Left in the shadows - Village Magazine

April 2016 3 7

s predicted a month ago in Village,

and following a pathetic shadow

dance by the two main parties, cli-

maxing as Village went to press with

Fianna Fáil’s rejection of Fine Gael’s

offer of Partnership in a government with them

and a few Blueshirt-diluting independents, the

former two giants of Irish politics still have little

choice but to ride the tide of history and engage

in negotiations to form a government - or go

back to the people.

Any assessment of their policies, not to men-

tion shared ideologies, only serves to conﬁrm

that their differences are far fewer than their

common interests and that only by exaggerat-

ing the former, such as the future of Irish Water,

can they mark out separate territories.

Of course, there are other obstacles to agree-

ment that will need to be thrashed out and

overcome, including the constituency concerns

of deputies and rivals of both parties and the

much-hyped reluctance of ordinary members,

particularly in Fianna Fáil, to embrace the old

enemy.

But just as the senior spokespeople and TDs

of each, cynically and with straight faces,

claimed over the past four seeks to be on course

to lead the next government, everyone knows

that the members will go with the ﬂow and ulti-

mately digest even the most unpalatable of

outcomes. Think Charlie Haughey and the PDs,

1989.

It is not beyond the capacity of negotiators of

the two parties to ﬁnd the necessary compro-

mises on the broad range of issues that can

ensure a government that will survive a reason-

able period and is not at the mercy of immediate

collapse when FF decides, inevitably, to pull the

plug.

The respective and again predictable out-

come of the vote for Taoiseach on Wednesday

6th April, with support for each from just their

own TDs (plus Michael Lowry for FG) – 51 for FG

and 42 for FF (Ceann Comhairle excluded) con-

ﬁrms the fruitlessness of the engagement with

most of the Independents over recent weeks,

though it appears a rural few were prepared to

support Fine Gael’s proposal to Fianna Fáil.

In the meantime, the Left has problems of its

own making and will require a signiﬁcant

amount of time and political space to identify

how it can progress to become a realistic alter-

native to the parties and independents of the

Right.

Sinn Féin will be the largest opposition party

of the Left but with just under 14% of the vote

and 23 seats it has a long way to go before it can

challenge for leadership of a future govern-

ment. Labour with seven seats will go through

an internally destructive selection process to

replace Joan Burton before spending a long time

deciding where to place itself on the political

spectrum, further to the left or in coalition,

sooner rather than later, with one of the larger

parties or whatever emerges from them.

With an eye to the more vibrant Social Demo-

crats and a deep underlying hostility to Gerry

Adams and Sinn Féin, which was magniﬁed over

recent years, a new Labour leader has to ﬁnd

potential allies if it is to offer anything new over

the coming period.

Similarly, those in the People Before Proﬁt/

Anti Austerity Alliance have to ﬁnd a path that

leads to the viable and concrete political change

to which they aspire but which also requires a

fresh willingness to agree and compromise with

others on the Left.

The Right to Change campaign achieved a

certain degree of cohesion around a broad

policy platform but it was clear there was reluc-

tance in individual constituencies to cede

ground to political rivals.

Nevertheless, if you put all these components

together, along with a signiﬁcant number of pro

gressive independents, the potential exists for

the Left to grow in tandem with a broad swathe

of non-party activists, greens, NGOs, commu-

nity organisations and trade unions seeking

fundamental change.

As the day-to-day crisis for many ordinary

people continues and intensiﬁes, in health,

education, housing and through precarious

work, youth unemployment and emigration, the

objective conditions for a more coherent Left

will become more obvious. But serious and sen-

sible people must recognise them.

Left in the shadows

As an insipid Civil War replays

elsewhere, the Left will realign,

balancing principle and pragmatism

- and must co-operate

by Frank Connolly

The objective

conditions for a more

coherent Left will

become more obvious