New Labour Sell-out in Kilkenny
national |
politics / elections |
opinion/analysis
Wednesday December 03, 2008 20:24
by Nixie Boran - Mine & Quarry Union
Sparks Fly at Gilmore's New Labour Bash!
Why did Eamonn Gilmore’s New Labour pre-Christmas jolly in Kilkenny (Nov 29 – 30) blow up in his face?
Who is the shadowy eminence grise behind Gilmore's Twenty First Century Commission?
Why were the party faithful reduced to discussing leaked extracts from the Twenty First Century Commission report in Kilkenny?
Why did the comrades revolt at Gilmore's proposals for a dynamic, modern, internet-driven, Lisbon-friendly, union-free, Obama-style revamp of the creaky old party of Larkin and Connolly?
Gilmore brought the comrades together to schmooze their consent to his Twenty First Century Commission Report. But early soundings indicated that the trade unions would not roll over for him, and that the comrades themselves were not prepared to commit electoral mass suicide on the altar of Lisbon.
So the Twenty First Century Commission Report had to be pulled at the last minute, and, in a surreal development, the Twenty First Century Commission Conference in Kilkenny was limited to discussing various leaked sections of the Report itself. You couldn’t make it up!
The shadowy Peter Mandelson-figure behind Gilmore’s failed New Labour proposals is one Greg Sparks whose day-job is with FGS Tax Consultants Limited, one of the mushroom growths which flourished on the dung of the Tiger.
Their website says: “Greg Sparks has vast experience in consulting and corporate finance, and has unrivalled expertise in public sector projects …advising on the liberalisation of Ireland's electricity industry.” http://www.fgspartnership.com
According to the same website, Sparks’ main claim to fame is his role in setting up and running the North’s Strategic Investment Board, which is the driver for the Private Finance Initiative which enables private financial interests to suck the blood of the North’s schools, hospitals and other public services.
Just what Ireland needs as the world economy falls apart at the hands of the corporate financiers, globalisers and liberalisers!
You would think that Gilmore and his crew might just have noticed that the world has suddenly recognised the necessity of reining in the brain-dead spivs, financiers, globalisers and liberalisers like Sparks, and of putting our livelihoods under some social guardianship!
In view of Fianna Fáil’s financial disaster, all he really had to do to prepare for the next election was to say: “We warned you about this!” (Actually they didn’t.)
A further indicator of New Labour’s incompetence was given in a curious conference sideshow. A proposal to engage politically in Northern Ireland was squashed by the Twenty First Century Commission, on the grounds that contesting elections there would force Labour to declare itself to be either Unionist or Nationalist. Therefore Labour members in the North should join the Fianna Fáil-leaning SDLP – which declares itself to be Nationalist!
A leaflet distributed by the Northern Labour conference delegates pointed this out, in a commendably restrained manner, saying that the Good Friday Agreement requires that parties in the North declare themselves as Unionist, Nationalist – or Other. And that the previous Labour leaders had endorsed the position that Labour in the North was Other.
The Good Friday Agreement received endorsement in the Irish Constitution. New Labour seeks to present itself as fit to govern the country whilst publicly displaying egregious ignorance, not only of its own existing policies, but of the Constitution of the country it seeks to govern!
In a moment reminiscent of the legendary, perhaps mythical, occasion when a group from Belfast’s Shankill Road attending the Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown in the 1930’s were attacked by southern Catholic Republicans, Sparks was struck dumb when one of the Northern delegates asked Sparks how, as a Protestant, he could be instructed to join the SDLP.
At the last sighting, the rebuffed Northerners were hot-footing it across the Boyne towards the fastnesses of North Belfast.
So much for “Hands Across the Border” in Gilmore’s New Labour!
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Comments (6 of 6)
Jump To Comment: 6 5 4 3 2 1Below is a leaflet distributed at the Kilkenny conference:
The 21st Century Commission
NORTHERN IRELAND
The 21st Century Commission’s conclusions about Northern Ireland (Section 8) are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Contrary to what its report says, the Labour Party would NOT have to designate itself as either Unionist or Nationalist in order to organise and contest elections in Northern Ireland.
