Archive for the ‘Ireland’ Category
Ireland’s turn to Reject Austerity Fantasy?
Gavan Titley and John O’ Brennan argue for Voting No to the Austerity Treaty on May 31
SYRIZA Lays out Five Points of Greek Coalition Talks – Austerity in Smithereens All Over Europe
http://socialistresistance.org/3487/syriza-lays-out-five-points-of-greek-coalition-talks
Austerity in Smithereens All Over Europe.
See also this very good survey by Éric Toussaint :
http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article2604
Seismic election results
Syriza, the radical left-wing coalition comes first in all major cities and among people aged 18-35. Its campaign advocated suspending debt payment and cancelling austerity measures.
1. Results
At the May 6 polls, the radical left-wing coalition Syriza becomes the second “party” in numbers of voters as it moves from 4.5% at the previous elections (2009) to 16.8% (52 MPs instead of 13). It is the first party in the major agglomerations and among people aged 18-35.
The Socialist Party (PASOK) lost 2/3 of the votes it had received in 2009 (from 44% to 13.2%, a loss of 119 MPs, from 160 to 41!). PASOK pays ‘cash on the nail’ their rigorous austerity programme and subjection to the ‘Troika’ and big private business interests. Read the rest of this entry »
The Right to Die With Dignity – Is Ireland on the Brink of a New X Case?
Ireland’s legislators have delayed taking action on the infamous X Case for more than twenty years.
In 1992 the State tried to prevent the parents of a raped suicidal pregnant 14 year old girl bringing their daughter to England for an abortion.
In 2011 the State prevented Bernadette Forde, who was suffering from a horrible disease – Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS) – that was getting worse all the time – from visiting the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland in order to end her own life. The Gardaí intervened, threatening legal action against Bernadette and other people who might be helping her.
Shortly afterwards Bernadette took her own life in Ireland.
A file is now with the Director of Public prosecutions.
The 2011 General Election saw Ireland swinging to the left on such matters – Clare Daly TD, with the support of other Leinster House colleagues, took legislative “Action on X”, and this struggle will continue :
http://politico.ie/crisisjam/8310-the-x-case-twenty-years-is-too-long.html
Similar establishment inertia surrounds the “Right to Die” issue, and Ireland could experience a political crisis similar to the X Case unless legislative action is taken.
Bernadette Forde’s story – “Forbidden to Leave” was published in the Sunday Business Post on April 15 2012 : Read the rest of this entry »
Political earthquake in Greece | yalmpanis
http://yalmpanis.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/political-earthquake-in-greece/
Well written survey
ULA nonaligned: A Left Unity Platform
On Monday 23rd, in the run up to the ULA conference on Saturday, Henry Silke and Therese Caherty circulated the proposal below to the nonaligned Google mailing group. Both are nonaligned members in Dublin Central and Therese is standing for one of the nonaligned positions on the ULA Steering Committee.
It’s a five-step plan that the nonaligned might agree on to develop the ULA and its structures. Tomás understands it to be a proposal for discussion, and there does not seem to be any facility for dealing with it this Saturday. Other signatures welcome. Read the rest of this entry »
ULA Conference: ‘Co-operation not competition’ – Statement from Paddy Healy and the South Tipperary Workers and Unemployed Action Group
It’s good to see the WUAG engaging like this with the ULA at large and doubly so given the content of the statement.
Huge Obligation and Opportunity for ULA as Sinn Féin reiterates its willingness to enter Coalition Government with any Party
Paddy Healy
Because of developments in the national and international economic and political crisis there is a huge obligation on ULA and on its components to make significant progress in its mission to politically reorganise the Irish working class in its own interest. The Irish Labour Party is once again in coalition government with a right-wing party. On this occasion the government is not just failing to introduce improvements for workers but is openly attacking all the gains made by workers over decades. If ULA can rise to its historic task the Labour Party could be wiped out and above all fail to recover from this period in government.
