THE RISE AND RETURN

Below is a piece received from "The Guarantor" on our failure to break through in national opinion polls.

The Rise And Return

Well that is that then ,we are through, them opinion polls say so and the old order of things believe it and crows. Should we believe their words? Hell no.

I for one chooses to ignore them. Opinion polls ha. Do not take them seriously, they insult our intelligence. Pay no attention to them cause it was cooked up by individuals who failed Leaving Cert Maths.


Let us face facts here, we have bitter enemies so called nationalists, unionists and every journalistic hack in the comics wants a piece. I know, you as well as I have long memories. I remember the venom spread about us, the utter trash they came out with about the Republican movement.


So what is our response? Wring our hands in despair? Whinge? Write poison pen letters to the tabloids? Give up? Nah not us. Such is below our dignity, our character. The answer to them all is this we aren’t through with yet. Speaking of their venom reminds me of a poem by A.E.Housman in A Shropshire Lad.

About King Mithridates how he made himself immune to the venom’s in nature.

‘And easy, smiling, seasoned sound,
Sate the king when healths went round.
They put arsenic in his meat
And stared aghast to watch him eat;
They poured strychnine in his cup
And shook to see him drink it up;
They shook, they stared as white’s their shirt;
Them it was their poison hurt.’


They who zealously pursue our destruction have written our obituary prematurely.

Why do they hate us?

Why do they attack us so?

Self interest and fear. It is so because we are power, a wind of change, we have a point, we are on to something here….. We have an idea: A republic. They fear us cause we will succeed.


In our history as republicans in struggle we have remained ,and will remain, steadfast to the idea of a free independent Ireland. All other ideas of ours will change, alter and adapt cause they must. Our core identity, our core belief, will be unaltered standing the test of time - a republic. Heh, if Plato can 2500 years ago says it’s the most perfect form of government available. I tend to agree.


Polybius said ‘Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than before.’


Pessimism and defeatism are the bane of this nation. Micko organised a massive bluff and fooled the Empire and liberated for us 26 counties. It was some game they played in the face of such division at home.

Read Michael Flanagan’s Presidential Address ‘The Strength of Sinn Féin’ to see why I draw such a conclusion. And if the Irish race could stand against such adversity divided, what could we achieve together united?


After Collins and the lads hard fought battle during the Tan War, what happened in the intervening 80 odd years? We know well there were those who quit at that and went no further, resting on their laurels.

As Polybius said.
This is the mark Sinn Féin make we are relentless, unceasing that is the true difference between us Republicans and the middlemen of the Gombeens nation. The people of the Republic will always need Sinn Féin.


So take heart, Things for us are not so bad for us as portrayed.


The gombeens have gifted this island with a 3 fold curse, partition, emigration and debt. Such I call Clan Breaga. And us we have the youth of this country and our hard work, our graft. What are we to do? Wait? No, we are not Labour, who crucially for themselves must decide who they will stand with. To do James Connolly proud, us and Clan Séan Bean Vocht or the middlemen of Clan Breaga.


Today’s our day, if Ireland is to rise anew reborn it is republicans must lead as always. It must be now not some far flung distant date sometime in the future.


The first test of our strength and the republic’s soon November 25th.

Donegal South West. A by election. The FF/Green cabal hell bent to subvert the democratic principles of government to cling on to power for just a wee while longer.

I ask of the voters of this constituency elderly and middle aged accustomed to vote in tribal fashion for FF or FG. Why? Cause of loyalty to what your daddies and granddaddies done? I do not question the brave sacrifice of those individuals but I question rather was this sorry FF/FG axis of power what they fought for. Look at the unemployed, yourselves, your sons and daughters.


Finally to the youth of this constituency , the students, and the emigrants return home to the hills of Donegal. Drop everything cancel everything, nought else matters.

Travel up, return home. Make your plans revolve round this moment. More of the same or something else.

This is your future in an instant.


There is only one man to thank Senator Pearse Doherty, thank only one party,
Sinn Féin, for this opportunity to stand up for Donegal, and indeed for the national interest. Your vote you can bring a government to its knees, to its end. You can alter the fate of this island. Its destiny. Sink it to new lows or raise it up from the mire. Build the republic as it was envisioned. Let the world say of Ireland A people that said enough and no further. Let Ireland say ‘Here stands a Republic our Republic!’


Old Ireland has throughout its history has the gombeen as its enemy.
So do what you can do what you are able.
Write thesis to educate so that you may be free,
Demonstrate to show your opposition so others may be inspired;
Canvass to gain support so that you will be an example
Join Sinn Féin and Vote Sinn Féin
Suas agus troid an naisiun gombeen!


And may our endeavor prove: The Rise And Return

The last term for this Govt?

Sinn Fein TDs set out the strategy for the coming Leinster house session

Ireland: A Warning

This article is taken from Duncan's economic blog. Which looks at british politics from a left perspective.

This article looks at the disasterous economic deflationary policies of the FF/Greens. The labour party here must look at these facts and decide do they wish to go into the next government as coalition partners of FG and end up pesuing the same defaltionary policies, that will result in further economic disaster for the ordinary irish citizen.

Labour must join forces with SF and other pogressives to change politics here for good and build an ecomic that works in the interests of the ordinary Irish citizen.

http://duncanseconomicblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/ireland-a-warning/

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Duncan’s Economic Blog


Ireland: A Warning

A year ago I wrote a post for Left Foot Forward on the Irish economy. I noted how, unlike Britain, the Irish Government had reacted to the global recession by cutting spending and attempting to drive down costs to remain globally competitive. I also noted this was broadly the policy pushed by the Conservatives at the time.

I assessed what had happened in the year between September 2008 and September 2009.

Nearly one year on, what has been the effect of these polices? Irish GDP is expected to fall by 12%, a staggering decline. Unemployment has reached 12.4% and is still rising. The economy is now in the grip of a severe deflation (minus 5.9%). Finance Minister Brian Lenihan openly talks of the need to “get our cost base down” in order to regain competitiveness. A policy of aiming to balance the budget and drive down wage costs is a throwback to the so-called Treasury View of the 1930s, a policy rejected then by progressives and rightly rejected now. The final irony is that, despite all of this needless suffering, the Irish Government will still be running a budget deficit of 12% of GDP this year while the ratings agencies have already cut Ireland’s sovereign bonds from AAA to AA.
In December last year, as Ireland delivered yet another emergency budget that was again praised by British Tories, I wrote an update.

Iain Dale writes that:

“The PBR the British Chancellor should have delivered, was delivered yesterday in Dublin. Hopefully George Osborne is studying it in great detail.”

The results of Ireland’s policy are plain to see:

• Irish unemployment is 12.5 per cent;

• The country is experiencing deflation at –6.6 per cent;

• GDP has fallen 7.4 per cent over the past year and 10.5% from its peak;

• And despite the cuts they have still had their credit rating downgraded.

But what exactly are the measures that the Tories are so keen to praise?

– Child benefit is being cut by 10%.

– Unemployment benefit is being cut by 4.1%, with larger cuts for those under 25.

– Public Sector workers are facing pay cuts of 5-8%.

– Prescription charges are being increased by 50%.

– Other increased health charges including A&E, inpatient and outpatient charges and a higher monthly threshold above which people cannot get free drugs under the Drug Payment Scheme.

– The Health budget is being cut by €400mn on top of previously announced cuts

– Further departmental cuts will be announced in coming days.

