Archive for the ‘Socialist Party’ Category
Labour Voters – How Cool Are They About Coalition With the Right?
John Meehan has put together a statistical analysis of Labour Party lower preferences, where no other Labour candidate is in the contest (these are known as terminal transfers), and candidates from both the left and right are still in the race.
The table is at the end of this article.
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Healthy debate is developing on this blog and other Irish sites on the composition of the Labour Party’s electoral base. The February 2011 General Election broke new ground in many ways, and we can learn a lot from detailed study of the numbers.
An interesting question is : how keen are Labour voters on coalition with the right? How sympathetic are they to the arguments of left rivals that helping to elect Enda Kenny as taoiseach is a very bad idea? Read the rest of this entry »
Written by tomasoflatharta
Mar 15, 2011 at 10:18 pm
The February 25 General Election changed something in Ireland
The article below – by John Meehan –
has been published in the British Magazine Socialist Resistance :
http://socialistresistance.org/1775/70-votes-for-socialism
Writing in the North American online magazine Counterpunch Harry Browne zoned in on two key features on the Irish February 25 2011 General Election Result
Same Old at the Top – but Irish Election Makes Room for the Left
Same Old, Same Old at the Top, But – Irish Election Makes Room for the Left
The same old :
A Fine Gael / Labour coalition takes over the government after 14 years of Fianna Fáil rule. Since 1932, Fianna Fáil have been the governing party for 61 out of 79 years. They have won 19 out of 25 General Elections. On the rare occasions Fine Gael dominated coalitions have come to power the smaller right-wing party never held on longer than one term in office.
That said, the scale of the 2011 Fianna Fáil defeat is without precedent Read the rest of this entry »
Written by tomasoflatharta
Mar 10, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Should Irish Times ex-Trot Journalists Throw Stones in their Glass-House?
This is a fascinating article about the far-left history of many new TD’s.
Left Lineages
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0304/1224291281717.html
where the talented author Patrick Smyth observes “Today the majority of them, now firmly in the bosom of Labour, have rejected revolution, embrace wholeheartedly its centrist social democratic values, and are politically indistinguishable from their Old Labour colleagues.”
Absolutely right.
Ex-comrade Patrick Smyth advises his current fellow-thinkers not to get too alarmed by the growth of the real fighting left “Although the ULA should work as an informal marriage of convenience, attempts to create a party out of its constituent elements may prove more difficult. Ideological purity on the hard left comes easier than the much-desired oxymoron that is “left unity”. Read the rest of this entry »
Written by tomasoflatharta
Mar 5, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Why Does The Irish Labour Party Seek Fine Gael’s Kiss-of-Death?
In the last days of the 2011 Irish General Election Campaign Labour Party leaders and spinners are warning that the voters might choose a Fine Gael single party government. Their alternative? : Coalition – Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny for Taoiseach, Labour’s Eamon Gilmore the Tánaiste – that’s the message.
SIPTU leader Jack O’Connor, for example, claims “that a coalition government would be far preferable as the country imposes spending cuts as part of its EU and IMF bailout.
“If you look at the lessons of history, they (Fine Gael) haven’t been in government on their own since 1927 when their predecessor Cumann na nGaedheal was in government,”….
“They pursued policy which resulted in economic stagnation for 60 years. And that’s the kind of policy that’s being advocated by both of the centre-right parties at the present time.”
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/02/15/ireland-politics-union-idUKLDE71E2C620
First – is a single-party Fine Gael government possible or likely?
We will know for sure on Saturday February 26 – at the time of writing, if the polls are right, a single party Fine Gael government is possible but unlikely.
A second factor is political – many Fine Gael backers, for example the former party leader Garret FitzGerald, argue that coalition with Labour is a better tactical option for this right-wing party. Read the rest of this entry »
Written by tomasoflatharta
Feb 23, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Joan Collins to Offer Radical Alternative – RTE’s Frontline Programme, Monday February 21
Message from the Joan Collins Site :
“I have agreed to go on panel on Frontline on Monday evening. It’s on after the 9pm news. Also last Friday I had a BBC Panorama crew with me for the afternoon in Drimnagh. They are doing an election special on Ireland, also on Monday evening.”
http://joan-collins.org/2011/02/19/appearing-on-panel-on-frontlines-rte-monday-night/
Joan’s campaign was featured in the Irish Times, Thursday February 17 :
Collins aims to offer radical alternative
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0217/1224290025041.html
Joan Collins Flyer :
500 Words from Joan Collins :
United Left Alliance Prospects? Read the rest of this entry »
Written by tomasoflatharta
Feb 20, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Joan Collins – Campaigning in Meath Street (Videos)
Joan Collins first won a seat on Dublin City Council in 2004, and was re-elected in 2009 with an increased share of the vote in the Crumlin-Kimmage ward. In 2011 she is a People Before Profit / United Left Alliance candidate in Dublin South-Central. Joan doorstepped ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at the gates of Leinster House this week, asking why he had no “shame” about the state of the country, ruined by the collapse of the Celtic Tiger. Have a look at Joan’s campaign in the Meath Street area on Saturday January 29 2011 – it looks like she has struck a chord with many working class people.
The reaction to Joan’s handbagging of Bertie Ahern was very positive and good-humoured – take a look at these short videos made by John Meehan :
Meath Street Butchers discuss ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s retirement regrets with Dublin South-Central United Left Alliance General Election candidate Joan Collins and Dermot Connolly.
http://www.facebook.com/v/1730560898133 Read the rest of this entry »
Written by tomasoflatharta
Feb 1, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Labour Leadership Offensive to the Left, Offensive Against the Left
Thanks to Des Derwin for this article, also published here :
http://www.irishleftreview.org/2011/01/25/godsend-sinn-fin-left/
The Finance Bill stroke is the latest, but greatest, in a line of indications that Labour in government will be on the good ship Austerity.
Until fairly recently I would have counselled my friends on the left against rejecting calls for an all-left alliance out of hand and, instead, for saying to Labour and Sinn Féin, ‘reject coalition and austerity and we can all ally’. The clarity of Labour’s intentions makes this position redundant. More, the Labour leadership has now gone on the offensive against the ULA and Sinn Féin, against the rest of an all-left alliance.
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/talk-away-mister-higgins/
Written by tomasoflatharta
Jan 25, 2011 at 6:57 pm
General Election Challenge of United Left Alliance Strengthens
This is a very useful news summary published on the Socialist Party Site.
If any readers attended the Cork ULA meeting this week, please consider mailing a news report for this site. We hear the event was very well attended – one comment mentioned a crowd of over 200 – exaggeration or truth?
Written by tomasoflatharta
Jan 15, 2011 at 11:58 am
Posted in Abortion, Ireland, People Before Profit, Socialist Party, United Left Alliance
Building the United Left Alliance: reflections on the past and proposals for the future
Building the ULA:
reflections on the past and proposals for the future.
Brendan Young. People Before Profit and the Campaign for an Independent Left.
It is just over a month since the United Left Alliance was launched and the paucity of organised resistance to the deepening economic crisis has made the alternative offered by the ULA all the more urgent. So the formation of the ULA is very welcome. Also welcome is the public commitment to the ULA by People Before Profit, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers’ Party and the Tipperary Unemployed and Workers’ Action Group. Such co-operation amongst the Irish left is a very big step forward and every effort should be made to ensure that it is a success, up to and after the coming election.
Written by tomasoflatharta
Jan 7, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Tomás Ó Flatharta 