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Written by Séamus Loughlin
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Friday, 19 June 2009 18:31 |
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Almost 3 months after the mistaken decision of the trade union leaders to call off the March 30th strike action, the discussions around a recovery plan are still floundering. The trade union leaders will have to show some progress at the ICTU conference next month, so they need something concrete to report on. But, given the severe economic crisis that the state is experiencing it seems unlikely that anything substantial will emerge. However there is the possibility that some sort of deal will be done. But as we explained recently, it’s likely to have more holes than a Swiss cheese.
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Written by By Darrall Cozens, Coventry NE Labour Party and UCU (Personal capacity)
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Sunday, 21 June 2009 19:13 |
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 All of the results are now in and nearly all of the analyses have been made. And from any point of view the European elections were a disaster for the Labour Party. Throughout the country the Party is increasingly being seen by workers as a party that presides over sleaze, corruption, handouts to the rich and, apart from weeping crocodile tears, complete indifference to factory closures and job losses. As Chancellor Alistair Darling said, "People felt disillusioned with us and didn't vote for us. That's our fault. We should be able to inspire confidence." (Guardian 09/06/09).
Darling is correct. The Labour Party did not inspire confidence amongst its traditional voting base, the working class. Darling however is not right when he tries to put forward an alternative to recapture the Labour vote. For him it is a matter of simply saying, “We need to clearly set out what we are for, our vision for the country and our purpose for being in government. On that basis we can say: Give us your support at the next election.” The implication from Darling is that the voters did not understand Labour’s message as Labour failed to get it across. The truth is that voters did understand what Labour stood for and did not like it. So little did they like it that they stayed away from the polls in droves. |
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Written by Darrall Cozens, Coventry NE Labour Party and UCU (Personal Capacity)
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Sunday, 21 June 2009 18:55 |
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Why therefore did the "disillusioned" working class labour voters not turn to the No2EU platform? The Socialist Party believes that its relative lack of success was because, “In the short time of its existence however, especially given the media blackout it suffered, No2EU was only able to make a very limited impact on the political consciousness of the mass of workers. No2EU has had more coverage in the capitalist media since election day than it had in the whole campaign!” So the low vote for the campaign was due to a lack of media coverage before the election! Workers did not know what the electoral platform stood for so they did not vote for it, we are told. How many workers knew in detail what Labour stood for? They knew in general that it presided over sleaze and corruption and pro-banker policies and many supporters abstained, yet the Labour Party still picked up 2,381,760 votes compared to the No2EU’s 153,236. |
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Written by Fightback Editorial Board
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Wednesday, 17 June 2009 21:04 |
The elections in Ireland revealed a historical opportunity for the left if the correct approach and ideas are adopted. In Dublin, in particular, there was a marked shift to the left. Now the workers will expect some real change from the left, which however is only possible by changing the right-wing reformist policies of the Labour Party, and building a united front of the left wherever possible. The Elections in Ireland for the county councils and the European parliament mark another nail in the coffin for the ruling Fianna Fáil and Green coalition. The FF vote fell by around 20% resulting in the loss of 84 seats while the Green vote fell dramatically leaving them with just 3 seats nationally from 18 in 2004. The vote for Fine Gael rose to 32% giving them an extra 47 seats. So the two right wing parties together gained 57 percent of votes (59 percent in 2004) on a 58% poll. Superficially this means another bourgeois party took the lead in the polls and the correlation of forces between the classes in Ireland stayed more or less the same. However, a closer look reveals a historical opportunity for the left if the correct approach and ideas are adopted. |
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Written by Alan Woods
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Wednesday, 17 June 2009 22:17 |
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All the objective conditions for revolution as outlined by Lenin have matured in Iran. The events of the past few days mark the beginning of the Iranian revolution, which will unfold over a whole period. This is due to the lack of a mass revolutionary party capable of leading the masses today. But the conditions to build such a force have also matured. Workers and youth in Iran will be looking for the genuine ideas of revolutionary socialism, of Marxism. Yesterday I wrote that the Iranian Revolution has begun. In what sense is this true? Lenin explained the conditions for a revolutionary situation: first the ruling class must be split and unable to rule with the same methods as before. This condition is clearly present in Iran. Second, the middle class should be vacillating between revolution and counterrevolution. That is now the case in Iran, where decisive sections of the middle class have come over to the side of the Revolution and are demonstrating in the streets. Thirdly, the workers must be prepared to fight. There has been a growing wave of strikes in Iran even before the elections. Only the last condition is absent: the presence of a revolutionary party and a revolutionary leadership, like the Bolshevik Party in 1917. The presence of such a party would give the mass movement the leadership and organization it requires to be successful. It would signify a swift and relatively painless victory. In the absence of such a party, the revolution will unfold over a more prolonged period of months, probably years, with ebbs and flows. |
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