Following the recent rise of Sinn Féin in the polls, the party leader reiterated its willingness to enter coalition with any political party. This guarantees that sooner or later that party will go into oblivion sharing the same fate as Clann Na Poblachta and the Workers Party. But much damage could be done before then. The commitment of Sinn Féin to coalition confirms that it is no longer a revolutionary nationalist party. Read the rest of this entry »
Gerry Foley 1939 – 2012 : An American Revolutionary Inspired by Irish Rebellions
Gerry Foley 1939 – 2012 : An American Revolutionary Inspired by Irish Rebellions
Many thanks to friends and comrades on the Cedar Lounge Site for publishing a tribute to an old friend and comrade, Gerry Foley. Here is an article from March 1996 where Foley analyses the state of the “Peace Process” in Ireland after the IRA had broken its ceasefire and started a bombing campaign in England. Two key points are highlighted here :
There is a well-established pattern in the long history of Irish republicanism that when the movement loses its momentum or its perspective in Ireland it turns to bombing England in the hope that scattered explosions in the imperial heartland will have a political effect greater than anything that can be achieved in Ireland. Such a course was followed in the name of the “Skirmishing Fund” in the 1880s after the Land League struggles were defused by a reformist leadership and at the end of the 1930s when the IRA was torn apart by unresolved political differences and lost its direction.
The movement found itself in a blind alley when it proved unable to widen the political breakthrough that it had made in 1980-81 as a result of the mass movement in support of the ten Republican prisoners who starved themselves to death one after the other in protest against the British machinery of repression. This was the basic political context in which Republican leadership began negotiations with the British authorities in 1990, which led to the IRA ceasefire on August 31, 1994.John Meehan April 23 2012 What's behind the breakdown of the Irish Peace Process? by Gerry Foley The Irish "peace process" was not ended by the flurry of IRA bombings in London in February. At the end of the month, the British and Irish governments announced agreement for the start of all-party talks -- including Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican political organization -- on June 10.So-called proximity talks -- that is, indirectly involving Sinn Fein -- were to be held in March 4-13 to prepare for a new round of negotiations. As a condition for including Sinn Fein in the June talks, London and Dublin insisted on a resumption of the IRA ceasefire. Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, and John Hume, leader of the bourgeois nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), met with the IRA leadership to discuss renewal of the "peace process." The IRA response was noncommittal, obviously reflecting an uneasiness in the Republican movement over where the peace process had been leading. The IRA statement, released February 29, said: "We listened attentively to the case presented by both leaders and noted their shared commitment to restoring the peace process... "For our part," the IRA leadership continued, "we restated our absolute commitment to our republican objectives, which include the free exercise by the Irish people of our inalienable right to national self-determination. "We also took the opportunity to reiterate what we said on February 9 [the date of the statement declaring the end of the ceasefire], stressing that a resolution of the conflict in our country demands justice and an inclusive negotiated settlement without preconditions. "We pointed out to Mr. Hume and Mr. Adams that the failure of the British government to put in place inclusive negotiations free from preconditions, the abuse of the peace process by the British over 18 months, and the absence of an effective and democratic approach capable of providing an irrevocable momentum towards a just and lasting peace in Ireland, were the critical elements which led to the failure, thus farm, of the Irish peace process." The conditions that led to the "peace process" still exist. The British government and its pro-imperialist allies in Northern Ireland have not crushed the insurgency of the radicalized section of the nationalist population in the Catholic ghettos. On the other hand, the military campaign of the IRA has been effectively contained by the massive British military machine. Politically, the militant nationalists have been clearly isolated and on the defensive for many years. In a blind alley The movement found itself in a blind alley when it proved unable to widen the political breakthrough that it had made in 1980-81 as a result of the mass movement in support of the ten Republican prisoners who starved themselves to death one after the other in protest against the British machinery of repression. This was the basic political context in which Republican leadership began negotiations with the British authorities in 1990, which led to the IRA ceasefire on August 31, 1994. On February 9, 1996, the IRA leadership announced that it was ending the ceasefire. Their statement said: "The [ceasefire] presented an historic challenge for everyone, and an Oglaigh na hIireann [IRA] commends the leaderships of nationalist Ireland at home and abroad. "They rose to