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LEFT PARTIES TRYING to “take each other out” during an election “doesn’t wash anymore”.
Those were the words of newly elected Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin who could only be described as elated as he took a hard-fought seat in the Dublin constituency on Tuesday night.
Much of his success was off the back of transfers from Green Party MEP Ciaran Cuffe in the final rounds of counting, who lost out on the day.
The effective transfers between the Greens and Labour, along with the success of Labour in holding onto its share of council seats, and the Social Democrats almost doubling its number of elected councillors speaks to a wider point.
Is it finally time for the progressive left-wing parties to get their houses in order and combine forces?
Ó Ríordáin said as much this week, stating that it is time for Labour and the Social Democrats to “join forces” and “stop pretending that there’s any difference” between them.
Ó Ríordáin and his party leader Ivana Bacik stopped short of stating there should be an amalgamation of the parties, but he told RTÉ’s Late Debate programme this week that cooperation between centre-left parties is now crucial if parties want to achieve common goals and defeat the far-right.
“It’s time for people on the centre left – ourselves, the Social Democrats and the Greens – to realise what we can achieve together. I think the idea of being in competition with each other and trying to take each other out and take seats off each other, it doesn’t wash anymore,” he said.
It is true to say that Labour is a lot more open to the prospect. The suggestion does not go down so well with the Social Democrats.
It is understandable, to some degree. The SocDems have built the party on the back of the mistrust the electorate had for the Labour Party since it was in government with Fine Gael during the bitter austerity years.
That bad smell has been lingering around the Labour Party for some time now. But is it now fading? If so, is it now time for the Social Democrats to consider the perceived unpalatable move? Or do they risk isolating the supporters they have worked hard to attract.
Cairns has previously said she believes Labour’s approach to government is not “compatible” with her party. She said Labour’s previous record in government supported the privatisation of Bord Gais and penalised lone-parent families, adding:
“It’s all well and good to say: ‘Oh they think they have the same policies as us.’ They don’t have the same practices.”
Upon becoming leader of the Social Democrats, The Journal asked Holly Cairns what the difference was between the two party and Labour. Boos rang out in the room.
The question did not go down well with the grassroots, clearly. Cairns herself said trust has been broken between the people and the Labour party.
Cairns said that day it was a “categoric no” to any future merger with Labour. But does Labour see it differently?
With 91 council seats between the the two parties, they are not shy off Sinn Féin, with 102 seats.
Throw in the Green Party’s 23 seats, and there would be 114 seats, making them a clear and considerable bloc.
When asked about the success of Labour, Cairns said on the Tonight Show on Virgin Media Television this week that she wasn’t particularly concerned that Labour would come for the Soc Dem vote in a general election.
There is no doubt that there is a bright future for the Social Democrats, going by how well it did in the local elections. But if the party is realistic about its prospects of getting into government in the short-term, the party is probably going to have to at least consider the idea of joining forces with other like-minded parties.
Bacik said there is a need for such parties to work together to “offer a real alternative to people who are looking to build an Ireland that works for all and that’s what we’re about”.
While the Social Democrats has repeatedly stated that it has no interest in merging with the Labour Party, former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte told Newstalk last weekend that it is “inevitable” that it will happen.
However, such a merger is probably not on the cards any time soon or before the next election.
So what other options are there?
While much of the focus is on the Social Democrats and Labour, the Greens have also been mentioned when it comes to the idea of a progressive left coalition.
Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan said this week that in her view, the left needs to “get it together”, stating that doesn’t have to mean party mergers, but could mean starting the conversation about coalescing, to some degree.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean one party. That could mean just caucusing together or working together more cohesively,” she said, adding that there is a need to “carve out a space.”
If the speculation is correct, and we are heading into an autumn election, then time is short to forge that space.
One way it could be achieved is by forming an transfer pact or non-aggression pact between Social Democrats, Labour and the Greens during the election, or even being savvy with their candidate selections between all parties.
People Before Profit sought such a pact and wrote to Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and Independent candidates on the left ahead of the local and European elections, proposing a vote-left, transfer-left pact, but it excluded the Green Party and Labour from its plans.
Again, hammering out such a deal would take a lot of time, effort and compromise.
Instead, what would be a more strategic option is to join forces after the general election, when the real business of government formation begins.
There is strength in numbers and in what seats can be delivered.
If Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are holding the cards, or even if Sinn Féin is, for the three centre-left parties to negotiate as a bloc would be to their advantage.
It worked somewhat for independents like Shane Ross, Finian McGrath, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, Sean Canney and John Halligan previously, whereby the independent TDs joined forces to become the Independent Alliance, picked a handful of issues they wanted action on and negotiated as a team with Fine Gael who needed to make up numbers.
It is not the first time the idea of the left coming together has been floated.
Back in 2010, the United Left Alliance, made up of a number of left-wing parties, said that it would put forward a “a real left alternative in the general election and challenge the austerity and capitalist consensus amongst all the parties in the Dáil”.
The alliance, which fielded around 20 candidates, proved – for various reasons – unsuccessful, not least because of ideological and strategic differences.
Despite plenty of similarities, the parties failed to cohere into a united entity and the alliance proved short-lived – eventually folding in 2013 after the Socialist Party left the grouping.
