State of our Union: The Cedar Lounge Revolution at 1. June 20, 2007
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.22 comments
Congratulations to us…yeah, why not? The Cedar Lounge Revolution started up twelve months ago on June 20th 2006. In About Us we noted that:
the last thing the world needs is another blog, let alone another ‘political’ blog.
But then went on to say, actually, yes the world did need another one.
Well, we believe that there’s room for an Irish blog with a unashamedly, but undogmatically, left-wing view of the world, and that’s what we’re trying to put together with ‘The Cedar Lounge Revolution’. As a group of individuals who have met on Politics.ie, arguably the single finest Irish political resource on the web, and continue to post there on an often daily basis, we’ve come to a conclusion separately, but simultaneously…
The conclusion being that:
it would be useful to take a step back right now, and think about issues in a somewhat calmer, less adversarial way. We don’t think that those who support the progressive political values should have to apologise for their beliefs in the face of opposition from those who disagree. On the contrary, we think that ‘now, more than ever’ (to use the cliché) there’s a need for those who consider themselves left-wing to assert themselves in the face of an increasingly ‘centrist’ consensus. This blog is our small attempt to contribute to this (although we might throw in a little leftie-bashing for good measure – splitters!). We’re also aware of that defining issue on the Irish left, the relationship between the left and nationalism and Republicanism and that relationship will be part of the discussion.
Well. Our powers of prediction were somewhat off.
Here in Ireland we have the prospect of the full implementation of the GFA in the next six months, or some new structure administered by the UK and the RoI. And there are less than twelve months until the next election to Dáil Éireann. All in all it seems timely for a new engagement by leftists with the events that, for better or worse, will shape the global and national political landscape for the next decade. There’s opportunity in them thar hills…
For worse. Definitely for worse. Or perhaps the opportunity remains and it is up to us and others to determine what they are and articulate them more fully.
The actual blog started with a post by smiffy on John Waters. Strangely smiffy found little good to say about the subject. That brand of scepticism and enquiry has, at least in theory, informed our approach since. We have continued, we hope, to provide at least some sort of commentary on the Irish and international left…
The original group of four contributors, smiffy, joemomma, mbari hogun (who is AWOL…and we are still waiting for that book review 
) and Worldbystorm, were fortunate to add franklittle to our number late last year. We hope to add more as time progresses, and we’re hoping to work with those of a like mind.
So far this has been interesting (a word I’m conscious I overuse) and fun. Met some great people in the process both on line and off and established links and connections with those who share, or indeed are antagonistic to, the aims of the project we defined twelve months ago, including those who have taken the time to contribute through comments and discussion. That is something we would hope, with others, to extend further…
This isn’t serious in the sense that we have any influence at all. But at the same time it is serious in the sense that it gives us the opportunity to work out in some detail what our position on issues is. And, for what it’s worth, I’d argue it is potentially deeply serious if it begins to reflect even a little what those of us here, and others working in the same area, do actively off line to ensure that the Irish left is something other than a footnote in history.
There are new, entirely unexpected challenges. We’ve seen a contingent from the centre-left go into government with Fianna Fáil. But they still are, or at least some of them, of the left and we have to work with that and with them.
Five years of Fianna Fáil dominated coalition loom ahead. The left is, if not defeated, certainly cowed in a way that I can’t recall since the 1980s. There is a weariness there which is something I haven’t encountered in a long time. In the North we have the astonishing situation of a DUP/SF power sharing Executive. In the UK Blair has finally left office. Bush will be gone with eighteen months. All told then a remarkable period in Irish history.
We overstated the prospects for positive change. The ’sites of struggle’, to coin a phrase, seem to be small, fragmented, difficult to locate, or once located difficult to engage within.
That’s the problem. That’s the challenge.
Expect more three word sentences.
The Battle of Algiers June 19, 2007
Posted by franklittle in Film and Television.4 comments
I suspect I don’t have to tell the readership of a political blog about Gillo Pontecorvo’s classic film, The Battle of Algiers telling the story of the FLN’s struggle for independence in Algeria in the late 50s and early 60s. Brilliantly shot, it is a powerful and relatively even handed analysis of the struggle between Algerian Islamic nationalists and the French occupiers made almost entirely with a cast of amateurs.