the challenge. The British prime minister did not. Instead of embracing the peace process, the British government acted in bad faith with Mr. Major and the Unionist leaders squandering this unprecedented opportunity to resolve the conflict.... "We take this opportunity to reiterate our total commitment to our Republican objectives. The resolution of the conflict in our country demands justice. It demands an inclusive negotiated settlement. That is not possible unless and until the British government faces up to its responsibilities. "The blame for the failure thus far of the Irish peace process lies squarely with John Major and his government." This statement was followed within hours by the explosion of a truck bomb outside a large building in the Docklands area of London. The blast was claimed by the IRA. On February 15, a small bomb placed by the IRA in a phone box in London's theatre district was defused by police, following an IRA warning. On February 18, a bomb carried by an IRA operative on a London bus exploded prematurely, killing him and injuring several passengers. According to accounts in the British press, about a third of the IRA men killed since the start of the insurgency in Northern Ireland have died in premature explosions of their own bombs. This figure attests to readiness for self-sacrifice of the Republican volunteers but not to a high degree of military organization. That is understandable. The IRA is based essentially on a small impoverished community that is under the constant surveillance of one of the world's biggest and best equipped professional military forces. A well-established pattern What is decisive for the IRA, therefore, is the political impact of its actions, and in particular the effect on the morale of its activists and supporters. There is a well-established pattern in the long history of Irish republicanism that when the movement loses its momentum or its perspective in Ireland it turns to bombing England in the hope that scattered explosions in the imperial heartland will have a political effect greater than anything that can be achieved in Ireland. Such a course was followed in the name of the "Skirmishing Fund" in the 1880s after the Land League struggles were defused by a reformist leadership and at the end of the 1930s when the IRA was torn apart by unresolved political differences and lost its direction. This pattern tends to recur, despite the fact that its political effects on British and international pubic opinion have always been negative. On the other hand, these actions have served as a symbol of indomitable resistance for Irish Republicans themselves. In the present situation of the peace process, however, the Republican strategy is to use the pressure of international public opinion to induce the British to give concessions to the nationalist people. In this respect, it is hard to see how the London bombings could have any effect other than to weaken the political position of the Republican movement. That point was made in fact in two quite long letters published in the February 29 issue of An Phoblacht/Republican News, the weekly newspaper of the Republican movement. In one of them, a Republican political prisoner in England, Joe O'Connell, wrote: "For the IRA to order a resumption of war until it is promised a date for all-party negotiations -- something which is achievable under the now binned peace process anyway -- must surely go down as the most stupid, blinkered and ill-conceived decision ever made by a revolutionary body anywhere ever before in history." Given the intense pressures on the Republicans in the wake of the London bombings, publication of these letters must have been a carefully considered political decision. Endless "talks about talks" On the other hand, in the same issue of An Phoblacht, the editorial touched on the nub of the problem: "So the convoluted progress of the peace process continues with yet more convoluted language.... "Republicans should welcome the fixed date for all-party talks, but essential guarantees must be in place.... Sinn Fein cannot sign up to a process which underpins the unionist veto [e.g. the veto of the pro-imperialist settler caste that is a majority in Northern Ireland but a minority in Ireland as a whole] and partition.... "On Wednesday evening, in the aftermath of the communique, Unionists signalled that they will not move beyond the first item on the agenda -- in effect, decommissioning [the IRA surrendering its weapons] -- until it is resolved. "In fact, David Trimble went further and said that his party will not meet face to face with Sinn Fein until the issue is resolved. How then can there be all-party talks?" To sum it up, the peace process has become a labyrinth in which the Republicans find themselves becoming more and more lost, further and further from the goals of their struggle, and without even any real alleviation of the repression from which they have been suffering. That is obviously the reason why the IRA statements kept repeating that the movement is going to stick resolutely to its goal -- a united Ireland free of imperialist domination. One might think something else from the Sinn Fein leaders' exaltation of "peace" as the greatest of "sublunary blessings," and from the "hand of friendship" that Adams has extended even to British Prime Minister John Major. Since the IRA have suffered most for the movement's goals, obviously they feel the drift from