– €960mn is cut from the investment budget
So, a year after the first post and two years after Ireland embarked on its programme of cutting, where are we now?

Not in a good place. As the FT reports:

Ireland’s central bank governor has indicated that Brian Cowen’s government needs to go even further in cutting the forthcoming budget if it wants to restore international confidence in its management of the economy.

…

A year ago the populist Fianna Fáil-led coalition won international plaudits as one of the first EU countries to tackle the crisis head on, administering cuts in public sector pay averaging 15 per cent, and reductions in child and other benefits in the most savage budget in decades.

Yet today Ireland, together with Greece and Portugal, is seen as the most vulnerable of the EU’s peripheral economies, as it struggles with a property and banking crash that has blown a hole in the public finances and threatens the economic recovery.
As Ireland prepares to engage in (another) round of cuts, Bloomberg reports how unconvinced “the markets” are by Irish policy.

Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed say Ireland is likely to default, more than double the rate three months ago, according to a quarterly poll of 1,408 investors, traders and analysts.
Ireland is providing a vivid example that the “cuts don’t work”. As the head of asset allocation at Credit Suisse Private Bank warned a year ago

Spending cuts to be announced today by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan may end up sacrificing long-term economic growth for reducing the budget deficit, an Irish author and head of asset allocation at Credit Suisse Private Banking has warned.

Michael O’Sullivan, whose book, ‘Ireland and the Global Question’, was published in 2006, warned this week that Mr Lenihan’s expected swingeing cuts could do long-term damage. “Arguably the Irish bond market is being saved at the expense of Irish society”, said Mr O’Sullivan.

“By cutting spending you lower the trend line of growth and store up bigger fiscal problems down the line,” he added.
Cutting now reduces growth and tax revenue and increases unemployment and welfare spending. It does not close the deficit in a sustainable manner.

Ireland, a euro member, may have little choice but to pursue this policy. The UK though does face a choice, and we are making the wrong one.

Housing Campaigns

The construction of housing was one sector where the Govt. caused much wastage and squandered so much investment. Dont mind those people who say we the people got carried away with ourselves. Its the responsibility of the Govt. to manage the economy or not to. They choose not to.

Now its time to clean up the mess and try to salvage what we can. As we noted previously there is significant housing over supply in most Irish counties. Whats going to be done with all this housing? Is it going to be left rot or can something be done to put that housing stock to work on behalf of society. After all through NAMA we'll end up paying for most of that housing again (didnt we already pay for it once through the state's over generous subvention of developers via tax breaks)

Cork Sinn Féin has launched a Cork Housing Campaign. Its a major new policy document titled 'Lets End The Wait' and was presented to the media by the party's five Councillors, Jonathan O'Brien, Fiona Kerins, Henry Cremin, Thomas Gould & Chris O'Leary, at Cork City Hall.

There are now more than 8,000 families on the housing waiting list in Cork. Thats an increase of more than 1,000 in just two months.

The campaign will focus on several core issues:

•A charter for social tenants
•Help for those facing negative equity
•Clearing the waiting list
•Reforming the housing list
•Providing genuinely affordable housing
•Improving housing maintenance
•A new deal for private tenants

There'll be a series of meetings across Cork to discuss the policy with local communites in Cork. The first public meeting takes place in Togher Community Centre on September 16th at 7.30pm.

NAMA is about managing the decline in value of properties. But a property with no one likely to live in it has no value. These houses represent sources of capital but if nobody lives in them they are worthless.

Its time to put all this otherwise wasted capital to productive use.

How to stop a three-horse race - and stop Sinn Féin being squeezed out AGAIN!

Below is a piece from Ruadhán. The questions raised are crucial if Sinn Féin is not to be squeezed out yet again by the three main parties in the South. Is the time ripe for some major new thinking in our strategy, or should we just carry on with what we are doing?

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While there may be questions arising from the recent RedC and Irish Times /Ipsos polls as to Labour’s actual support and its future sustainability, it is undeniable that there is now a 3-way contest.

For the first time since the foundation of the 26-county state, the electorate have decided that Fine Gael are no longer the only viable alternative to Fianna Fáil. Unfortunately for the Republican movement, however, the electorate are now turning, not to Sinn Féin, but to our main rivals: the Irish Labour Party.

Fianna Fáil’s support has plummeted SINCE 2007. The party polled 42 per cent in 2007, falling to 24 per cent in 2008: today's RedC poll confirms that FF remains stuck at this all-time low. However, it is the Labour party, under Eamon GiLmore, that has benefited from Fianna Fáil’s collapse - all other opposition Dáil parties, including Sinn Féin, remain unchanged.

The Labour tide is high not only because Eamon Gilmore is more appealing than his inept Fine Gael rival, Enda Kenny, but because Labour has succeeded in ideologically distinguishing themselves from both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on key issues, such as the bank bailout and taxation, even if, from a left perspective, this distinction is an optical illusion.

This seismic shift in the Southern political landscape could only have happened in the current climate: spiralling unemployment and mounting public debt. All are traceable to the criminal behaviour - incentivised by Government - of bankers and builders.


Under these unprecedented conditions, Sinn Féin should be doing a lot better than 8 per cent. Our present stagnation is unacceptable. While the usual excuses, such as our limited Dáil representation and the so-called hostile media, may be proffered, we are still the third opposition party in the South. Furthermore, we retain a relatively wide-reaching organisational capacity and, in theory, a distinct socialist republican ideology.


The argument that we must wait for greater Dáil numbers to improve our support is one that has repeatedly been made. This contention is as flawed as it is fatalistic. At the height of the Celtic tiger, during Fianna Fáil’s golden period in 2004, Sinn Féin polled at 12 per cent. If the party had been able to sustain that momentum, we could be ahead of Fianna Fáil today.

The last two elections have made it clear that our core vote is stuck at 6 per cent. There may be a further 4 per cent who could vote for us but, for various reasons, when it comes to polling day, these soft supporters migrate. When it comes to the last week of a general election, Sinn Féin vanishes into thin air, deprived of media oxygen just when it needs it most. Just as we were choked by the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael battle in 2007, so we could be strangled by the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Labour contest in 2012.

The real problem for Sinn Féin today is this: not only could Labour capture almost all of the Fianna Fáil’s lost support, but they could also hoover up our own voters while so doing. While Sinn Féin’s support has broadly held up in the latest opinion polls, it is only two months since we nosedived to 6 per cent in the April RedC poll. That 4 per cent drop, remember, went primarily to Labour and is directly related to an increase in its media coverage.

The media will focus on the main opposition parties in the last 2 weeks of a general election, as they usually do, to the exclusion of Sinn Féin, and so we face another death-bed squeeze, as voters vote for the parties in the media. If the current trend continues and our strategy remains the same, the party seems doomed to poll once again below 7 per cent at the next general election.


Local campaigning alone will not grow Sinn Féin: in today's fraught political environment, the battle for hearts and minds will be fought over the big issues. Only national realpolitik can save the day.

The party’s overriding difficulty, however, is the public’s perception, which seems to be that Sinn Féin is northern-centred. This is partly due to our extraordinary electoral and political achievements in the Six Counties, which have long overshadowed and, indeed, now serve to underline, our current stagnation in the South. This imbalance, coupled with the fact that we not have an obvious figurehead in the South, has led to the public perception of northcentricity, namely, that Sinn Féin is led from the North.

