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Tuesday February 13, 2007 18:20
by Dermot L - Labour Youth
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11If Labour youth think that they are part of a Socialist Party, they are about as deluded as Michael D Higgins was when he joined Fianna Fail as a Student "in an effort to make them turn left".
The Labour Party is a great big hulk of a beast, with few actual members left. The majority of the membership is very reactionary. I commend Labour Youth for bringing out a publication and passing some token liberal motions at their own conference, but I reckon they must have their own careers lined up or be tongue-in-cheek when they echo Michael D's "Proud to be left - proud to be Labour" rhetoric.
As they say about Alcoholics, the first stage of rehabilitation is overcoming denial. So it is with anyone who actually considers Michael D to be serious about democracy and socialism.
But I'm not all about the cynicism. Here's a challenge for Labour Youth, and it's supposed left:
Report back and tell us all about the conference last weekend. Tell us about the undemocratic, unparticipatory approach of the leadership, and their reactionary policies. If you want to be considered as activists, give us an honest assessment of the weekend. And tell us how you'll organize yourselves (hint: look to the UK) so that next year's won't be the same.
Otherwise, you'll have a picture of Pat Rabbitte (who has recently done a U-turn on both FF coalition, and the issue of Shannon) on the back page of that magazine next year, standing proud beside Bertie and Bush.
And Michael D will be happy as larry, cutting the red tape on some backwater arts centre.
There's two articles in Left Tribune by the same guy, one about SF, one about David Ervine. He seems to believe that Provo violence is unspeakably vile, but loyalist violence is understandable. He thinks SF can't be taken seriously as left-wingers because of their links with the IRA, but David Ervine was a great fighter for the working class despite his links with the UVF.
Just have a read over them - the contradictions will make your head spin. Eoghan Harris would be proud of analysis like that
What does the "D" in Michael D Higgins stand for anyway, "Don't mention the North"?
I think the D stands for one of the few Labour polticians who would share a platfrom with SF prior to 1994 and was involved in various broad fronts about repression and censorship, as some of the under 25s who populate this site with their post-ceasefire ranting about 'Sticks' etc might know if they used to read An Phoblacht back in the 1980s. He was one of the few labourites who paid any kind of critical attention to the north at all. Thats not to say he was a Provo, because then he wouldn't have been in Labour in the first place would he? He also abolished Section 31 by the way. Oh, and a quiz question for you all: which political party voted consistently to abolish Section 31 right throughout the 1980s and was opposed unanaimously by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael? Hint: it wasn't Labour and it wasn't the Greens...oh dear god it was the dreaded Stickies! (check the Dail Debates if you don't beleive me). The Sticks had a dreadful position on many things, but this is a fact; they voted against Section 31. Cue all the 'they used to control RTE' rants from people who can't even remember Today Tonight...
I interviewed Eoghan Harris, and a number of former and serving RTE journalists, about Section 31 for my thesis. There was unanimity, from Stick and non-Stick, that the pressure for maintenance of Section 31 within RTE came from the Workers Party.
I'm sure there was and Harris and company were certainly in favour of it. But I can tell you that they were in a minority in the WP on the issue and that the WP TDs voted against it. That is checkable. However it is also true that they hated the provos so much that they didn't really give a damn. It is also a mistake to see Harris as representing the archtypical Stick. What was your thesis on?
I read the labour mag online having seen it here. Not the most exciting publication but the articles on Sinn Fein were interesting. One was actually pro a coalition between labour and SF, and basically saying they agreed on more they disagreed on, let bygones be bygones etc. The other was violently against and full of the type of bile that the WP used to come out with. However it alleged that SF members had beena rrested in Leitrim for involvement in racist attacks. Has anyone ever heard of this before?
The attack took place, but there was no Shinner involvement, good, bad or indifferent. One of the lads charged is actually the son of a local Fianna Fáiler.
The story only appeared in the Evening Herald and no other publication followed it up so you can draw your own conclusions on that one.
It's unfortunate Labour Youth didn't contact the local cumann of Ogra Sinn Fein in Sligo for clarification before publishing these unsubstantiated allegations against their members. The Labour kids should know better than to quote a rag like the Evening Herald that has a history of publishing misinformation and baseless slander against the left.
I wonder did any LY members raise sharp and public criticism of Anna Sjödin during the IUSY conference? I hope they had harsh words for their vice-president who was found guilty of assaulting and racially abusing an immigrant bouncer in Sweden last year. Did anyone from LY call for her resignation during her tenure?
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=1833&date=20050803
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2951&date=20060129
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=5198&date=20061012
Labour have 5 pledges. Labour youth have 6.
Tweedle Dum
Tweedle Dee
"I think the D stands for one of the few Labour polticians who would share a platfrom with SF prior to 1994 and was involved in various broad fronts about repression and censorship, as some of the under 25s who populate this site with their post-ceasefire ranting about 'Sticks' etc might know if they used to read An Phoblacht back in the 1980s. He was one of the few labourites who paid any kind of critical attention to the north at all."
That's interesting. Thanks, I wasn't aware of it, but why is none of this mentioned in Causes for Concern? He writes about Latin America, Turkey, Somalia, Lebanon et al but there's nothing about the six counties in it.