them most acutely. In this regard, the new promise of "all party talks" solves absolutely nothing. In fact, it appears only to be a continuation of the British delaying tactics designed to exhaust the patience of the militant nationalists and provoke them into desperate acts that can be exploited to further isolate and demoralize themselves and their supporters. Increasing frustration The critics in the February 29 An Phoblacht of the IRA's resumption of military action were quite correct about the effects of these actions. What they failed to recognize is that they are absolutely inevitable if the "peace process" talks about talks keep dragging on with no results expect increasing the confusion and frustration of the nationalist population. In fact, the new agreement for talks is between the British and Irish governments, in which Sinn Fein is included as basically a juvenile delinquent ward of the Irish government. Dublin effectively promised to get the Republicans to mind their manners in order to be accepted into talks, and thus is now twisting their arms harder and harder. After the end of the IRA ceasefire, the Sinn Fein leadership called for public pressure for a resumption of the peace process. On the weekend of February 24-25, in fact, there were demonstrations of tens of thousands of people in Ireland for peace. But Sinn Fein found itself mingling with forces that were demanding a peace that meant simply condemnation of the IRA and abandonment of the goal of national liberation. The IRA itself, while impatient with the "peace process," has still not challenged its basic premise, the "nationalist consensus" -- that is, a bloc of all nationalists, including the Dublin government and the bourgeois nationalists of the SDLP. That is the nub of the problem. The Republicans recognize there is a contradiction between the British imperialist and all nationalists, including the bourgeois nationalists. After all, the bourgeois nationalists rule in the name of the goal of Irish independence. But they have decided to forget that they live by selling out Irish nationalism. Thus, the contradiction cannot be exploited simply by hobnobbing with them. That means that they pull the Republicans rather than the other way around. The only way to exploit the contradiction is to expose the bourgeois nationalists' false pretences of defending the interests of the Irish people. But this requires mass campaigns against the most acutely felt concrete effects of imperialist domination, not abstract appeals to the bourgeois nationalists' presumed love of peace and sense of responsibility, or concern for the fate of their compatriots. The civil rights struggle that led to the insurgency in Northern Ireland and assured its continuation for more than 25 years shows what can be accomplished by such a course. It was the failure of the Republicans to set in motion such a process in the South after the end of the 1980-81 hunger strikes that led them into their present predicament. Gerry Foley was International Editor for Socialist Action USA when this article first appeared in March 1996.
On foot of the sad news that Gerry Foley has died here’s a few pieces relating to him and his life. As a socialist with a profound interest in Ireland and matters Irish and as the author of a number of pamphlets directly linked to that his views of the situation, particularly in the early to mid 1970s are of particular interest.
We start with with a letter from a comrade of his reflecting on his passing and his life.
Dear Comrades,
I just learned from Gerry Foley’s friend in Mexico that Gerry died suddenly today in Mexico. Gerry called me a few days ago to say that he was happily moving from his rented home in Mérida to a happy home in San Cristobol de Las Cases, in the mountains of Chiapas.
Just a few moments ago Gerry was walking into his house. He fell down and died almost immediately…
View original post 633 more words
ULA nonaligned election to Steering Committee: Therese Caherty
On Saturday next, 28th April, the nonaligned members of the United Left Alliance will elect two of their number to the Steering Committee. There are three candidates: Alan Gibson (Cork), Joe Loughnane (Galway) and Therese Caherty (Dublin Central).
In three posts we bring you their election statements. The third is from Therese Caherty:
Election Statement
Non-aligned ULA members are particularly well placed to build the alliance as a new, active, diverse radical party. We need to work to ensure that the ULA is promoted on the public and political stages and that attention and resources are devoted to the alliance rather than to several campaigns and recruitment drives directed back at the founding organisations. We also need clear structures to ensure the ULA has a healthy, open democratic internal life.
The non-aligned grouping is beginning to take shape but has no structure. Whoever is elected will not be so much representing as building us into a force. We have the possibility to lead by example – how we develop should be a template for how the ULA develops. A priority is to draft a “memorandum of agreement” on how we conduct ourselves as a group, online and off. Recent wrangles, on the nonaligned Google mailing group, with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and a Youth Defence-type supporter show how important it is to have simple protocols around joining our discussion group and rules of engagement when interacting.