The overwhelming risk here is that the Southern electorate will decide that party leaders, such as Eamon Gilmore, whose constituency lies in the South, have a superior understanding of the daily grind faced by ordinary working people, and are therefore in a better position to represent them.

A clearly identifiable Southern leadership is therefore required, if we are compete with Gilmore, undermine Cowen and out-manoeuvre Kenny.

I believe we can transform and grow in the South in addition to consolidating and expanding in the North. All it requires is confidence and courage.

That Sinn Féin requires an elected leadership North and South in order to successfully campaign in both jurisdictions has crystallised. That leadership must be united. It must be rooted in parity of esteem, in dual leadership. Only this can give the party the tools it so badly needs to appeal to all voters on this island, and to deliver the balance of power required to achieve our goal of a united Ireland.

I believe the time has come for Sinn Féin to act decisively. We can no longer wait for the natural evolution of a Southern leadership. That evolution is premised on a vain hope, namely, that we will, in the fullness of time, somehow reach an optimum level of TDs.

Now is the time to act, to capitalize on the state of the nation by establishing our leadership in the South. This will enable us to go in to the next election with renewed energy and rewired momentum.

That leadership can only be established through election. Anyone who believes that it is not necessary for a leadership to be elected is mistaken. Moreover, future leaders should be selected following a contest decided by the party’s grassroots.

A Southern leader should now be chosen without delay from our current group of elected public representives in Leinster House. The major issues of the day break in Leinster House and the Dáil remains our best platform for translating our socialist republican ideals into policies that will attract an electorate hungry for change.


Brave decisions taken now to form a recalibrated united leadership will optimize our chances of winning fresh Dáil seats. The alternative is face a potentially crippling election defeat in the upcoming general election.

One country one message?

Received this piece from Féilim and I feel it poses many questions that Sinn Féin need to look at if we are to continue to grow North and South of the border.

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One of the difficulties that Sinn Féin has, as a party in the 26 Counties, is that its policies in Government in the Six Counties often appear to contradict its image as a left wing party in the 26 Cos. It is clear that there are different priorities for the party North and South. However, the main problem which prevents Sinn Féin from growing in the South stems not simply from different sets of priorities in both jurisdictions, but from a lack of a clear ideological analysis of Ireland today, the Ireland we’d like to bring about, and how we’re going to do this.

In the Six Counties the main priority currently is to promote the interests of the nationalists (an ethno-centric approach rather than an historic republican approach) and the idea of a united Ireland. While virtually all SF people in the Six Counties have experienced poverty and disadvantage and have a natural affinity and empathy for those in similar situations, that does not translate necessarily into a socialist ideological perspective. Indeed many northern republicans would probably be quite happy with the 26 County Labour Party’s view on socio-economic issues – and some might even be content with Fianna Fáil if it adopted a more pro-active approach on Partition. Certainly northern republicans are more likely to say they oppose Fianna Fáil because it ‘sold out’ on Irish unity, rather than because it supports capitalism.

And here lies the problem for republicans in the South who want to make the party relevant to people in the 26 Cos. and whose priority is to create a socialist alternative.

The fact is that outside of republicans there is little interest in the 26 Cos. in the position of nationalists in the Six. There is no serious interest in a United Ireland, certainly not one which will cost the tax payers £6 billion annually or which will mean having to accommodate a million northern Protestants.

Since Sinn Féin is strongest in the Six Cos. and its leadership is primarily from the Six or the Border Counties, its priorities tend to represent the priorities of those in that part of the country. Unfortunately since Sinn Féín’s analysis is ethnocentric in the North and therefore cannot be extrapolated in any meaningful sense to the 32 Counties as a whole, this stunts the potential growth of the party in the South (and in the long run, also in the North). For example, Sinn Féin may well be the biggest party in the North with 26% of the vote - a great achievement by any standards. However, this vote is based on an ethnocentric appeal to a (limited) number of nationalists and the 74% which oppose us there appear to be quite consolidated in their opposition. Add to that the 94% who oppose us in the South and the question has to be asked – will a northern nationalist ethnocentric approach to politics do the trick ever bring about a united Ireland never mind a socialist one?

The problem is that Sinn Féin has never properly developed an ideological approach to the condition of Ireland as a whole and the potential change we would like to see. Policies which we have developed have been largely pragmatic responses to political problems rather than based on in-depth analysis from an ideological standpoint or a vision of where we’d like to see the country end up. It’s no wonder than political actions in the North have often appeared contradictory to what we say we stand for in the South.

One example of this is seen in Sinn Féin’s support for the Public Assemblies Bill, which is jointly sponsored by Sinn Féin and the DUP. This Bill is the result of negotiations between Sinn Féin and the DUP over the transfer of Policing and Justice powers to the North and the resulting discussions over Orange marches. In order to satisfy its priorities in this regard Sinn Féin has agreed to support a Bill which in effect curtails the right to protest for whole sectors of society in the North – NGOs, the Trade Union movement, solidarity groups etc. Indeed if this Bill was passed in the 26 Cos. the recent protests supported by Sinn Féin outside Leinster House would have been illegal. In recent days disquiet about the human rights implications of this Bill have been expressed by prominent trade union leaders in the North including leaders of the biggest public sector unions, NIPSA and UNISON. The N.I Human Rights Commission has also suggested that the Bill may contravene human rights legislation.

The Human Rights Commission's response to the draft bill is available at:

http://www.nihrc.org/index.php?page=subresources&category_id=26&from=0&resources_id=129&search_content=&Itemid=61

The SDLP has also suggested it will oppose the Bill in its current form on civil liberties grounds!

There are several things wrong with the Bill. However, the most objectionable element relates to the condition that any group organising a public meeting of more than 50 people (it doesn’t have to be a march) in a public area (street, footpath, town square), must give 37 days notice to a newly appointed body which will then adjudicate on the matter. This removes current rights to protest enjoyed by the community in the North and restricts the opportunity to dissent, at least in the short term. The fact that Sinn Féin in the North doesn’t see this as objectionable or as anti-worker or anti-solidarity movement or anti-civil rights or even anti-republican reflects the depth of the problem which exists in terms of a lack of republican analysis and ideology. It also explains in part why Sinn Féin is unlikely to grow in the 26 Cos. until/unless there is a major rethink on republican strategy generally.

There are always going to be different priorities in struggle North and South while Partition and two separate socio-economic, political (and I would add cultural) entities exist. However the pursuit of these separate priorities would not throw up the contradictions we are currently experiencing if it was grounded in an agreed ideological analysis and a strategy based on that instead of pragmatism, as is currently the case.

Féilim Ó hAdhmaill

The Red C poll and the challenge for Sinn Féin

Read this letter in An Phoblacht this week and for me it is the crucial challenge for the future of Sinn Féin. We can continue to have great success in the North , but without this being mirrored in the South Sinn Féin will fail to meet its objective of a free, united and just Ireland. http://www.anphoblacht.com/letters/2010-05-06


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The RedC poll

SINN FÉIN is slipping in the South. The latest RedC poll (showing Sinn Féin down four points to 6%) augurs badly for Sinn Féin at the next general election.

If we keep on with the same hallowed but failed strategy, Sinn Féin will be eclipsed by the Labour Party and no amount of canvassing or leafleting will halt this trend.

We need to come up with a new strategy to appeal to the 26-County electorate. Wishing that Sinn Féin will have seven or more elected TDs is not going to do it – it requires radical action. There is no way that we can expect to increase our Dáil representation through on-the-ground campaigning alone. We must compete at a national level.

