The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Latest Episode of the Podcast July 10, 2020

This episode covers The Four Irish Haemophilia Society candidates in the 1991 Local Elections and also covers The Monster Raving Looney Party appearance in the 1997 General Election in Dun Laoghaire.
Available here

Interface: a journal for and about social movements, Volume 12, Issue 1 out now… July 10, 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS(HTML)

FULL ISSUE(PDF 17 MB)

Signs of Hope – A continuing series July 10, 2020

Gewerkschaftler suggested this recently:

I suggest this blog should have a regular (weekly) slot where people can post happenings at the personal or political level that gives them hope that we’re perhaps not going to hell in a handbasket as quickly as we thought. Or as the phlegmatic Germans put it “hope dies last”.

Any contributions this week?

It’s going to be different: protecting against coronavirus July 10, 2020

This is pretty solid, an overview that has been doing the rounds on social media the last week or so using some excellent graphics of three instances of the outbreak of the virus and what lessons can be learned from them. Some clear takeways:

Research carried out by local authorities revealed that almost all the people infected in a 19-story building with more than a thousand residents and office workers were confined to this area. Moreover, those infected were almost exclusively working in the same room. Despite the considerable interaction between workers from different floors of the building in the elevators and the lobby, the spread of the virus was largely confined to that one space filled with employees sitting at desks, “indicating that the duration of the interaction (or contact) was probably the main facilitator for extensive infection,” according to the Seoul authorities’ report.

The recommendations surely spell the end of many open-plan offices.

The overview of how the virus spread in a restaurant should give pause for thought to those contemplating eating out in the near future. Again proximity and length of exposure are crucial. But even 4.5 meters was no hindrance to infection if air circulation brought respiratory particles around a specific area.

The recommendations are striking in that instance. By way of one example? ‘Avoid’ music so people don’t have to ‘raise their voices and expel more droplets as they speak’.

Finally it looks at a bus where air recirculation spread the virus. The measures for all these are self-evident…. physical distancing first and foremost, the creation of physical barriers between people, reduce contact by staggering shifts or similar and finally though least effectively individual protections such as face masks.

A Fianna Fáil mudguard… July 10, 2020

SonofStan brought up a thought last week about the present government, that perhaps Fianna Fáil in its current much reduced state might provide the mudguard to both Fine Gael and the Green Party. And it makes sense. Fianna Fáil is under serious pressure at the polls. It has arrived at the head of the government within a bizarre self-inflicted cloud of disgruntlement, and given the broader circumstances of pandemic and economic crisis, unappealing entitlement. The sense of a steady hand on the tiller is all but absent. Worse again this stands in stark contrast to the example of Fine Gael (at least up to the last month or so when business and media interests appeared to be placing huge pressures on the administration to reopen). Micheál Martin is a curiously anonymous figure, telling to hear on a recent IT podcast after he had become Taoiseach, someone mentioning the Taoiseach in relation to the former incumbent, and then having to hastily correct themselves.

All this will pass, no doubt. But pass to where? What new troubles will appear for Fianna Fáil? And some of it won’t pass – ambitious and thwarted figures on the back benches are going nowhere, the sense that the party is in government by the skin of its teeth may not dissipate. The unsteadiness of the first weeks may come to characterise matters.

And there’s that fundamental political weakness. I referenced this last week in relation to polling research by Kevin Cunningham which shows that Sinn Féin primarily, and Fine Gael to a lesser degree, have appropriated much of Fianna Fáil’s vote. Putting aside unwise and avoidable slips like the Storey funeral where a certain partition mentality may in fact work to SF’s benefit, how much of that vote is likely to return to FF? This FF?

Which leads one back to SoS’s point about FF being the mudguard. Fine Gael appears to have found a larg(ish) and broad based vote. The Green Party has the numbers to emerge from government with TDs remaining in situ unlike 2011, particularly if it can demonstrate that it has succeeded in implementing core areas of its programme. But Fianna Fáil is in a much more perilous situation and even having the position of leading the government may not do it much good. After all Fine Gael didn’t exactly excel earlier this year. There’s a long way to go. But add to this one other aspect. Fine Gael, all things going to plan, return to lead the administration halfway through its term. What is the psychology of that, in political terms, with FF now the subsidiary entity in the government? Two or more years so for FF to sharpen up its act. The start hasn’t exactly been great.

Curious about what ‘success’ might be in relation to the pandemic? July 9, 2020

Wonder no more:

The ideal scenario is to try to eliminate the virus by getting to the point where Ireland has had 28 days – or two incubation periods of the virus- of no new unexplained community transmissions.

“If we had that, then we could more or less do a very widespread opening up. It might not even be down to one metre. It might be down to zero metres,” said Prof McConkey.

