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On 29.02.2016 17:17, Paddy Hackett via Marxism wrote:
Hi
The Irish General Election results are showing that there has been no radical
change in Irish politics. The general election results are evidence of the
political and ideological stagnation within the working class. The evidence
produced by the elections shows that the Irish working class is politically and
ideologically stagnant.
Despite its disastrous record leading up to and including the world 2008
financial crisis Fianna Fáil has electorally won back much of the working
class and lower middle class. The increase in support for Sinn Fein is merely
support for another bourgeois party by the working class and other social
strata. It is ironical that the Socialist Party has been describing the Sinn
Fein party as an “anti-establishment” party. There is nothing
“anti-establishment” about Sinn Fein. Indeed it has been going out of its way
to demonstrate how pro-establishment it is. Increased support for the mix bag
of Independents is largely support for other bourgeois political elements.
The modest support for the Left is of no real significance. Indeed much of this
Left has been becoming increasingly more moderate. Much of their political
interventions are little or no different from that of much of the Labour Party
of yore. As it sniffs the power it will move further to the right. This Left
is largely opportunist and will cut its cloth to increase its popularity.
Given this, overall, there has been no significant shift to the Left. The
politics and ideology of the Irish working class is as it was in the days
before the 2008 financial crisis. Essentially taking place is a reconfiguration
or recalibration of bourgeois politics in Ireland to meet the present class
needs of the bourgeoisie. The effect of this is to block off the working class
from becoming more politicised thereby posing an increasing challenge to the
existing system.
What a sad sectarian tract. I suspect I have been watching a
completely different Irish election. The two traditional bourgeois
parties now have the support of under 50% of the electorate for the
first time in the history of the state. There is no stable coalition
unless the two traditional right-wing parties overcome their historic
enmity and form a coalition, which would probably be very unstable.
There is a mass movement that took to the streets as recently as the
weekend before the election and the radical left which is involved in
organising this mass movement took 10 seats (11 if you include the
maverick TD Mick Wallace) , the highest number of radical left has ever had.
And the so-called bounce-back of Fianna Fail that this correspondent
makes so much of - as does the bourgeois press - is a simply joke, and a
very bad one at that. This is the traditional party of the Irish
bourgeoisie, which managed to establish a base in the working class on a
populist basis between the 1930s and the 1970s. For three generations it
dominated Irish politics, often forming a majority government without
needing to go into coalition with any other party. But in 2011 it lost
half half its support, so the extra 5% or so it got this time is a spit
in a pan and it didn't even succeed in regaining it's position as the
largest party.
There will probably be another election within the next 12 months - and
the mass movement against the water charges isn't going to go away
unless the whole Irish Water operation is closed down - but to do that
the government would have to defy the EU diktat. So the crisis of
bourgeois politics is set to continue and I expect the influence of the
radical left, which is now larger than the Labour Party, will continue
to grow.
Of course, for some radical ultra-leftists the radical left may not be
r-r-r-r-r-revolutionary enough and may not use the traditional
catchphrases of the sectarian left, preferring to speak in language that
the workers understand and respond to. But then the demands "Land, bread
and peace" don't exactly sound remarkably r-r-r-r-revolutionary if they
are divorced from the context in which they were raised.
Einde O'Callaghan
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