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Richard Boyd Barrett suggets a way forward.

category national | politics / elections | other press author Thursday June 07, 2007 19:00author by Red Wedge Report this post to the editors

Richard Boyd Barrett on coalition, Joe Higgins and the future of the Irish left. From the Irish Times of 7-6-2007.


Labour, the Greens and Sinn Féin had no real record of leading campaigns or protests on the issues that concerned the public. For the most part their opposition to the Government was limited to parliamentary rhetoric and point-scoring rather than active political campaigning on issues.

With little evidence of major policy difference or a campaigning track record, the failure of the three mainstream left parties to inspire the electorate was hardly surprising. Further to the left, while some Independents and Joe Higgins's Socialist Party had a considerably more consistent and active record of challenging the Government on real issues, the problem was fragmentation and division.

Despite a number of attempts to group together socialists and left Independents into an independent left alliance with a national profile, petty sectarianism prevented this from materialising. The socialist lefts' failure to ditch bad habits of ideological and organisational dogmatism also remain a major block to its advance.

Against the background of a very poor overall performance for the left, the shock caused by the People Before Profit Alliance in Dún Laoghaire in coming so close to taking a seat may be a small but significant pointer towards a possible way forward.

The result bucked the national trend and suggests the left's poor showing in the election was not inevitable. A number of factors contributed to this relative success in Dún Laoghaire: crucially, the campaign was based on the development of social movements on a variety of issues. The People Before Profit Alliance in Dún Laoghaire emerged from a coming together of activists from the Save Our Seafront campaign, the anti-bin tax campaign, agitations around housing, planning and local services, the anti-war movement and a number of other campaigns.

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 #   Title   Author   Date 
 1   Interview with Richard from latest Socialist Worker     e    Fri Jun 08, 2007 01:02 
 2   RBB     Observer    Fri Jun 08, 2007 09:04 
 3   IT article     IT reader    Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:13 
 4   Left division     Squirrel    Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:53 
 5   Patronising     SP supporter    Fri Jun 08, 2007 13:03 
 6   SP Supporter     pat c    Fri Jun 08, 2007 14:09 
 7   Pat C     Jolly Red Giant    Fri Jun 08, 2007 14:15 
 8   Who are the left Richard?     sp member    Fri Jun 08, 2007 21:56 
 9   pat c watch     o-l    Sat Jun 09, 2007 15:58 
 10   SWP mythology     Dub    Sat Jun 09, 2007 18:30 
 11   Facts Rather Than Fantasy     pat c    Sat Jun 09, 2007 18:49 
 12   gettin angry now     o-l    Sat Jun 09, 2007 20:44 
 13   Question     Jolly Red Giant    Sat Jun 09, 2007 21:58 
 14   Get As Angry As You Wish. It Wont change The Facts.     pat c    Sun Jun 10, 2007 20:43 
 15   listen please!!!!!!     o-l    Sun Jun 10, 2007 21:59 
 16   It really is a bit off the point...     Jolly Red Giant    Sun Jun 10, 2007 23:25 
 17   RBB Was Not Elected In This Universe.     pat c    Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:14 
 18   110 votes... get real... Regan was more close than RBB     Dub    Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:57 
 19   RBB highpoint?     Dub    Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:16 
 20   Talking up Dublin North     Realist    Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:40 
 21   Dublin North & local elections.     Dub    Mon Jun 11, 2007 13:15 
 22   We'll never know     Realist    Mon Jun 11, 2007 13:53 
 23   No ifs and buts     Dub    Mon Jun 11, 2007 16:22 
 24   "No if and buts." (ROFL)     Realist    Mon Jun 11, 2007 16:32 
 25   point is...     Dub    Mon Jun 11, 2007 16:47 
 26   "No if and buts."     Realist    Mon Jun 11, 2007 17:00 
 27   Leave him be     Asian Dub    Mon Jun 11, 2007 17:08 
 28   Ignore away Asian Dub     Realist    Tue Jun 12, 2007 00:05 
 29   What the constitution says:     Constitution reader    Tue Jun 12, 2007 00:24 
 30   No mention of 166 seats     I'm an SP troll ;-)    Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:33 
 31   FACTS     Dub    Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:38 
 32   Next Election     Dub    Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:07 
 33   Not just next election     I'm an SP troll ;-)    Wed Jun 13, 2007 00:21 
 34   God grant me patience     Leftie    Wed Jun 13, 2007 01:20 
 35   I am too     Disappointed    Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:00 
 36   Clarification     Dub    Wed Jun 13, 2007 13:15 
 37   Dub     I'm an SP troll ;-)    Wed Jun 13, 2007 18:34 
 38   Colm's negativity     Dr. No    Wed Jun 13, 2007 22:30 
 39   True, very true     CWI fan    Thu Jun 14, 2007 06:56 
 40   Answer me this     left observer    Fri Jun 22, 2007 17:42 
 41   yeah     left observer    Fri Jun 22, 2007 20:25 
 42   Left Obsever - a lengthy reply     Mark P    Fri Jun 22, 2007 21:09 
 43   no     left observer    Fri Jun 22, 2007 21:59 
 44   Left Observer - a second response     Mark P    Fri Jun 22, 2007 22:39 
 45   lets end this     left observer    Fri Jun 22, 2007 22:45 
 46   All your base are belong to us!     Mark P    Sat Jun 23, 2007 02:41 
 47   lol     left observer    Sat Jun 23, 2007 11:52 
 48   dunno     left observer    Sat Jun 23, 2007 13:54 
 49   Left Observer...     Left Activist    Sat Jun 23, 2007 14:05 
 50   must we go through this again?     left observer    Sat Jun 23, 2007 14:22 
 51   Lordy lordy     Cilla    Sat Jun 23, 2007 14:42 
 52   Cannot let this go -     Jolly Red Giant    Sat Jun 23, 2007 15:23 
 53   here     left observer    Sat Jun 23, 2007 15:36 
 54   left observer     Jolly Red Giant    Sat Jun 23, 2007 21:46 
 55   Lordy!     Neither Cliff nor Grant but international socialism    Mon Jun 25, 2007 16:55 
 56   left observer is all over the place     sp member    Mon Jun 25, 2007 16:55 
 57   ammmmmmm........     left observer    Mon Jun 25, 2007 17:36 
 58   come again     .    Mon Jun 25, 2007 20:28 
 59   Again...     Jolly Red Giant    Mon Jun 25, 2007 21:33 
 60   well why didn't you say in the interview UNDER CAPITALISM?     left observer    Fri Jun 29, 2007 15:58 
 61   left observer...     Jolly Red Giant    Fri Jun 29, 2007 16:19 
 62   what's that? you're talking sh#t?     sp member    Fri Jun 29, 2007 16:57 
 63   ha     LEFT OBSERVER    Fri Jun 29, 2007 19:56 
 64   Take it easy kid (probably talking to a wall I know)     Neither cliff nor grant...    Fri Jun 29, 2007 20:24 
 65   ok     left ob    Fri Jun 29, 2007 21:01 
 66   Banging my head off a brick wall...     Jolly Red Giant    Fri Jun 29, 2007 23:08 
 67   Just another passing fad?     Curious    Wed Aug 01, 2007 22:47 


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