Labour Mayor supports Bin Tax

by Millie Willie Mon Dec 30, 2002 21:27

The Labour Party were the natural party of de workin class until dey threw us out. Then they became sell-out scumbags. That clear?

by MO'B - SP Mon Dec 30, 2002 19:53

"Cynic" you haven't followed my line of arguement at all. If we applied your logic to the trade unions which unlike Labour today are composed at the base of workers you would be arguing for workers to leave them or for Mick O'Reilly not to seek reinstatement because the current right wing leaders are responsible for all kinds of reprehensible sell outs. The point is to go where the active workers are and fight for change.
You made the point yourself about Connolly and the origins of the Labour Party. In the field of politics Labour carried out sell outs comparible to that of the trade union leaders, but until that point in history I mentioned in my previous posting its composition at the base was one of workers and youth. If there were no workers and youth to be won to Militant's banner back then why did the right wing invest so much in its expulsion?

by Des Mon Dec 30, 2002 19:40

The Labour Party councillors in Limerick did exactly the same, they voted for the introduction of service charges. The “party of the working class” voted to impose another tax on the PAYE sector, the spectacle of elderly people lining up in the rain to pay a substantial proportion of their limited income to line the pockets of a “private operator” would be sufficient to embarrass some people but not that shower of traitors to the working class. Of course our local “socialist” councillors with their substantial “expenses” won’t be unduly worried about paying this extra tax, and our “socialist” T.D. also has a significant Dail salary to add to her expenses, so she won’t have to worry very much either. Yet another betrayal from the party who had no problem in assisting tax dodgers with another tax amnesty courtesy Ho Chi Quinn when they were last in government. Any working class person who votes for them again needs his/her head examined.

by Cynic Mon Dec 30, 2002 19:03

All very well but ye tried to stay in there for dear life didn't ye.

Ye asked us to vote for labour even as they closed our hospitals etc. As a working class person that filled me with cynicism to you as much as the Labour party. You sowed false illusions why not just admit ye were wrong and the whole entryist thing of taking over the mass party of labour was bolloxs.

The refuse charges will be defeated by mass non payment and an active campaign against them. Some people think we need a great leader or party for that I don't but I work with them anyhow with eyes open.

by MO'B - SP Mon Dec 30, 2002 17:51

Well "Cynic" the reason for Militant's past orientation to the ranks of the Labour Party in Ireland and elsewhere was because for a whole period of the twentieth century these parties were the traditional organisations of the politically active working class. Therefore like the ranks of trade unions that is where revolutionaries particularly when they are small in numbers and their main task is to assemble a viable organisation in the first place should orientate themselves.
The class composition of the Labour Party changed in the late eighties/early nineties as workers and youth ceased to play an active role. This was due to a combination of factors subjective in terms of the leaderships sellouts and the weakness of the Stagg reformist left but also objective factors in terms of the ideolical assault on socialism in particular and the notion of struggle in general in conducted by the ruling class in the aftermath of the collapse of the Stalinist regimes.

by Cynic Mon Dec 30, 2002 16:36

Really Laceys job was chucking out militant from Labour youth. Seems he did ye a favour. It was always a bit embarrassing listening to Militant urging us to join the Labour party and vote for them even when they were proping up rightwing governments and attacking workers and public services.

Lacey is doing wwhat parliamentary "Socialist" parties always do selling out the working class wwhen times are tough and even wwhen they're not so tough. And to think Labour was set up by James Connolly and the like.

Perhaps those advocating the electoral road should take heed.

by MO'B - SP Mon Dec 30, 2002 15:55

Nothing would suprise me about Dermot Lacey. Even by Labour's standards he is a out and out right winger desperate to hang on to the mayoral chain even if it means a further hike in bin charges for working class people. He even castigated Fine Gael for buckling under the pressure of the campaign of non payment!
Years ago his brief in the Labour Party was to drive supporters of Militant out of Labour Youth which at that stage was quite a vibrant and campaigning organisation. Under his tenure in the early 90s it dwindled and remains a repository for the kids of Labour hacks and nothing more.