The film’s examination of anti-imperialist struggle was famously mined for advice by everyone from the PLO to the IRA to the Black Panthers to a Pentagon struggling to deal with an Iraqi insurgency.
It’s on in the IFI every day this week giving me the first opportunity to see it on the big screen and in the extended version with some of the interrogation scenes that had been cut in previous British editions there in whole. If you’ve seen it before, as I have, you’ll relish seeing it on the big screen with the powerful score all the more effective for it. If you’ve not seen it before, no better time.
You can call me Marianne June 18, 2007
Posted by franklittle in European Politics, Irish Politics.2 comments
Everyone has their favourite Romano Prodi quote.
Or maybe it’s just me.
But the one that stands out in my mind refers to the debates about whether the European Rapid Reaction Force constituted a European Army. Defenders of the Nice Treaty in Ireland argued that a transnational military force with between 60 and 80 thousand frontline combat troops plus support, capable of rapid deployment to a sphere of operations extending from thousands of miles outside the EU border, able to fight what Delors called the ‘Resource Wars’ of the 21st century and under the control of the European Council, was not a European Army, it was a rapid reaction force on the grounds that it is not a ’standing army’ as such.
It might surprise some of our younger readers to know that many people believed this.
Anyway, at the height of it all Romano Prodi was asked whether he believed, as President of the EU Commission and the leading proponent of the Nice Treaty, whether it was legitimate to refer to the RRF as a ‘European Army’. Prodi observed that, “You can call it Mary or Marianne, or whatever you like.” Prodi, you see, was bright enough to know that so long as the structure and make-up of the RRF wasn’t changed, it didn’t really matter what it was called. He was also foolish enough to say this before the Irish people had voted (The first time. Having got the answer wrong initially we were fortunate enough to be allowed a second chance) but the Irish media largely ignored his comments.
The trip down memory lane is prompted by a story in today’s EU Observer that reveals that EU Foreign Ministers have now agreed the EU Constitution is not a Constitution. They haven’t changed the text of it in any substantial way. But they have realised that calling it a Constitution is not a vote-winner. So now it is not a Constitution. It’s a Treaty. There has also been agreement on dropping some of the symbols such as an EU flag and an EU anthem.
Like Prodi, they’re smart enough to know that so long as they can con people into voting for it, the name of it isn’t a big deal. And in Ireland, they’re likely to succeed.
The recent election here means that only five TDs, Gregory and Sinn Féin, are likely to oppose the EU Constitution (For this is what it is) in the Dáil. The campaign in the referendum will consist then of a weakened Sinn Féin and a weakened Socialist Party along with a few other smaller parties and organisations, with the Greens having switched sides.
If not calling it a Constitution makes it more likely that the small number of people in the EU entitled to vote on this will back it, then by all means they will call it something else.
Why not Marianne?
Gormley contra mundum: In defence of the Greens June 17, 2007
Posted by smiffy in Environment, Global Warming, Greens, Irish Election 2007, The Left, climate change.17 comments
Like Worldbystorm, the recent negotiations and formation of a coalition government have reminded me of a cold December night in 1994. December 14th, in particular, and the conference to decide whether Democratic Left would enter into government with Labour and Fine Gael, the latter described as ‘neo-fascists’ by one over-enthusiastic delegate (he was opposed, I should make clear).
In particular, I keep thinking about a brief conversation I had with a friend of mine at the back of the conference room in the Gresham, after the decision had been taken. I was disappointed, but unsurprised at the result, and was lamenting the future of the party, the Left … the usual kind of thing. His response was short, but to the point: “Better us in there than the fucking PDs”.
Even though I didn’t agree with him at the time, it was a very hard point to argue against and it’s something which has stuck with me ever since. While it’s easy to stand back and make the argument that parties of the left should stay out of government until they can present a truly left-wing alternative in Irish politics, those who adopt such a position (and it’s a valid one) need to face up to the fact that, in the short-term at least and possibly for longer, it condemns the most vulnerable in society to a worse government than might otherwise have been the case. And it’s for that reason that I’ll try and defend the decision of the Greens to go into government, even if I’m not entirely sure that it’s the right one.
