26 County voters reject austerity

GENERAL ELECTION

Many commentators labelled the general election in the South ‘the unnecessary election.’ At first glance this seems true. The last government had in practice the biggest majority ever. The ‘Tallaght strategy” pronounced by Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes meant that in Practice the Fianna Fail program was backed by the entire capitalist class.

to launch a against the working extradition and even, alternative programme, polls. It enabled Haughey full-scale austerity offensive class, to in the absence of an to gain What need for an election?

implement in the opinion Yet behind the scenes resentment was growing and Fianna Fail, with its populist base, was most at Fisk and most aware of hoped, through a overall majority for further cuts. He the discontent. Haughey snap election, to win an left it too late and the election became the mechanism for the class. initial The following pattern 15 clear: ( Acrisis for Fianna Fail. [t won 44.12 of the vote - the same as in the last election twt lost 4 seats, Even sore isportant was the change in the character of its vote. There was a distinct shift away by working class voters and a number of Fianna Fail Ths were saved by Fine Gael and Progressive Desocrat transfers. Wow they have been faced into a coalition with their bitter enemies in the Progressive flemocrats and faced with implementing further cuts which will further erode their hase in the working class.

t An overall crisis for the capitalist parties. This is best illustrated by the fate of the Progressive Deaocrats. They split from Fianna Fail to develop a hard-line Thatcherite ideology coabined with support for the British occupation in the North. This is essentially the programme that all the capitalist parties supported in the last Dail, and the result for the Progressive Desocrats was that their vote chal lenge fran the working plunged from 11.8) to 5.5% and their share of Dail Seats from 14 to 4. tA shift to the left. The Labour and Workers parties gained seats The Greens came irom nowhere {o win a sutstantial vote and a seat and in Arscomson an independent mas able to take a seat fros Fianna Fail on the single issue of the closure of a local hospital. i The sarginalisation of Sinn Fein, The party took 1.72 of the poll, and no seats. This compares with 1.992 in the 1987 election, itself a bad result and was even sore striking, given that there was a large protest vote that the republican sovesent was not able to relate to.

CRISIS IN FIAMMA FAIL

The present coalition with the Progressive

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VOTERS REJECT AUSTERITY

Democrats is rich with irony. The Progressive Democrats were only formed 4 years ago as a solit from Fianna Fail. Relations between the two groups inside Fianna Fail and a5 separate parties have a lot to do with the evolution of Fianna Fail and its crisis today.

Fianna Fail owes its position as the natural party of government and the bourgeois party with aass working-class support to its role as “the Republican party’ - pledged to develop an independent {irish capitalisa and oppose the British occupation in the Worth. In reality it has never effectively opposed the occupation and the mild experiaent in capitalist independence was over by the early “hts. The Anglo-Irish Free Trade agreement and entry to the EEC underlined the role of the party a5 junior partner to umperialisa, The uprising of Northern nationalists threw Fianna Fail into a tailspin, one wing, led first by Jack Lynch and then by present Progressive Democrat leader Des O'Malley, wanted full-scale and open collaboration to crush the revolt. Haughey established covert intevention to keep the green card at the service of his party and in the hope of preventing a radicalisation of the Northern struggle. The battle in Fianna Fail ted to the arms trial but Haughey was the eventual victor, nine years later, Alongside the political argueent went an economic one. QO Halley stood for “financial rectitude’ - code for cuts and attacks on the trade unions, while Haughey was willing to maintain the ald pogulist tactic of making minor concessions to the trade unions in order to win their support and their guarantee to police the working class.

Time was running out for both, Successive governments Quilt up a massive foreign debt with pro-imperialist policies which, 11 anything, further de-stabilised the Irish economy, The sheer size of the crisis forced Fiamma Fail to obey the call of their

capitalist masters that the working class should pay. Also the H-Block crisis showed Fianna Fail that the Horthern struggle had a dynasic that could extend into the South and sade all-out collaboration through the Hillsborough agreement the policy of all the capitalist parties. The results were seen in the last Dail. The aost right-wing governeent for decades carried gut a ruthless attack on Health Services, cut back public expenditure and instiutionalised extradition of political offenders to Britain and the 6 county enclave.

Now, faced with a working-class backlash at the polls, Fianna Fail and their rivals in the Progressive Democrats have been forced into coalition around a programe that spells out gore cuts and attacks on living standards.

The strains on Fianna Fail had led the Progressive Democrats to split to its right.

Today the party faces collapse as its working class hase shifts to the left.

RIGHT-#ING TURMOIL

The problem for Irish capitalise is that it has mo realistic alternative to Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the party of big business and the ranchers, has never had any hope of forming a sajority government. Traditionally it has relied on coalition with Labour, Between 1970 and 1987 the Labour Party was FG's permanent coalition partner, As a result Labour consistently lost support and the growing depth of the economic crisis sade it harder to find sops to the unions to justify the coalition. By 1987 Labour had gone so low in the polls and Fine Gael had swung so far to the right that Labour jumped from the sinking government ship. It barely survived the Febuary 1987 election, gaining only 4.4% of The ups and downs of politics—Des O'Malley wasn't smiling after his party's electoral savaging the vote ~ its lowest share since 1933 and second lowest ever since the civil war.