But…

That, however, is still some time away with 24 new infections reported on Monday.

Indeed.

Numbers… one of a continuing series July 9, 2020

From the Guardian:

The number of far-right prisoners convicted for terror offences in Great Britain climbed by a third last year to their highest recorded level, and accounts for more than one in six of all terrorists held in prison, according to official figures.

And:

The Home Office data shows that 44 “extreme rightwing” prisoners were in custody for terror offences across Great Britain, up from 33 a year ago. Three years ago, the figure was nine and no higher than five before that.

Whereas:

Islamist extremists still form the largest category of terror prisoners, but at 183 last year the overall number has remained roughly flat since 2018 – meaning the proportion of far-right terror prisoners has increased to a record 18%.

‘The Old World is Dying and the New World Struggles to be Born.’ Call the midwife, Ireland needs a new left party. July 9, 2020

Thanks to Shane Faherty for allowing this to be reposted. Much appreciated. Originally posted on

Modern Distortions Culture, society and history, at the beginning of the month.

In keeping with the spirit of our times, on Tuesday I watched an online ‘meeting’ with Paul Murphy TD of RISE (formerly of the Socialist Party/ Solidarity) and Brid Smith TD of People Before Profit. It was a virtual version of the public meeting that most of us on the left know, but may not necessarily love.

I wanted to know whether the new party being mooted was a runner and what form it would take. Paul’s organisation RISE have been making overtures to members of the Green Party who may be disillusioned with their party entering government with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. He argues that they should leave the party and, along with other groups on the left, launch a new party. Similarly, People Before Profit released a statement proposing the formation of a new left party. Another small group called Independent Left, many of whom are former PBP members, released a statement welcoming the move. The elephant in the room in all of this is that Rise and People Before Profit are part of a parliamentary grouping called Solidarity – People Before Profit. Solidarity have said nothing on all of this. Solidarity and People Before Profit operate a marriage of convenience for electoral and parliamentary purposes. Until last year, they were evenly matched electorally, with 3 TDS and just under 30 councillors each, based on significant gains made at the previous local and general elections. The local elections of 2019 reduced the numbers of councillors for each party. There were gains for Sinn Fein and the Greens, and this was an indication of things to come.

Background of Solidarity – People Before Profit

At the core of both Solidarity and PBP is another party. In essence, each of these parties is a party launched by a Trotskyist party to have a slightly broader appeal. Detractors often use the term Trot as a slur, but essentially a Trotskyist is just somebody who wishes the Soviet Union had been communist. PBP was launched by the Socialist Workers Party in 2005. The SWP had a long history of launching front organisations and everybody laughed at them. Surprising, however, PBP gained some traction and has many members who are not members of the SWP. In 2018 the SWP renamed itself the Socialist Workers Network in recognition of their role inside PBP. The SWP was part of an international organisation called the International Socialist Tendency. Most Marxist parties are members of international organisations, which reflects the view that socialism must be international.

The Socialist Party launched the Anti-Austerity Alliance out of the anti-water charges campaign. They later rebranded the AAA as Solidarity, in order to reflect a broader political remit. Initially Solidarity had many members who were not members of the Socialist Party, but this doesn’t seem to be the case any more. The Socialist Party was part of an international called the Committee for a Worker’s International (CWI). In 2019 there were a number of acrimonious splits in the CWI when the Socialist Party of England and Wales, a moribund and grey skinned organisation which was the tail that wagged the dog of the CWI, took umbrage at the Socialist Party of Ireland adopting a number of correct and successful positions. The awkward thing about the CWI was that a lot of member organisations were in countries that were former parts of the British Empire and the SPEW was used to bossing them around. Not so much international solidarity as cultural imperialism. The majority of sections sided with the Socialist Party of Ireland and in a bizarre twist of events, the minority faction kept the name CWI while the majority became the International Socialist Alternative, which is a much better name in fairness. A handful of Irish comrades inexplicably remained with the CWI and called themselves Militant Left.

Separately but simultaneously Paul Murphy left the Socialist Party and Solidarity and took a small group of people with him. They called themselves RISE and came to constitute a third component of Solidarity – People Before Profit. In the 2020 general election, PBP retained their three seats. Paul Murphy retained his seat as did Mick Barry of SP/Solidarity. Shockingly Ruth Coppinger lost hers. Sinn Fein and the Greens gained seats in her Dublin West Constituency at the expense of Solidarity and Labour (good riddance to Joan Burton though). Ruth Coppinger was a fantastic TD and activist who played pivotal role in repealing the Eighth Amendment and numerous other campaigns. The loss of her seat was bad not just for Solidarity but for the country.