There is a widespread view that we are a Northern party – not an all-Ireland party. What we must do is to show the electorate that our public representatives in the South are at the heart of Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin needs to be seen to have a strong Southern leadership. Power can no longer be seen to devolve from the North to the South. We need a new vision of power sharing – within our own party.

I look forward to the publication of this letter and I hope it kick-starts an overdue debate.

In solidarity,
RUADHÁN Mac AODHÁIN,
Dublin.

Video of Sinn Féin Ard Fheis on motions that would prevent Sinn Féin from going into coalition with FF or FG

Latest Sinn Féin video

The priorities for Sinn Féin in the coming Dáil session.

Googling The Republic - A map of republican blogs

The strong point of the internet is its collaborative aspect - heaps of people who dont know each other all contributing a small bit and making a big contribution colectively. Google uses ordinary people to correct details in its google maps, add names etc which provides a level of detail at a speed of development thats not matched by others. They use it to map areas in India etc with incredible detail based on local knowledge.

So I though why not map the republican blog community on to Google maps.

The idea is to list each Republican blogger, SF cumainn on line etc and then put it on the map. i.e Sinn Fein Sligo marked in Sligo. Bit of tweaking before its finished. must sort out if there is a way of showing the names on mouse over etc. It'll all come good in the end I hope.

So if your cumainn has a blog or your local rep etc then maybe you could post a comment with the link and the address (town, county). I will then put them into a database and load them onto the map.

So the idea is to have an easy way for people to see what republicans are blogging near their area, what cumainn are in their area etc.

It'll also mean that anybody searching for Sinn Fein on google comes across republican sites more frequently etc.

I am sure there are many other ways we could use the internet and these new collaborative programmes.

Does anyone have any other ideas?


View Republicans ONLINE in a larger map

Sinn Féin back ICTU rallies against spending cuts

Sinn Féin leaders from across the country have clearly demonstrated their support for the ICTU protests planned for the 6th and 24th November. Marting Ferris has spoken out strongly against Labour TD Costello's criticism of the planned action and Gerry Adams made the below statement.

The battle lines are being drawn very clearly for the struggle that is about to commence. A massive programme of cuts is being planned for North and South of the border and Sinn Féin must stand clearly with the forces who wish to see us defend the interests of the weakest members of society. Be they those in receipt of welfare benefits, health care etc. Or those workers who are fighting to defend jobs, pay and conditions.

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Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has called for people in the north to show their support for our public services by attending rallies organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in Armagh, Ballymena, Belfast, Derry, Magherafelt and Newry this Friday, November 6th.

Mr Adams said:“The Irish Congress of Trade Unions National Day of Protest on Friday will give people from across Ireland the opportunity to demonstrate their opposition to cuts in public services.

“The focus in the north the will very much be on planned cuts to the health service, including job losses and the closure of hospital beds. The British Treasury is demanding ‘efficiency savings’ of £700 million over the next three years.

“The reality is that it will be the most disadvantaged, whose life expectancy is already significantly lower than others, who will be most adversely affected these cuts.

“Our priority is the defence of front-line public services and to tackle health inequalities and ensure that vulnerable people, people living with disadvantage and poverty, and those most at risk are protected.

“The Executive is facing very real challenges in meeting the efficiency targets demanded by the British Treasury.

“I believe that there are steps we can and must take to defend public services, and already Sinn Féin Ministers in the Executive have taken steps to ensure that key public services such as water and public transport remain under public control. “Sinn Féin have led the demand for greater all-Ireland working across the Health Service and I believe this could deliver substantial savings that could be channelled into sustaining and developing front-line services. Ending duplication and maximising the scale of economies could release millions back into service delivery. I also believe that the proper implementation of the Investing for Health Strategy can deliver huge savings.

“It is time to mobilise, agitate, educate and politicise for real change. These rallies are an important part of the campaign to defend public services that must continue beyond Friday.”

The rallies in the North are being held at 1pm in Armagh (Hospital); Ballymena (Diamond); Belfast (City Hall); Derry (Custom House Street, off Guildhall Square); Magherafelt (Diamond)l; and Newry (City Hall).

And in the 26 Counties in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Sligo, Tullamore, and Dundalk

Councillors are part of the vanguard of our movement

Below are parts of a piece from this weeks An Phoblacht and it is written by CLLR PÁDRAIG Mac LOCHLAINN, Chairperson National Councillors’ Forum.

To me this is an important article given the internal debate going on about the development of the party in the South following the last local elections. For me this article points the way forward for the party. It agrees with Treasa Ferris when she talks about a need to focus on local politics and it agrees with her that local councillors are vital to getting the message of the party out to the people. However, it also mentions the need for those councillors to be getting out the left republican message and for them to receive the correct support in doing that. To me this is vital. The party should focus on supporting our local representatives and building our local base, rather than overly focusing on attepts to get high profile individuals on a national scale. If we get the representation at local level, then national representation will follow.

I believe working on a local level is the way forward for the party as it will allow us to build the links with other groups on the left, who are so unwilling to do so on a national level. Also it will help us get around the obvious media bias that exists against us on a national level.


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THE Sinn Féin National Councillors’ Forum is the collective voice of 232 elected representatives across 31 of the 32 counties.

Of that total, 120 represent communities across the 26 Counties. To state the 26-County figure is not to be partitionist but to highlight it to republicans so that they remember it the next time they read or listen to the prattling of a ‘neutral’ commentator or journalist about how the 26-County state is some sort of a political desert for Sinn Féin.

As Gerry Adams declared at the recent annual conference of the forum: our councillors play a crucial role because they are the public interface that the vast majority of our people have with Sinn Féin. I would take that a step further and argue that our councillors are a crucial part of the vanguard of this movement, particularly in the 26 Counties, where our numbers in the Oireachtas are small. Councillors deal with the bread and butter issues that are the foundation of all republican politics. The hallmark of Sinn Féin councillors is that we have sought to empower our communities rather than engage in self-serving clientelism.

However, I feel that we can and must improve cohesion and co-operation between our councillors in the time ahead to advance our republican objectives. We need to ensure that we continue to work together to advance the all-Ireland agenda. Much good work has been done on the council cross-border groups but there is no room for complacency.

In the 26 Counties, our councillors are the frontline for advancing our politics in the absence of Sinn Féin parliamentary representation in 39 of the 43 Dáil constituencies. It is crucial that our party ensures that those councillors who are tasked with representing us on local radios and in local newspapers across the state are properly resourced and trained in all areas of policy.

They, in turn, must take the mantle of leadership seriously and ensure that they are fully engaged with evolving Sinn Féin policies and fully participating in the party’s national campaigns.

While Sinn Féin are often squeezed out of the national media, due to our small numbers in the Oireachtas, our local councillors cannot be ignored. This is a crucial point and more attention must be paid to the importance of local media in communicating Sinn Féin’s message to local communities.

More people engage with local newspapers and radio than with the national media. Therefore, we must ensure that our local councillors are covered regularly in their local media in a strategic and methodical fashion.

As I said at the outset, the 26 Counties is no political desert for Sinn Féin but much remains to be done and our 120 councillors and Udarás member will be central to any party-building strategy. It is clear that we have to punch above our political weight in many parts of the state.

This is the time for Left republican politics. This is the time for the commonsense politics of one all-Ireland economy.

