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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Army Sergeant Travis Decker Murdered His Three Children After Being Denied Mental Health Care at JBL... Sat Jun 07, 2025 04:52 | JBLM Whistleblowers
A corrupt military police force and incompetent Commander who denied emergency mental health care and crisis counseling to an American service member resulted in the murder of the sergeant's three young daughters

offsite link Gaza doctor grieves her nine children killed in Israeli strike Sun May 25, 2025 20:00 | imc
Israeli regime continues it's slaughter
'The children were completely charred'

Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed by an Israeli strike on their home

offsite link British doctors working in Gaza describe territory as a ?slaughterhouse? Sat May 24, 2025 00:23 | imc
There?s no food getting in so people are starving,? surgeon Tom Potokar says
British doctors working in Gaza have described the territory as a ?slaughterhouse,? where the patients they are treating are severely malnourished.

Plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists from the UK are based at the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.

Dr. Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon specializing in burn injuries, has worked in Gaza 16 times but said this mission had revealed a level of destruction far greater than his last visit in 2023,

offsite link It is time to talk about the Out of Control Immigration. Mon Mar 31, 2025 22:12 | imc
For the last few years since the CV19 scamdemic undocumented immigration into Ireland has surged. No one is allowed discuss it because they do not want any rational debate about it. If you do you are labelled an extremist. However this out of control immigration is fully facilitated by the Irish government and the EU and the shady figure behind the Neo Con movement pushing for endless war, wokeism and globalist agenda.

offsite link [Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End Israeli Apartheid & Genocide Thu Mar 06, 2025 22:35 | ipsc
Sat, 22 March 2025, 13:00 Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by over 150 Irish civil society organisations, has called another National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 22nd March.

The march will begin at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm and finish outside the D?il on Molesworth Street/Kildare Street to bring our demands to the Irish government?s doorstep.

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link The Mounting Impact of Net Zero in One Rural Area Mon Jul 28, 2025 07:00 | Guy de la B?doy?re
The reckless rush to cover prime Lincolnshire farmland with solar farms is destroying valuable land, wrecking local communities and saddling future generations with a costly, unstable legacy, warns Guy de la B?doy?re.
The post The Mounting Impact of Net Zero in One Rural Area appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Mon Jul 28, 2025 00:40 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link We Must Arm Ourselves, Say Trans Activists Sun Jul 27, 2025 19:07 | Richard Eldred
Activists have turned London's biggest Trans+ Pride march into a rallying cry for armed resistance after a Supreme Court ruling barred biological men from women-only spaces.
The post We Must Arm Ourselves, Say Trans Activists appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Tory Peer?s Daughter in Tears Over Pro-Palestine Zealots at University Open Day Sun Jul 27, 2025 17:00 | Richard Eldred
In a chilling glimpse of rising campus antisemitism, the daughter of the Shadow Attorney General has been left in tears after masked pro-Palestine activists hijacked Bristol Uni open day lectures.
The post Tory Peer?s Daughter in Tears Over Pro-Palestine Zealots at University Open Day appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link School Chaplain the Church of England Is Trying to Cancel Again? Six Years After He Said Pupils Need... Sun Jul 27, 2025 15:00 | Richard Eldred
Six years after his sermon defending freedom of belief, Reverend Dr Bernard Randall remains blacklisted by the Church of England ? punished, he says, not for wrongdoing but for refusing to renounce his faith.
The post School Chaplain the Church of England Is Trying to Cancel Again? Six Years After He Said Pupils Needn?t Accept LGBT Ideology appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Does Trade Union Democracy favour the Moderate over the Militant?

category national | worker & community struggles and protests | feature author Thursday April 02, 2009 18:35author by A.R Report this post to the editors

Challenging the 'top-down' consensus.

featured image
Who You Calling Conservative?

The purpose of this article is to challenge the assumption that it is the 'leaders' who sell out rank and file members, and to highlight that 'leaders' reflect the median moderate worker within Trade Unions. It therefore favours a more bottom-up grassroots focused analysis of Trade Union activity over a top down hierarchical 'leadership' focused analysis. It is my argument that constantly talking about the ICTU 'leaders' is disempowering and a more actor-worker-centered focus is better suited to Libertarian politics.

According to many amongst the left In Ireland it is the 'leaders' of ICTU in Ireland that enter national socio-economic pacts, and that this is at odds with what their rank and file members want. However, most evidence indicates the complete opposite. Most empirical research (Bacarro, 2002, Geary, Roche 2005) concludes that rank and file members tend to be more conservative than their Trade Union leaders, and overwhelmingly support 'partnership' or 'dialogue' over militant industrial action. Furthermore, detailed research has found that greater internal trade union democracy actually favours the moderate over the radical. In countries where Trade Unions support national social-pacts (in wage bargaining and other socio-economic policies) there tends to be more democracy within Unions i.e. Ireland and Netherlands. In countries where Unions have been more militant and opposed to social pacts there tends to be less internal democracy within Unions i.e. Korea.