There is something very amusing about listening to the radio, or looking at politics.ie, and coming across the denunciations, the lamentations, the screams of ‘betrayal’ and ’selling out’. It’s particularly rich coming from members of Fine Gael (as if their policies on important issues were in any substantial way different from Fianna Fáil’s) and Labour (who had the decency to sell out before the election, in their alliance with Fine Gael and particularly with the tax policy announced by Rabbitte at conference, rather than waiting until after the results were in like the treacherous Greens). Sinn Féin members have been a little less hysterical, probably because they were never part of the putative ‘Alliance for Change’ but a nasty part of me might also suggest that a party which is willing to share power with arguably the most reactionary political grouping on the island isn’t really in a position to throw stones.
Frankly, anyone who claims to be all that surprised at the Green’s decision is either extremely naive, or deliberately disingenuous. The party never ruled out the principle of coalition with Fianna Fáil. Why should they? They made it clear in the course of the campaign that they wanted to enter government, and there’s no particular reason why coalition with Fine Gael would be any more favorable, from a policy perspective, than coalition with the dreaded Fianna Fáil.
What the more shrieking of the critics seem to forget is that the choice the Green Party was presented with wasn’t either coalition with Fianna Fáil or coalition with ‘the Rainbow’. It was coalition with Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats or back to opposition and the continuation, in effect, of the current government. One of the Green TDs (I think it was Paul Gogarty) made the point well on the radio yesterday, citing the protesters outside the conference with signs saying “Save Tara - Vote No”. Now, while entering government with Fianna Fáil may very well not save Tara, staying out of government most certainly won’t.
There is, of course, the argument that parties of the left (with the Greens generally, although not always, included in this grouping) shouldn’t let themselves be used by right-wing parties to help them consolidate their hold on power. Rather, they should be looking at building a ‘left alternative’, usually at grassroots level, in order to achieve real and substantial change at some unspecified point in the future.
A couple of problems with this, however. Firstly, none of the left-wing parties (except the Socialist Parties and the micros) actually subscribe to this. Labour’s entire election campaign was based on cooperation with a Christian Democrat party. Sinn Féin remind us that they’re willing to work with anyone. Unless all parties agree to work together in building the elusive ‘alternative’, it’s not going to happen and it’s unrealistic to expect a single party to stand aside from government in the full knowledge that its rivals on the left would jump at the chance if they were presented with it.
More importantly, though, is that the ‘broad left’ strategy is, inevitably, a long-term one, lasting decades rather than years. In the recent election, after much soul-searching, I gave my first preference to the Greens. This was based on one issue: climate change. While it didn’t factor as one of the big issues during the campaign, in my view it’s the single most important issue facing the country (and, indeed, the planet). And, if there’s one issue that can’t be left aside for ten, twenty or more years, it’s this one.
The climate change policies included in the Programme for Government couldn’t, by any standards, be described as radical or mould-breaking. However, they’re unquestionably better than they would have been had the Greens remained in opposition. Similarly, they’re a lot less concrete than they might otherwise have been, substituting rather vague ambitions for specific targets. This presents a challenge for the Green members of government but also, I would submit, an opportunity. While the more cynical (or, perhaps, astute) observers will state that this allows Fianna Fáil to wangle out of any move on carbon emissions, it also provides gives the initiative to Gormley and Ryan, in their respective Departments to drive the policies forward, put specific proposals to Cabinet and insist that they be accepted.
It’s not going to be easy, however. The party already has a bitter taste in its mouth, with Dick Roche’s extraordinarily cynical and disrespectful stunt on Thursday, signing the S.I. to commence work on the M3. It has the imminent difficulty of having to defend co-location (collective responsibility and the fact that they’ve agreed to the presence of the Progressive Democrats at the cabinet table doesn’t allow them to shrug their shoulders and blame it on the other gang). How will they deal with the possibility of Beverley Flynn being given a junior Ministry? It’s also going to have to face whatever fallout arises from the Mahon Tribunal, and think seriously about exactly how bad things have to get before they might consider leaving.