The then leader of Fine Gael, Fitzgerald, tried to make a virtue of necessity by dressing reaction in the clothes of reform.

He launched his ‘constitutional crusade’ which tried to win popular support for austerity and for partition on the grounds of reforming and sodernising Irish society. Unfortunately the issue he selected - reform of the divorce laws - was one that the party most closely tied to the Catholic Church would always find difficult to deliver. The rise of clerical reaction around SRUC, ‘pro-life’ and anti-divorce groups sent all the major parties scurrying for cover. fy conceding on practically all the objections raised by the Church against divorce Fine Gael aided the failure of the divorce referendum and finally put paid to the refore atrategy. paid to the “retora’ strategy. The ball then passed to O'Malley and the Progressive flesocrats. They promised to “break the sould’ of Irish politics. 8y drawing on the sass working class oppesifon to the burden of PAYE tax they hoped to exploit the vacuum created by the trade unions funking of this issue and thereby create an electoral base in the working class. The Progressive Deaocrats had no intention of making the rich and the multinational companies pay for the crisis. In fact workers were to be exploited even more heavily by cuts in health and public services. When the working class experienced this programe under the last Bai] the Progressive Democrats were finished. It did not help that big business, that had heavily subsidised the Progressive Denocrats, transferred funds to Fianna Fail when they began to implement the program of austerity, The last Dail wasa capitalist dreams come true. The unity of the capitalist offensive,

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the weakness of working class leadership, desoralised and paralysed the resistance. The election broke this logjam and immediately ended the unity of the capitalist parties.

Fine Gael and the Progressive Desocrats promised to invest “40 aillion in a health service that they had helped cut to the bone, while leaving the way open to further austerity by promising savings through the sacking of administrators. The voters mere not impressed. Fianna Fail claimed that the 2 years of austerity were part of a hitherto unheard of “grand strategy’. Mow that the cuts had “restored order’ to the national finances we were entering a new phase af developeent.

This is moonshine. Since the early 19705 the 2h county state has slid sore and sore into debt. Since the early 1780s all bourgeois governments have pushed through a very tough austerity policy, ‘with the alleged aim of cutting the debt. In fact the debt has continued to grow, and under Fianna Fail has gone to over 150% of gross national product.

The men coalition will continue with an escalating auterity policy which will bring it into further conflict with the working class.

Se the future holds more austerity, but the contradiction between the demands of capital and the need to retain a popular base peans continuing division within the capitalist sarties and savage infighting within the new coalition. The trend to fe left will continue a5 long 2s the reformist parties avoid a deal or coalition with the capitalist parties,

LEFT SWING

The parties of the reformist left are winning votes on the basis of working class protest,

Haughey; far froe happy aboot his future. but they are incapable of leading that protest to a conclusion. They treat the 24 counties a5 an independent capitalist state and have no alternative to a policy of debt repayeent to the imperialist banks. They are restricted to Complaints about the debt falling on the working class and calls for the rich to pay their share. The failure to confront imperialisa acts as 2 sheet-anchor, pulling thea to the right on a whole series of other iS5ue5, In the last Dail the concrete test of their willingness to fight came through the ‘back door’ of the Trade Unaon bureaucracy. While they protested the cuts on the floor of the Dail their partners in the Trade Union leadership signed a “Programme for National Recovery’ supporting the austerity drive, As the gore ideological party the Workers Party are gore constrained by these factors.

They are defined by their pro-mionist positions on the North and history of right shifts on the econoay - first developing a strategy of growth through aulti-national investment ~ i.e, precisely the policy of the capitalist parties ~ and more recently theough acceptance of ‘market forces’ to generate growth, The Labour Party's links with the trade union movement give it deeper roots and a greater stability than the Worker's party but unlike that party they are held directly accountable for the actions of the trade union bureaucracy and the operation of the ‘programe of national recovery’. The action of the Transport union leadership in sacking two WP TD's who were union officials confires this link and acts to give the Workers party a sore radical ieage - one they have done nothing to OPServe, Despite its appalling record on the National question the Labour party's search for radicalism has Jed it to toy with the green card. Labour personalities have begun to take positions on extradition, section 31 and frawe-up victims such as the Hirminghan 4, The process was taken further recently when Emmet Stagg announced that the Labour Party now supported British withdrawal. The Horkers Party leader fe Rossa denounced Stagg as ‘fascist’ for his speech.

Before the election a Workers Party drive for ‘left unity’ struck a responsive chord but rivalry over seats and their atteepts to exclude the orth from the agenda led to the initiative backfiring. [t does not help that their own hase is not fire around their pro-isperialist position - where Workers Party candidates were eliminated there was a2 substantial transfer to Sinn Fein.

