That’s a fine way with words you’ve got there Michael, though hard to disagree.
I think the starting point of the union general secretary is that even the worst New Labour government is a lot better than the best of the Tories. That’s pretty much the attitude I think of most left-wing people in Britain.
I think that that because society is more right wing in the south of Ireland there is no prospect of a purely Labour government, and given the evidence of the recent years of coalition government, that political activists there don’t have the same assumption that things would be better, if only marginally. I think there’s a question of the fundamental political analysis about the role of parliamentary politics and about all social democratic parties internationally of some of the formations of the Irish left in the Dáil that have to be considered here too in shaping attitudes towards whether any significant benefit is likely to be gained from parliament any time soon. I think the attitude of some people towards the trade unions, or at least their leaders, is also something that needs to be taken into account.
I guess what I’m saying is that substantial amounts of significant elements of the Irish left take a very different view about what is possible from the centre left or from working with the centre left than the equivalents in Britain (possibly with good cause). While some people think this difference makes it more likely that the further left will make a significant breakthrough because there is no real centre left alternative, it’s possible that this is one thing that needs worked on. Left activists may have to adjust their attitude towards what is likely to occur, and what type of work in things like unions needs to be done.
Then we’re onto the battle of ideas in the political and economic spheres, where the Irish left as a whole is failing pretty badly.
Such things are of course long term, and may need a shift in perspective among some.
