The Street Parties

The recent furore over bin charge protests in North County Dublin has once again opened a window onto the enclosed world of left-wing Irish politics. The imprisonment of Socialist Party members Joe Higgins and Clare Daly for their defiance of a High Court order demanding an end to the demonstrations highlighted the increasing dissatisfaction with the Government in working class areas.

More broadly, the festering discontent amongst the various socialist factions over the imposition of the bin levy is symbolic of the re-emerging polarisation of left and right wing ideologies in these anxious, post-Celtic Tiger/September 11 times.
Whilst most commentators had assumed that the last flickering signs of life within far left politics had expired with the disintegration of the Soviet Bloc, the gradual drift to the centre of most conventional social-democratic parties has resulted in something of a vacuum on the left-wing of the political spectrum, hence the DIY ethic of the anti-globalisation movement.
In Ireland, this mini-resurgence of socialist values was very much in evidence during last year’s election. Whilst a second consecutive Fianna Fail victory was never seriously in doubt, what was significant was the manner in which those unhappy with the extant administration chose to express their discontent not by voting for the mainstream opposition parties, but rather through supporting more radical alternatives. As one political observer recently put it, “the country voted out the opposition.”
With Labour attempting to have their cake and eat it through the adoption of a quasi-Blairite ‘Third Way’ (in a fit of pre-election pique, Ruairi Quinn thundered that the immediate imperative was to “get the bastards out”, all the while refusing to dismiss the possibility of coalition with FF), and Fine Gael paralysed by a severe case of identity crisis, Sinn Finn, the Greens and various left-wing independents all enjoyed unprecedented levels of support, whilst – lest we forget – the SP had its first ever TD elected, in the shape of one J Higgins.
Another party hoping to take advantage of the void created by Labour’s adherence to the centre-left agenda – and a faction who have been instrumental in drumming up support for the anti bin-charge protests – is the Socialists Workers Party (SWP).
With a membership of approximately 600 and a growing media profile courtesy of their involvement in a range of anti-establishment campaigns, the SWP are reasonably well positioned to make inroads in working class constituencies, although, crucially, the party lack the kind of core electoral support base Higgins built up during his days in the Labour Party.
Nonetheless, they do enjoy the significant advantage of being able to count a number of high profile activists in their ranks. Chief among these is the Dun Laoighare-Rathdown based Richard Boyd Barrett, who came to nationwide prominence (or notoriety, depending on your political persuasion) earlier this year through his role as Chair of the Irish anti-war movement.
When I meet Barrett in the Earl Of Kildare pub on the evening of planned bin charge demonstrations outside Dail Eireann, he is an hour away from addressing the assembled protestors. Hyper-articulate and possessed of a stare that conveys a Kubrick-like singularity of purpose, Barrett perhaps over-eggs the old-school Marxist rhetoric, though he speaks with unswerving conviction and eloquence.
“I think the imprisonment of Joe Higgins and Clare Daly has already backfired on the government,” he asserts. “People are enraged that one of the few politicians around who had the courage to stick to his election manifesto, represent his constituents and fight the bin charges to the bitter end has now been locked up. Meanwhile, not a single Ansbacher account holder has faced the fill rigours of the law, Liam Lawlor is treated with kid gloves and none of the businessmen and politicians involved in the various corruption scandals over the past fifteen have yet landed in court.
“And I think people are particularly outraged by the disgraceful comment made by the Taoiseach, where he called people opposing the bin tax ‘scroungers’. In fact, most people in this country feel that the real scroungers are the wealthy elite and those members of the political establishment who colluded with them in tax evasion schemes, and who together preside over increasing levels of social inequality.”
Michael McDowell has recently been whinging that those involved with orchestrating the bin charge protests are “attempting to pass themselves off mainstream socialists, when in fact they’re Marxist and Trotskyist communists.” How does the SWP respond to that accusation?
“I think we’re very open about our politics,” replies Barrett. “I mean, people make these distinctions between Marxism and mainstream socialism… Marx was a mainstream socialist! His ideas weren’t extremist, they were very simple ideas. He believed that people should become before profit, and he believed in democracy. He started off fighting off against feudalism in Germany in the 1840s, fighting for democratic rights. That is very much the socialist tradition. I mean, James Connolly was a Marxist and a socialist, if you want to use those words. I think they’re just labels which people like McDowell use in the hope that they’ll scare people.”
So what does the revolution look like in 2003? Later that same evening, a crowd of several thousand North Dublin residents – with an age profile noticeably higher than that in evidence during the anti-war protests earlier this year – are penned in by a Garda barricade on Molesworth Street (an attempt to keep a discreet distance between the demonstration and the hallowed gates of the Dail).
For just over an hour, the campaigners listen attentively as Barrett, Sinn Fein TD Sean Crowe, Independent TD Finian McGrath and various other left-wing figureheads angrily denounce the “hypocrisy” and “irresponsibility” of the government. Messages of support from Dolores Keane and Eleanor McEvoy are read out to rapturous approval.
Mick O’Reilly, the former ATGWU leader who was practically excommunicated from the arena of mainstream politics by Bertie Ahern for his failure to cosy up to government’s social partnership agreements, delivers an incendiary speech during which he calls on the leaders of the trade union movement to reacquaint themselves with the real concerns of their rank and file members.
Though emotions run high (at one point, Barrett’s SWP colleague Brid Smith refers to the occupants of the building behind her as “scum”), the event passes off peacefully.
In truth, unless greater unity can be established between the various strands of the left (a development Barrett contends is likely to become reality, despite the SP’s dismissal of overtures from the SWP about a possible amalgamation of the two parties), the domain of militant politics is likely to remain the preserve of a rag-bag collection of socialists, environmentalists, conspiracy theorists and marginalised agitators, rather than a viable alternative to the status quo.
Meantime, though, the increasingly moribund likes of Fine Gael and Labour would do well to watch their backs at next year’s local elections.