The term “non aligned” does not express who we really are. In fact, a major challenge for us is that we are all definitely aligned. The terms non-party activist / independents explain that while we might have similar views we are not members of the three founding parties. We have to acknowledge our political differences but pledge our commitment to the programme of the ULA and its development. This programme is sufficient as a starting point to organise around and is adequate for people who have a long track record of involvement in Left politics and those like myself who do not. Despite our diversity, we need to forge our own distinctive identify within the ULA so that we speak with one voice on agreed issues – and are ready to include newcomers who may never have been involved in a political organisation but who are angry and anxious to defend their living and working conditions.
Our experience is not uncommon: there are other parties in Europe from which we can learn how to progress. On that basis, I believe we should start speaking immediately to those in sister organisations across Europe: Die Linke in Germany, Partie de Gauche and the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste in France, the Left Bloc in Portugal, Red Green Alliance in Denmark and learn from their experience.
We need more women in the ULA – on committees, sub-committees, public platforms and so on. And we have to be more explicit in our public commitment to a woman’s right to choose. Lack of access to safe free legal abortion in Ireland is a profound discrimination. It denies women self determination and is the basis for questioning our agency and ability to make “the right decisions” not just on abortion but in many other areas.
We independents should produce our own literature. This would help to advertise the existence of a third force within the ULA that can accommodate those who don’t want to join the People Before Profit Alliance or the Socialist Party. The ULA itself needs its own publication. At this point, having public meetings where the founders have a visible presence through their newspapers but the alliance as a whole does not, makes no sense.
Again, on the broader ULA front, we need more communication from the centre. The arrival of two full-timers has been great: regular bulletins and updates on activities were long overdue. But we should have edited minutes of steering committee meetings. Info on committee members should be available on the website. Open internal bulletins and activist meetings are vital for developing political discussion and beginning to create an internal political life for our alliance. The proposed ‘Branch Council’ would be a welcome step in this direction. Also welcome is the election of two nonaligned members to the steering committee.
Nevertheless if the ULA is to survive and thrive, the practice of handing down decisions by a small committee (mostly appointed by the founding organisations) is not sustainable for too long.
Finally, the ULA should register as a political party and take definite steps towards becoming a party.
Brief biog
Throughout twenty years working for national newspapers (freelance, later staff) I was secretary of Dublin Freelance branch of the National Union of Journalists; elected on a job-share to the Executive Council where I was Training Officer and Freelance Officer; I was also Ireland’s rep on the union’s Freelance Industrial Council. When staffed, I became secretary of the house chapel and worked consistently to ensure that our union agreement was adhered to by management.
Currently, I’m co-convenor of Feminist Open Forum, a space open to all where issues of the day are discussed from a feminist perspective.
I am also anchoring two projects: to commemorate the Irish Women Workers Union with a sculpture to be unveiled on International Women’s Day 2013; an event to critique Ireland’s partisan media.
ULA nonaligned election to Steering Committee: Joe Loughnane
On Saturday next, 28th April, the nonaligned members of the United Left Alliance will elect two of their number to the Steering Committee. There are three candidates: Alan Gibson (Cork), Joe Loughnane (Galway) and Therese Caherty (Dublin Central).
In three posts we bring you their election statements. The second is from Joe Loughnane. It is from his website at the following link:
Election Statement for Non-Aligned Member of ULA Steering Committee
Hi, my name is Joseph Loughnane, I am 25 years old and am active in the Galway branch of the ULA. I am running for a position on the steering committee of the ULA on April 28th.
I have been active in Galway, both on the ground and in the University (NUI Galway) on a wide range of issues affecting working class and marginalised people. I have lived in Galway all of my life, and have a Bachelor of Arts in law and philosophy, an LLB (postgraduate law degree) and a masters in International Human Rights Law. My mother is from Pakistan and my father is from Dublin.