It’s this last question that’s, perhaps, going to be the hardest for the Greens. At all costs, it must not allow itself to become another Progressive Democrats, a mudguard for Fianna Fáil. It must not be afraid of walking away from power if the circumstances dictate. The great myth of PD participation in government is that they punched above their weight, and forced Fianna Fáil to enshrine their views as policy. In fact, Fianna Fáil never had any difficulty with PD policies. They were never led anywhere other than where they wanted to go. This will not, one hopes, be the case with the Greens. If the Greens don’t find themselves fighting to implement their policies, that’s when they need to start asking themselves some hard questions.
If I was a member of the Greens, I have to admit that I don’t know how I would have voted. Despite the considerations above, the agreed Programme for Government is deeply flawed. franklittle’s criticism of it that it has very little in it to tackle social exclusion is a fair one (although I would disagree with his argument that the environmental policies are ‘middle-class’ ones. The fact that working-class people may not be particularly concerned with an issue doesn’t necessarily making the issue itself bourgeois, any more than the fact that working-class people support Fianna Fáil makes that party the voice of the proletariat).
As I think Mary White said at the conference, not a great deal, not even a good deal, but, ultimately, I think’s probably better than the alternative (the same government formation, but without the Greens). At this point, though, it has the potential to deliver real change on certain vital issues. It’s up to the Green Party to make sure it does.
Sauce for Goose, sauce for Gander… Bertie Ahern and the trouble with numbers. June 17, 2007
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Election 2007, Irish Politics, Media and Journalism, media.7 comments
This may surprise some of you, but despite being of - or on - the left, I’m not a fan of big government. I’m much more taken by distributed power and representation, particularly at local level. Perhaps that is a function of dealing in the community area after leaving Democratic Left in the mid-1990s, going into residents and community groups, working on campaigns. And curiously, that leaves me closer in some respects to Chekov than it does to Rabbitte, to coin a phrase.
So I thought this week demonstrated some remarkable aspects of politic, real and otherwise. And two instance spring to mind.
Firstly let us think about, and thanks to Wednesday for noting this, the short shrift given to Caoimhin O Caoghlain when he sought to shore up speaking rights for Sinn Féin. SF, on four TDs, is now denied speaking rights in the Dáil and is dependent upon the largesse of other formations (unlikely) or a number of set piece occasions which have little or no impact. Yet it was Aherns response to this which was most notable. I was talking to an unaffiliated observer who made the point that Ahern appeared to be giving SF a good kicking on the way down. Certainly the mask, should there be a mask, slipped for more than a moment when Ahern pugnaciously intoned that SF ‘don’t have the numbers’.
One could of course consider what platonic absolute, other than the self-serving procedures determined by larger political formations, makes 7 TDs the necessary threshold for speaking rights.
One might also consider where the Green Party and Finian McGrath, the latter having opined in the Irish Times the previous day that SF and Tony Gregory would not be ‘forgotten’ as regards speaking rights, were during the vote.
But of course one would know the answer. They sat on their hands throughout this process - despite reformation of speaking rights being an explicit plank of Green Party policy since at least 2002.
One might also consider, and I have this on very good authority, that an approach by SF to FG on this matter was rebuffed. With that sort of an attitude I suspect we might see something of a renaissance of SF at the partial expense of at least one other component of the ‘opposition’ over the next five years.
Secondly this very day it is reported in the Sunday Independent that Fianna Fáil in order to quell the despair amongst its long-suffering and long-awaiting back benchers is to create three new Junion Ministers. “And all shall have prizes” springs to mind in this demonstration of largesse. And what platonic absolute is being distorted here, one might reasonably ask?
Coming back to my original point I’d ask do we need 3 extra Ministers? This state is hardly undergoverned and this sort of top loading smacks of political expediency at the expense of any serious strategy.
But really, can we see anything other than two entirely typical examples of business as usual? Realpolitic practised in all its dubious glory by those who have had power for the last ten years and by those who have had it thrust upon them over the last three weeks.
……………………….
