Irish workers reject
Birmingham Sixes
RAME-UPS austerity
THE JUNE 15 general election in the South of Ireland produced a hung Dáil (parliament), the fourth indecisive result in five contests since June 1981. JOHN MEEHAN
HE MAIN highlights of the election were: • A setback for Fianna Fáil, the governing bourgeois party that has traditionally most exploited nationalist sentiment. Fianna Fáil entered the election holding 81 seats out of 166, an overall minority of four. This time it secured an identical share of the vote — 44.1% but only 77 seats (a minority of 12), being now set to govern facing a combined opposition of 89.
• An even worse result for the rightwing alternative offered by a pact composed of Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats (PDs). Fine Gael made a gain of four seats, going from 51 to 55, but the PDs fared disastrously. The PDs' share of the poll plunged from 11.8% to 5.5% - a near fatal drop — and they lost eight seats, going from 14 to six. Nearly all of these losses were to their "allies", Fine Gael. For this and other reasons discussed below, the Fine Gael/PD "marriage" is heading for an early and acrimonious ing to sort out the mess delivered to them by the voters. Some sort of deal will undoubtedly be worked out. Fianna Fáil's choices boil down to two: a deal either Fine Gael or the Progressive Democrats. (Both Labour and the Workers' Party have ruled themselves out of any coalition with the right wing parties.) Turmoil and faction fights in the right
A Fianna Fáil/PD deal would be rich with irony. The PDs were only formed four years ago, after splitting from Fianna Fail. It was the end result of a faction fight within Fianna Fáil dating back to the eruption of a mass struggle for national liberation in the North of Ireland in 1968. Fianna Fáil claims its major aim is the securing of a united, 32-County Ireland, and the removal of the British presence from the Northern Six-County enclave. This claim was put to a severe test by a revolutionary uprising of the oppressed Catholic minority in 1968. Fianna Fáil was thrown into a tailspin: one wing, including current FF leader Charles Haughey, sought to control the upsurge by dealing directly with leaders of the Northern insurgency. Charges were made that a number of FF leaders, including Haughey, were involved in gun-running; and there were a number of sackings from the government. Haughey and his allies, principally Neil Blaney, were then unsuccessfully tried. The current leader of the Progressive Democrats, Des O'Malley,
IRELAND
In the following years, Haughey won the leadership of Fianna Fáil in 1979, but had to fight off a number of attacks from O'Malley in the 1980s. Eventually, O'Malley lost the internal battle, and formed the PDs with three other antiHaughey dissident Fianna TDs [members of parliament] in 1985. Besides the issue of national unity, the PDs also considered Haughey unwilling to adopt a sufficiently harsh austerity policy.
In reality this made the Progressive Democrats little different from the other main bourgeois party, Fine Gael. However, this would have been a very unattractive image to the voters, a case of "old wine in new bottles". So the PDs claimed that they were "mould-breakers", enthusiastic advocates of tax cuts, privatization, virulent anti-nationalism and so on. They did well in the 1987 election, winning 14 seats. But their gains were almost entirely at Fine Gael's expense. The effect was a Fianna Fáil minority, rather than majority, government. This government, under the Progressive Democrats' bête noir, Haughey, proved to be the most right wing for decades. Fianna Fáil carried out a ruthless attack on health services, cuts in public expenditure, institutionalized extradition of political offenders to Britain and the Six-County enclave - the list is endless.
Fine Gael — a political vampire
This Haughey government had a very easy time in the Dáil, as the only consistent opposition came from the Labour Party, the Workers' Party and three independent TDs. Early on in the life of this government, Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes announced at the Tallaght Chamber of Commerce that he would not bring down Fianna Fáil on important issues: Fine Gael's "Tallaght Strategy" of "constructive opposition" was born. Dukes also said he intended to "screw the PDs".
divorce.
• A sharp swing to the left. The Labour Party and the Workers' Party [formerly
Extradition the Officials] gained three seats each. The Greens came from nowhere to win a substantial vote, and now enter the Dáil with one seat. The most sensational result of the election was in the western county of Roscommon. An independent candidate opposed to the downgrading and threatened closure of the local hospital won the was a leading member of the anti-
Haughey faction in Fianna Fáil.
O'Malley was left on the sidelines like
MEANS MORE seat from Fianna Fáil.
