadcast they said they were in favour of a united Ireland - but under British rule. iseem to remember spluttering over my cuppa.
Comment by Andy Newman — 22 July, 2008 @ 10:14 am
hahahaha. Did they really?
Comment by David T — 22 July, 2008 @ 10:24 am
You could be onto something there, Comrade David:
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/seven-wells-to-be-opened-in–8364135m–quest-off-irish-coast-1293974.html
“EXPLORATION firms are set to spend over $200m (€135m) drilling at least seven exploration wells in the Irish offshore this year, with the first of them due to start off the Donegal coast next month.”
No doubt the SWP have cleverly foreseen the oncoming US invasion, hence their unselfish desire to unite the Irish left. There are reports of a Scottish MP lurking around Government Buildings, hailing our Taoiseach as indefatigable and enquiring as to the possibility of getting a barrel or two for medicinal purposes.
Comment by Dustin the Turkey — 22 July, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Yes, and I also seem to remember - perhaps from Fred Holroyd’s brilliant book “War Without Honour” - of him reporting a meeting that Holroyd (MI6) and Nairac (SAS) had with the Irish Defence Force in Dublin aroung 1975 where one of the Brits suggested that if cross border cooperation didn’t improve the British army could be on the streets of Cork by lunchtime.
Of course captain nairac had his own idiosyncratic views on cross border operations, that he later had the opportunity to explain to Shergar at great length.
Comment by Andy Newman — 22 July, 2008 @ 10:34 am
After Churchill won the 1951 election, a keen young Tory called Enoch Powell wanted Britian to re-invade India, apparantly.
See page 279 in Bernard Porter’s
Britannia’s Burden: The Political Evolution of Modern Britian 1851 - 1990 (1994)
Also see page 284, where Bernard states that if Churchil had’ve had the resources he might have re-conquered parts of the British Empire which the previous Labour Government had given away.
They’re just a bunch of old imperial romantics, so they are, these Churchills, Powells and David T’s fellow travellers in the BNP.
Comment by joe90 — 22 July, 2008 @ 11:32 am
Bit of a more serious initiative then anything going on on the British left at the moment. A little humbleness, a little humility etc, etc. (sorry could’nt resist that).
Comment by johng — 22 July, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
wouldnt you vote sinn fein like most young people in Ireland
Comment by Tina — 22 July, 2008 @ 3:33 pm
Some more on the oil and gas issue: http://www.eirigi.org/campaigns/naturalresources/oil_and_gas.htm
A problem with these meetings on left unity is that this one was organised by People Before Profit, which not very long ago was being touted as the kind of entity necessary for unity itself (since then it has been little more than a SWP electoral front, with two SWP candidates standing under its banner in Dublin and Belfast). I think the initial idea was to have an Irish version of Respect, which may have been abandoned when that didn’t turn out so well for the SWP.
Add to this that the Socialist Party and the Irish Socialist Network have also been organising meetings on left unity recently, and you find that a lot of people are talking about it but very few actually doing something about it.
Comment by Ciarán — 22 July, 2008 @ 3:39 pm
“Bit of a more serious initiative then anything going on on the British left at the moment.”
“Serious initiative” = Rich Boy Barrett floating ideas to a cub journalist from his Dún Laoghaire demesne. Note Joe Higgins’ complete lack of interest. And indeed, why would someone who’s garnered respect from all sides of the political spectrum for being a straight talker want to become an SWP stooge, exactly?
Comment by Dustin the Turkey — 22 July, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
“wouldnt you vote sinn fein like most young people in Ireland”
What planet are you on? Not only are they not the biggest party in NI, in the south, they lost a seat at the last election.
As for the topic at hand, there have been a few meetings about cooperation, and it has
been spun out of all proportion.
Comment by Garibaldy — 22 July, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
Just a few thoughts on reading the above…
The SWP wants a united left party as long as it has all the worst hallmarks of RESPECT. i.e. They dominate it, it drops explicit mention of socialism, it turns towards middle-class green voters and small businessmen rather than a serious attempt to win white working class votes etc. Except because it’s Ireland they will include a mad posistion on the national question, continue to describe Sinn Fein as a left party who the new party shouldn’t be so critical of and an attempt to use it to do over their biggest rivals the SP by rewriting history to ignore the success of Joe Higgins and the SP councillors. Hopefully the Irish left will learn from the English and Welsh left (SA and RESPECT) and be more than a little hesitant over this. People Not Profit already does most of this well enough though of course it doesn’t include/silence the other parts of the left that the SWP would want to.
Also, while uniting the current left is all well and good I have to find the idea of a new mass workers party a lot more appealing. To do this will mean laying a foundation of support in the TU’s, communities etc which will take a very long time but ultimately be worth it. Simply announcing a new left formation and expecting the masses to be impressed isn’t going to work. Hopefully an electoral non-aggression and cooperation pact can be built between the various left forces to avoid embarrasement while the foundations for something larger are created.
Comment by Tom — 23 July, 2008 @ 8:09 am
This article was a bit of a joke.
It’s the SWP engaging in a bit of megaphone diplomacy, hoping to bounce everyone else into an alliance on their terms, on a very watered down political programme.
They have been pushing People Before Profit for nearly three years now and haven’t managed to assemble any significant new forces around it. All they’ve got are the usual suspects, a small group of long established activists and a few equally long established independents who have been floating around the left for decades. Generally decent enough people, but also people with very much lowered horizons who join every left unityish set up. And few in number. They could only dig up one non-SWP member in the whole country willing to stand for them in the last elections and she has since resigned.
