For working-class independence!

Irish election 2024: No to multi-class ‘Left Government’

In the previous Irish election in 2020, we argued:

“Marxists recognise that capitalist parliaments represent organs of class rule that are designed to protect and advance the interests of those on top, rather than to function as vehicles for fundamental social change. Yet the capitalist election process can be a useful gauge of support for revolutionary ideas when candidates stand who advocate an explicitly anti-capitalist programme. When this is not possible, revolutionaries can intervene by critically analysing the platforms of those running and, depending on what they propose, offering critical electoral support to working-class candidates. The essential precondition for any support is that candidates draw a clear class line and are advocates for the separate interests of the working class.”

In the 2024 Irish election, virtually all options before the Irish electorate are either explicitly, or implicitly, endorsing the continuation of capitalism as the only road forward. Just as in 2020, the idea of a “Left Government” is being promoted by much of the “far-left”, particularly by People Before Profit (PBP), whose 2024 election manifesto argues for:

“… a 32-county eco-socialist republic where working people control the wealth and the needs of people and the planet come before the profits of the few. But this requires a different type of politics. People Before Profit does not believe that a few TDs or even a majority of TDs in the Dail can themselves bring that change. It will require massive people power from below. This is why we encourage working people to organise, to feel their own strength and to push through the changes that are needed. We know that every major reform in Irish society whether it was ending water charges or Repeal, came from mass movement from below. People Before Profit TDs are not conventional politicians but voices of resistance inside the corridors of the Dail. They raise the issues others ignore. They make a difference.”

Fine words indeed. However, the mechanism proposed for implementing this “different type of politics” is all too familiar: “The first step in bringing about fundamental change will be the formation of a Left Government–one that excludes FF [Fianna Fáil] and FG [Fine Gael].” This amounts to a call for a bloc of all candidates to the left of the two main capitalist parties, which, given current polling, would inevitably be headed by its biggest component–the bourgeois nationalists of Sinn Féin (SF).

Although the PBP manifesto delicately avoids any mention of Sinn Féin’s participation in the proposed “Left Government”, in a July letter, the group wrote to Sinn Féin “… to invite you to meet with our representatives urgently to explore the prospect of a left front that fights both in elections and on the streets for truly progressive change in Irish society.”

In the televised “leaders debate” on Monday 19 November, Richard Boyd Barrett (speaking for PBP) spelled this out very clearly when the moderator asked if “People Before Profit would sit down, and do a deal, and be willing to go into government with Sinn Féin?” Barrett replied, “We’ve actively promoted that idea and not just with Sinn Féin but with all of the left parties.”

The “Economic and Regional Development” section of Sinn Féin’s 2024 election manifesto makes clear their commitment to the continuation of the capitalist status quo:

“Since the implementation of the First Programme for Economic Expansion in 1958, Irish industrial strategy has focused heavily on foreign direct investment and growing our export markets.

“This strategy has been very successful, however, recent developments in global taxation strategy have weakened the tax strategy developed by IDA Ireland [Industrial Development Authority–responsible for Ireland’s foreign direct investment], and Ireland’s ability to compete in a changing world economy has been hindered by a failure to deliver the right set of enabling conditions.

“Sinn Féin would continue to invest in bodies like the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, and provide certainty in terms of tax and enabling conditions to continue to attract investment from abroad.”

Rather than a “first step in bringing about fundamental change”, any government that includes capitalist parties will ensure that the core interests of our capitalist rulers are secured. Former leader of the Labour Party, Pat Rabitte, starkly revealed in an infamous televised debate in December 2012 that any pro-worker campaign promises can be casually tossed aside if they conflict with the needs of capital.

PBP’s cross-class reformist “left government” fantasy promotes illusions in bourgeois parliamentary horse-trading with “progressive” and/or “anti-establishment” capitalist parties as a means to achieve social change. This approach is flatly counterposed to the core Marxist principle that significant gains for the working class, including via parliamentary reforms, only result from militant struggle against the capitalists.

The interests of working people are antithetical to those of the ruling corporate multinationals, which is why socialists advocate the overthrow of capitalism and the creation of a new, egalitarian social system administered by a workers’ government. This requires building our own organisations, independent of all capitalist parties (no matter how “left” or “progressive” their postures during the election shell game of half-truths and outright lies).

The only organisation with a realistic possibility of having any representatives in the next Dáil [Ireland’s parliament], which could potentially represent the principle of working-class independence, is the Socialist Party (SP). But SP candidates are running as part of a parliamentary bloc with People Before Profit under the banner of “Solidarity”.

The SP ostensibly rejects the idea of governing alongside Sinn Féin:

“It’s no secret that Sinn Féin is a pro-capitalist party. In May, stockbroker Davy summed up the briefing delivered by Pearse Doherty, the party’s finance spokesperson, to a group of major investors as ‘More New Labour than Corbyn Labour’. What they meant by this is that Sinn Féin is not a party of radical reform, but a party of business as usual. It may promote policies that differ from the Government’s on many issues, but only ever in the most limited sense. The Socialist Party has always understood this about Sinn Féin. Being pro-capitalist means ultimately putting the interests of the system and its ruling elite ahead of the interests of working-class and oppressed people. As such, a pro-capitalist party cannot be considered a left party, and it certainly cannot lead a ‘left government’–which if it means anything is an anti-capitalist government.”

. . .

“For the Socialist Party, as well as organising working-class struggles on the ground, this is primarily in building support for a genuine left and socialist alternative–by exposing the disaster of the Government’s policies, the lies of the far right, and the weakness of Sinn Féin’s alternative proposals. For PBP, no doubt there is broad agreement on the first two points, but in relation to Sinn Féin, PBP seems to see it as its role to help Sinn Féin recover the ground it lost–so that Sinn Féin can fulfil the leading role assigned to it in PBP’s schema of a potential left government.”

. . .

“PBP is wrong to think and emphasise that the main problem with Sinn Féin is that they are refusing to rule out coalition with FG and FF. No, the problem is with Sinn Féin itself. And PBP is also wrong to believe that working-class and young people who desire real change are in some sense not ready to accept this truth about Sinn Féin; and therefore criticisms of Sinn Féin by the left must be shrouded in tactical, diplomatic proposals for alliances.”
–“Debate: The folly of rising and falling with Sinn Féin–a reply to Rupture & PBP”, 23 August 2024

This is true enough, but unfortunately the SP is running in a bloc with advocates of an SF-led “left government”. It is therefore hardly surprising that the Solidarity programme is limited to reformist demands and steers clear of anything that, even in the most embryonic form, transgresses the limits of capitalist “democracy.”

Despite the SP’s proclaimed commitment to the principle of working-class political independence, its Solidarity electoral alliance with PBP, whose eagerness to get into bed with Sinn Féin is widely advertised, means that the SP is providing left cover for PBP’s “Left Government” scheme. The SP’s petty electoral calculations, which have led it to implicitly endorse the PBP’s class-collaborationist project, negate its formally correct observation that:

“…there is a fundamental contradiction between a genuine left government and a Sinn Féin-led government which can’t be resolved. Really raising people’s sights towards one undermines the other.”
–Ibid.

A vote for SP/PBP/Solidarity candidates amounts to a vote for the project of a Sinn Féin-led pseudo-left government. There is unfortunately no choice for workers in this election because no candidates are genuine representatives of working-class political independence. The only option for class-conscious workers is therefore to spoil your ballot!