• A poor performance by Sinn Féin
(SF), the republican organization. SF won
Judith Wards
1.2% of the poll and no seats. This compares with 1.99% in the February 1987 election, itself a bad result. The loss is
Guildford Fours partly accounted for by the fact that they put up less candidates, but overall SF
-Maguire Sevens made zero impact. Given that there was a notable protest vote going in other directions, Sinn Féin is even more isolated than it was two years ago.
At the time of writing, Fianna Fáil and the other right-wing parties are negotiaternational Viewpoint
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NO MORE
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European elections may still bring forward charges under legislation allowing
Irish people to be charged in the 26 Counties for offences
ELECTIONS for the European parliament were held on against British law! Ryan has not set foot in Britain for the same day as the general election. The results were years. His "conspiracies"
further bad news for the right. Fianna Fáil (FF) lost a seat committed in various other countries he has visited in the in the Connacht/Ulster constituency to Neil Blaney, who was forced out of FF at the beginning of the 1970s when Ryan took the political initiative by running in the Munhe was accused of running guns to nationalists in the ster Euro-constituency on an anti-extradition/anti-cuts
North of Ireland. He has retained some of the nationalist platform, and took 30,394 first preference votes — more and populist appeal of the older Fianna Fáil. Blaney stood than the respective totals of both the Labour and Workers' on an anti-cuts and anti-extradition platform. Party candidates. Ryan's share of the vote was 4.4%.
Father Paddy Ryan shocked the pro- This initiative was made independently of Sinn Féin, who imperialist media commentators who were gloating at
Sinn Féin's poor general election performance. Ryan was stood down their candidates in Ryan's favour. The result shows that there will be a major problem for arrested in Belgium last year on the basis of British extra- Fianna Fáil if they proceed against Ryan. His campaign dition warrants. Thatcher led a gutter press campaign against Ryan, making several wild "conspiracy" charges. road forward for the national liberation movement will also demonstrates unequivocally that the only possible
Fr Ryan went on hunger strike in Belgium rather than go involve the building of a broad-based anti-government and be framed in Britain, and the Belgian government coalition. It does not involve "lobbying" of Fianna Fáil and
Ryan received massive popular support in Ireland, pleading with FF anti-extradition dissidents to "stay in and especially in his native county of Tipperary. Fianna Fáil
Hopefully, this lesson has been well learned in the decided it could not risk handing Ryan over - but they entire anti-imperialist movement. *
IRELAND the emperor with no clothes. Sometimes the PDs went along with the two big right-wing parties and the "Tallaght Strategy", at other times they indulged in opposition for its own sake. The inconsiswas so blatant that their opinion poll ratings started to tumble. Additionally, they found that, to their chagrin, Hau-
"flavour of the month" with big business. Big money had backed the PDs in the carly days; in the last two years it has gone to Fianna Fáil.
With an election looming, the Progressive Democrats made one last despairing effort to save their necks. They formed a pact with Fine Gael. It was not an unquali-
The PDs are obviously poor students of Irish political history. Fine Gael's share of the poll has always been far too small for them to form a government on their own. They have always needed coalition partners. Between 1970 and 1987, Fine Gael was in permanent coalition with the Labour Party. As a result, Labour consistently lost support, and Fine Gael grew in strength. By 1987, Labour had gone so low and Fine Gael's financial proposals so far to the right that Labour jumped from the sinking government ship. Labour barely survived the February 1987 election, gaining only 6.4% of the vote — its lowest share since 1933 (and second lowest ever since the 1921-23 Civ-
Wheelings and dealings in the Dail
Calamities like this regularly happen to Fine Gal's coalition partners - Alan Dukes's party is a sort of political vampirc, sucking the blood of its "allies". The Progressive Democrats are their latest victims.
caved in and sent him to the 26 Counties. International Viewpoint #168 • July 31, 1989
In the recent elections the only PD survivors - all six - are ex-Fianna Fáil opponents of Haughey. Most of the losers had a Fine Gael background, and it is clear that their local party machines were
The ideological reasons for the original split between O'Malley and Fianna Fáil have vanished, and a fresh election could spell the end for the PDs. Their only realistic way of preventing further mauling is a deal with their old factional enemy, Haughey. There must be a bitter taste in O'Malley's mouth: he set out to prevent a Haughey government and has ended up making it inevitable!
