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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
8 February 2015
NEWS
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Paul Gallagher correspondence 12
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SICAP under threat 19
Wealth tax 20
Barristers’ Code 22
Galway Port 24
Charter
2016
Let’s marshal the new
mood in Europe with a
stringent platform for
the Left.
By Frank Connolly
T
HE Syriza victory in Greece has
its foundations in the polarisa-
tion of that society following
the collapse of the economy
in the great financial crash of
2008/2009, and since. It is rooted in
the implosion of the traditional parties,
and in particular of PASOK, the social
democratic party that dominated the
Greek left, and many governments, in the
post-dictatorship era. The emergence in
a few short years of an alliance of former
communists, euro communists, radical
economists, trade unionists, commu-
nity organisations and cultural groups
to displace the traditional Left, and take
political power, has now inspired simi-
lar movements across Europe, notably
with Podemos in Spain, but also now in
Ireland.
Its plan is to renegotiate its huge debt
burden by swapping it for bonds linked
to growth, among other anti-corrup-
tion and tax-raising measures. Hardly
revolutionary and well short of burn-
ing all bondholders, but enough to bring
the wrath of the austerity-mongers in
the ECB, on to the charismatic Alexis
Tsipras and his finance minister, Yanis
Varoufakis.
On the commemoration of his death
in January 1947 of that great socialist
and subversive, Jim Larkin, the presi-
dent of SIPTU, Jack O’Connor, recently
told the crowd assembled in Glasnevin
cemetery that it was an opportune time,
in the wake of the welcome and dramatic
Syriza victory, for the Left in Ireland to
cultivate and harvest a similar ambi-
tion, a year ahead of a general election
and the centenary of the Easter Rising.
He also set out the parameters of a pos-
sible charter of principles and policies
which could underpin a Left platform on
which different parties, organisations
and individuals could combine to offer
an alternative government.
“Dramatic possibilities are now open-
ing up here in Ireland as we approach
the centenary of the 1916 Rising. At this
extraordinary juncture, history is pre-
senting a ‘once in a century’ opportunity
Jack O’Connor with
Frank Connolly, of
SIPTU
February 2015 9
It is evident
that the likely
head-count
of left-wing
TDs after
the election,
based on
current trends,
and including
SF, Labour and
independent
socialists will
not be close to
the numbers
required
“
Why should
those who
wrecked the
place, and
forced so
many to leave
an unequal,
corrupt,
polluted,
indebted and
underdeveloped
shambles of a
place, be the
ones to decide
how our future
is re-built?
“
to reassert the egalitarian ideals of the
1916 Proclamation which were suffo-
cated in the counter-revolution which
followed the foundation of the
State. It is incumbent upon all
of us Social Democrats, Left
Republicans and Independent
Socialists who are inspired by
the egalitarian ideals of Jim
Larkin and James Connolly
to set aside sectarian divi-
sions and develop a political
project aimed at winning the
next general election on a
common platform, let’s call
it ‘Charter 2016’. This would
entail the most difficult and
challenging intellectual and
political task because, when
the moment arrives, t the pro-
portion of the electorate who
will decide the outcome will
demand to know what we are
for, as distinct simply from
what we are against, and we
have to be able to answer the
question comprehensively”.
O’Connor set out the chal-
lenges facing those with
different perspectives and
positions on issues ranging
from taxation and spending
to stealth charges, sustainable econom-
ics, industrial policy, social welfare and
Europe that could easily scuttle any such
project at birth. He warned that having
a wish list of demands would not suffice
and that any proposals would be scruti-
nised in forensic detail by those who will
claim that such a Left alliance could never
present a viable taxation and spending
programme. You can’t rebuild the health
service, eradicate housing lists, provide
proper pensions while abolishing all the
unpopular taxes and charges at the same
time, he said.
But he also argued that where there is a
will, and more importantly a necessity, to
provide the hard-pressed citizens – argu-
ably the majority – of the country with
the prospect of a radical, Left-leaning
government, then there must be a way.