Meanwhile, back in the Sunday Independent has there ever been such a remarkable article as that penned by Eoghan Harris today? Having sought a Fianna Fáil/Labour coalition, and seen that horse bolt, he now argues that the Greens have displayed ‘moral adulthood’ by going into power (One might argue that that at least one interlocuter who springs to mind has never seen a principle or bandwagon that he hasn’t felt the need to appropriate or jump, and then later lambaste others for taking the precise same path as himself - but that’s another days work).
Moral adulthood he argues is “not a moral innocent like a child, cannot insist that everybody else give him exactly what he wants”. That this schema breaks down with the most minor consideration, since it entirely ignores relative power between different actors is typical of the frenzied arm waving that passes for serious philosophical discourse down at the Sindo.
Still, in his enthusiasm to declare his latest love de jour suitable what a contrast he points up between those ‘moral adults’ and…
their [political pundits - in this case Vincent Browne] failure to understand that a person who sticks to republicanism or socialism in face of the facts of history is simply a wilful moral child. By contrast, a moral adult is someone who, in a complex situation, comes up with a practical solution whichsits somewhere between his own beliefs and the needs of society.
Note that in the broad spectrum of socio-political thought only two strains are worthy of such contempt…but this self-serving screed continues….
By that standard, the Greens have acted like moral adults. And like many people, I have a higher regard for the party since it did the dealwith Fianna Fail than I did before. For me, and I suspect for the general public, a good Green party is not a party which sticks to its principles, but a party which sticks to its compromises.
And I do mean stick. With the PD precedent, in mind the Greens should never wag the forefinger unless they mean to pull the trigger. And if they were smart, they would stick that finger in their pocket for the next five years. Because they have much to learn. The biggest lesson is that the secret of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael’s success lies in them being forgiving parties. Like Aristotle, the Irish people have little time for moral innocents - or moral prigs.
Moral prigs? Eh…after twenty odd years of this stuff, all I can say is healer, heal thyself…
An apology to Fine Gael regarding the feasibility of Inter-Party Government. June 16, 2007
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Election 2007, Irish Politics.8 comments
I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Fine Gael and members of that party. I may have, in recent weeks, since the election of the 30th Dáil, implied on Politics.ie that the suggestion that Enda Kenny might fashion together an Inter-Party Government comprising Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party, the Progressive Democrats and a number of Independent TDs was ‘absurd’, ‘unfeasible’, ‘ridiculous’, ‘unwieldy beyond belief’, ‘impracticable’, ‘wrong’ and ‘nonsense’.
I now recognise, in view of the composition of the present Coalition between Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, the Progressive Democrats, Jackie Healy-Rae, Finian McGrath, Michael Lowry and Beverley Cooper Flynn, that my previous statements were entirely incorrect and that the terms ‘absurd’, ‘ridiculous’, ‘unwieldy beyond belief’, ‘impracticable’, ‘wrong’, ‘nonsense’ could equally be applied to the current coalition prior to its formation.
It is now apparent that Enda Kenny was entirely visionary in the suggestion that such an alliance could be formed to prevent Fianna Fáil from attaining Government in this Dáil. The outlines of the Inter-Party Government he sought were almost identical to that finally formed, and the sticking point that others raised, a total incompatablity between the Progressive Democrats and the Green Party on policy issues, was as he correctly discerned a mere detail. Moreover his innovative idea that gene-pool Independents might work with a party of the opposite stripe to their DNA was also essentially correct.
Clearly had Enda Kenny fashioned together such a political alliance it too would have been in a position to deliver as strong and stable a government for this country as the current coalition intends to do.