Fianna Fáil plan for more attacks on living standards
All the same, this election was also a setback for Fianna Fáil. The party had earned high praise from the capitalist media for its "tough" policies, and was regularly showing ratings of 50-54% in the opinion polls. The "Tallaght Strategy" secured their position in the Dáil, but Haughey was afraid that Dukes and O'Malley would eventually withdraw support and force an election in circumstances unfavourable to Fianna Fáil. This was because the cutbacks were starting to meet a lot of angry and determined opposition, and there was a possibility that Fine Gael and the PDs might hop onto an anti-Fianna Fáil bandwagon. Also, FF is planning further attacks on living standards in the autumn, and they calculated that they would need a stable parliamentary majority for four years to insulate themselves from the likely reaction.
This manoeuvre blew up in Haughey's face. Health cuts became a major issue in the campaign, and the Fine Gael/PD alliance tried to exploit the voters' justifiable last 20 years.
anger. They made a proposal to spend £60 million (about $98m) over the next two years to cut waiting lists, combined with calls for sacking "non-medical" personnel. As can be seen from the results, this position did not convince many people and opened the door to the parliamentary left. The "Tallaght Strategy" was thrown back in the faces of Fine Gael and the PDs. Fianna Fáil tried to wriggle out of trouble by saying that the last two years were part of a previously unheard-of grand strategy. The cuts were necessary to "restore order to the national finances", and we are now entering the alleged "next phase" of development.
This is moonshine. From the early 1970s, the 26-County State has slide further and further into debt. Since the early 1980s, all bourgeois governments have pushed through a very tough austerity policy, with the alleged aim of cutting the debt. In fact, the debt has continued to grow, and under Fianna Fáil has gone over 150% of Gross National Product (GNP) In this situation any right-wing government will continue an escalating austerity policy, notwithstanding the wishes of the
Unseemly faction fighting in the right
The unseemly faction fighting among the right-wing parties has a material basis: capital demands a further attack on living standards, which threaten the parties' pop ular support, and there is a constant attempt to pass the blame from one party to another, and even from one party faction to another. It is obvious that this squabbling will continue, and probably intensify.
The overall effect is to place a question mark over right-wing politics in general, are supposed to have been
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and leave an opening for left oppositional forces to grow. In this broader sense, the "real" election result was a net loss for the right-wing parties (FF/FG/PD) of eight seats, and a net gain of eight seats for the left (Labour/WP/others). This trend will probably continue so long as the left holds its nerve and stays out of formal coalitions with the right, and avoids deals or support for capitalist minority administrations and so on.
National question did not feature prominently
It would be foolish to believe that the Workers' Party and Labour leaderships will meet the expectations placed in them by voters looking for a fightback. However, it is important to recognize why they support along with the Greens and independents), and why Sinn Féin are getting marginalized.
As was said earlier, Labour emerged battered from almost 20 years in coalition with Fine Gael in 1987. During that time they lost a lot of working class support to the Workers' Party, especially in Dublin. (Indeed, the WP outpolled Labour in the capital by 11.4% to 9.5% in this election.) But the Workers' Party can no longer grow at Labour's expense: both parties are committed to staying out of coalition. The two Workers' Labour in this election are unlikely to be repeated. In one constituency, a Labour TD died leaving no obvious successor; in another, the Labour TD retired from the Dáil to run (successfully) for the European parliament. Thus, only one of the P's three gains was at the expense of the right. By contrast, all five of Labour's gains were from the right, and usually the result of working class disgust at the effects of
Secondly, Labour close in a number of Dublin working-class constituencies and are likely to consolidate their position for the next contest.
Thirdly, although the national question did not feature prominently in this election, it is a potentially lethal problem for the Workers' Party. Most working-class people still support Fianna Fáil because of its nationalist history. The parliamentary left has an appalling record on this question, especially during the years of coalition with Fine Gael. But that, too, has begun to change since the collapse of the 1987 FG/Labour coalition. Labour personalities have begun to take positions against extradition, Section 31 (which bans Sinn Féin from TV and radio), or victims of British frame-ups such as the Birmingham Six, and so on. The process was taken further when the leading leftwing Labour announced at a public meeting that his party had a new position of support for British withdrawal.