Organisation in Northern Ireland doesn’t require designation at all, and neither does contesting Local Government elections. Designation would only become an issue for the Party if it were to contest elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly – since members elected to the Assembly have to designate themselves as either Unionist, Nationalist or Other, before taking their seats. This is a requirement of Clause 6 of Stand One of the Good Friday Agreement, which states:
“At their first meeting, members of the Assembly will register a designation of identity – nationalist, unionist or other – for the purposes of measuring cross-community support in Assembly votes under the relevant provisions above.”
It goes without saying that, if the Party were to stand in Assembly elections, it would opt for the Other designation, as Alliance and Green Party members of the Assembly do at the moment, and which would offer the best chance of the Party making an appeal across the traditional divide.
Unfortunately, the 21st Century Commission doesn’t seem to be aware of the existence of the Other designation. Its report states:
“... we are not at all convinced that parties based in either Dublin or London have any real or significant contribution to make to Northern Ireland politics by organising there – and adopting one or other of those labels for the purpose.
“Effectively, this would require Labour to opt for adherence to – and seek votes exclusively from – just one of the two traditions, …”
Given the existence of the Other designation, that passage is simply untrue. The Good Friday Agreement would NOT “require Labour to opt for adherence to – and seek votes exclusively from – just one of the two traditions”.
Labour Party members in Northern Ireland are drawn from both traditions. We are utterly opposed to the Party seeking votes exclusively from just one of the two traditions and we wouldn’t remain members if it did. Happily, the Good Friday Agreement doesn’t require the Party to do so, if it were to put up candidates in either Local Government or Assembly elections.
STRENGTHENING LINKS WITH THE SDLP
THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS “the strengthening of links” between the Labour Party and the SDLP, rather than the Party organising and contesting elections in Northern Ireland in its own right.
Remember, the SDLP has always chosen to designate itself as Nationalist in the Assembly and to opt “for adherence to – and seek votes exclusively from – just one of the two traditions”, in the words of the Commission.
Under the Good Friday Agreement, it has always been open to the SDLP to designate itself as Other, and attempt to appeal across the traditional divide. It has never done so. Were it to do so, it would obviously risk losing a significant section of its vote to Sinn Fein – and it’s therefore unlikely that it will ever do so.
If the Labour Party were to stand for elections in Northern Ireland, it would seek to appeal across the traditional divide. To that end, in Assembly elections the Labour Party would obviously designate itself as Other and, by so doing, avoid giving the appearance of appealing to just one tradition.
ARE WE TO BE INSTRUCTED TO JOIN THE SDLP?
A FINAL POINT: the report poses the question “should the Labour Party follow Fianna Fail and consider organising in the North”.
We find it difficult to believe that the Commission is NOT aware that the Labour Party is already organised in Northern Ireland, and has been since 2004, when Pat Rabbitte launched the Northern Ireland Labour Forum (NILF) in Belfast. We proposed to the Labour Party conference last November that the Party contest Local Government elections in Northern Ireland. In response, the NEC set up “a special commission, representative of the NILF, the PLP and the NEC” to explore the issue, amongst others. Two Party members from Northern Ireland sit on the special commission, which has yet to report.
The 21st Century Commission has now apparently usurped the role of the special commission and concluded, on the basis of an imperfect knowledge of the Good Friday Agreement, that the Party should have no organisation in Northern Ireland, as the Party did in 1970 at the time of the SDLP’s foundation. It follows logically from this that the existing organisation of the Party in Northern Ireland should be disbanded.
In 1970, as the Commission’s report reminds us, the Party “instructed all its members to join the new SDLP”. Is that the Commission’s recommendation in 2008? Are we going to be told to join a party which, in the words of the Commission, has chosen to opt “for adherence to – and seek votes exclusively from – just one of the two traditions”.