Need for anti-imperialist alternative
Ruth TAILLON The November 24 General Election in Southern Ireland was the third time in 18 months that Irish voters have had to go to the polls. With the economic situa tion going from bad to worse, none of the bourgeois parties have been able to come up with any answer to the
Faced with electorate has proved reluctant to give any party a clear mananalysis of the vote, however, shows that many Irish people are indeed looking for an alternative to the capitalist
The outgoing Fianna Fail remains - as it has been since the founding of the state 60 years ago - the largest party. It lays claim to the mantle of republicanism and many people still identify it with their aspirations for a unified country independent of Britain. But this time around, many traditional Fianna Fail voters turned to the Labour Party and the Workers Party. In the absence of a strong anti-imperialist electoral challenge, these two parties were able to represent themselves as the defenders of workers interests.
This election took place in a markedly different political situation than those in June 1981 and February 1982. June 1981 was at the height of the hunger strike. The mass movement rallied to the support of the ten prisoner candidates, winning the election of one hunger striker and another prisoner. In February 1982 the impact of the mass movement was still present. Fianna Fail, losing some of traditional voters to the H-Block candidates, lost power and the Fine Gael/ Labour coalition formed the government.
The February 1982 election when the Coalition's package became too much. The impact of the mass movement was still present, and although the major anti-imperialist organisations, Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Socialist Party; and People's Democracy, Irish section of the Fourth International, all ran separate campaigns, their common themes were understood.
Fianna Fail were elected in February attempts to resolve the economic crisis their downfall, precipitating the
Peoples Democracy has consistently argued for an anti-imperialist united front in elections as a vital strategy in a period of chronic governmental instability. When possible to achieve February, PD sponsored the candidature of Bernadette McAliskey in Dublin, and ran one of its own members in the western industrial town of Limerick.
This time Bernadette McAliskey was the only candidate fighting the election on an anti-imperialist and socialist platform. But the election-weary people were not prepared in large numbers to vote for an independent, even one as popular as Bernadette, when her campaign was not part of a national alternative.
McAliskey is strongly identified with the struggle in the North of Ireland against British rule and the repression of the nationalist community. As her candidacy was not part of a broader movement, it was not seen as offering a real alternative by the mass of people, who tended to regard casting a vote for her as a purely symbolic protest. Consequently
With the general election in the south coming so rapidly on the heels of the northern Assembly elections, and in the absence of other anti-imperialist organisations from the electoral field, PD was not able to put forward its own candidates. The organisation gave its backing to McAliskey, and is centrally involved consitutency committee.(This committee was established prior to the February election and has since then presence in the area.)
The weakness of the anti-imperialist movement allowed the misleaders of the working class to gain ground.
The Labour Party, which had suffered badly in February, and was predieted by many to be in its death agony, increased its seats from 14 to 16. The party has been badly divided over the question of its involvement in Coalition governments. It was this dispute that caused its party leader, Michael O'Leary, to defect to Fine Gael shortly before the election called. But ironically, the very public internal dispute, with significant pressure rank-and-tile, allowed the Labour Party to project something of an independent
It is the outcome of the battle within the Labour Party which will determine who forms the incoming government. There is significant opposition to the party being a partner in coalition, and the issue will be decided at a special party conference on December 12. Two of the biggest trade unions, the Irish Transport
Workers Union, and the Federated Workers Union of Ireland, are against Labour participation in a Coalition government. They argue that Labour should support a minority government of whichever party offers the most in a
The discontent in the party's ranks is reflective of the mood of the working class, who, pushed to the wall by the economic crisis, are looking for ways to fight
The Workers Party, which made great exertions to distance itself from its republican past, has also worked hard to fill the space in the political spectrum now occupied by Labour. They have achieved notable success. Although two of their three sitting deputies lost their seats, they held one and gained another, and increased their overall vote, gaining 5-10% of the vote where they stood.
Having firmly rejected the liberation struggle, the Workers Party has sought to build up a reputation as 'bread and butter' they abandoned the struggle for national self-determination, they also abandoned socialism; they support state repression of anti-imperialists both sides of the border, and their answer to the south's official jobless rate of 13.5% is increased state handouts to entice the multinationals in.
Another such right wing economistic "socialist, Jim Kemmy, the virulently anti-nationalist deputy of the Democratic Socialist Party, lost his seat. But unfortunately it does not seem that he was defeated because of his rejection of the fight against imperialism. His loss seems to have been brought about by a witchhunt by the Church and the right-wing over his very public opposition to the proposal that would make abortion not just illegal but would make unconstitutional any law that might relax the ban.
What the so-called socialists of Labour, the Workers Party and the DSP have in common is that they counterpose fighting for economic gains for the working class within the framework of the existing 26county state to the fight to end Partition as the prerequisite to any real social or economic reform. The reality of Ireland is that there is no way out of the economic blind alley in which working people find themselves without fighting to end British imperialism and partition, without fighting to unite the country under the control of the workers and small farmers.
The anti-imperialist movement, which has led the struggle for national liberation, has not been seen to be in the leadership of the struggle on social and economic questions. They have thus lost ground to the pro-imperialist 'socialists.
None of the anti-imperialist organisations alone is strong enough to mount an effective challenge to these misleaders of the working class. However, the lesson of the H-Block/Armagh campaign is that united they can provide a credible alternative leadership to the masses of Irish people north and south who have shown their willingness to fight back.
ag 4, 0 (up 6) Labor 16 us 3 Norker
Party 2 (down 1); Independents 3.