Again, my sincere apologies…
Think I’m getting a clearer picture now alright… June 15, 2007
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Election 2007, Irish Politics, Uncategorized.add a comment
“When they woke up that morning, the citizens asked themselves what new turmoil awaited them. After the elections but during the period of transition to the new administration a number of factories and enterprises had been taken over by the workers. The young unemployed, who for the previous two years had been occupying abandoned plants in order to engage in ‘wildcat production’ of various socially useful products, were now joined by a growing number of students, older workers who had been laid off recently, and retired people… the day after the new government came into office, these factories were taken back by the police and military. Within hours decrees had been signed by new members - with heavy hearts it was reported in the press - ensuring that their previous owners would have full rights to the property reinstated and those ‘workers’ and ’students’ who refused to leave the premises voluntarily were escorted away under guard. Those who set out for work found a surprise awaiting them; during the night, in most of the large cities, white lines had been painted on all the major thoroughfares. Henceforth these would have a corridor reserved for the bicycle and Mercedes used by members of the state apparatus, while on the side streets similar corridors were set aside for state bicyclists and motorcyclists. At the major points of entry to ach city, hundreds of bicycles and mopeds were assembled for use by other members of the state apparatus, and long lines of radio frequency blocking vans were waiting to spread out across the city to ensure the silence of their previous political allies from their time in opposition…. The President of the Republic went on nationwide television and …. said… “We must consume better” Until now products had been designed to produce the greatest profit for the firms selling them…henceforth…they will be designed to produce the greatest satisfaction for those who use them as well as for those who produce them… however, it is clear that such a policy would deter our new partners in government so therefore we will hope to implement it within the five year time frame of the government…”
Bought, defeated and silenced. The Left in the Dáil. June 14, 2007
Posted by franklittle in Environment, Greens, Irish Election 2007, Irish Labour Party, Irish Politics, Sinn Féin, The Left.11 comments
The aftermath of the 2002 election presented a relatively unusual sight. The broad left opposition in Leinster House, disparate and divided though it might be, constituted a greater bloc of TDs than Fine Gael. It’s rare enough to be noteworthy. Labour, the Greens, Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party had 33 seats between them and were joined by Left Independents like Tony Gregory, Finian McGrath and Seamus Healy to make 36. Today, that number is 25, less than half Fine Gael’s Dáil representation.
It wasn’t a cohesive group. All but Labour were part of a Technical Group, giving the smaller parties and Independents the opportunity to put forward points of view, legislation and arguments that had been safely ignored in the Dáil prior to this. But broadly speaking, they were the people who opposed the war in Iraq and bin charges, who backed the protestors at Corrib, Carrickmines and Tara. They proposed constitutional changes to enshrine neutrality and to deliver a right to housing. A large minority of them opposed the Nice Treaty, once successfully and once not.
The outcome of the 2007 election for the Left as constituted in Leinster House is disastrous. Some were defeated. Labour, Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party all dropped a seat, eliminating the last from the Dáil, and were joined by Seamus Healy.
Some, the Greens and Finian McGrath, have been bought. And as for what’s left, with the end of the Dáil Technical Group, opportunities for Sinn Féin and Tony Gregory to articulate their arguments will be rarer than a principled Green Party delegate to a coalition conference, leaving the Labour party the dominant left voice in the Dáil. In effect, silenced by Dáil Standing Orders. A bonus for Fianna Fáil in getting the Greens on board.
Some people will, to varying degrees of legitimacy, question the left credentials of the parties and individuals. Some will say they did not oppose or support specific campaigns enough. Others will advance radical revolutionary critiques of the Dáil as an avenue for political change and say the result is largely irrelevant. Fair points.
I’m not trying to overstate the Dáil. But the reality is that the individuals and parties of the Left in there were able to some extent to use it as a platform to offer criticisms, often radical ones, of the existing economic and social orthodoxy in Ireland. They were also able to use the resources and financial benefits of the Dáil to support grassroots campaigns and mobilisations across the country, lending by the simple presence of a number of TDs, credibility to protests and demonstrations. To say that these campaigns cannot survive without a couple of TDs turning up to a protest is nonsensical, but equally, to pretend it makes no difference is childish and naive.
Three final points ‘going forward’ as they say.
Firstly, one of the interesting thing about the Green Party’s deal, or the summary of it which is all I have had the chance to read, is how basically middle class it is. Nothing on social housing, but the burghers of South Dublin can now get money for attic insulation. Nothing on social welfare increases for the one in five Irish people at risk of poverty, but a Carbon Tax, which is likely to hit working class people hard. Nothing on medical cards or tackling the two-tier health system, but they have delivered electoral reform. Nothing to assist or benefit migrants and asylum seekers, but a Noise Bill to ensure the neighbour’s wine reception doesn’t get out of control. I’m not mocking the entire deal. Some of it is good and positive, though not in my opinion enough to go into power with Fianna Fáil (Like WBS I have no fundamental principled objection to such in specific, narrowly defined contexts), but for ordinary working class people, it delivers little, and I find that interesting that their indifference was not even hidden.
