An Phoblacht – latest issue out now… February 3, 2012
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, Economy, European Politics, Irish Politics, Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin, The Left.trackback
From the editorial:
TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY insists that he is not afraid to hold a referendum on the EU austerity treaty, what Brussels calls the fiscal compact.
If Enda Kenny is truly not afraid then he should allow a referendum, whether the Attorney General thinks it is necessary or not.
Also:
EU treaty – Mary Lou McDonald on ‘putting on the green jersey’
EU treaty – Roddy Collins on Enda Kenny’s performance in Europe
EU treaty – Parties unite in call for EU treaty referendum (CAAT)
La Senza occupation: An Phoblacht hears from the shopfront – Eoin Ó Broin talks to La Senza workers after occupation victory
Stephen Lawrence and Robert Hamill cases – Getting away with murder?
Gerry McGeough should be freed
Sectarian attackers leave Catholic youth for dead
Danny Morrison looks at Tommy McKearney’s ‘The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament’
Power of Scotland – Scotland’s independence referendum
Dublin bin privatisation debacle | Septic tanks and Household Charge
Class war – people power against education cuts
North’s ‘Fit for work’ test not fit for purpose
Julia Carney says thanks for SDLP leader ‘Big Al’
Have your say on new Single Working Age Payment
Budget cuts hit Community Employment schemes
Eoin Ó Murchú: Cogadh á bhagairt ar an Iaráin . . . Agus seasann Éamon Gilmore leis!
Eoin Ó Murchú: Don’t mind the pain, just be thankful the markets are happy
Tesco chain looms large over Irish shops
Young republicans to rally in Dublin
Republican Youth address Corsica conference
Scottish soccer’s ‘Bigotry Bill’
Changing the face of Belfast City Hall
Cathal Ó Murchú: Act teanga: Ach tar Strae (go dtí seo)
EU Parliament’s GUE/NGL Group leader says politicians must serve the people, not the powerful
Fógraí Bháis: Harry Thompson, Brigid Hannon, Géry Lawless
Cinema: The Iron Lady and J Edgar reviewed
Remembering the Past: Bloody Sunday in the British media
People power against education cuts.
Seriously? Tell that one to the Sinn Fein minister for education cuts in the Stormont executive. As the Pink Floyd said, they’re nearly a laugh but they’re really a cry.
ya seriously! dont act thick you know the story up north, they have not controll in that way yet
The ad hominem was to be expected and at least you think I’m only acting. But the rest of your reply is surprising. The north is the only major part of the island where Sinn Fein is in government and they choose to administer the cuts agenda. If they were a genuine socialist party they would give two fingers to compulsory coalition and go into vigorous opposition against the tory onslaught on the working class majority. Instead, SF is clearly a communalist all-class alliance of Catholics. as such, in order to preserve its power, SF will do anything to preserve the institutionalised set-up at Stormont including administering austerity. Becau
The ad hominem was to be expected and at least you think I’m only acting. But the rest of your reply is surprising. The north is the only major part of the island where Sinn Fein is in government and they choose to administer the cuts agenda. If they were a genuine socialist party they would give two fingers to compulsory coalition and go into vigorous opposition against the tory onslaught on the working class majority. Instead, SF is clearly a communalist all-class alliance of Catholics. as such, in order to preserve its power, SF will do anything to preserve the institutionalised set-up at Stormont including administering austerity. Because it is an all-class outfit, some on the left don’t like the cuts agenda but realise that within th communalist logic of their politics they have no choice but to administer thatcherism – I’m guessing that you’re among that bumber
There is a strong counter argument that an SF that left the executive would destabilise the political context, at least at this point. Given th history of th last forty years the simple fact of an engagement politically between unionism and republicanism is no small thing.
To walk away from that is not an experiment I’d like to try just to see if class politics would break out in its absence. I buy that only so much, there’s a point where they hav to have a bottom line or lose credibility but I think there’s validity to tha argument for a while longer.
As regards communalism, well the long and the short of it is that the north is communalism and the political manifestations there with support reflect that. It’s not as if here haven’t been left alternatives, and of course there’s the point that SF stood on a platform of engagement not withdrawal. To be honest I’m never too troubled by the fact SF doesn’t act like a further left party because it hasn’t pretended to be one.
By th way I don’t see what was so ad hominim about Sean’s comment.
… You’re among that number,Sean- but there are genuine neoliberals in sf who relish the austerity agenda.
It took me three goes to get this onto the comments page from an iPod. I really am thick!
