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A Bugbear…. February 12, 2020

Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.
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A constant bugbear of mine and I’m sure others here is the total lack of knowledge of most political commentators on the Irish Far Left . This a group that have had TD’s for many years.

There seems to be shock in some quarters that PBP went alone to negotiate with Sinn Féin today… but not Solidarity or RISE.

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1. tafkaGW - February 12, 2020

Kudos to PBP, that they put a possible left government above sectarian interests.

That’s a real shame that RISE didn’t follow suit – I thought they were bigger than that and had perhaps learned from the split.

As for the SP/’Solidarity’: I had minimal expectations there.

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irishelectionliterature - February 12, 2020

I think Murphy is meeting them separately. Yes had zero expectations for Solidarity.

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2. roddy - February 12, 2020

Unionist labour daren’t be seen talking to SF.

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Colm B - February 12, 2020

But surely this is what distinguishes a social democratic party from a revolutionary party? I’m using both those terms in a descriptive rather than judgemental sense. SD parties believe that you enter gov and enact reforms but that it isn’t really possible to move beyond capitalism, the best you can do is curb it’s excesses. A revolutionary party on the other hand claims that a complete break with capitalism is possible, leading to its replacement with a new socioeconomic system. So for a SD party being in gov is the point of politics while for a revo party the point is a radical break with capitalism. Both are valid points of view but it doesn’t make sense to expect that the SP or RISE should abandon a core part of their whole approach just because a junior ministry’s on offer, whereas it’s equally nonsensical to expect the Social Democrats or Labour to refuse to participate in a gov.
I happen to favour the SP approach as outlined in their post election statement – support a gov from outside issue by issue as the primary engine of radical social change is outside parliament. A similar approach has worked well for the radical left in Denmark and Portugal.
BTW I hope a social democratic gov is formed, with the external support of the far-left, as that could deliver important reforms. The worst outcome would be a SF/FF coalition (or SF/FG though that’s very unlikely) as it would discredit the whole left and might even open a gap for the far right.

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pettyburgess - February 12, 2020

I would suggest that none of PBP, RISE or Solidarity are either going to be offered or would accept ministerial or junior ministerial posts. I would also suggest that PBP and RISE certainly will vote for an SF led govt excluding FF/FF to come to power if that’s on offer. And likely even Solidarity would too. What would actually have to be negotiated is how formalised and reliable ongoing votes for that government would be.

But I also suspect that there’s a certain amount of arse covering going on by SF and for that matter the socialist groups as I don’t think any of them think that the numbers are actually there, even more so with Labour already saying no.

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irishelectionliterature - February 12, 2020

Yes, I doubt any of the far left are interested in Ministerial posts etc. I do think that supporting SF in votes for Taoiseach etc will benefit them.

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3. pettyburgess - February 12, 2020
4. Mick 2 - February 14, 2020

On RTÉ’s count coverage Miriam O’Callaghan read out I4C as “fourteen C”.

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WorldbyStorm - February 15, 2020

They’re some shower there getting basic stuff like that wrong

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