So far this has not amounted to anything very substantial, but the door has been opened to socialists willing to take up these issues. The election was marked by Workers' Party enthusiasm for "left unity", and this struck a responsive chord. However, they do not include the North on this agenda - in fact, Pleader De Rossa denounced Stagg as a "fascist" for his speech on British withdrawal.
However, the Workers' Party's electoral base is very soft on this issue. In the cases where WP candidates were eliminated behind Sinn Féin candidates, it was noticeable that SF got a fairly reasonable transfer vote. The Workers' Party are quite well aware of this difficulty, and usually avoid the issue in their literature.
But in the new post-coalition era, WP are starting to experience competition from Labour candidates who take some sort of stand on the national question. In De Rossa's own constituency, a Labour candidate who opposed the threatened extradition of a local man nearly took a second left seat. Such incidents are likely to be repeated in the future.
Sinn Féin marginalized in
As for Sinn Féin, they played almost no role in this election. Their vote was bad in both the general and the European elections [see box]. A radicalization has begun, and the republicans are on the sidelines. There were plenty of warnings for SF two years ago after the 1987 election in the South of Ireland. At that time I
"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 these elections should dispel these illusions." (See IV 116, March 23, 1987.) I was too optimistic. Sinn Féin tried to run exactly the same type of campaign this time, only on a much smaller national scale, with fewer members and less enthusiasm.
I also expressed worries about the emergence of "ultra-left militarist adventurism", and these proved well-founded. For the last few months the IRA has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the British army, placing explosives on the Dublin-Belfast railway line. Besides the trouble it causes passengers it is putting railworkers' lives at risk. The operation allowed pro-imperialists like the Workers' Party to go onto the attack in trade-union movement. The "campaign" was renewed by the IRA a couple of days after the election.
There have been far worse "errors" than this in the last couple of years, and they occur regularly. There is no doubt that this increases SF's isolation in the 26 Counties. SF activists sometimes respond by saying "it is not an issue on the door-
IRELAND steps". This is a facile answer. In Ireland people do not engage in arguments during election canvasses — invariably they give you a friendly reception and wish you well. Sinn Fein rarely argue for the armed struggle outside the pages of their own publications, or in the far-left milieu.
The trap of the armed struggle has gone alongside a failure to take on the leadership of the trade-union movement. Shortly after the 1987 election, Haughey negotiated a deal with the union bureaucracy that gave him a perfect cover for his rightwing policy. One can understand why reformists like the Workers' Party and Labour, who are materially linked to this bureaucracy, avoid this thorny issue. It is disgraceful, and it is a big contradiction with their electoral propaganda.
But what about Sinn Féin? Nothing was heard from them on this during the election, and in the past few months they have failed lamentably issue. Trade-union militant John Mitchell was witchunted first out of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and then from his own union, the Irish Distributive and Administrative Trade Union (IDATU). The reason was opposition to Mitchell's efforts to unionize low-paid Catholic the North and his practical activity on issues like extradition. It was Mitchell's union that backed a long-running strike in 1986 by a group of women workers over the stocking of South African produce in Dunnes stores.
Sinn Féin abstains from defence campaign
Mitchell had political differences with Sinn Féin, and it is arguable who was right and who was wrong. But to any militant not blinded by sectarianism and opportunism it was obvious that Mitchell had to be defended from a bureaucratic attack. SF abstained from this struggle, citing their political differences with Mitchell as an excuse. In the end, Mitchell lost his fight and made a financial settlement with the union. This occasioned much sectarian jibing from SF activists. Apparently it was a "sell-out" for Mitchell to make a settlement after the fight was lost. It is a pity that the witchunters, including ex-SF vice-president Phil Flynn, don't attract similar hostility from the republicans.
Sinn Féin's hypocrisy will cost them: if one of their members is witchunted, will other socialists have the right to cite "political differences" as a reason for abstaining from a defence campaign?
In the long term this is a terrible sign, because any development of the political struggle will involve a head-on struggle with the bureaucracy. It is a bureaucracy that has even floated the idea of "critical support" for a minority Fianna Fáil government. The voters have shown that they have more fire in their bellies. That should encourage all who are working for a workers republic in Ireland. * July 31, 1989 • #168 International Viewpoint