Menu
Ireland's political and cultural magazine
June 2015 33
W
E need a new politics in Ireland but
do we have the motivation for and
capacity to mobilise? Professor
Eduardo Silva from Tulane University has
analysed the left politics that emerged in
responses to crisis in some Latin American
states in his study ‘Challenging Neoliberal-
ism in Latin America’. With some caveats,
there are useful lessons to be found for Ire-
land. He emphasises motivation and
capacity.
Conditions will trigger motivation. There
is clear evidence of neo-liberalism causing
economic volatility in Ireland. However,
despite unresolved high levels of individual
and collective indebtedness,
unemployment, emigration and
increased deprivation, the crisis
simply has not been grave enough
to cause a reaction with sufficient
force to provoke a change of
course. The conditions do not
compare to other European coun-
tries in crisis, and especially to
Latin America. However, crisis is
still alive in Irish society and the
potential for conflict remains.
This is evident in the Anti-Water-
Charges Protest movement which
echoes some of the approaches
found in Latin America, both in
terms of the coalitions and the
issues.
Motivation is stimulated by
political exclusion. The
general election in Ireland repre-
sented a ‘pencil revolution’. However, there
remains a crisis of representation, where
citizens mistrust political institutions.
Opinion polls highlight the turbulence and
volatility in Irish politics. However, the
same opinion polls can show a potential for
recovery for mainstream national politics
committed to meeting fiscal-deficit targets.
Silva emphasises the importance of asso-
ciational power: the formation of groups;
and collective power: the formation of new
coalitions or alliances, in achieving change.
He argues that Latin American elite leaders
sought to ensure a fragmentation across
the different parts of civil society. This
echoes in Ireland.
Many trade unions and non-government
organisations are sectoral, and organised
around specific campaigns to puncture
individual austerity measures. They are
also conditioned by a tendency to consen-
sus with the state. Government has
implemented cutbacks that, while not sig-
nificant in terms of the percentage of GDP,
are politically significant in encouraging
groups to persist in sectoral campaigns
while if anything generating resistance to
harder and riskier work such as coalition
building. There is, however, some evidence
of the type of collective mobilisation that
happened in Latin Amercia. Linkages
across sectors can be found in various
grassroots gatherings, Claiming Our
Future, We’re Not Leaving, campaigns
against precarity, and
RightWater.
As to capacity: there is evi-
dence in Ireland of major protest
and some very conscious
attempts to build collective
action. These efforts did not,
however, demonstrate the neces-
sary capacity or alliance-building
to create the conditions for a sig-
nificant ‘new politics’. Only the
RightWater campaign, from
among various oppositional
movements, has achieved critical
mass. The emergence of this has
been spawned by wider dissatis-
faction with austerity and the
political elite, according to Rory
Hearne.
The reasons for this failure
include the decline in trade
unions and their adoption of a largely
defensive position during the crisis, and
the degree to which a historically strong
civil society now appears dominated by
state and market, perhaps a legacy of two
decades of social partnership. Meanwhile
the power of indigenous Irish pro-neolib-
eral forces has been augmented by
international allies, particularly in the
‘troika’ of the European Commission, the
ECB and the IMF; and has bared teeth.
Silva emphasises the importance of ideo-
logical power and the need to frame
messages and narratives consciously to
broker new linkages of issues and people.
There has not been such an effective fram-
ing in Irish protests. The issues have not
been framed to focus on what might unite a
critical mass around a positive vision of
life, or to stimulate united action to create a
world without the social, democratic, cul-
tural and economic rupture associated
with neo-liberalism. Silva advises that such
a framing is crucial to brokering the link-
ages necessary to achieve change.
A new politics requires a ‘new
policy consensus’. In Latin Amer-
ica this reaffirmed: the legitimacy
of state involvement in the econ-
omy and society; an ecologically
driven model of development;
less reliance on and greater regu-
lation of markets; less reliance on
foreign investment; and more
social investment in welfare,
health, education, and pensions
as well as a focus on inclusion and
equality of status for all, includ-
ing women. Such an Irish
narrative could create new solidarities
based on an understanding of our collec-
tive interdependence. This new politics
could drive more, and more effective, pro-
test, and vision. •
The left should draw lessons about motivating people and cultivating protest capacity.
By Mary Murphy
Locating Ireland in South America
POLITICS Protest
This article draws
from and builds on:
‘Where are the pots
and pans? Collective
responses in Ireland
to neoliberalization
in a time of crisis:
Learning from Latin
America’ published
by Barry Cannon and
Mary Murphy in
Irish
Political Studies
in
2015
Silva
emphasises
the need
to frame
messages
consciously
to broker new
linkages of
issues and
people
“