The bible of unbridled capitalism beloved by the two major political parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, has backfired spectacularly. It is clear that the reckless pursuit of greed and the over-reliance of taxation on the construction and consumption bubble has crippled the 26-County state. Our elected representatives must be prominent as the champions of those multitudes failed by those in political power and facing real hardship.

We must confront the agenda of cuts to crucial public services and defend the vulnerable in our society. We must intelligently articulate an alternative vision and win the battle for hearts and minds in our townlands, villages, towns, and cities.

None of this is easy but we have to have the desire to win and the belief in our Left republican analysis. Most importantly, we have to believe in each other. Comradeship has never been more important for Irish republicans. We are at a political crossroads. We either become despondent and dance to the tune of our political opponents or we take inspiration from what has been achieved and rededicate ourselves to take the next steps forward. And if we are seeking inspiration, where better to start than a Sinn Féin forum of 232 elected representatives in 31 of the 32 counties?

Establishing a political narrative

This is an article i have recently received from a Sinn Féin supporter. It is clearly part of the ongoing debate that is going on in the party at the present time. For me this debate is crucial and will decide what the future holds for Sinn Féin.

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There has been much discussion about the political direction Sinn Fein should follow. Those discussions have been renewed following the recent elections. This site is itself a forum for such debate and there have been posts on the need to be more left wing, to remove ourselves from centrist govt. etc. Over on other sites more hostile posters have questioned whether the party has lost its connection with the working class to more radical left groupings.

How do we answer such a question. One possible answer is we tack left to meet the challenge from that quarter. However to my mind there is also different aspect to the question. Its an aspect that would remain the same whether we were to tack left of PBP/SWP and the SP; it would remain the same even if we went straight to the center. I am talking about the word connection. The connection with the voters is that set of beliefs, assumptions, that sense of trust they have for and awareness of our party.

Connection might as easily be described as whats our message, whats our story or narrative, what are we communicating to the voters and whats their set of assumptions about us. That’s not a left wing right wing thing. It cant be answered with we need to be more left wing or more right wing but its a question of how successful are we in making voters understand our political vision and representing their wishes.

I believe that the recent elections have demonstrated that we have not yet communicated our vision to the voters successfully but rather have allowed others to instead paint a picture in the mind of voters of who Sinn Fein are. I believe that as a party we have not yet challenged that perception aggressively enough.


Before I focus on Sinn Fein’s narrative I’d like to briefly discuss other narratives which might give an idea of what I am concentrating on.

Obama - His campaign was built about the narrative of change and captured the desires of Americans for a step change in society. It also neutered his critics who tried to paint him as inexperienced. Similar to

Gordon Brown - he tried to position himself as the man who was orchestrating the global response to the depression.

The Tories say they are change, willing to make the cuts and do what needs doing

The Liberal Democrats counter that narrative by saying that Labour and the Tories are the same and only the Liberals are free of the political corruption scandals. Only they can reform westminister.

Here in the south of Ireland each party has a narrative or story its trying to communicate to voters and a counter story being told by its opponents or just something that’s associated with the party. Sometimes a counter story is told by the party against its own interests- think of John Gormley standing fastly with Fianna Fail in photo ops but then saying the greens are doing their own thing. Think of Fianna Fail’s message in 2007 that they were the only safe pair of hands and how successful that message was. Also think of how the opposition failed to counter that story and lost (luckily)

Stories and counter-stories.

No matter how just, right or good a message is it generally wont sell itself. It might do if it were the only show in town but its not. There are alternative viewpoints that its competing with and everyone else is explaining why your viewpoint is wrong and theirs is right. Some people even misread your view point and label you incorrectly. So having a clear message or political narrative with which can explain who you are and what you are about is important.

A voter needs to be able to sum your party up in a few words and you need to ensure those few words are positive, actually true, and really speak to a segment in society that has a genuine need. I think its necessary to stress this is not talking about spin - the art of lying. Its rather about ensuring you get to tell people who you are and what you are about and what your opponents are about rather than having them do it for you.

At this point in time the party is pretty much painted into a box in the mind of the southern electorate as a pre-dominantly northern ran and orientated republican party that's pro-workers but that has no decent economic policy or understanding of economic policy and who are electorally stalled and irrelevant to the debate. All the points I marked as counter-stories put out about Sinn Fein in the above table are the most commonly held beliefs about the party. Although about 7-8% of the electorate is hearing our message and connecting with it etc we are seeing, again unfortunately, that we are failing to connect with the next 7-8% of the voters that we need to be at 15% (which is not at all beyond possibility in the medium term).

Making that connection

So why aren’t we at 15% at the moment. Well surely several reasons but I believe that a key one is Sinn Fein’s inability to phrase, or word, its message so that a larger segment of regular people associate with the Sinn Fein message and feel that it represents them and their concerns in a way that they themselves might express it ie it makes a connection with them in the words of ordinary people.

No party can entirely control its message because of the prevalence of others pushing counter stories. To that end the behaviour of certain media outlets etc. who attack Sinn Fein has to be accepted as a fact and cannot be used as a reason for our loss of momentum.

We have been strongly focussed on refuting the counter stories about us by proving our economic/policy credentials via proposals and submissions and via thoughtful and weighted contributions on the Lisbon debate . We have established our southern relevance with a strong cadre of southern based party figures. We have demonstrated our ability to do the real work in govt. by constructively working in the Dail.

However such was the weight of negative propaganda that all we have succeeded in doing is standing still. Now we need to reevaluate the message so that we can grow to 15%.

I believe that Sinn Fein needs to:

(a) go back to basics as Toireasa Ferris said re community work.

(b) Continue to prove our economic/policy credibility with good work but push the message in a more insistant fashion, and in a more passionate manner. I have noted that some SF reps doing TV work are very sober and serious, getting across the message that we are a serious party with a firm grasp of the issue. That’s good but does that mean we don’t make any emotional connection with the voters.

c) We need to start taking some harder, more controversial positions. I don’t mean populist or jam for everybody positions but rather lets push the boat out a bit with costed and economically proofed proposals. People don’t know what our positions are on issues. Lets change that. The Fgers have the health reform, labour their no vote last sept etc. Whats our angle? Dail reform became a big theme for a few days. Can we be the party of reform - god knows people want institutional reform in this state.

(d) What ever words or ideas become central to our message lets not develop that message for our own consumption. This is 2009 and if our way of expressing ourselves is not the way ordinary working class people are expressing themselves then lets stop trying to change the people and instead change how we express ourselves. Our principles remain the same but we instead talk using the language of the office and the factory and the dole queue, not in language drawn from books and journals.

(e) People who are members, or like myself, only supporters, should be conscious that we can play a key part in advancing the SF message. We, with the leadership, are the key players in convincing a broader segment of society that we are capable, competent and relevant to their needs.

f) Finally once we establish a message we should not deviate from it over the short term. Don’t side track but repeat it and keep on it and then repeat it until it’s established.

The Gerry Adams view of the way forward for the Isrealie Palestine conflict.

In April Gerry Adams led a Sinn Féin delegation to Palestine/Isreal and in late June they released their report ‘Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, April 2009 – A Report’. Below are some of the main points in the report.


Whilst I do not wish to deflect from the Palestinian cause, I find it impossible to read without thinking of the steps taken to bring about the current settlement in the north and I ask myself where would we be now if Sinn Féin had not gone down the path it did and Adams had not led the process in the way he did.

