03.03.2011

Economic meltdown sees left advance

The ULA will hope to be at the centre of an extra-parliamentary movement against the cutbacks, writes Pat Corcoran

Last week’s Irish general election not only produced the expected turnaround among the main parties: it also saw a real advance among the tiny forces of the far left.

The United Left Alliance - made up of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (the latter mostly standing under the SWP front, the People Before Profit Alliance), the Tipperary Workers and Unemployed Action Group (TWUAG), plus local groups and individuals - won five seats in the 166-member Dáil under Ireland’s proportional representation voting system.

The ULA candidates elected were Richard Boyd Barrett (SWP/PBPA), Joe Higgins and Clare Daly (SP), Joan Collins (PBPA and ex-SP), and Séamus Healy (ex-Lambertist, representing the TWUAG). Results achieved by the 18 ULA candidates ranged from 0.8% to 21.3% of first-preference votes.

Comrade Healey did best, with 8,818 votes (21.3%) in Tipperary South, while Joe Higgins, who is now obliged to resign his seat in the European parliament, did almost as well in Dublin West (8,084 or 19.0%). Comrade Daly won 7,513 first preferences (15.2%) in Dublin North, Joan Collins picked up 6,574 votes (12.9%) in Dublin South Central, and comrade Boyd Barrett managed 6,206 (10.9%) in Dún Laoghaire. Four other (unsuccessful) ULA candidates won more than five percent. Boyd Barrett’s election was significant in that he beat two very high-profile candidates to get the fourth seat in the constituency: Ivana Bacik, a sitting senator on the left of the Labour Party, and Mary Hanafin for Fianna Fáil - a member of the cabinet since 2004.

Joe Higgins said the five TDs would “work as a coherent, principled opposition”. While the “intention is to form a party”, he warned that “it’s not going to happen tomorrow morning”. However, the SP itself preferred to talk about the ULA in more general terms. According to the Committee for a Workers’ International, the ‘international’ run by the Socialist Party in England and Wales, the “profile developed” by the ULA, and then the election of the five TDs, “means that the opposition that will develop to the new government’s austerity policies can have a genuine left and working class reflection”. The ULA should advocate “a distinct left and socialist programme” and, the SP hopes, “could become the key force to represent the anger and radicalisation that will grip Irish society in the months and years ahead” (www.socialistworld.net, March 1).

For its part, the SWP in Ireland referred to the ULA as “a principled left that grows out of workers’ struggles rather than being an add-on to the republican tradition”. It “should engage in a process of open debate and discussion to lay the basis for a new leftwing party. That party should be a multi-tendency party, where the Socialist Workers Party work alongside the Socialist Party, the Workers Unemployed Action Group and independent socialists to build a genuine party of the left - while giving each other the freedom to debate and discuss their differences” (SWP newsletter, March 1). If the comrades are serious, this represents an advance on the SWP’s position during its Socialist Alliance turn in Britain, when it opposed any moves towards an SA party.

The CWI highlighted “differences” with the SWP during the election campaign over the left’s attitude to the Labour Party, which made big gains, increasing its representation from 20 to 37 TDs. The CWI notes that Richard Boyd Barrett “responded to some voters who said they were voting Labour by indicating that he was giving his second preference to the Labour Party, with whom he was involved in a life-and-death battle for the last seat in Dún Laoghaire. Such an approach only serves to legitimise people voting Labour and reinforces illusions that may exist in Labour instead of cutting across them.”

However, in its post-election bulletin the SWP seemed more concerned with Sinn Féin voters: “... the ULA will have to relate to those workers who voted Sinn Féin to show that, while this party uses left rhetoric, it will not break from capitalism. The ULA can welcome many who support Sinn Féin into struggle, but it must seek to expose - in a consistent and fraternal manner - the weakness that hides behind a left republican rhetoric.”

Like Labour, SF had an excellent election, gaining 10 seats. Among its 14 TDs, Gerry Adams topped the poll in Louth, while seats were unexpectedly won in Cork East, Meath West and Sligo-North Leitrim. In response to a question about a united left opposition, Adams said: “We’ll ... figure all of that out. I’ve always believed in cooperation.” He also invoked republican iconography: “Next Tuesday is the day that Bobby Sands started his hunger strike. Okay, so this isn’t just about who wins what and who tops the poll and who doesn’t. This is about actual sacrifice in terms of ongoing reconquest of Ireland by the people of Ireland.”

However, what really differentiates SF from Labour at this stage is its call for a default on the non-sovereign debt and its support for some kind of strike action against the cutbacks. Further adding to its left credentials, Sinn Féin says all its TDs will only take the equivalent of the average industrial wage. However, it is hardly a working class party and is quite capable of a rapid swing to the right.

By contrast, Labour still enjoys trade union support. Unite called on it to “resist the lure of coalition with Fine Gael” and opt instead to lead a “game-changing” opposition coalition of the left, with “the prospect of a left-led government in the short term”. According to Unite, the dividing line is “now between the left and the right” and there should be “an invigorated left opposition” of 60 TDs, “with Labour at the head, Sinn Féin, the United Left Alliance and other independents in support”. Instead of joining Fine Gael in a coalition government, “Labour should look to the interests of the nation and working people”.

However, talks between Labour and Fine Gael look certain to produce a coalition agreement. The economic meltdown meant that the parties of the outgoing coalition, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, were pulverised at the polls, with FF losing no fewer than 58 seats (it now has a mere 20, its worst ever return) and the Greens being wiped out altogether. Labour wants less savage cuts (with anaesthetic) and says the better off should pay more in tax.

The ULA will hope to be at the centre of an extra-parliamentary movement against the cutbacks, although to date it has never succeeded in mobilising more than 1,500 people to its protest events. The likely visit to Ireland of the British queen in June also represents an opportunity which should not be missed. An internationalist protest against the visit could be organised - one which opposes cuts north and south in Ireland and links into the fightbacks in Britain.