Secondly, the Greens are about to experience something they have never had to face in their political existence in Ireland. Opposition. Since it’s founding the Greens have gotten a remarkably easy ride from the media. At it’s worst, they’ve been presented as naive do-gooders disconnected from the real world, but even that has noticeably changed since 2002 with the media eager to embrace them as a ’safe’ radical alternative. They haven’t had to endure internal divisions that almost tore Labour apart in the 80s, or the animosity Labour endured after going into coalition with Fianna Fáil in 1992. They haven’t experienced, in fairness no-one has, a tenth of the vitriol directed towards Sinn Féin.
Now, in government, they will get to face just that and from people that two months ago they would have seen as close allies from the anti-war movement, the Tara campaign, Rossport and so on. No doubt Labour, eager to stick in the knife, will be busy compiling Tara related Private Members Motions. The Greens are going to have to stand over the EU Constitution. The sense of betrayl among the broader progressive movement, whether legitimate or not based on the past attitudes of the Greens as outlined on Indymedia, is going to get greater, not smaller. And if they pull out of government on principle? Well, Bertie can get along without them on the PDs and Independents.
Finally, in terms of the realignment of the Left that we in the Cedar Lounge talk about, Labour is back in the driving seat. Absolutely, they had a poor election, but they find themselves dominant over a still stunned Sinn Féin and now facing the possibility of making serious in-roads into the Greens over the next five years. Who would argue now within Labour for building a left alliance when there are so few people with whom to build one and the party is instinctively bitterly anti-republican anyway? And with no left alternative, does this mean the Enda and Pat show gets another tour?
Somethings are too unspeakable to contemplate.
The FF/Green/PD Coalition…not sure what I think… June 14, 2007
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Greens, Irish Election 2007, Irish Politics, Uncategorized.9 comments
“When they woke up that morning, the citizens asked themselves what new turmoil awaited them. After the elections but during the period of transition to the new administration a number of factories and enterprises had been taken over by the workers. The young unemployed, who for the previous two years had been occupying abandoned plants in order to engage in ‘wildcat production’ of various socially useful products, were now joined by a growing number of students, older workers who had been laid off recently, and retired people… the day after the new government came into office, those who set out for work found a surprise awaiting them; during the night, in most of the large cities, white lines had been painted on all the major thoroughfares. Henceforth these would have a corridor reserved for buses, while on the side streets similar corridors were set aside for bicyclists and motorcyclists. At the major points of entry to ach city, hundreds of bicycles and mopeds were assembled for use by the public, and long lines of police cars and army vans supplemented the buses…. The President of the Republic went on nationwide television and …. said… “We must consume better” Until now products had been designed to produce the greatest profit for the firms selling them…henceforth…they will be designed to produce the greatest satisfaction for those who use them as well as for those who produce them…”
Well I think we can be fairly certain tomorrow or the next day won’t be like that. And not just because we actually have bus lanes in operation. Andre Gorz wrote his Utopia for a Possible Dual Society in 1980 as a part of his Ecology as Politics. You can see how rickety some of the thinking is now. But it neatly encapsulates how revolutionary some aspects of his thinking were and how mainstream other aspects have become.
I was thinking about a conversation I had with a person who works in Green Party Head Office some time ago. Casually I had suggested that if the Greens really wanted to make a difference they would go in to government with Fianna Fáil. The response was vituperative. There was ‘no way’ such a thing would happen. The party would not countenance it, etc, etc.
I look forward to my next meeting with this person. The figure of 86% looms large in any future conversation I might have.
And I’m genuinely torn about all this. I have no instinctive animosity to Fianna Fáil. I don’t consider them particularly inept, or indeed morally bankrupt as one contributor to Politics.ie put it. I know it’s tiresome to repeat this, but they remain a populist centre, centre right party. That is the problem. Nothing more. To deal with them is not to sup with pure evil. It is not to sell ones principles down the river. It is not some great existential betrayal.