Not sure what’s happening there Justin re comments, it may be a WordPress thing….
No WBS, it really is my inability to type and send on an iPod.
Sean was suggesting that i’m acting thick. He he attributed motivation to me which cannot be found in the substance of my text. Hence, ad hominem.anyway,that’s neither here nor there.
I don’t accept the argument that a rejection of the current compulsory coalition arrangement will destabilise the situation here. We’ve had 14 years of peace process politics. I think it’s fair to say it’s bedded in. The north is communalism to a certain extent but in relation to the economy, working conditions, unemployment, the price of a shopping basket of food, the way that jobs are created or not and the role of the state in all this the north is very definitely Capitalism. as well as that I live here too, and I couldn’t care less about the communalist identification of the people i meet, know etc. And the liife and times surveys and so forth, indicate that i’m far from being alone in this.
Sinn Fein does not claim to be revolutionary Marxist but it does sell itself through an Phoblacht etc as at least socially radical. I’m sure that there are a good number of socially radical communalists among its ranks but the North as administered bySF/DUP is very much a neoliberal polity. Class interest is the economic reality on the ground but communalist politics is how we are expected do our politics. If there was even some discussion in SF about a future move from compulsory institutionalised sectarianism towards class identification, I’d have more time for SF social radicals. As it stands, by their deeds we shall know them. For example,austere enactment of austerity measures.
The last part should have read:
For example, the enactment of austerity mrasures
Sorry yeah, I missed the term thick in Sean’s comment… Saturday afternoon dip.
Re stability. Hmmmm… It’s not quite fourteen years though, more like five or six where the DUP as representatives of “mid” Ulster ( in the conceptual, not geographic sense ) hav come to an accommodation with Republicanism. There’s sufficient noises off from various quarters that it doesn’t seem implausible to me that the sort of large scale political instability in the wake of the effective withdrawal of one representative partner would have. Consider how unionism would react…would working class unionists go over to SF if left the exec? Does that seem credible? And if you and I don’t believe they would at this point then why argue at SF should do something which will have no positive political effect. I imagine SFs approach is premised on the idea that across the years they’ll and independence will prove more attractive to some unionists, or perhaps they’re waiting for demographics to go their way. Perhaps thatll work, though id be sceptical, but whatever the reason that’s a long game, not a short one and depends on them being nvolved.
Again, I’m not suggesting that situation can continue indefinitely if they want to retain any shred of credibility but there’s no getting away from th fact this is a partitioned island with different contexts to both parts, that national issues continue to define much o the discourse even if you and i hope i were otherwise, indeed in some ways in the north the welfare state s on a much sounder footing than in
the south despite the Tories.
WBS
There’s a lot to what you say. I don’t believe that SF are about to upset any apple carts. As a communalist party,that would make no sense for them. However, I think people on the class politics left in its broadest definition – a small minority in the North at present- should be clear that no matter how social radical SF sounds and occasionally acts, its radicalism will never trump its ‘pragmatic’ catholic communalism. And yes its pragmatism forces it to accept -as Sean perhaps suggests- things are/should be done differently up North.
And I definitely agree with much of your critique which is why SF has to be critiqued itself. Thes only so much that can be explained away by the context. To be honest I b happier if they jus came out xplicitly as a left social democratic party I’d much prefer it to the current ambiguity. At least then itd be easier to hold them to a standard. And I’d agree with you re radicals and leftists in SF. There’s a point where they too have to be clear about what they stand for and over,
Yes, I agree that they need to clarify their position on where they exist on the left right spectrum. Except that, as with new labour in GB, i believe that there are people in SF -especially, perhaps, in the North- whose economics are closer to Friedman than those of Keynes. and others who, following G Brown, believe that ‘sound economic sense’ can exist alongside mild distribution and ‘equality of opportunity’. The shame about the Stormont regime is that SF as one of the parties in permanent government has no need to debate these issues and leftists in SF north and south also seem unwilling to discuss.
not sure how anyone in the north can build class politics while the working class themselves are divided over the prefered constitutional state of the north. do they argue with in a uk framework, an all ireland one or something that involves neither. in a present senario argueing with in a uk framework may have tangible results but are they measurable to SF’s goals. would it be rethoric to do it in an all ireland framework or maybe a counter hegemony, iam not decided on that either way, but would that be class politics or the same repeated patterns by different means if it didn’t win support from the working class who support the union.
Actually, just realised that the various positions I touched on do indeed represent key elements of modern social democracy