The Left Archive: “Labour”, from the Irish Labour Party, 1967

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Delving back in time, what about this? Labour, the ‘Official Organ of the Labour Party’, dating from 1967.

This is from a period when Labour was making some gains politically. As the front cover trumpets not only had they made a significant breakthrough in Dublin (13 Dublin Corporation members, only 2 behind Fianna Fáil), but they had also ‘secured 26.2%’ of the vote in Limerick, and in vote share had beaten Fine Gael to become the second party in Limerick. And yet… this last pointed to a structural problem which was acknowledged in the article…

‘…as in other parts of the country, however, Labour’s vote was not reflected in seats gained, and this is the most important factor. All over the country, Labour secured about 17% of the total poll but only secured about 10% of the total number of seats. (This is a field which Labour leaders will have to study for the next national test to see if more candidates are needed)…

The reason for this success was pinned on…

…Labour adopt[ing] its full Socialist policy. All the party leaders, all party statements and programmes spoke of Labours Socialist solution. This was regarded as daring and audacious but it was substantially proved to be correct. Not alone did our old supporters stay with us but they were joined by thousands of others.

Well… perhaps. But read on for a time when – for a while at least – some progress appeared possible in forwarding Labour as the dominant socialist voice on the island (and it is the island, for note the column written by one Michael Farrell on Page 8 on ‘The Northern Scene’).