Following his departure from the Socialist Party, Paul Murphy has cooperated more closely with People Before Profit, in particular since the last general election. That he and PBP are jointly launching this initiative without the Socialist Party is not surprising, although it is disappointing.

I am a former member of the Socialist Party

I am a former member of the Socialist Party and still support the party. I don’t agree with them on everything. I don’t agree with Paul Murphy on everything. I don’t agree with People Before Profit on everything. I do, however, agree with all of them on enough that I could be in the same party as all of them. Provided that party was democratically run and had clear and accountable structures and processes.

I wish parties on the left would spend as much time trying to keep members as they do trying to recruit members. There are thousands of people out there who are former members of the Socialist Party/Solidarity and SWP/PBP. These people joined for a reason and they left for a reason. You can’t dismiss their departure as a lack of ideological purity or commitment. You need to listen to your members. If people don’t feel their voices are heard inside an organisation they leave. The internal democracy of Irish left parties is deficient, but more than that, a culture tends to pervade where those who express an opinion that is different from the leadership don’t have their opinions heard. Instead it is explained to them why they are wrong. Let’s call this cadresplaining.

One point of difference I always had with the Socialist Party was that I never felt they did enough to bring about a new broad-based left-wing party, although they always claimed this was something that they believed in. Their argument was that such a project was doomed to failure unless the conditions were right. In the past 30 years we have had every set of conditions imaginable and yet somehow a new party has not magicked itself into existence. There comes a point where you must re-examine your strategy. That I hold this view won’t be news to anybody in the Socialist Party who knows me. However, I feel now more than ever that now they need to take the initiative and be proactive in launching a new party.

The new left – right divide in Irish politics           

We have heard a lot of talk about the sweeping changes in Irish politics. What is clear is that there is now a left – right divide in Irish politics that never existed before. That Fianna Fail and Fine Gael were not even able to assemble a simple majority between them is incredible. We may not have gotten a decent government this time but we are witnessing the death of the traditional two party system. The Labour Party, the traditional third wheel and fake left option are nearly obliterated as a result of their history of supporting austerity governments. The Greens have willed themselves out of existence by using their resurgence to prop up the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael government. It seems they have not only forgotten what happened the last time they went into government, they have forgotten what happened in the election afterward. Still, the number of votes they received shows people are concerned about environmental issues, and this on its own is not a bad thing. The opposition to the government then is Sinn Fein (a party which has attempted to evolve from being the political wing of an armed group into being a big tent left nationalist populist party), the Social Democrats (a party that models itself on Northern European social democratic parties without learning any of the history) and Solidarity – PBP. There are also a large number of independent TDs encompassing a broad range of views.

Sinn Fein surged in the last election, not because of their past but in spite of it. They ran on a left-wing programme and, even if everyone on the left knows they are not serious about implementing it, it resonated with voters and won them support. The Soc Dems also experienced a growth in support, but it was a long time coming and not quite as surprising. The socialist left must not only point out the failings of other parties, we must show we are better than them. And the socialist left has done this. With Repeal, with water charges and a myriad other campaigns the socialist left has shown it can have a profound impact on discourse and has succeeded in shifting the conversation in Ireland firmly to the left. It is not good enough that other parties are then able to take advantage of this groundwork. The socialist left has proved its capabilities in adversarial situations, now we must prove our capabilities in imagining and constructing a new political, social and economic reality.

What is necessary to succeed

A new left party must put forward a clear and unified message and fight a unified campaign. The arguments on minor points of policy can be had inside the party. With open and fair debates and democratic processes we can hash these topics out and come to agreement on a clear programme. The United Left Alliance of 2011 was a missed opportunity for the left but there are lessons to learn. There were no democratic structures and members of the ULA who were not members of the component organisations of the steering committee had no say in the organisation. Clare Daly’s gravitation away from the ULA and the Socialist Party opened up fissures for which there was no recourse for a resolution. Any new party has to have new structures and new leadership. If the Socialist Party don’t join the new party it will just be an expanded PBP and this would not be ideal. This could lead to its failure or alternately, it could be a roaring success and the Socialist Party will find themselves eclipsed.

The Socialist Party is right that a new party is meaningless if it only comprises the usual suspects. A new party must attract thousands of new members to be successful. But in order to do this it must first exist. The Socialist Party must engage with PBP and Rise and any other groups or individuals to launch a party that is pluralistic but socialist and secular. That sets out a clear anticapitalist programme for elections but also engages in grass roots struggles. That fights against racism, sexism homophobia, transphobia and all forms of bigotry. That fights against the destruction of our planet for the sake of profit. That situates all of these struggles in the fight for socialism. There is a definite space here for Solidarity – PBP to launch a new party and potentially win thousands of supporters. They have an advantage in that they are already in the public view and have been the clearest voices advocating socialism in Ireland. A party launched by Solidarity – PBP  could win back former members of its constituent organisations, defectors from the Greens or Sinn Fein, perhaps some left wing independents and their supporters, those who already identify as left but are not in any party and more importantly young people and workers who have never been politically active as they never felt any party represented them.