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EXTRACTS FROM "ISREAL, THE GAZA STRIP AND THE WEST BANK, APRIL 2009"



It is obvious that the political conditions for ongoing violence and poverty and instability still dominate the situation.

These must be tackled effectively if a peace settlement is to have any potential for success.


It was also clear from the scores of Israeli and Palestinian citizens that the Sinn Féin delegation met that there is a deep desire for peace.
This desire must be turned into reality.

I believe that dialogue is key to this.
The Sinn Féin peace strategy helped create the conditions for the Irish peace process, which has transformed political conditions in Ireland.

While no two conflicts are the same there are nonetheless broad principles which can be helpful in all conflict resolution processes.

Sinn Féin's position is that the integrity of all democratic mandates should be respected and accepted. And, clearly, any attempt to achieve peace must involve dialogue between opponents and enemies.


Sinn Féin's view of the situation.

In brief this included the following opinions:
_ The situation had deteriorated since my first visit in September 2006.
_ Israelis and Palestinians are destined to share the same piece of ground and to live side by side.
_ Everyone deserves and requires justice, stability, security and peace.
_ A two-state solution holds out the best prospect to secure these objectives.
_ Dialogue is central to this.
_ There should be a complete cessation of all hostilities and freedom of
movement for everyone.

What is needed:
_ The firing of rockets should cease.
_ The building of Separation Wall should stop as a first step towards its demolition.
_ The building of Settlements should stop.


GAZA

Over a three week period from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 it is reported that:
_ Over 1400 people were killed including more than 400 children and over a hundred women.
_ Casualties were in the region of 5,000 including 1,800 children and almost 800 women.

The resultant suffering past and present, especially within a population of which 60% are under 18 years of age, can only store up a festering resentment which will fuel further conflict in the absence of a political settlement.

What is needed:
_ The siege of the Gaza strip should end.
_ International aid on an appropriately large scale should immediately be injected into the area to relieve suffering, restore essential services and kick start the reconstruction of the area.
_ All armed actions or threats of armed action should cease.


Several Palestinians, supporters of the peace process route, mature in both age and political experience told me that they feel as angry now as they did when they were teenagers.

They find, in themselves and their contemporaries, a hardening of attitudes.
Others voice the opinion that generations coming up, unless there is a peace settlement, will make Al Qaeda, in retrospect, looking like moderates.
Conclusions
During my two brief visits to the region and in my conversations with all of those I met I believe that there is a widespread desire for peace among Israelis and Palestinians.

The opinion polls consistently reflect this.

Dialogue has to be a central tenet of any attempt to make peace; to achieve justice, stability, security and peace.

Refusing to engage in dialogue; demonising opponents; treating them as non citizens; stripping them of their rights and entitlements, of their self esteem and integrity as human beings; engaging in censorship and vilification, makes war easier and peace harder.
It is a policy that guarantees a perpetuation of the cycle of conflict.

The international experience is clear.

There are two ways to end conflict. Either one side convincingly beats the other or all of those involved engage in the more difficult and challenging process of peace making.
61 years after the emergence of the Israeli state and the partition of Palestine, and with the increasing sophistication of the weapons of war on all sides, it is clear that no wall - however high -can provide permanent peace or security.

A political settlement is required and this is only possible if there is a recognition and acceptance of democratic mandates of all of the participants.

Peace making is conducted by and between enemies not between friends.


That means that a necessary element of a conflict resolution process in the Middle East, which hopes to achieve a successful outcome, must be an acceptance of inclusive dialogue based on equality and respect.

This required a serious, good faith effort to engage between political opponents.

And this will require determination and commitment to stick with it through all of the inevitable arguments and differences and crises that will emerge.

For Palestinians this means uniting in the national interest by agreeing a truly national political platform involving all of the Palestinian parties.
Fail to do this and the age old tactic of divide and rule will weaken the Palestinian ability to achieve their rights through negotiation.

Party political interests need to be subsumed in the national and democratic cause.

For the Israelis the challenge is equally daunting.

Israel is a major regional and world power.

It has the ability to continue to pursue and implement policies which foster division and conflict, or it can take dramatic decisions for peace.

For both a two-State solution appears to hold out the greatest prospect for an acceptable and durable solution.

Such a settlement would also greatly enhance Israel's standing with its neighbours.

The Arab League peace, which includes a proposal to normalise relationships with Israel, could be a watershed moment in the effort to bring stability to that region.

The recent positions set out by President Obama, and the appointment of Senator George Mitchell, are welcome developments. The United States of America has a particular role to play and is certainly the most influential international player on the Israeli authorities.


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The wider international community also has an important role to play also, especially Egypt, Jordan and Syria, Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab world, the Government of Iran and the European Union, Turkey, China and the United Nations and Russia.

All can and must provide encouragement, incentives, persuasions, economic and other aid as appropriate and the application without fear or favour of internationally agreed laws and standards.

But in the end it is for Palestinians and Israelis to make the peace.

And that means the renewed commitment to agreements and understandings already reached as the basis to resume timetabled negotiations, for an overall settlement, which includes a timetable for Implementation.


IMMEDIATE STEPS
_ All armed actions and acts of violence should cease.
_ An inclusive process of negotiations should commence in which all democratic mandates are respected, clear objectives are set, and there is a fixed timeframe.
_ The building of the Separation Wall should stop as a first step which would see its demolition.
_ The siege of the Gaza Strip should end.
_ An immediate and intensive programme of reconstruction and economic development must commence.
_ The ongoing Israeli colonisation of the West Bank and the building of settlements should stop.
_ The occupation of the West Bank and the denial of freedom of movement to Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, and between the West Bank and Gaza, should end as part of the process to decolonise the West Bank.
_ Mutual and expeditious co-operation between Palestinians and Israelis to enhance public safety and security should commence.
_ United Nations Resolutions and International Law should be enforced.

An Phoblacht - Sending out the right message

I'm glad to see this week's edition of An Phoblacht has two pieces supporting workers in the current economic crisis. For me this is a core message that Sinn Féin needs to be shouting out loudly.

The first article is entitled

Recession no excuse for employers to line pockets with money owed to electricians

Unions to resist attempts to drive down wages and conditions



The article is in clear support of the the electricans and their stance in fighting for what they are owed and how this is just the latest attempt to attack the pay and conditions of ordinary workers.

The article states, "The reason why this dispute has taken on such importance for the trade union movement is that it represents another step in a concerted attempt by employers to dismantle agreed structures and mechanism for setting wages in specific sectors of the economy. It follows an attempt last year by the Irish Hotels Federation to challenge the right of Joint Labour Committees and the Labour Court to set minimum wages and the employment conditions for workers in the hotel sector.This dispute arose as a consequence of a challenge by the a section of employers to a registered employment agreement (REA) on electricians pay, agreed by workers and employers. That employers’ action in refusing to pay the agreed increase would, if carried out by unions, have been described as ‘wild cat action’ with serious consequences for any unions involved. The action by the TEEU is a direct response to employers’ refusal to negotiate, despite a recommendation from the Labour Court that they should do so."

In addition there is a further article in An Phoblacht entitled.

McGuinness tells ICTU conference – workers cannot be asked to pay price for crisis not of their making

This article outlines points made when the Joint First Minister (stupid feckin title to be using) made at the ICTU conference in Tralee.