From the age of 16 I have been involved in many different activist groups and I was a member of the SWP for a couple of years. I started the Free Education for Everyone initiative in Galway and have helped it build across the country. I am a member of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, serving for 2 years as the auditor of the Palestine Solidarity Society in NUIG and have been an active member of the Galway Alliance Against War. I have been involved in many anti-racism groups in Galway; having been involved in a report into racism in the Galway Taxi industry and arranging meetings to highlight the plight of asylum seekers in Galway’s prison-like residencies. I was one the founders of the ULA and the Campaign against the Household Charge & Water Tax in Galway and have pushed it as a political force both in NUI Galway (biggest and most active student branch of the ULA) and in Galway city – instrumental to this are the links I have forged with a number of single-issue groups in the area and uniting them under the banner of anti-austerity.
Perspective:
Being independents in the ULA puts us, at the moment, in both a strong and weak position, depending on the level of struggle. As the Alliance is not currently a party, and we have 2 parties in co-existence alongside us; we are constantly looked to as “another vote” in backing up the position of the SP or the SWP when sectarianism arises. This highlights 2 problems, first of all that we are seen as individuals rather than as a collective by the other 2 constituent organisations and secondly, the increasing levels of sectarianism that we need to be opposing at such a time like this.
I propose, whether elected or not, that those of us independents in the ULA who identify capitalism and imperialism as the main cause of Ireland’s problems; that we come together and start pushing for the ULA to take stronger positions on a number of different issues. The overwhelming majority of us are pro-Palestine, anti-war, pro-choice, anti-commercialisation, anti all forms of discrimination etc. – through these commonalities we should be pushing to strengthen our own position on economic issues and those that directly affect the working classes everyday. Only by acting as a collective with our goal of becoming a party in mind, can we truly bring everyone’s ideas to the table and make the ULA a real workers party.
On the issue of sectarianism, it is our duty to push for a one member-one vote style organisation, where all those elected off the back of the ULA are held to account for their actions. Now is not the time to be deciding which of either the SP or the SWP are better allies, we should look to their members and argue for a mass workers party that does not fall into the pits of left-sectarianism – something that is already beginning to take place in specific campaigns.
For a party for workers:
It is our duty to combat the divide and conquer tactics of the Government. One of the main reasons many workers are not engaged in struggle is because of low confidence and a concept I like to call ‘Horizontal Blame’ – where private sector workers blame all their ills on their supposedly better-paid public sector comrades. The time has come for the ULA to actively discourage such beliefs by remaining in constant contact with all workers in our respective areas, be it by leafleting, postering or by a more proactive approach in the unions.
We should be calling for strike-action from this day forth. So many stores where employees have been laid off with little or no fightback have been ignored; we need to push for direct action and see these struggles as focal points for community struggle. The workers of La Senza, Vite Cortex and Game are an inspiration to us all, however, we must now start to tell all workers that their actions are not just for basic rights such as redundancy pay etc – such action is necessary and builds confidence and is vital to oppose all wage decreases, lay-offs and any other measures that are designed to make the employee think that cutbacks are necessary and that “we all need to take a hit”.
The unemployed have to be engaged with a lot more, especially seeing as many of us activists are unemployed ourselves. We should have meetings targeted purely at those out of work and put the idea in their heads that their time is better spent working out why they were made redundant in the first place. Campaigns against JobsBridge and unpaid internships can create a narrative around the idea of working for a decent wage rather than “experience”, a narrative that aims to undermine the careerist nature of the promotion of internships and the exploitative competition based approach of the employment sector.
For a party against all forms of discrimination:
It is in times like the present that differences in appearance, culturally etc become exaggerated and seen as the primary reason for the misfortune of another victim of this crony-capitalist state. It is our duty in the ULA to oppose all forms of discrimination either in combined campaigns or in single-issue formats.