Both parties have sade decisive gains, although in the general election the tendency was for the Workers party to gain seats at the expense of Labour. They took [1.42 of the yote in Dubtin compared to a labour vote af 9.5%. Two of there three gains were fora the labour party, while all five of Labours gains were from the right. However the European vote in Dublin had a combined ‘left’ vote of 45.61. De Rossa topped the poll with 75,420 votes while Labour totalled 31,431. In practice the future growth of both parties will depend to the extent to which the working class mobilises. [n the absence of wobilisation they can continue to grow on a diet of rhetoric and bluster. Any mobilisation on the streets or inthe factories will immediately present difficulties for both parties.

SINN FEIN'S FATLURE

Sinn Fein however played aleanst no role in this election. Their vote was bad in both the Several and European elections. A radicalisation has begun, and the Republicans are on the sidelines, There were plenty of warnings for Sinn Fein after the 1987 elections. At that time we wrote: “the campaign exposed weaknesses in Sinn Fein's electoral strategy. The Republicans

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have a perspective of building up a base through steady work on local community issues, and eventually becoming a creditle national alternative a5 a result of the accumlated gains of this work. The outoowe of these elections should dispel these illusions.” (John Meehan in International Viewpoint, 23rd Karch 1987} We were too optimistic. Sinn Fein ran exactly the same campaign this tine, only on a smaller national scale, with fewer members and jess enthusiass, To blawe the resuit on censorship, as ‘An Phoblacht’ did, as to ignore the results for other candidates wha faced minimal or largely hostile coverage.

The absence of real analysis carries the danger that anti-imperialist militants will become cynical and demoralised - less able to break out of their isolation and link up with the wider wobilisation. One tactor in the republican isolation is the military campaign and the present tendency towards a widening of targets and spectacular aistakes. In the period before the elections the boab attacks on the Belfast-Dublin rail line had negative consequences within the working class and allowed the Workers Party to go on the attack in the trade union movement.

The policies of concentrating on military struggle and political action through community work are both a result of a basic political failure by the republican sovesent.

Twenty years of stuggle in the North, the mass all-[reland radicalisation of the H#lock campaign and a left leadership have all been insufficient to move thea from a traditional programme oof Petty-hourgeois nationalise.

They constantly balance between the politics of right and left, now and again falling into the aras of the bourgeoisie.

The class struggle today demands a challenge

to the capitalist parties and support for the working class, Sinn Fein has failed recently in both these areas. The extradition campaign needed a broad oper eobilisation which conciously challenged Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein built a lobbying Organisation that did not manage to represent all those opposing extradition, The campaign claised major successes within Fianna Fail and revolt at local Jevel, When this failed to materialise the blame fell on the the apathy of the masses, yet in practice a forthright attack on Fianna Fail in Munster by Paddy Ryan build a broad campaign and a mass challange.

The Sinn Fein record in the workers movesent is even worse, They have consistently failed to target the ‘Programe for National Recovery’ and the collaboration of the Trade Union bureaucracy in the cuts. They refused to defend John Mitchell, who was witch-hunted out of [CT and then from the secretaryship of his own union (IDA) because of his criticise of the sectarian history of sany Trade Unions in the Merth and activity on issues like extradition. The reason that Sinn Fein gave: “political differences’ with Mitchell show an irresponsible sectarianisea and capitulation to the witchunt. Sinn Fein have yet to publicise their ‘political differences’ with trade union leader Phil Flynn. A former vice-president of Sinn Fein, he is the architect of the deal with Haughey and a leading figure in the witchunt against Mitchell.

The “Prograsme of National Recovery’ sas at th centre of this election. The collaboration of Trade Union leaderships delegitimised and obscured the resentment of the working class. This Jed to Hayghey’s aiscalculation - a belief in his unassailable popularity - and the calling of the election.

Haughey's losses benefited the very people =ho had been ina ‘back door’ coalition with hom through this programme. A campaign over the past two years against the collaboration of the trade union leadership could have harnessed auch of that support for anti-imperialist candidates.

The issue will not go away. The bureaucracy has totally betrayed the interests of working people. Any gobilisation will find itself locked in head-on sStuggle with thea.

Republican defence of the bureaucracy will exclude thea from the leadership of working-class radicalisation.

Sinn Fein are aware of the weakness of their position and the last Ard Fheis aimed to open out the sovement and make new alliances.

Unfortunately the crisis is so deep that even the vehicles for discussion and action - like the recently-foreed FAD and the ‘48 committees in the Morth - were not able to bring discussions to a conclusion or agree even oo minigal §=«united § «action beyond comsesoration marches. The crisis for the capitalists is unaistakeble, The crisis for the workers movesent is one of- leadership, A new leadership will be foreed in struggle, but it will be very guch weaker if it is not able to draw on the hastory and experience of the anti-imperialist movesent or if it does not fron the beginning come to teres with the reality of imperialist domination of our country. Thats why Peoples Democracy has responded to the elections by calling for a conference of Socialists and Republicans and why we urge that militants work with us to organise and tuild it ah Ss rc

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