Vote Me - Change the World! The left & the General Election

Elections tend to bring out the worst in leftists. Either they get completely caught up in them, insisting that the result of this election is crucial to the future prospects of world revolution, or else they insist that even sneaking a glance at an election poster is an abject surrender to the oppressive state apparatus.

Of course it is very difficult for a revolutionary socialist organisation to get the balance right: how do you adopt a tactical/realistic view of a particular election, without getting sucked into an electoralist morass? Let’s be clear about this for starters: elections alone can never lead to a radical change of socio-economic system, though sometimes an election result can be the surface manifestation of huge class struggles occurring beneath the surface of what is called ‘politics’ - or can give impetus to these struggles.

A mantra often heard from reformists is this: ‘we are either a party of protest or a party of power’ - implying, in an Irish context at least, that power comes from getting a few bums on seats in government. There are two simple responses to that jaded cliché: first of all, in modern capitalist democracies power is not primarily located in parliament, and secondly a left-of-centre party winning power, or sharing power with a right wing party, is not the same as the working class being in power. Governments come and go but the capitalist class remain ‘in power’ because they retain a hold of the means of production and much else (media etc.) besides.

Yet generation after generation of reformist left-wingers make the same mistake, helped no doubt by the fact that their more dogmatic opponents on the far left usually respond with hopelessly dated and authoritarian insurrectionary models. In Ireland, Labour has done it again and again, now joined predictably by the middle-class suburbanites of the Green Party and also, tragically, by Sinn Féin, leading another crowd of stalwart activists down a road that can only end in cynicism and disillusion.

It bears repeating that a fundamental change in socio-economic structures requires a shift in the balance of power between classes: although radical parliamentary representatives may play a subordinate role in such a shift, its primary engine has to be the mass of ordinary people themselves, engaged in struggle to establish a real democracy where they (not some self-appointed vanguard) control all aspects of their lives including their workplaces.

It follows that speculation about the likely composition of the next government is, to a certain extent, a side issue. At this distance from the election, in order of probability, the likely outcomes are a Fianna Fáil/PD coalition, Fianna Fáil with Labour or Sinn Féin, or a Fine Gael/Labour/Greens coalition. But whichever of these combinations form a new majority, the fundamentals will remain unaltered: neo-liberal economic policies, softened to a greater or lesser degree according to the junior partner(s) involved.

All the left-of-centre parties now work within TINA parameters and none even offer a programme of radical reform, much less show any ability to deliver such a programme. Needless to say none of these parties offer any prospect, even on paper, of facilitating the transfer of economic structures from those who profit to those who labour. No possible governmental outcome will lead to a result that seriously threatens any elements of the capitalist system or plays a role in destabilising capitalism.

If government composition is not of huge consequence, then what about this election is of most interest to socialists? Sinn Féin’s performance for one, because as the most working-class based and most left-wing (in relative terms) centre-left party, its development has implications for the building of a radical movement of working people in the future. A good performance based on a continued working-class perception that they are an anti-establishment party, and a middle-class perception that they are now safe to vote for, could push SF over the ten seats mark - an achievement that could nudge them further to the right.

As possible king-makers in the next Dáil, there would be strong pressure on SF to ‘show responsibility’ by entering government on the basis of the economic policy consensus, entailing acceptance of the partnership agreement process, the low tax policy etc. This does not mean that Sinn Féin would not insist on some limited reforms in return, but it would be a deal firmly set within the parameters set by the current system. Nor should we delude ourselves by thinking this would automatically open a space to the left. It could take years for working-class voters and activists to extricate themselves from Sinn Féin and, as the history of the Workers Party has shown, many will probably abandon political action altogether in disillusion.

On the positive side, such developments could also lead to the defection of leftists from Sinn Féin, a process that has already begun with the emergence of the organisation Éirígí in Dublin. Far from being viewed as fodder for far-left groups, these activists should be welcomed as equal participants in the process of building a new democratic, socialist, anti-imperialist mass movement. A substantial left-republican element breaking with Sinn Féin could play a crucial role, along with existing far-left organisations and independent/community forces, in kick-starting that process.

Whatever the election result, it will not change the irrelevance of Labour and the Greens to any serious radical project by one iota - except, hopefully, to thoroughly disabuse those genuine socialists / anti-capitalists who still cling to those parties in desperation. As for the prospects of the radical left, only the Socialist Party and a number of independents have any realistic chance of winning seats. The possibility of two Socialist Party TDs and two or three principled left independents (such as Seamas Healy in South Tipperary and Joan Collins in Dublin South Central) forming some sort of bloc in the next Dáil would be a positive development for the left, raising the profile of socialist ideas at a national level.

Whether such a bloc can be formed would in turn depend on whether a result along those lines strengthens the isolationist tendency of the Socialist Party, or encourages that party to accept that others on the left do represent significant forces at a local level. As for other left contenders, some Labour defectors, such as Catherine Connolly in Galway, could do well, but their commitment to bottom-line principles, especially opposition to coalition, is at this stage unclear. The Socialist Workers Party’s attempt to set up an electoral front, the People Before Profit Alliance, has failed miserably simply because all but the terminally naïve have copped on to that party’s modus operandi and no credible organisation or individual is willing to chain themselves to such a transparent front. Three SWP stalwarts and one disgruntled Labour defector does not an electoral slate make!

The Irish Socialist Network has always engaged in dialogue with others on the left when a positive outcome seemed possible. This process has not been simple and linear, heading onwards and upwards all the time. There are setbacks and diversions all along the road: fundamental disagreements may emerge, personalities clashes may happen, or we may work happily together on some issues but strongly diverge on others etc. In line with this commitment to dialogue, we have always held the view that a democratically organised, class struggle based, party/alliance of the radical left would be a major advance for the cause of socialism in Ireland.

It follows that an electoral bloc of the left could play a role in furthering such a development, but this would be dependent on a number of factors. Before involving ourselves in developing such a bloc we would have to ask a number of questions: is the proposed alliance simply an electoral machine? How does it relate to the more important struggles on the ground? Is it a genuine left alliance or just a cobbled-together amalgam including all sorts of disgruntled opportunists looking for a suitable vehicle to advance their careers? Is it genuinely broad or just the creature of a single organisation? Is it based on real community or workplace class struggle? A shared commitment to such ideas could form the basis for electoral cooperation between left/community organisations that can work in an open and honest way together.

Whether we like it or not, elections campaigns are a time of heightened awareness of what people regard as “the political sphere”. Elections offer a limited opportunity to ‘sell’ the ideas of revolutionary democratic socialism, to encourage mobilisation on certain issues and to raise awareness of alternatives. For the Irish Socialist Network, whose sole candidate in the general election is John O Neill (Dublin North West), participating in elections is a tactical matter, one to be decided on at each specific conjuncture, subordinate to the other activities and goals of the organisation.

For us the key question is whether an election campaign is focused on building grassroots struggle in working-class communities or about promoting the personality of the candidate. We know from bitter experience that the degeneration into electoralism is not just a case of weak-willed or opportunist individuals “selling out”, but more importantly a sign of the intense power of the system to draw representatives and their parties into the ‘game’ of politics as it is narrowly defined in a bourgeois democracy. But we also know that it would be short-sighted to make elections a no-go area for revolutionary socialists. Getting it right is a real test for a participatory, democratic socialist organisation.

The Irish Socialist Network has recently adopted a broad policy statement on elections, to view, click here.