Jeremy Corbyn’s success in winning the leadership the British Labour Party and Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic Party nomination show that where a clear left-wing position is articulated it can win massive support. However, they also show that where the right is strong inside a party they would rather surrender power and ruin the party than hand control to the left. The media of course were complicit in attacks on Sanders and Corbyn in particular, but each was limited by trying to work inside a party where there was massive resistance to change.

In Britain or America it is nigh on impossible for a third party to break through as people fear that voting further to the left will throw their vote away and benefit the right. Ireland has an electoral system that encourages pluralism, even though we did have a de facto two party system for years. The left are not tied to a larger party in order to guarantee success. Proportional Representation Single Transferable Vote means that people have nothing to lose by voting left as, if their first choice does not win, their vote goes to their second choice etc. In addition, the fact that coalitions are commonplace means you do not have to convince people you will win the most seats in order to justify them voting for you. You just need to make it clear who you would and would not go into coalition with and under what circumstances. A new Irish left party could act as a magnet for left wing support in the manner Corbyn or Sanders did, but be unencumbered by having to work inside a compromised establishment party. Elections are only part of what is necessary in order to defeat attacks on the working class and ultimately win socialism, but engaging in them is an important part of the struggle.

However, there are a range of parties looking for support on the left. If the socialist left look like they are more interested in long winded debates on minor points of policy than attaining power, you can hardly blame people if they decide to hold their noses and vote for Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein after all looked serious about taking power. Yes, only socialism can deliver the changes necessary to satisfy the material demands of the many, deliver equality to the oppressed and halt the destruction of the planet. Other parties who claim to be left promise change but will always capitulate to the demands of capitalists, but if we haven’t looked like we are serious in winning support for socialism, we can only blame ourselves when we fail. It is time that the socialist left gave the Irish people the option of a cohesive left-wing party and this has to happen soon. By the time the next election comes the space will have closed if the left aren’t organised Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats will have taken their support.

I hope a new left part comes into existence, because that is the party I want to join. If, like me, you are an independent socialist who would like to examine ways to make this happen please feel free to get in touch.

Non-compliant… July 8, 2020

The psychology of the pandemic is intriguing, isn’t it? Take the last batch of CSO figures a week or so back:

Some 59.9 per cent of respondents rated their compliance with Government advice on staying safe, including on social distancing, as “high” in June, down from 80.6 per cent in April.

Compliance fell across all age groups, with the largest drop among those aged between 45 and 54 – from 78 per cent in April to 51.5 per cent this month. The smallest decrease was in the over 70s group, where the rate fell from 83 per cent in April to 71.4 per cent.

But:

At the same time almost half (47.7 per cent) of respondents are “very” or “extremely” concerned about other people’s compliance, with women most likely to be so concerned (52.0 per cent compared with 43.2 per cent of men).

The youngest respondents, aged 18 to 34, were most likely to have “extreme” concern about how others are observing the rules (19.9 per cent) and this decreases up the age groups.

Odd too the attitudes to health impacts on oneself or others.

Younger respondents were most likely to worry about someone else’s health, with 23.3 per cent of 18 to 34-year olds “extremely” concerned, compared with 11.9 per cent of those aged 55 to 69.

Concern about personal health during the pandemic is decreasing – though not among women. Some 25.8 per cent of men and women reported being “very” or “extremely” concerned about their own health in April, but this fell to 21.3 per cent in June. The proportion of men concerned fell from 28 per cent to 17 per cent, but among women it increased from 23.7 per cent to 25.4 per cent.

Of course that could be explicable by the sense that the overall danger is less than it was in late March and April. But clearly the sense of a need to remain compliant with guidelines is now detached from the sense of a future threat of a second surge, and that’s telling.

Then there’s the world of work…

Almost a fifth (18.5 per cent) of respondents were “very” or “extremely” worried about their employer’s ability to provide a safe working environment when they return and this was far more pronounced among women (24 per cent) than men (12.7 per cent).

For myself, still remote working and likely to do so for a while yet, I’d actually be cautiously positive about my own workplace. But I’d be seriously worried about other people’s.

July edition of Socialist Voice July 8, 2020

The July edition of Socialist Voice is now available online.

A range of areas covered including:

Sacrificing workers to get their economy open by Dorian Ó Seanáin

National liberation: The United States and Ireland by Seán Ó Maoltuile

New “Programme for Government”: a new three-party government with the same old policies by National Executive Committee, CPI

Book reviews, commentary and more.