“What the first Left of Centre govern-
ment in the history of the State could do
is to reassert the interests of the common
good, shifting the balance decisively in
favour of working people and those who
depend most on public services”, he
said.
Welcoming his call, Declan Kearney,
the national chairperson of Sinn Féin
(which will almost certainly comprise the
single largest left-wing bloc in the next
Dáil), said: “There is an obvious need for
a democratic, inclusive and politically
non-sectarian discussion
among all those genuinely
committed to opposing aus-
terity, supporting equality,
social solidarity, and the pro-
tection of citizens’ welfare.
Those who recognise the
need for an alternative politi-
cal and economic vision and
strategy across the island
have a responsibility to dis-
cuss how that can be brought
forward”.
Kearney had earlier called
for the opening of formal dis-
cussions between “ourselves,
progressive independents,
the trades union movement,
grass roots community
organisations, and others
on the Left in Ireland, North
and South….on the ideas and
strategies which will ensure
the future election of a Left
coalition in the South dedi-
cated to establishing a new
national Republic”.
Crucially, he acknowl-
edged that, while Sinn Féin
wants to be in government to advance
republican objectives, it cannot achieve
this without “a new critical mass for
change” that “presupposes increased
unity within progressive, Left, national
and democratic opinion”.
The challenge is to find areas of com-
mon interest and agreement rather
than focus on differences, and there are
potentially many. The future of Europe,
the North, climate change, environmen-
tal, foreign policy, corporation, water,
property and other taxes and charges,
democratic reform, gay and reproduc-
tive rights, migration, local government
funding, are just a few.
Over recent months and years others
on the Left, in the various progressive
think-tanks and trades unions and
through the media, have elaborated the
broad principles and strategies, includ-
ing detailed economic, spending and
taxation, and jobs- and-investment pro-
posals that could underpin such a Charter
for change. There is no need to reinvent
the wheel in this regard, only to find
agreement on workable solutions and
proposals that do not pander to the dog-
matic or the egocentric.
There is an urgent need, however,
given the imminence of a general elec-
tion, for those who share the ambition
for a government of the Left, and who
recognise the opportunity presented by
the national and European political cli-
mate, to act. It is evident that the likely
headcount of left-wing TDs after the
election, based on current trends, and
including SF, Labour and independent
socialists will not be close to the num-
bers required.
With a coherent platform, agreed by
those political forces in concert with an
alliance of trades union, community,
cultural and progressive economists
and social scientists, it would be pos-
sible to generate a dynamic for change
that could propel a significant number of
new progressive men and women into the
Oireachtas, and to build a social move-
ment that advances the ideas and policies
required for real change.
Those policies, particularly on taxation
and the economy, will need to withstand
the forensic scrutiny and the inevitable
outbreak of frenzied fear that will be
unleashed by the political right through
the mainstream media. Further, those
involved will have to create their own
voice, through an independent range
of traditional, online and social media
initiatives that must adapt the neces-
sary journalistic, marketing and digital
skills to the task, and raise the significant
resources required to fund it.
Most of all, however, it will require a
leap of many imaginations deploying the
creative talents of our young and old, of
women and men, of workers and intellec-
tuals, artists and actors and those who
believe that a better country is possible.
After all why should those who wrecked
the place, and forced so many to leave
an unequal, corrupt, polluted, indebted
and underdeveloped shambles of a place,
be the ones to decide how our future is
re-built?
As Antonio Gramsci once observed,
when “social classes become detached
from their traditional parties”, the
situation can become “delicate and dan-
gerous”. Delicate because it offers the
prospect of radical alternatives; dan-
gerous because, as we see across the
continent, they can be of the wrong, xen-
ophobic and neo-liberal variety. The Irish
people, like the Greeks, the Spaniards
and others are in that moment. Failure
to act is not an option. •
Frank Connolly is Head of Communications
for SIPTU
