The Cedar Lounge Revolution

I was very sorry to hear about the closure of Village magazine this last week, which has gone largely uncommented on. Although not without problems, not least that it was never quite as radical as it thought it was (a trait common to many of Vincent Browne’s works), it did bring different viewpoints into the Irish media. That it will continue in a half-life on the web is both heartening and disappointing. Heartening insofar as the resources it brought together won’t be entirely lost, but disappointing in that moving to a web-based existence will almost certainly restrict its readership and profile.

Of course one problem with the Village was that it had no clear or coherent ideology. Was it left-wing? Well yes, up to a point, but in an inchoate fashion. It wasn’t aligned with any party and in some ways seemed rather disinterested in party politics, or at least those of the left. Hence the concentration on national politics and in particular one Bertie Ahern (again, very much a trait of VB). One wonders if his departure from the scene and the arrival of the rather less intriguing Brian Cowen was a contributory factor in its demise. Still, who can blame it for not being that interested in the left. Let’s be honest, the Irish left is, in it’s current state, fairly uninteresting and marginal to general political activity in the RoI.

But one also wonders is the proliferation of web-based outlets beginning to weaken what has – admittedly – always been a minority interest in the first place. The fact that there has never been a long-lasting medium circulation overtly left-wing magazine in this state is telling. But then, if we look to the United Kingdom we see that even with a much larger population it is unable to support more than one or two non party political magazines and those such as New Statesman have staggered from one financial crisis to another.

In that context the achievement of Village magazine to continue for almost four years and 140 issues was quite remarkable. One of the interesting aspects of compiling the Irish Left Archive has been the realisation that while the quality and quantity of material published by political parties has been good but limited the existence of it is in itself quite an achievement. That few parties managed to sustain a printed output over any great length of time is unsurprising.

And then look at the web. This is a platform almost designed for material that is free of charge and produced voluntarily. I spend a fairly large portion of my disposable time on the CLR and the Archive. It’s a labour of love, but, as Eagle has noted in the past, it doesn’t pay the bills. I don’t mind personally, precisely because it is a labour of love, but at some point I suspect it will become a bit too time consuming. Now a single blog is one thing, but a magazine? That’s a whole different situation.

And the obstacles for any successor left-wing magazine are considerable. Many years ago I had a tangential involvement in Z Magazine, which was a broad left publication produced in the late 1980s (and a copy is in the Archive). Funded by elements of the unions and generated in that half-world of volunteerism it managed to continue for a number of issues but due to distribution issues finally folded. Arguably the problems it faced in terms of compiling have been largely superseded by desk top publishing, but even that incurs costs.

The key here is firstly commercial funding through advertising, something any overtly left wing magazine would find difficult to attract given the track record of other similar publications – although not per se due to their positioning. It’s often forgotten that magazines are essentially pages of advertising containing some articles. Secondly there is staffing. The Village had three full-time staff when it closed. A tiny number really but far beyond the dreams of most political parties, run – as they are – on a volunteerist or near volunteerist ethos. Thirdly there needs to be a market, however small. And that is the central issue. In order to sustain a project it is necessary to have a central core that is full-time or near full-time. Volunteerism will only go so far. Unless you’re a political party, where it goes a whole lot further. But then it becomes too overtly partisand and limits its potential audience.

So what does this tell us about the contemporary left more broadly? Well clearly there is no publication that speaks for it, even in part. And this is quite worrying, because even if one did – and that would be in itself an achievement given the fractiousness of the Irish left – party membership numbers are low. Reading the Political Studies Association of Ireland journal recently I was surprised to discover that the Green Party had a membership of less than 700 last year, if I recall correctly. I had put them at about 1000, perhaps a few more. Who can give a clear read on the Labour Party or Sinn Féin, and what of the smaller left parties? Is it possible that active members of left political organisations in the Republic of Ireland could be less than 5000 people? It seems very likely. And they’re not reading… or at least not reading enough to keep Village afloat…

There is the Irish Left Review which is attempting to coalesce a leftist voice through the volunteerist model. But to succeed all such projects must first establish links with the left as it is and then with a broader constituency who could broadly be considered sympathetic. It’s going to challenging.