Vincent Wood 1

Vincent Wood 1

Vincent Wood 1

Vincent Wood 1

That Handshake

People who believe in nonsense, even if their feelings are genuine, long held or even ‘cultural’ need to be confronted.

Whatever way you look at it, a genetic ancestral right to privilege, such as that enjoyed by royalty, is a notion that needs to be vigorously challenged.   It is not good enough to simply respect the view of monarchists to defend royalty.

If a section of a community is wedded to the support of privilege and hierarchy in the shape of the British royals, for example, they are given no favours by acknowledging their sensibilities.   For a start, it certainly won’t change their mindset.  More than that, it does not even serve as a genuine gesture of tolerance.   The monarchist knows that the Republican is insincere in tolerating that which is contrary to the core of what Republicanism is about.

Martin McGuiness, or any Republican on this island, could easily articulate an anti-monarchist position and back that up without conferring legitimacy on this relic of feudalism.   Given that upper class Unionism and the element in Unionism that is drawn from fanatical religious fundamentalism is a lost cause, the people to win over are the greater number of that community – the working class.

The more productive course for a republican to take is an evangelical one – if you pardon the pun.  Engage on the basis that Republicanism (not nationalism) serves the ordinary people.  Monarchy embodies the subservience of most of us to the few.  Once we learn to bow our heads, we don’t stop bowing to all our ‘betters’.  We don’t challenge.

Elizabeth Windsor and yours truly grew up in the same town.  Like me, and all Londoner’s, she is mixed race.  I am Irish/French Huguenot; she is German and her husband a Greek, so the heir to that throne has a rich mix indeed.  Still, with all that we have in common, I wouldn’t shake her hand.  Not because she represents an army that committed atrocities in Ireland (and elsewhere) or that she is sasanach Mór – true and all that she is.  No, I wouldn’t shake her hand because she is the embodiment of privilege and hierarchy and an aid to the dominance of capital over civilisation.

Martin and Sinn Féin have missed an opportunity to contribute to a necessary debate that has to happen within working class Unionism. 

I don’t accept much of the commentary about McGuiness or other Sinn Féin leaders from other Republicans opposed to their strategy.  He isn’t a ‘traitor’.   Sinn Féin has a strategy and have worked out how they want to get there.   It’s their view and I believe that is genuine.  They may be wrong and if so, Republicans and Socialists need to challenge them and continue to articulate alternative strategies.

 Meeting the British Queen is a mistake.  I hope that amends can be made and that Sinn Fein will embark on an engagement with working class unionism to promote republicanism – in its fullest sense.

A Crisis to Fight The Crisis.

Back in 2007 I wrote an article for An Phoblacht about a debate within Sinn Fein on taking a position on coalition with Fianna Fail.

I ventured a view that having upwards of 20 TD's elected would not of itself necessarily move the aims and objectives of the party forward if other factors influencing power in the state were not adequately addressed.  Nothing new or earth shattering there.  With all the reactionary forces that are marshaled to resist progressive change, it has always been necessary to have a subversive mindset when trying to fight for a civilised future.

It was hard to argue against comrades who took me to task.  Of course 20 plus TD's would make a difference. 

I could not have foreseen how this current crisis would lead to the sweeping away of any semblance of democratic control over fiscal policy.  Now we have a situation where having a majority government fails to guarantee the implementation of manifesto commitments let alone a vision of society fairly put before an electorate.

As I am reaching a phase of life when I could be tempted by moderation and cooperation in politics, I find myself returning to the conclusion that laws will have to be broken and broken regularly to get out of this straitjacket into which we have been put. 

For Unions to effectively represent their members, they will have to defy legislation.  The type of industrial action that has been curtailed by successive legislation and supported by political and media led conditioning of the public will have to be embarked on just so that basic pay and conditions can be maintained.  That or the labour movement will be destroyed - long the aim of the architects to neoliberalism.

Any government made up of progressive political parties will have to defy EU diktat in order to deliver any level of equality to an electorate who would have chosen an alternative to neoliberalism. That, or be party to wiping out many of the gains made by working people over many decades of struggle.

Without conflict of this type, austerity will put us back decades.

The challenge facing the progressive left is to accept that realpolitik as proscribed as the political norm - even in opposition - is useless.  What are we to be the better managers of?  Events have moved beyond this.  The Dail and Council chambers will have to be disrupted -  because simply opposing a puppet government is literally a waste of time. 

During the 1920's the Labour group on Poplar Council (A borough in East London, near to where I grew up) were sent to jail en masse for defying bad law in defence of the ordinary working people.  They were castigated by the media and called economically and politically illiterate by 'responsible' politicians including the leadership of their own party.

The 'yes' vote in the austerity referendum is no green light to guarantee barbarity over civilisation. There is a huge international mandate from the ordinary people of Europe and beyond to fight on.  The headlines that will give the necessary encouragement to the people on the front line are not those that show Sinn Féin and the ULA as effective Dáil performers.  Rather, they will need to see these parties and others creating havoc.  It is up to these parties to help cause a crisis.  There seems little point in being in these chambers besides under the current conditions.

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.

Austerity To Crush The Labour Movement

The crisis that has brought us to the dire economic situation we face today is not one caused by a few rogue bankers or reckless policy decisions made by successive Finance Ministers.

The Elephant in the room that most media commentators and virtually all politicians choose to ignore is ideology.  The austerity measures laid down by the Troika continue in the vein laid out under the neoliberal revival of the 1980’s and 90’s.  An ideological shift away from the broad Social Democracy of the post war period, with all of the cooperative involvement of public and private sectors that entailed. 

Fine Gael - already keen advocates of conservatism and neoliberalism - have been given free hand to continue this political and economic trend, assisted by and not hindered by the medicine proscribed by the IMF, ECB et al.  The Public Sector, essential State utilities and much of the NGO sector is now fair game for a shift towards private ownership and rich pickings for a very small percentage of people.

The very concept of the ‘free’ provision of Education and Health services has always been an anathema to supporters of neoliberalism.  Now, in the wake of the best example of the failure of this untrammelled capitalism since the 1930’s, this selfish ideology is looking to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.  Under the guise of austerity, the rolling back of democratic control of essential public services accessible to all is being accelerated.  More than this, the very exercise of policy making and the setting of Budgets by  national government is to be subject to the approval of neoliberal ideologues at the centre of the European Commission.

The Irish Labour Party, if they are in the tradition of Social Democracy/Democratic Socialism should have no truck with this.  The Gilmour leadership may not want to admit defeat by leaving this coalition, but in effect that could be their best chance of ensuring that the party survives.

Congress and the Unions have a huge responsibility if they too are to be relevent into the future.  Picture a post referendum scenario where the government can shrug its collective shoulders and point to a pre-agreed budget - agreed by neoliberals in far away chambers and approved by Goldman Sachs and others.  'Sorry David (Begg) and Jack (O Connor), but what can we do?'

There may be a time for the leadership and the ILP and Trade Union movement to be measured and 'responsible'.  Now is not that time.  Congress is sitting on the fence with regard to the impending referendum.  If that treaty passes, the neoliberal dream of killing off the unions, rolling back democratic control and bringing workers back to a cowed and compliant level will allow the 'flexibility' required to hammer home the dominance of capital over labour

The potential for democracy was far stronger fifty years ago than it is today.  Austerity is taking us back decades, as it is designed to do. 

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