[Peace-discuss] Fwd: analysis of the Irish election

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:     [lbo-talk] First results announced in Irish general election
Date:     Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:38:47 +0000 (GMT)
From:     cmk1 at eircom.net
Reply-To:     lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
To:     lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org

Don't read too much into the apparent victory of the neo-liberal Fine Gael. The 
next Irish parliament will have the largest ever left representation. The United 
Left Alliance already has four seats secured; once it gets to seven it can form 
a so-called 'technical group' which means it must be given a certain segment of 
speaking time (thus overcoming 'quaint' liberal democratic parliamentary rules 
designed to ensure small left parties make no impact).

It looks like the Socialist Workers Party's Richard Boyd Barrett might just 
secure a seat. Mick Wallace has been elected in Wexford. An utter oddity from a 
conventional left perspective. A big property developer over the past twenty 
years, he has been sympathetic to left groups allowing huge banners stating 
'People Before Profit' to be draped over the scaffolding of his sites in Dublin; 
he has provided the Communist Party with arguably the snazziest bookshop in 
Dublin, and he has employed Turkish construction workers who were sacked by the 
building firm GAMA when they blew the whistle on this extreme low-pay and 
exploitation.

Sinn Fein will also be strongly represented in the next Dáil; and they have 
consistently argued outside of the dominant sado-monetarist orthodoxy. While I 
personally wouldn't regard them as 'Left' wing, many other Irish people would 
have no hesitation in doing so. And in Gerry Adams who has been elected in the 
Louth constituency, they will be led by one of the most important figures in 
recent Irish history.

Also, the desertion of Fianna Fáil by Irish workers will be a real boon for the 
socialist Left in years to come. This party's dominance since 1932 has been 
based upon its ability to cultivate a mass working class backing. It's recent 
embrace of extreme neo-liberal austerity means that backing in gone, and the 
material conditions in Ireland are such that the working class will never return 
to Fianna Fáil in numbers again.

Yes, an avowedly Thatcherite party will lead the next government and some of its 
prominent members - Leo Varadkar, Lucinda Creighton, Richard Bruton, Simon 
Coveney - would fit right in with the UK Tories or the Republicans. But things 
have changed immensely in Ireland, it's game on for the Left and the next few 
years will be mighty interesting.

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