At all times, we should be fostering the idea that the only real difference is class, and that it is the capitalist class who the average worker should blame for their problems. Travellers need to be supported as has been seen in recent house-burnings and developments in the UK. All aspects of the asylum-seeker and refugee process should be questioned with an aim to expose the Government for the institutionalised racism it has fermented. Casualised racism has become acceptable in our discourse, this must be combated and a language of equality It is essential that we recruit those directly affected to the ULA and involve them in all aspects of any anti-discrimination campaigns. The LGBTQ community are being compartmentalised by the Government with issues surrounding gay marriage and adoption being avoided until legislation on the matters brings them into any sort of media spotlight. The need for grassroots activism against all levels of homophobia is urgent, the ULA has to have a strong message that combats the pervasive conservative and religious views that dominate our current hegemony. The disabled in our society are still only catered for as a last-minute policy decision. Having worked as an academic personal assistant to 4 different students with disabilities over the past year, I have begun to understand the deeper structural problems that disabled people face everyday, the ULA needs to be seen as the force to change that.
The current work being done by the ULA surrounding the X-case is crucial. Our pro-choice agenda has to be used as an initial sword into the patriarchal society we inhabit. From this we have to combat all aspects of sexism that pervade our consciousness. From the objectification of young women across University campuses to the casualisation of sexism in our daily discourse, the discrimination that women experience needs to be one that all male activists on the left understand fully and something that the ULA begins to highlight in a proactive manner.
For a 32-country Party:
As anti-imperialists, we must never forget why Ireland is currently a 26-country Republic. The austerity measures being imposed on those living in the occupied counties are no different to the ones we are facing, bar the parties imposing it. We must be aware of the current fostering of a Northern Irish culture, a culture built off the back of ignoring all of the fundamental problems that underlie society in the North, a culture that promotes tourism as an answer to improving the lives of workers, a culture that has as its core objective, the creation of a colony with a large body of workers willing to compete against workers in the South, uniting them only in their ability to further the aims of the capitalist system.
For us Independents, we must establish links with those like-minded individuals in the North. Many activists on the ground in that area have very few options for a real left alternative. For those who value their right to vote, for those who have used this right before to achieve equality for different religions in the North – the ULA can be a vehicle for them to foster proper working class solidarity, one which goes beyond religious sectarianism and one which doesn’t fall foul of the sectarianism that plights the left in the UK, something which is already beginning to spread to the North with the presence of certain organisations.
For a Party that creates a clear and distinct counter-hegemony:
The battle of ideas will only be won if we begin to challenge the dominant hegemony that our media, politicians and institutions of power propagate everyday. Leaflets and posters are not enough; there is a need for a much larger media presence, especially for the ULA, and this will begin to be realised by the creation of media outlets set up to focus on exposing the right-wing bias in the national media. Gramsci spoke of organic intellecuals – each and every one of us, as on-the-ground activists, must start spreading the ideas of real solidarity, real democracy, real equality via methods we usually ignored for fear of politicising our leisure time. We must highlight how people have very little time to question the acts of their Government, explain to them that their problems are being felt by 1000s of other people across the country, and from this build their confidence to help to organise also.
Music, art, all forms of entertainment are used by the capitalist class to further ”enrich” their bourgeois ideals. The ULA must begin to engage with such aspects of culture, especially at University level, and push any counter-cultural movements that promote a socialist message.
For a Party for young people:
Thousands of young Irish people have left these shores over the past few years. Our education system is designed to quell any critical thinking and foster “entrepreneurship” . The ULA must fight for a fully free education system, from primary to third level, opposing commercialisation and promoting the idea that you go to University to seek knowledge and not to become yet another employable product of an education factory. A proposal I believe will help young people to begin the fightback themselves is the replacing of the teaching of religion in secondary schools with the teaching of philosophy. This will serve to counter one of the most crippling forces of the education system, the Catholic church, and get young people thinking outside the parameters of the severely institutionalised Irish education system.
For a Party that recognises the importance of our Environment:
The presence of Shell and their robbing of our natural resources is something that the Left in Ireland has allowed to quieten down. There are so many different groups who organise for progressive reasons but fail to connect the destruction of our ecological surroundings with the rise of neo-liberalism. We in the ULA must present the party as an organisation that stands against the commodification of our scenic landscape, that argues for all our natural resources to be organised and used for the people of Ireland and by the people of Ireland and finally, as a party that has the ability to be understood despite rural and urban differences between the working class.
I would please ask you to vote for me on April 28th, and any help in my candidature would be appreciated. To contact me, you can find me on uniteblasian@gmail.com
Tomás Ó Flatharta 