In the article it states.
McGuiness told delegates that his concern about the economic downturn was the effects it has inflicted on the lives of ordinary people throughout Ireland: “Effects which you as trade unionists, and myself as a political representative, are all too painfully aware. The recession cannot, and must not, be used as an excuse to drive down terms and conditions of employment for ordinary workers. Ordinary workers cannot be asked to pay the heaviest price for a crisis that is not of their making.“It is their lives and futures and indeed that of their children and grandchildren that we must focus on improving. And while we work to address the employment and banking crisis we must ensure that the most vulnerable in our society continue to be protected”.

The above two articles push the message that I feel Sinn Féin need to be fully behind. Namely Sinn Féin is a party that supports the interests of the working people of this country and that Sinn Féin will stand with the trade union movement in ensuring that it is not just working people that have to pay for the current economic crisis.

It's all about the economy, stupid!

One of the things Sinn Féin has been criticised for has been its lack of understanding of economic issues and in truth our politics have focused on matters other than the economy and as a result we have been open to such criticism.

To me the leadership have attempted to deal with these attacks by putting forward moderate economic proposals, trying at all times to sound "reasonable" and falling in line with what other major parties are proposing. This in my opinion led to Sinn Féin failing to benefit from the shift to the left that happened in the recent local and European elections in the South.

However, there there is a growing socialist/social democratic economic analysis of the present situation and we on the left need to grow in our understanding of that analysis and use it to push for the changes we wish to see in Ireland. Sinn Féin members need to be able to be able to counter the arguments put forward that there is no alternative to the economic cuts and deflation that lies at the core of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and even Labour Party thinking. In order to do this we need to increase our understanding of economics.

Personally I have for a while now been trying to do this and an excellent source of information has been Michael Taft. He has a site called notes from the front about progressive economics. He has consistently argued the case against the government's economic policies and he has shown where they are taking us to.

Michael is a member of the Labour Party and works for UNITE and is on the left in terms of his thinking.

If anybody else has a site they would recommend then please let me know.

Below is an article from Michael Taft on An Bord Snip.

Histories At Dawn: June 30th The Recession Diaries

History is such a malleable thing. It can be twisted this way and that to support or oppose any contemporary position. Take An Bord Snip Nua – this is a grand thing altogether. How do we know this? Because, sure, its predecessor was such an outstanding success. Yes, it brought pain but it set the groundwork for the Celtic Tiger economy. So goes the history; if we gird our loins, cut and hack away, we too can replicate this outstanding success. Suffer a couple of years of fiscal pain, and economic paradise awaits.

But history is not so straight-forward and certainly not so reductionist. Was it really the case that the ‘cutbacks’ endured under Mac the Knife (Finance Minister Ray McSharry) were (a) successful and (b) set the preconditions for the growth explosion in the mid-1990s? Let’s take a look at some provocative facts for clearly there is a lot of myth making about that period – a period that ran from 1987 to 1989, encompassing three budgets.

First, how much was cut? In nominal terms, public expenditure wasn’t cut – it increased. During the three budgets, total expenditure increased. Current expenditure increased. Even excluding interest payments, current expenditure increased by over 5 percent. The main target of the knife was that ol’ standby – capital expenditure. Cutting investment is the easiest option. It doesn’t take away from what people already have – it only defers something we don’t have. This started a period of long-term chronic under-investment in our economic base.

But that’s only Irish public expenditure. Don’t forget – this was ‘begging bowl’ days, when Ireland was one of the poorer performing economies in the EU. So what about public expenditure in Ireland? Between 1987 and 1989 we received over £1 billion under the EU Social and Regional Development Funds - a substantial 38 percent increase in the previous three years under the hapless Fine Gael/Labour government. Now, £1 billion might not sound much but were we to receive the same proportional amount it would come to nearly €6 billion over the next three years. That would subsidise a lot of cuts, but it’s doubtful if the EU today would play ball.

Second, there is much talk about how the minority Fianna Fail government brought down the public spending/GNP ratio. In 1986 public expenditure amounted to 54.7 percent of GNP (if you think that’s because we had some kind of super-Nordic government, remember – it was largely due to interest payments and social welfare). By 1989, spending was brought down to 45.1 percent. But this was only the continuation of a trend that was already in place since 1983 when expenditure was over 62 percent of GNP.

But there was one thing that saved Fianna Fail’s bacon. The numbers on the Live Register started to fall. Was that because all this fiscal contraction started producing jobs? Hardly. Between 1986 and 1992, the economy was generating an average of only 14,000 new net jobs, and while unemployment didn’t rise it didn’t fall either. Between 1988 (the first year of the ILO calculation) and 1993, unemployment fell by less than 1% leaving nearly 16 percent still unemployed. So what happened here?

Yes, you guessed it: emigration. Between 1987 and 1989 over 100,000 emigrated. While not all of these would have been of working age, it’s a fair bet most were – the overwhelming majority. The numbers emigrating amounted to 8 percent of the entire labour force in 1989. To put this in perspective, we’d need over 180,000 to leave over the next three years to reach this level.

Emigrants are great. You don’t have to pay them any dole. They reduce demand on social services. They don’t end up clogging our jails. It’s a great solution, and it certainly gave the Government at the time a real dig out. Expansionary fiscal contraction? Try expansionary demographic contraction.

There is no question about the impact of some of the cuts during that period. But, as always, there were choices. Fianna Fail did choose – they chose to abolish the Land Tax – just as they abolished the Wealth Tax a decade earlier. When it came to patients being moved out of closed hospital wards or the IFA, Fianna Fail certainly knew whose side it was on.

Whatever about our ‘historians’ today, what did contemporaries think of this policy? They couldn’t ditch it fast enough. First to go was Mac the Knife himself – kicked upstairs to the EU Commission. During the 1989 election campaign – resulting from a lost vote on a non-economic private member’s bill – Charles Haughey apologised on an RTE phone-in show for not realising the damage being done to cutbacks in the health services (what’s new?). The election result put the seal on Fianna Fail’s historical anti-coalitionism, and for the first time they entered cabinet with another party – the right-wing PDs. What happened then? More of th same? Don't you believe it.

The Fianna Fail/PD government went on a spending spree. In the very first budget spending cuts were reversed – and how; public spending rose by 7 percent. In the three budgets under this government, spending increased by over a quarter while capital spending increased by a third.

And then there was that EU dosh. It really started flooding in – over £2.2 billion in the three year period. This was more than double the amount received in the previous three year period. Public expenditure in Ireland leaped and bounded ever upwards.

And this was done against a pretty bleak fiscal situation. While spending was being increased, the debt/GDP ratio was over 85%, though falling; interest payments on the debt soaked up a quarter of tax revenue and over 7% of GDP (compare that to payments in 2008 which made up only 1 percent of GDP). Still, they kept spending.
And then the 1993 devaluation – which made our exports cheaper.

And then the fruits of years of work by the IDA – the multinationals swept in, bringing mega-growth.

And the direct state investment into the high-tech domestic sector.
We never hear that narrative – one that poses spending, investment and public policy as the driving force in the emerging economic boom. Rather, all we get is a selective and reductionist recitation of history, skewered to fit a set of pre-conceived policies.

And just remember, when you read reports of today’s Bord Snip proposing cuts in social welfare, that throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, social welfare increased every year. And public sector workers received pay increases.
History has much to teach us.

http://notesonthefront.typepad.com/politicaleconomy/2009/06/history-is-such-a-malleable-thing-it-can-be-twisted-this-way-and-that-to-support-or-oppose-any-contemporary-position-take-a.html

An phoblacht's view on the recent racist attacks in Belfast

I was asked to post the editoral from An Phoblacht concerning the recent racist attacks in Belfast. It was recently stated that not enough Sinn Féin activists are reading the paper and as a result many are not aware of the party's position or thinking on current issues.