The one thing they have accomplished is an improved vote. They achieved this by the very simple mechanism of hiding all of the scary elements of their politics, the socialism, the class struggle stuff, and portraying their candidates simply as left liberal community activists. They even appeared on the ballot paper as “non-party” last time around. Their one very good vote came in the richest constituency in the country, and they competed very well for transfers from the main right wing parties including the Thatcherite, but socially liberal, Progressive Democrats. This is unheard of for a left wing candidate and shows very clearly how their candidate was presented and perceived.
One thing that is of note is that at least one of their second tier leaders has resigned to concentrate on People Before Profit, which may indicate the start of a process of “going native” as happened in Respect in England.
Comment by Irish Mark P — 23 July, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Come on Andy, surely there’s no need to sink to linking to Harry’s Place!
Comment by RobG — 23 July, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
I find it odd that that the prospect of a new left thing in Ireland, even if only at the level of talks, is met with contempt. Even Andy sticking on the poetry teacup storm as a footnote is indicative.
The cedar house blog linked to at least has people thinking this through, hostile or suspicious to the SWP or not.
But here the prism of grrr swappies just gets in the way.
On a specific: 16 and 17 — so a harsh version of the socialist party line appears.
It may be all bollocks and one may hate the swp. But after the last irish elections and lisbon there perhaps need to be a think.
As an aside, the kingstown is middle class tripe is both old and boring — the stickies did quite well there for years — but of course that was just based on west brits and sam becketts relations.
“They have been pushing People Before Profit for nearly three years now and haven’t managed to assemble any significant new forces around it.” glass houses folks ….Joe higgins lost his seat, doesn’t mean he’s crap, he is a important player on the left etc etc …but a lack of proportion doesn’t seem to be just the property of the swp. (and since it came up, not that it matters politically but on whose transfers did JH first get elected?)
But as long as the swp are wrong we are all right.
Comment by bysshe — 24 July, 2008 @ 12:43 am
bysshe
Don’t be so thin skinned.
The poetry issue is relevant, becasue if your paper publishes something criticising people for being supporters of the Militant in such crude terms - using the word “masturbating”, then that is hardly compatible with a unity approach to the Militant, or is it?
Comment by Andy Newman — 24 July, 2008 @ 1:04 am
The article on Harry’s Place is just stupid and David T is a pro-imperialist, islamophobic wanker but whatever.
The SW article was good up till the Militant dig, which was just silly, but the masturbation part wasn’t in reference to Militant. I think masturbation was the alternative to Millie. Perhaps Irish Militants didn’t masturbate?
Comment by redbedhead — 24 July, 2008 @ 2:07 am
I don’t think you get this at all bysshe. There ARE NO TALKS about forming a new left party ongoing in Ireland. Once you understand that, the reason why people aren’t taking this article particularly should be clear to you.
On the specific points you addressed to me:
1) Dun Laoghaire is factually the richest constituency in Ireland, followed closely by Dublin South and Dublin South East, two neighbouring constituencies. It is not uniformly rich, but it is not exactly promising territory for left wing politics. A couple of decades ago when the Workers Party were able, eventually, to get one of the five seats there this was before the long Celtic Tiger boom. It was always a wealthy constituency but hat was then (pre-boom) a working class home is now often worth upwards of 800 grand.
Boyd Barrett stood a couple of times as a socialist on a class based platform in the constituency. He never got over 1,400 votes while so doing. The last time around his election literature and posters didn’t feature scary terms like socialist or class. He instead was presented as a pleasant, well spoken, young man who doesn’t like that awful George Bush and does like Dun Laoghaire seafront. He appeared on the ballot papers as “non-party”. Standing on that basis he got a lot more votes. This is not particularly surprising as there has always been a market for the independent “community activist” in Ireland in general and there has always been a market for leftish liberalism in Dun Laoghaire in particular.
One of the few amusing parts of a generally dismal election night was when the then sitting Progressive Democrat TD (ie the rabid Thatcherite party) said on television that she expected her vote to transfer heavily to Boyd Barrett. And sure enough he competed very well with the normally very transfer-attractive Greens for preferences from the mainstream right wing parties. Again, this is as we would expect given the basis of his campaign. But it certainly wasn’t true when he was standing openly as a socialist.
2) The point about People Before Profit failing to draw any significant number of new activists around it since it was launched in 2005 was that the whole explanation given for its launch was that there were large forces just waiting for such a movement. The Socialist Party by contrast has argued that these have been difficult times for the left and that the forces are not there to launch a new party that would draw in large numbers of new activists.
Saying well the Socialist Party haven’t drawn in huge numbers of people either doesn’t contradict that point, in fact it reinforces it: the necessary forces are not there.
Saying the above has nothing to do with hating the SWP. It’s about making an accurate assessment of the situation as it is and explaining it to people abroad who may have been taken in by the SWP’s deliberate attempts to mislead. I very much hope that a new working class party can be built in Ireland, but it will be built when sections of the working class want it and are in struggle, not when some small leftist group declares it. And hopefully when it is built it will have noticeably stronger politics than the watery gruel of the current SWP front.
Comment by Irish Mark P — 24 July, 2008 @ 2:18 am