So, there is no doubt there are challenges in the coalescing of parties, but Labour believes now is the time for progressive left parties to align themselves.
All eyes will be on the likes of Social Democrats now to see if that is something they can agree to.
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Well deserved Clinton done more than any other US President in the peace process
@Joe Johnson: what like supplying north korea with equipment to create nuclear weapons?
You guys are sheeps
@Joe Johnson: The peace process was more about powerful political unionists giving up their ascendancy over the minority.
@Liam Rogers:
The article is about the peace process in NI and not in NK.
@Joe Johnson: Goodman Bill, you might have smoked but you didn’t inhale……
Seriously?? This fella?
@Liam Rogers: yeah which foreign leader did more? Putin?
@Dr Rex Butts: Trump! You Pleb!
@Liam Rogers:
Do you understand what the role of the US was in the peace process?
@Liam Rogers: Another new lame troll.
@Liam Rogers: agreed. Serial adulator. Go Belfast, forget his minor mishaps with women. Just after the ridiculous verdict on the rape trial. Ibeleveher.
fair play to them. they stepped into the kindergarten and brought some order to the chaos. its unusual BCC giving out the freedom award to someone who isnt seen to be ‘owned’ by the unionists
@Patrick Sage: yeah bring more religion into the situation that’s what we need.
@Patrick Sage: “and God said to John, come forth and you will receive eternal life; John came fifth and won a toaster”
@Patrick Sage:
I see you there Patrick, having dirty thoughts about Mrs Murphy down in Clancy’s butchers, or dreaming about whats inside Mrs O Reilly’s nightdress from the post office. i bet you’re a right Pat Mustard
@Patrick Sage: Does the definition of sexually immoral include child-molesting priests and those who cover up for them?
@Patrick Sage: “If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.”
So a man rapes a woman, he then buys her off her father, and then has to marry her…. Yeah following the Bible is as bad as following the church.
@Patrick Sage:
you speak of immorality, yet follow the fabrications laid down in a book of lies, the teachings of a mental megalomaniac.
at least clinton eventually owned up to his immorality, the bible will forever be right alongside the Qu’ran, Torah and Dianetics as books of subjugation, slavery and mind control
What an insult to the #metoo movement, a man who paid one woman $850, 000 to silence her sexual assault claim, and who took advantage of a young intern in the oval office and tried to ruin her life until he got caught out, and had to admit to his lies.
@JimmyMc: Stormy Daniels was it?
@Dotty Dunleary: No it was Arkansas state employee named Paula Jones who was paid off. But there are several other allegations against him. You can read them here, as well as his decision to lie under oath about Monica Lewinsky.
@JimmyMc: Amazing how 17 years later comments like these still exist in some peoples memories, yet Drumpf seems to be the Teflon President with a list of indiscretions that exceed Clinton’s, yet Drumpf still as yet hasn’t been impeached, maybe the supporters of the current president could explain?
@Dotty Dunleary: Compose yourself and start with the headline-
‘Belfast council votes to award BILL CLINTON freedom of the city’. They’re not awarding alleged sex- offender Donald Trump with the honour, they’re awarding alleged sex- offender BILL CLINTON with the honour.
@JimmyMc: According to the official statement BCS are awarding President Clinton for his services to peace in NI, maybe you need to get over the obsession with his sex life?
@Dotty Dunleary: As I said originally, awarding this honour to an alleged sex offender who bought one womans silence and lied under oath about another is an insult to women and the #metoo movement
Cool. Just make sure there are no young girls present when he receives his award.
@Pat Patovic: Or cigars…..
@G O’Rourke: Or that he would not try to present his cigar to some Belfast City council intern…
Shame on Belfast city council
Unbelievable ha
Whenever I hear the name “Clinton” I feel like vomiting.
- “it’s hoped that the award will be given on the 20th anniversary celebrations of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which was signed on 10 April 1998″
Perhaps Bill can use his skill to get Stormont up and running again that day.
Shame on BBC.
@Bríde Ní Bheaglaoích: Shame or not, Bríde, they’ll probably screen it.
@Bríde Ní Bheaglaoích: What does the UK public broadcaster have to do with Belfast City Council?
@Bríde Ní Bheaglaoích: Sorry, missed your clarification.
I respect what he did for peace but nothing else.
@Ger Burke: No one cares.
@Philip G Roark: 8 likes so far means 8 people. You have none. You lose again. 8-0 this time.
@Ger Burke: I don’t have multiple accounts to vote for myself.
And the are ok with his womanising and attitude to women? Talk about double standards!
Lolita express , brought to you by G Eipstein …..
BCC. Typo above
Congrads Bill you were always on the ball with the NI position and denying sexual relations at the same time that entitles anyone Freedom of any City
Ha
Wot about Bertie and Tony….and Gerry ?
@Paul Sharpe: Might as well add George W Bush while your at it.
@Paul Sharpe: And the real architect, John.
I also believe they are throwing in a cigar for good measure.
BCC. Typo above
Lock up all females when he visits.
Pity Belfast City Council didn’t award Lennox the freedom of the city.
Never forgotten.
Next year he gets the freedom of port au prince as donated by the CGI….
Fair play to the DUP for voting for this.
have your say