It is, and I’m sure this is what swayed the 86%, a sensible and pragmatic course of action if you have a program which you want to see implemented, at least in part.
The problem is…in a way not so much Fianna Fáil as the rump Progressive Democrats and Mary Harney remaining in Health (as far as we know) and retaining the co-location policy.
If I look at any other issue I can see why it might be repositioned in such a way as not to be a deal-breaker. Or might be reconsidered at a future date. But co-location is not such an issue.
And yet that is in a sense the point. The Green Party straddles an interesting part of the political spectrum containing within it both left and centre currents, perhaps not dissimilar to the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom. They’re also, and this is purely an observation, a somewhat middle class party, rather like the Progressive Democrats as it happens. The fit, for Fianna Fáil, might well be better than they could have previously expected. Their brand of populist centrism knows almost instinctively how to deal with (and I don’t mean that in a perjorative way, or not much anyhow) such parties, such people.
More over, I’m of the left, albeit strongly in sympathy with almost all the Green Party platform. Co-location is probably going to weigh upon me more than them.
So I understand the wish to be part of government, to prove relevance ability and to at least try to shift the discourse.
In that I wish them well. It cannot but help to have articulate people around Cabinet table putting a point of view which has hitherto been ignored. Their work may well be essential. The small victories may be more important in the long run than a further five years of opposition. Their liberalism is no harm, their constructive engagement with societal solidarity a positive good.
And yet, I still wish it wasn’t this deal now in this government with the Progressive Democrats on board.
Perhaps it makes a future left-green project more difficult. Or maybe not. My fear is that it locks what remains of the social democrat/democratic socialist left into a further prolonged embrace with Fine Gael. And for a raft of reasons I think that is problematic for the left.
Feels like 1994 all over again… The Greens and Power June 13, 2007
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Election 2007, Irish Politics.11 comments
Okay, soon all this will finish and it will be possible to move onto pastures new in terms of subjects for posts. But, this mornings Irish Times brings interesting tidings regarding the supposed Program for Government between the Greens and Fianna Fáil.
Now, even accounting for the possibility the anti-FF spin machines are rotating at full speed deep in the bowels of the the IT the positions presented seem disappointing at best and dismal at worst.
No deal on the M3 or Shannon. Harney to retain Health (although apparently Green Party members will not be given the configuration of any new Cabinet or their place within it, bar the fact they get a Ministry, a Super-Junior and a Junior Minster). Co-Location to be retained. No movement on political reform.
And a sweetener? A carbon tax to be introduced within the life of the government but no rate fixed. Also the suggestiong that there might be some sort of Department of Climate Change.
Hmmm…
Pretty thin stuff all told.
One can only hope the IT is entirely incorrect, or that the Green Party leadership are in full charisma mode this afternoon and evening, because that’s some sell they have to make.
And hence the comparison with 1994 when Democratic Left was on the brink of entering government. That too was quite a sell. But in way an easier sell. Ideologically the problems between the possible partners were of the sort that could be relatively easily overcome, if only because they had the shared glue of an antipathy towards Fianna Fáil. It’s not much, but in a fix it tends to work. And like the Greens there was an ambitious Parliamentary party, keen to exercise some degree of power.
But unlike the Greens DL had the comfort, limited as it was, of a larger left bloc to mitigate FG influence. The Greens do not have this. They are essentially an isolated voice in a sea of voices. PD, perhaps a couple of Independents. It’s quite a mixture (and incidentally all is now clear in my mind as to why the Independents continue to be wooed, Ahern must know that this is liable to be close).
That’s not to say that the Conference which tipped DL into government was easy. There were a number, quite a number as it happens, of activists who walked away (arguably the ISN was born that day). And as I keep noting here, once people walk away they rarely return. By that stage I was very semi-detached from the party but was adamant coalition, or rather that coalition, was a bad road for them to take.
As I recall it was a super Junior Ministry which tipped it for DL. I wonder will some policy detail that the IT has missed or ignored function on a similar level.
We’ll known soon enough…
