A warning for the
IRELAND anti-imperialist movement was elected premier (taois-
Tony Gregory. The former was forced out of FF at the beginning of the 1970s, when he was accused of running guns to nationalists in Northern Ireland. He has retained something of the nationalist and populist appeal
FIANNA FAIL leader Charles Haughey each) on March 10 at the first meeting of the new Irish parliament the February 17 elections. He gained only a technical chosen in majority. The abstention of independent left member for the Dublin inner city, Tony Gregory, made it possible for him to get a tied vote, against. The tie was then broken in Haughey's favor by
82 for 82 the president of the chamber, who can only vote in even divisions.
Thus, the new Fianna Fail government is extremely weak, and is not expected to last long.
The Irish political situation is in a delicate stage. Unfortunately, the anti-imperialist forces also revealed disorientation in the elections.
JOHN MEEHAN
The February 17 general in the South of Ireland produced a hung Dail [parliament]. The outgoing fered heavily at the polls, but the main failed to secure a clear majority. (1)
Fianna Fail, a bourgeois party that nationalist sentiment, took 81 seats, but faces a combined opposition of 85.
1981 that has proan indecisive result. The Fine
Gael-controlled power as a result of the successor, brought in by the election of February 1982, fell in November of the same year.
The current result is virtually an action replay of February
1982, but with one major difference: the strong showing of the new Progressive
Democrats
(PDs). The party
PDs split from Fianna Fail are a with the politics of Fine Gael: very proausterity, mildly liberal on such questions as divorce, women's rights and
Church control, and very anti-
Republican [that is opposed to militant nationalism in general and parnational liberation organizations, Sinn
The PDs took 14 seats and 11.8% of the vote. This score was obtained mainly at the expense of FG, which
70 seats to 51 - a loss of 19 - and saw its share of the
18 grave weaknesses and poll plummet from 39.2% to 27.1%:
Compared with November
Fail went from 75 seats to
81, a gain of six; however, its share vote declined by 1.1%, going
Disillusionment with the three traditional parties other traditional major party
- which caused the elecpulling out of a coalition the proposed budget - dropped from
16 seats to 12. Its share of the vote slipped from 9.4% to 6.4%, a loss of three percentage points. Overall, the disillusionment of the electorate with the three traditional parties was very striking:
Fianna
Fail got its lowest share of the vote since 1961 (and its fifth lowest out of 19 elections since it first took power in 1932).
Fine Gael got its lowest share of the vote since 1957 (and again its fifth lowest out of the 19 elections
Labour got its lowest share of the vote since 1933 (its second lowest ever in all the elections since the 1921-1923 Civil War!)
Besides the PDs, the renegade ex-
Republican Workers' Party (WP) also gains. (2) The WP increased of the older FF. The latter is a radical who opposed the turn of
Official Sinn Fein to the right. He has won a base as a defender of the
Dublin inner-city poor.
Sinn Fein, the Republican political organization, took 1.99% of the statevote, and gained no seats. This result for the Republicans compares
EEC election of 1984, when they won
4.8% of the poll, and with their score in the 1985 local elections in the
54,000 votes (this time,
32,933 votes). For the first time in recent years, Sinn Fein fell well below the Workers Party's statewide score.
Overall, it can be said that the class also did badly in this election. Most big business interests backed FG and the PDs, but would have been quite happy with a clear victory for FF. Irish capitalism finds itself in a more and more situation. And the vote in this elecstrategy within the ruling class, despite imperialist movement to mount an effective challenge to it.
The state itself is insolvent: the national debt is IR pounds 24,300
148% of GNP. Alternating
FF and FG/Labour governments have watched this debt spiral out of control since the early 1970s. The state has forced the working class and its allies to pay for the cost through high direct taxes and cutbacks on already meagre social services.
Unemployment is according to official figures. At 20% of the workforce, it is the highest in the EEC and a record for the state. Even this appalling statistic understates the problem because it does not take account of the numbers of people
Fine Gael had led a "national coalition" government, including the
Party, which was brought down by the LP's refusal to accept F's austerity budget. See International Viewpoint' No. 114, February 23, 1987.
The leadership of this organi, zation, formerly "Official Sinn Fein, wing of the Republican movement into a transformed it in the mid-1970s from pro-imperialist organization in the class. economic interests of the the name of working International Viewpoint 23 March 1987
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their number of TDs [teachtai Dala, members of parliament] from two to It got 65,263 votes throughout the state, or 3.8% of the votes cast. The remaining four seats in the 166- seat Dail are accounted for by four independents, including two notable
who have been driven to take the despairing step of emigration. Some 70,000 to 100,000 state last year, according to the preliminary results of the 1986 census.
