That Labour love letter to…

Now it’s not as if there was nothing of value at the Labour Party conference. Pledges to restore the CPA, cut the waiting period for those waiting for the back-to-education scheme and the notion of school ownership transferring to the state are all sound enough. But it’s so thin in a way given the near existential crises that assail us. This may well be a deliberate ploy, sound polite and they’ll never notice as we take power. But we have the less than heady example of the British Labour Party in power since 1997 to concern us on that score. And the BLP had the distinct advantage of not having to share power with an explicitly right of center political party. Labour have no such advantage.

But truth is they don’t seem particularly concerned. Read the text of Eamon Gilmore’s speech and you will notice the absence of the term socialism, or even social democracy. Or even, God forbid, ‘left’. That’s no small achievement for a party which is the local franchise of the Socialist International, even by the latter’s rather slipshod standards. The word ‘radical’, beloved of almost all across the political spectrum makes but one appearance.

And if the ideology that dare not speak its name, and I’m an inclusive sort of a character – even the word ‘left’ used once or twice in the text would satisfy me, is absent then what is present?

Well I read it and I see an appeal to a very specific group of people.

Ignore, if you can, the coded Marxist reference. That won’t really be difficult. It’s so coded that a fully staffed research department of semioticians would have trouble seeing any serious red tinge in this…

We all make our contribution and we should all be treated fairly. Giving according to our means. Receiving according to our needs.

Hmmmm… Garibaldy has already noted the curious omission at the heart of the ‘One Ireland!’ slogan (exclamation mark in the original text). Curious because Gilmore references…

It is time, in my view, for a fundamental review of our constitution. There is much about the constitution that has served us well, but it is document written in the 1930s for the 1930s. A time when one church was considered to have a special position, and women were considered to be second class citizens. And if we are to truly learn from the experience of the last ten years, then we need to look again, in a considered way, at the fundamental rules that bind us together.

Our constitution belongs to the people, not just to political institutions. So, this must be a people’s process.
What I propose is a constitutional convention. A coming together of all strands of Irish society to redraw our Constitution.

The constitutional convention would include experts and specialists, but would also include individual citizens, randomly chosen to serve in much the same way that we choose juries.

Charged with the task of keeping what is best in our constitutional tradition, and to develop a new constitution, fitted to our times and our aspirations. Let us set ourselves the target to have it ready for the 100th anniversary of the 1916 rising, that seminal moment when our state was conceived.

Seminal, but only in so far as this ‘state’. And he too appears completely confused as to the different meanings of state and nation.

This is a journey that we must travel together. As One Ireland. Our nation is too small, and the crisis and dangers we face are too great, for solo-runs or for putting sectional interest before the common good. This is not the time for division and conflict. This is the moment when we must all pull together. Le Cheile! Fis, Forbairt is Fostaiocht!

Or rather I’ll bet he isn’t. Gilmore is far too smart and shrewd an operator not to know these things.

And consider this:

For 10 decades Labour has served our country with integrity. Working with our fellow citizens in homes, in communities, in places of employment to make this a better country.

Ninety two years ago, Labour stood aside, so that our country could be freed and made independent from a foreign power. Today, Labour steps forward, now ready to lead, so that Ireland can be liberated again, this time from the treachery of the insiders who have squandered our prosperity, wasted our opportunities and put our futures at risk.

Ah, he’s throwing ‘country’ into the mix now. But forget the conceptual confusion, look at the underlying concept, that Labour ‘did its duty’, and not merely that it did its duty but that this was implicitly the correct thing to do. How else to interpret the phrase ‘so that our country could be freed and made independent from a foreign power’, in fact how often have we heard the term ‘foreign power’ used in an LP leader’s speech in recent, or indeed not so recent, times? This is amazing stuff when you stop to think about it.

Of course the kicker is that it’s payback time now. Labour did the right thing way back when, and now…

Let me be bluntly clear about this. Our objective at the next election, whenever it is held, is a new Government, led by Labour.

I am determined, that at the coming General Election, the Labour Party will run enough candidates, to enable the Irish people to make Labour the largest party in the next Dail, and to lead the next Government.

Yes, I understand, only too well, the height of that target, the size of that task. But our country is broken. The exchequer is broke. The banks are broke. And too many families are broke. We have to fix it.

And who is going to help Labour in this historic, ‘national’ task?

Well, the Irish Times editorial delicately put it as follows:

Mr Gilmore did not even mention Fine Gael or Enda Kenny. Instead, he targeted those disillusioned voters who have alternated between red-hot anger and resignation as the impact of recession, mismanagement, unemployment and Government cutbacks undermine living standards. He offered these people a new beginning – State investment, jobs and an end to crony capitalism.

But I’m thinking that there’s a much more distinctive body of ‘disillusioned’ voters out there who might be able to assist.

So what we see served up is a sort of FF, 26 county nationalism redux. Only without the issue of partition and the remaining business North of the border referenced, because that’s so yesterday. Hence the mention of ‘nation’ and ‘country’. Hence the references to the glorious independence struggle and the patriotic sense of responsibility on the part of the LP back then and ever since. Hence the reference in not uncomplimetary terms to the 1937 Constitution – ‘served us well’ – eh? As it happens I don’t disagree, but it’s not the usual language one might hear coming from the LP and certainly not from a leader’s speech.

This is all but short of a direct appeal, one carefully crafted to attract Fianna Fáil voters – particularly those in the public sector – who’ve tired of the beatings they’ve received in terms of wage cuts and levies.

The appeal to the heimat, we’re all in together ‘the nation is too small’, and something that sounds, albeit isn’t, almost corporatist (DublinDilettante notes this too, and in a post argues that there was some opening to Republicanism in a speech by Michael D Higgins [note, I didn’t reference the MDH connection in the original version of this post – my apologies, wbs]. Very possible, they’ll want to mop up as many votes floating out there as they can, but the main target seems to me to be FF).

One Ireland. Of Employers and employees. Farmers and business people. Private sector and public sector. Working in the home and volunteering in the community. We all make our contribution and we should all be treated fairly.

Which is where we came in on this discussion…

Giving according to our means. Receiving according to our needs.

So, above all the stuff about a ‘knowledge economy’, the not half bad defence of the public sector or the analysis of the financial crisis, the rather good notion of a ‘Strategic Investment Bank’ (although god knows why reinvent the wheel when we could do with the ACC and ICC back again – surely?) this is in essence a love letter to a disenfranchised group or people.

Some of those voters have already started to support the party – you wouldn’t see them polling on 17% plus consistently if it were otherwise, others… well not so much so far. But it’s there and it’s waiting. And it’s not going to scare them by mentioning the ‘s’ word, or the ‘sd’ words, or the ‘l’ word. Nah, it’s comfortable, waiting, waiting…

We saw a similar enough approach at the Sinn Féin Ard Fhéis in the speech by Gerry Adams.

There’s no end of love for the floating Fianna Fáil voter. Even FF in the recent public sector talks was keen to clamber back aboard that particular train to show they hadn’t completely forgotten them.

We’ll soon enough see if and to whom it is reciprocated.