Tipping the Balance

Wouldn't it be something to believe that voting actually matters?  We have all heard it - 'If voting changed anything, they'd ban it..' Or some variation of that.

Certainly the vote received by Fine Gael and Labour at the last Leinster House elections did no more than allow those parties to carry on as their predecessors in Fianna Fail.  Said predecessors are carrying on in the same vein even though they lost. But sin scéal eile.

Does casting a NO vote in the current referendum matter then?  This time it does.

The recent elections in France and Greece have created a space into which - with a few additional 'events' - we could see the first glimmer of hope in the long war resistance against the neoliberalist onslaught of all remaining remnants of political. economic and social protections for ordinary people.

On such 'event' that could help tip the balance in favour of the anti-austerity bloc that is emerging would be the people of Ireland voting against the Austerity Treaty.  We should not underestimate the psychological impact of this among the plain people of Europe.  This would be seen - not as an act of politicians and political parties - but an exercise in electoral democracy.  It could also give Hollende at al some useful ammunition in the battle that will have to be joined at governmental level.

Of course, the political parties here in Ireland have a huge role in all of this.  The progressive parties lined up against the Treaty are performing well in debates and in the marshaling of activists for the campaign.  The national media remains firmly pro-treaty, so to speak.  However, the local and regional media (if the local papers such as the Galway Advertiser are anything to go by) are wide open and are editorialising against the treaty.

In among all of the tactical priorities that parties have to deal with at this time, they should give some consideration to elevating the importance of this vote to one where it could tip the balance of the argument internationally.  We cannot win this war on our own - those days are gone - but we could be the determining factor in this battle.  It would do no harm in majoring on this.