(The revival of large-scale emigragion represents a re-appearance of the curse of blocked Irish development
"modernist" Irish governments claimed to have solved, or essentially
The population of Ireland fell continuously owing to emigration between the great famine of emigration stopped and the population started to rise.)
The economic stagnation of the last
AROFEIS few years has simply convinced the
Fine Gael leader and premier Garret
FitzGerald and his cronies that future cuts have to go much deeper. That perspective was reflected in the budget chey proposed, and it explains why they did so badly at the polls.
However, on the political level, John Joe McGirl, a veteran Republican, speaks for dropping Sinn Fein's abstenFG did manage to exploit glaring contradictions in the line of the FF leader, Charles Haughey, on the Anglo-Irish Deal. (3) Just over a year ago, Haughey denounced the deal as astronomical setback." Today he only
"constitutional aspects" and would shamelessly implement it. At the end of the campaign, Fine Gael hammered on this contradiction and won back lost ground.
The bourgeois parties have been forced to maneuver by the mass discontent with tough austerity of the last few years. Above all, the fears a revival of Southern state was badly shaken by the mass movement in support of the political prisoners in the H-Blocks Armagh women's prison in 1979-81. However, the positive gains of that are now ebbing away. challenge on that scale was mounted for this election.
This absence of mobilizations rep resents a very big danger, because in the absence of an effective challenge
Republicans, bourgeoisie will work out its differand the offensive will roll on without mercy.
is a basis for organizing an alternative. One sign of simmering discontent was a high tumout in the elections in working-class areas, most of it benefiting This clearly that Fianna Fail stand to ground by implementing the outgoing government's budget. Under normal circumstances, FF could carry out a hypocritical operation of that without too much difficulty. they cannot control Dail votes, it is a different kettle of fish.
extent to FF will be gored on the horns of this
International Viewpoint 23 March 1987 tion policy (DR) dilemma depends to a considerable extent on the lessons that Sinn draw from their poor performance. The other self-proclaimed left alternatives, Labour and
Party, are only snares for working people.
An Phoblacht/ Republican News (AP/RN) has acknowledged that the election results were poor. Several constituency reports noted the drop compared with the 1985 local elections. For example, the report Dublin South-West
"the vote did not live up to expectations," and "hard work on the ground did not materialize on polling day." New approach for Sinn Fein in the South
In fact, in Dublin, SF chose to make work on local issues the dominant feature of its campaign. part of SF's efforts in recent years to Fein to stand candidates identified and Leinster Paper Mills in [an area of new housing the southeast of Dublin, inhabited predominantly by the poor and employed]. These efforts are a relatively new feature in SF's profile.
In a general sense, to be seen as a working-class party is an important step forward
It goes hand in hand with the movement's abstention from the Dail, of making the party more relevant to Southern workers. It reflects an understanding in the party that securing a base in the South is a decisive task in winning the struggle for national liberation.
These factors led the Irish section of the Fourth International, People's Democracy, to work for Sinn Fein in this election and to encourage supporters and sympathizers to do likewise.
However, the campaign exposed weaknesses in SF's electoral strategy. The Republicans have a perspective of building up a base through steady work on local community issues, and eventually becoming a credible national alternative as a result of the accumulated gains of this work.
The outcome of this election should help dispel these illusions. It is clear, in fact, that many former SF votes went this time to Fianna Fail, owing to the absence of any major national mass movements like the H-Block/Armagh campaign.
SF leaders have argued that their movement can steer clear of this slippery slope by pursuing its armed campaign in the North. But this argument does not hold water. In fact, in the late 1970s, the IRA's armed campaign was at a dead-end; only the emergence of the H-Block Armagh campaign revived the fortunes of the Republican movement
Inevitably SF has suffered heavily from the lack of organized mass resistance to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the austerity offensive and the attack on women's rights. As the main anti-imperialist organization, SF has to take some responsibility
For an analysis of this deal and its results, see IV Nos. 109 and 110, November 24 and December 8, 1986.
19
Gerry Adams (left) with Tom Hartley - two leaders of Sinn Fein (DR)
Republicans are of course not to blame for the very difficult objective situation that exists, with the pressure of unemployment and so on. The responsibility bourgeois forces. But it does have an obligation to pursue a strategy geared towards the revival of an independent weaknesses of SF's general political perspectives were shown in its electoral propaganda, many cases could not be distinguished from that of the WP, since it did not go beyond very abstract and general
"For real change" -was also that of the right-wing Progressive Democrats! SF did not even highlight the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Moreover, its exclusively economic questions, making no references to contraception, divorce, or the closedown of the women's clinics. (4)
SF was unable to point up clearly the connection between austerity and the crisis of the capitalist system and thereby to challenge the assumption that workers and the oppressed should
Of course, has had to fight against big handicaps, above all Sec-
Broadcasting Act, which prohibits the state broadcasting service, RTE, from giving it any cov-
At first RTE journalists in"health warning" affected by this first two days of the this practice ceased, and SF were ignored.