So here you go. See what you think.

Sectarianism and racism must be confronted

DESPITE all the political progress of recent years there are still some unionist politicians in the North who continue to oppose equality and refuse to confront sectarianism.

The Six Counties is a state that was established on the basis of sectarianism and inequality. It remains sectarian at its core. When Unionism was in control of the institutions of state it abused those institutions and used its political power to sustain its control.

Sectarianism is a device to keep citizens in their place. Catholics were the main target of this sectarianism and victims of state policies of discrimination.
Sectarianism also kept working class Protestants in their place, divided from their Catholic neighbours and distrustful of them even though in many cases living conditions, particularly for all poor working class people, were similar.
Because the North is a sectarian state and because unionism could not be trusted to govern fairly, the outcomes of the Good Friday Agreement and the Saint Andrews Agreement are all-Ireland in nature, particularly in their institutions.
There are also many equality and other legal safeguards built into the new political dispensation. These include compulsory power sharing and partnership political arrangements. ‘Thinking unionism’ knows that this will be the case for as long as the new dispensation lasts and fair minded unionist MLAs have slowly but surely come to terms with this reality. They fulfil their political duties in a positive way. They also appreciate that these safeguards are to their advantage as the constitutional position changes in the future.

Others, inside and outside the North’s Assembly, toy with the idea that the system of governance can be changed. If they are serious, they are living in Fantasy Land.
If the new political dispensation is to deliver for everyone, it will do so because all political parties have entered into the spirit as well as the letter of power sharing.

Any suggestion that the compulsory nature of the power sharing arrangements can be changed is dishonest and misleading. Those who argue for this position know that it is unattainable. All politicians have a duty to set their faces against sectarianism.
Recent attacks on members of the Romanian community in South Belfast and other attacks against people from eastern Europe in other parts of the North have led many people to correctly draw parallels between these racist incidents and the long history of sectarian discrimination and violence in the Six Counties. Racism and sectarianism are two sides of the one coin.The tolerance that is shown by many political leaders for sectarianism makes it inevitable that racism will thrive. It also needs to be confronted.

How will Sinn Féin tackle reactionary groups within the unionist working class?

Over the past number of weeks some of the worst elements within the unionist working class have come to the fore. The first incident was the murder of Kevin McDaid by a loyalist mob and the second has been the racist attacks on Romanian families in Belfast.

The response by Sinn Féin to both of these cases has been strong condemnation and a call for the police and local community to come together to prosecute those involved. Martin McGuinness has made clear and correct statements on the fact that the motivation behind these attacks is reactionary and should be opposed by all progressive forces within society.

The question I ask here is that all we can do? Is/will Sinn Féin be forced to simply condemn these attacks from the outside and to call on other groups to tackle these reactionary elements within working class unionism?

To date I’m unaware of anything happening within Coleraine that could be viewed as any orgainsed attempt to challenge the bigotry that led to Kevin McDaid’s death. However within Belfast that is not the case. The clearest challenge to the forces of racism has come form Paddy Meehan of the Socialist party Youth wing. He has been there organising resistance to racist attacks. He has stood with the Romanian families when they needed support and he was there to be counted and as a result he has been informed of death threats against him.

Yes, I know he has put himself forward as a resident’s spokesperson and kept his party loyalties in the background. And yes I know the Socialist party have avoided issues such as the RIR and other issues, but so what.

Paddy Meehan is doing what every good socialist knows needs to be done. He knows that the way to deal with these reactionary elements is to force the issue out into the open and deal with it. Communities need to confront the issues around these types of attacks and the community needs to decide whether it sees such behaviour as acceptable. If this does not happen and people are allowed to turn a blind eye to such attacks, then those behind them grow in power and influence. This then results in victims of such attacks becoming in ever-greater danger of serious injury or death.

So where does this leave Sinn Féin? How do we propose to be able to stand with Paddy Meehan and others in fighting racism? How can we develop in such a way so that we can be seen on the streets (in unionist working class areas) with progressive groups, immigrants and concerned residents? When do we see ourselves as being able to put our views across in person to the unionist working class?

Do actions speak louder than words? Selling northern coalition ploicies to left wing voters.

Following the election I have not posted anything because I wished to let the dust settle and recharge my batteries.

Below are two articles I received concerning Sinn Fein’s role in the Northern Government. The first article is from a Sinn Féin member in the South who was/is struggling to justify to others, and himself, the parties differing attitude to Public Finance Initiatives in the north and in the South.

This to me is very valid viewpoint. When Sinn Féin supporters in the South go around promoting our left wing policies it is hard to respond to left wing criticism of certain actions taken by our ministers in the North. In the case of the first article it is Public Private Financing of projects.

The second article asks what can be done about this contradiction and proposes how we can possibly move forward.


Policy must apply on an all-Ireland basis by Slán Abhaile

Over the past number of months I have noticed some inconsistencies in the way in which the party is applying policy North and South of the border.One recent instance of this is the signing of a contract, oversaw by Education Minister Catriona Ruane, for the construction of four schools in the Co. Down area. The contract for £4.45million is to be completed by Public Private Partnership (PPP), yet Sinn Féin policy is explicit in its opposition to Public Private Partnerships and it features prominently in our Local Government Election Manifesto 2009.

In the past these Public Private Partnerships have been bad value for taxpayer’s money and several examples litter the island such as the farce that is the toll bridge on Dublin’s M50 motorway. Ms. Ruane must be questioned regarding her support for a Public Private Partnership and the actual cost of this Partnership must be made public, as has been demanded by Sinn Féin of similar Fianna Fail-backed PPPs in the 26 Counties.


Second Article　
　
WHATS COMING DOWN THE TRACKS

The UUP have entered into an alliance with the English conservative party. The English Conservative Party looks set to win the next election on the island of Britain. The Conservative Party NI spokesperson has echoed UUP sentiment that they view the involuntary nature of coalition in the six counties as a temporary arrangement and that they view majority rule as the favourable solution. After years of work there are major problems in this for SF but for the sake of argument and the sake of this blog looking at things in a left perspective hypothetically could there be a positive?

If after a fight/negotiations etc there were guaranteed legal rights for the minority in the northern statelet, a greater role for the south to secure them, an Irish language act, finance raising powers, transfer of police and justice powers etc. What if in such circumstances SF did take up a position of the largest opposition party, would it be all bad?

At the moment one of the negatives of our involvement in the executive is having to implement economics that we feel uncomfortable with. Water charges, teacher assistants cuts, public private partnerships etc. this is inconsistent with our position in the south and has opened us up for criticism on such issues. After an election where we were the only left wing party not to benefit from a swing do such weaknesses matter? I think they might. Some people think we’re right wing others left. It’s a major problem that there’s a doubt.

If we were in a role of opposition in the six counties we would have a consistent message across Ireland. The issues are the same, government cuts, privatisation, marginalisation etc the boarder doesn’t distinguish. As Seamus Costello said, "I believe in guerrilla tactics inside and outside of parliaments."

What if we changed tactic in the north? Obviously there are losses but we have proved able to turn weakness into strength before. Hypothetically is there a case for it here?