The rise of the PDs (who received 11.8%) of the vote in the 1987 election, coupled with the rise of Thatcherism in the UK (and her effective undermining of Trade Unions) was obviously a key variable for ICTU’s decision to support the initial programme for national recovery in 1987. The Union movement in this context favoured an institutional framework that gave them direct access to national policy making (particularly labour market policies and tax reform). The alternative was a FF-PD government adopting a Tory approach to labour markets.

However, there was obviously divisions within the trade union movement to enter into a concerted social pact. The conflict between ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’ factions is an interesting story and occurred in every country that adopted a social pact as a response to an exogenous economic crisis. In Ireland, unemployment was @ 17 per cent, and the country was in dire straits. Baccarro (2005) highlights how increased democratic procedures within Trade Union confederations (and he uses Ireland as a case study) favour the median voter and therefore the moderate factions. In countries where there is less internal democracy within Trade Unions (Korea) militant factions successfully blocked all attempts at union involvement in national policy making. More democracy within unions favours moderates not radicals. It tends to block a more militant ‘vanguard’ from monopolising strategic decisions. It also fits well with political science literature that highlight the importance of the median voter for center-politics.

This hypothesis is at odds with the popular perception amongst some elements of the Left that it is the union ‘Leaders’ who are the moderate vanguard blocking rank and file militancy. It would appear that it is rank and file moderates who strengthen the legitimacy for social pacts such as social partnership. This also fits well with recent survey data (of 3,500 employees) by Geary, Roche et al in UCD that found most employees support a partnership approach to employee relations and not a militant approach. It also fits well with a more ‘bottom-up’ approach to understanding the strategic perspective of structural actors. In the Union movement , greater democracy replaces the logic of mobilisation with a logic of representation (one person, one vote). A logic of representation empowers the moderate. These are interesting arguments and empirically refute the argument that it is the ‘leaders’ who are conservative. In this respect the ICTU leadership and their preference for dialogue over industrial action is a reflection of rank and file preference, not an undermining of it.

This perspective may appear to support the status quo but it need not neccessarily do so. A libertarian analysis of trade union activity ought to focus upon the activities of workers on the ground. It should prioritise what workers actually do, and what they actually favour rather than taking the easy option of simply blaming the 'leaders'. The leader-focused perspective would have us think that the false consciousness of workers simply needs to be shaken off so we can all focus on our real interests. The Irish Labour force is extremely diverse. The labour force in Ireland is not an Eighteenth-century mass manufacturing male bread winning worker which most analysis (whether conscious or not) is based upon. If the progressive left is to be successful during this critical juncture in Irish politics then we need to modernise our analysis and our method of organisation. A grassroots worker-actor-centered approach is more capable of doing this than a top down structural leadership focused analysis.

The Diversity of Labour
The Diversity of Labour

 #   Title   Author   Date 
   Necessary debate?     interested    Wed Apr 01, 2009 17:33 
   Union Democracy     trade unionist    Wed Apr 01, 2009 21:15 
   TU democracy     seanohanlon    Wed Apr 01, 2009 22:36 
   re:     A.R    Wed Apr 01, 2009 23:08 
   What democracy?     Militant trade unionist    Thu Apr 02, 2009 20:07 
   some thoughts     sean o hanlon    Thu Apr 02, 2009 20:33 
   burn the witch     Gaz B    Thu Apr 02, 2009 21:54 
   Grassroots organisation     Diarmuid    Fri Apr 03, 2009 13:08 
   Change     non-union    Fri Apr 03, 2009 13:27 
 10   AR's approach is one-dimensional, pessimistic and lets TU leaders off the hook     Union Member    Sun Apr 05, 2009 17:10 
 11   Trying to follow the arguments     eh?    Sun Apr 05, 2009 18:07 
 12   quick reply to "eh?"     Union Member    Sun Apr 05, 2009 20:30 
 13   new thinking     sean o hanlon    Sun Apr 05, 2009 21:17 
 14   The politics of work     A.R    Mon Apr 06, 2009 19:01 
 15   A few thoughts     Ed    Tue Apr 07, 2009 23:09 
 16   AR's View of Class Politics     Northsider    Sun Apr 19, 2009 20:44 
 17   Re: Ed ISN     A.R    Mon Apr 27, 2009 19:44 
 18   Quick response     Ed    Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:22 
 19   Two Talk.     Not Left Wing.    Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:34 
 20   No double talk here     Ed    Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:14 
 21   nomenclature is one problem     liberal    Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:50 
 22   The importance of political discourse (how you convey your ideas)     A.R    Tue Apr 28, 2009 17:08 
 23   reprise     sean o hanlon    Tue Apr 28, 2009 22:55 
 24   fourth way?     liberal    Wed Apr 29, 2009 02:09 
 25   no panacea     sean o hanlon    Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:11 
 26   No ideology!     union man    Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:59 
 27   establishment     sean o hanlon    Wed Apr 29, 2009 21:11 
 28   how to improve trade unions...     liberal    Thu Apr 30, 2009 01:35 


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