censorship was one example of the barriers the state 20 put in the way of Sinn Fein. A huge repressive legislation used selectively against the Republi cans. In the past, SF played into the of the rulers by moralistic boycott tactics that meant refusing to challenge such legal obstacles (in particular by making it a principle not to take seats in the 26-County Dail, the parliament of the formally
Moscow smiles on proimperialism
IN THE "Commentator's Column"
in the February 22 issue of Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party organ,
Arkadii Maslennikov took a favor-
Fianna Fail gains in the election: "In these elections, positive program for developing the and the budget deficit and increasing employment." munist Party of Ireland (which has no electoral significance), and the Workers Party (which does). "Reflecting the interests of the workers and the left and democratic forces,
Communist Party of Ireland and the Workers Party put forward a sharp criticism of the policy of main bourgeois parties." The Workers Party is a former RepubStalinism and then imperialism.
did not mention independent part of the country). In this respect, the dropping of this principle at SF's November 1986 ard fheis [congress] was a big step forward.
The decision to participate in the Dail laid the basis for developing a political strategy on a much higher level. Inevitably, at the same time, such a move creates its own problems. Nobody should expect them to
The immediate response of many SF members to the experience of these elections has been to want to try to analyze reasons for this disappointing result and to discuss the stategic problems. This is a healthy and positive response. But at the same time it is necessary not only to look but to take full account of the danincoming Fianna Fail government is effectively pressurized by socialist Republicans, the ruling class will get a chance to put its house in order and then hit all of its opponents very hard.
Already the parliamentary wheeling and dealing has begun. Fine leader FitzGerald has to oppose an FF budget, if it is broadly similar to the one that even craven Labour Party could not stomach. Such a maneuver by FG would temporarily take pressure off parliamentary to vote against the budget but avoid bringing down the government. Rights," iin government's collapse See in 'IV, "Holy War No. 115 against Women's March 9. 1987, forces general ruary 25, 1987. election, " in IV, No. 114, FebInternational Viewpoint 23 March 1987
As regards the national liberation struggle in the North, the parliamentary left has a pathetic record. It has, in fact, served rather as an ideological fifth wheel of Fine Gael, joining in with Thatcher and FitzGerald in violent condemnations of Irish nationalism in its revolutionary form. Disastrous pro-imperialist
Inevitably, even the practical results for the parliamentary left of this pro-imperialist stance have been disastrous. The eruption of the Northern crisis crisis in Fianna Fail. The FF government then headed by Jack Lynch was confronted number of party leaders were involved in providing guns for nationalists in
Haughey and others were fired from the government, and then unsuccessfully tried on the gun-running charge.
The Labour Party used this crisis as an excuse for forming a coalition with Fine Gael. This operation was facilitated by the fact that the bulk of the anti-coalition left shared the right-wing leadership's hostility to revolutionary nationalism. FG thus appeared to be the "lesser evil" compared with Fianna Fail.
However, in coalition with FG, Labour's strength was ground away. It seems impossible for the time being that it could renew its coalition with alliances against militant nationalism.
However, the WP have to follow Labour's lead, and vote against both Haughey and FitzGerald - any other course would destroy the WP's "left of Labour" and "anti-coalition" image. Coalition government is no longer an option for the parliamentary left.
coalition politics remain antics expose the hypocrisy parliamentary left's talk "socialist opposition" and its proposals that all the right-wing parties FG and the PDs - should get together and draw a clear dividing line between left and right. However, this call does have the merit of pointing up need for drawing a clear line between and working parties, and this would be a principled if it were linked to the fight for national liberation.
Socialist Republicans need to integrate this line into their politics. They have to take a clear stand against capitalist coalition politics all forms of lesser evilism. That means against FF and FG nominees for taoiseach [premier], against capitalist budgets, and so on. Unfortunately, there is still confusion within SF about such questions. For example, they are leaning now towards a posiof not blocking an FF ment within a hung Dail.
An effective fightback will have to be based on mass action. The first opportunities are likely to be offered by FF's budget and their hypocrisy on the Anglo-Irish Agreement. It would be useful to propose action against any budget similar to the one the outgoing FG government, calling for a clear vote against without parliamentary deals. People's Democracy is calling for a of the national liberaCharter." In this, SF could be expected to be the leading force, but not the only one, in a new mass movement, rather like in the H-Block/Armagh campaign.
Such a strategy seems to us to offer isolation of the struggle in the North, which is a big danger now after the setback suffered by the anti-imperialist forces in the February 17 Southern
The impact of these poor results casts a shadow over SF's electoral gains in the North, with a British general election coming up this year.
