Fourth Internationalist wins in local elections
Joe Harrington, a member of People's Democracy, the Irish section of the Fourth International, was elected to the Limerick City Council in the June 20 Irish local elections. This is the first time PD has elected anyone to local government in the formally independent part of Ireland. Harrington ran in a three-seat district, winning the second highest number of first preference votes (all figures here from the June 24 Irish Times). He got 589 votes, being outdistanced only by Jim Kemmy, a right-wing Social Democratic politician with a local machine and a twelve candidates and the total number of valid votes cast was 4,870.
The highest polling candidate of Fianna Fail, the bourgeois opposition party, got 489 votes. The top candidate of the ruling Fine Gael party got 448. The Labour Party candidate got 452, and the Sinn Fein candidate got 177. Harrington received many of the Sinn Fein candidate's transfer votes. (The Irish proportional representation system allows voters to cast ranked preference votes, which are distributed as the higher preference vote candidates are elected or national profile, who got 1,281 Gerry FOLEY
Joe Harrington is a well-known and respected community activist in the South Hill area of Limerick city, a former union organizer, a member of the Trades Council, and a leader of the fight against the government's attempt to impose a water tax. He received an impressive vote of confidence from his neighbors. But he did not wage a fight centered on local issues. The opening statement of his campaign (Socialist Action, No. 7, April) said:
"The local elections take place on June 20 against a background of growing attacks on democratic rights, living standards and increased collaboration with Britain's oppression of the Northern minority. Working class people are under severe attack from the rich and powerful. The unjust PAYE [pay as you earn] system, the Water Tax, the cuts in Health and other services, the massive unemployment are all aimed at inflicting a decisive defeat on the working class.
"In this context, these are not ordinary elections. Many people intend using them to hit back at the government and we agree with this. However, more than this is required. We say these elections must be used to boost the working class fightback already underway.
"All over Ireland workers are fighting back. Factory occupations like Atari are common. Community groups have mushroomed in the campaign against Service Charges. There was strong opposition to the repressive Criminal Justice Bill and the campaign against plastic bullets [used by British troops in the North for "crowd control"] and strip searches in Armagh jail [where women political prisoners are held in the North] have gained wide support. The northern minority continues to spearhead the struggle against British imperialism in Ireland."
votes. There were eliminated.)
The statement ended: "The election of Joe Harrington, a revolutionary socialist, to the City Council would be a major breakthrough for working class people, not because of anything he could achieve in what is, after all, a fairly powerless body but because it would signal a fighting response to the attacks of the rich and powerful and away from dependence on capitalist politicians ... Joe asks not just for your votes but for a commitment to fight for a better life in a Workers Republic." The national question
The raising of the Irish national question by the PD campaign was a particularly important contribution in the context of Limerick politics. This is one of the areas in Ireland where consciousness of the national struggle is the lowest. Left politics in Limerick has traditionally been dominated by workerists and economists who reject the national struggle, or outright oppose it, as in the case of Kemmy.
In fact, Irish politics in general has been afflicted by a cleavage between social and national fighters, since the national question has been identified historically with a military struggle and the prospects for winning that, let alone producing concrete gains for the working people, seemed remote. At the same time, because of the dominance of imperialism all attempts to achieve economic improvements by going around the national question have failed.
The result of this unresolved contradiction is that rather large right-wing sects have developed in Ireland that seek to avoid the national question by talking about "socialism" and "working-class independence." The biggest one on the national level is the Workers Party, which had its origin in a current in the Republican movement that turned in a right, economist .direction.
Unfortunately, in general, these elections did little to remove these cadavers from around the neck of the Irish left. But Harrington's victory was a small but important gain in this respect. In Dublin, the Workers Party increased its vote from 3.1% in the 1979 local elections and 6.7% in the 1982 general elections to 7.3%.
Sinn Fein got a significant vote in Dublin, 4.7% for the Dublin Corporation. That indicates that it is a major contender for the protest vote, since there is little tradition of voting Republican in Dublin. In the more strongly Republican border counties, it got 11% in Leithrim and 12% in Monaghan. But there was no indication of real momentum, let alone a breakthrough. These results show how far Sinn Fein is from offering an electoral alternative in the South.
On the other hand, Harrington's results show what can be achieved in the present conditions by leaders of local struggles. Politically, he is the most advanced. But there are many such fighters emerging across Ireland. In the present situation, a united slate of such fighters is probably the only thing that could offer a real alternative. (On this and other questions related to the local government elections, see the interview with John Mc Anulty in the inside pages.)
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NOW! International Viewpoint 15 July 1985