Without forward movement on the political front, the danger of ultraleft militarist adventurism of course a serious weakening of the workers' are not drawn from them.
warning. A new strategy
5. 'Irish Times,' February 20, 1987.
INPREKOR
Labour's shift away from coalition left the Workers Party in a dodgy position. Initially, the latter wanted to do a deal, hoping to maneuver against the right over the Anglo-
Irish Deal. They boasted about their
"reliability" compared with the "independent FF" deputy from County
Donegal, Neil Blaney, who opposes the
THE FOURTH issue of Czech Inprekor is now availa-
Anglo-Irish Agreement from a nationble, and includes the following articles:
As party spokesperson, Tony Heffernan made the offer in these terms:
• Interview with Marxist student of Soviet politics,
"It could be easier for Fianna Fail just returned from the USSR to deal with a political party like the
Workers Party rather than
• Interview with F Buriatski, Gorbachev's advisor four independents. Especially like Neil
• Gorbachev's speech to the Soviet Writer's Union whose price
• Interview with Soviet dissident Yurii Orlov the ending of the Anglo-Irish
Agreement." (5)
• China's economic reforms, by Ernest Mandel
On the other hand, the WP support the frenzied Unionist campaign against the Agreement, favour suspending it indefinitely, and want a return of dev-
• Editorial on the USSR
• Liberation theology
Individual copies £2, $4. One year subscription £5, $10. Donations welolved government for Northern Irecome. Write to: Czech Inprekor, 2 rue Richard Lenoir, 93108 Montreuil, land under Loyalist control.
France. Cheques payable to "PEC", marked clearly on the reverse "For Czech
Although there is an contradiction in the P's attitude to the Anglo-Irish Agreement here, there is a consistent logic of seeking
International Viewpoint 23 March 1987
21
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Inprecor".
recent expansion of the informal sector in revolutionary Nicaragua? To answer this question and understand better the features of this phenomenon, it is useful to go back a bit in history.
Somoza regime, a lot
Under the of women especially peasant women had to supplement the wages of their husbands, who were
SEVEN YEARS after the victory of the revolutionary forces
July 1979, the Sandinista government have published a report analysing the situation of women in Nicaragua today. (See box.) Women are now an integral part of the workforce, and equality for women is written into the new constitution adopted in January this year.
But many difficulties still remain, both in law and in women's daily
With so many men involved in the war against the counter-revolutionary contras, women are often the sole breadwinners for their families. With few qualifications, many of them turn to the so-called informal sector, or black economy, to scratch a living. This is particularly the case in the capital, Managua, where nearly 45% of the active population work in the informal sector.
The following article is based on a study by Nicaraguan sociologist
Aida Redondo on the position of women in relation to the informal sector. It was published in Pensamiento propio, a review published by the Regional Coordination for Economic and Social Studies
(CRIES).
Long before it was given its economic baptism, the phenomenon dubbed the "informal sector" was known of several countries by
"chiripeo" and "rebussuch terms as que" ["game of chance,
" "rumaging" ] that give more of the flavor of this activity. The various names, however, describe the same complex reality activities of "the workers produce, rework or sell by their own efforts in forms of petty industry, petty commerce, crafts and services."
in it are women. In Mexico, it is 40%, and in the Caribbean, 50%. In Nicaraabout 65% of those involved. in according to a study of the markets made in 1982, women account for of retail sellers and 42% of wholesale sellers.
It has been pointed out that the informal sector "arises in societies where there are no general policies governing production and distribution of income, where the economic left without work during the "dead season," or simply did not earn enough to support their families. In other cases, single women or abandoned wives brought in the only income they had to sustain themselves and their children. Migration to the cities
In both Nicaragua and other Latin American and Caribbean countries, migration to the cities in search of means of earning a better living has been an integral part of this phenomenon.
In 1979, the revolution began dismantling this old economic and social model. In these past six years, the government has enacted measures of economic policy, carried out an agrarian reform, and launched actions in the areas of education, culture, public health, transport and so on designed to increase production and achieve a rational distribution of income.
However, the close tie between model and the world as well as the war of aggression waged against us by the US, has placed serious obstacles in the way of turning agri-industry a course of accumulating capital that at the same outstanding participation of women in this sector.
In Brazil, 56% of those involved in
In Nicaragua, a majority of street traders are women (DR)
22 strategy is directed to growth and not toward development whose a real fundamental objective would be an time would expand employment and satisfy the basic needs of the popula-
Moreover, some official measures -indiscriminate granting of credit, currency incentives to producers, handing over dollars to importers (buhoneros) and the subsidies on fares and foods - favored the expansion of the informal sector.
The government's very limited ability to assure a supply of the basic products at official prices promoted speculation and stock jobbing, which became a source of higher incomes for thousands of people. A long chain of middle people between the producers and the consumers also helped increase the number of small merchants. International Viewpoint 23 March 1987
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