The rumour mill is suggesting that a General Election in the Republic is perhaps closer than previously indicated by the Taoiseach. Tensions between the coalition partners over issues such as taxation of zoned farmland may cause the government to fall, forcing the incumbents to go to the country. Fuelling this speculation is the fact that, notwithstanding Harris’ declared aim to see out a full term, the recent local government and European election results have offered Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil a tempting window of opportunity.
The long heralded Sinn Féin surge appears to have abated while positive revenue returns allows for electorally sensitive targeted budgetary pay-outs. Whatever the timeframe may be, it seems therefore, that we are facing five more years of miserable neo-liberal governance.
Opinion polls are not infallible and of course “a week is a long time in politics”. Nevertheless, short of a dramatic turnaround, it appears that Sinn Féin is doomed to remain in opposition for some time yet. It is worth reflecting on the reasons for that party’s fall in fortune, if only to draw a lesson from the perils of populist reformism coupled with the difficulties resulting from attempting to gain office through political triangulation.
This latter factor has proven to be both an illusion and worse for Sinn Féin, a fundamental mistake. In an effort to be seen as “fit and suitable for government”, the party has over recent decades undertaken a series of policy changes designed to win support of (or at least soften criticism from) the Irish bourgeoisie. This strategy has been founded on the erroneous belief that its working class, republican support base would remain loyal, come what may.
In order to gain middle-class approval, the game-plan has involved a twin thrust of distancing the party from its insurrectionary past while disavowing any possibility that it would consider delivery of a socialist programme if in office.
Hoping to distance itself from its previous IRA connections, Sinn Féin withdrew its long-standing opposition to the non-jury Special Criminal Court system while more recently, the party leader promised not to attend Republican commemorations if she were to be in government.
Running parallel with this “de-Provisionalising” programme has been an ongoing, almost relentless, campaign aimed at reassuring big business that the free market economy would be safe in the hands of a Sinn Féin Minister for Finance. It was reported last year, for example, that Mary Lou McDonald had travelled to Silicon Valley where she assured US business leaders they had no reason to worry about her sitting in a Dáil cabinet. Reinforcing this commitment, last April deputy leader Pearse Doherty visited London for a series of meetings arranged by Davy Stockbrokers in order to dispel any concerns harboured by a 50-strong group of City investors. The Donegal TD was unequivocal when telling the Irish Times1 at the time: “Sinn Féin are pro-business.”
So what went wrong? Why is the party not enjoying a straightforward run-in to high office? The answer is as blunt as it is informative: the party’s current economic policy is incapable of addressing the key issues faced by a significant majority of the population, a failure compounded by accusations of apostasy as it seeks the political centre-ground.
While flip-flopping on so many issues has proven disconcerting for much of its core support, it is the party’s refusal to adopt an unambiguous commitment to state-led provision of life’s essentials that has undermined its credibility.
There is no free market answer or even a viable free market compromise that can answer the housing crisis. Tinkering with different options that accommodate private finance has failed, resulting in hardship for the many. There is only one solution to this problem and that is a public, state-led construction programme.
A similar assessment also holds good for the Republic’s two-tier health service. For so long as the private sector remains in place, gross inequality inevitably follows. Moreover, we are reminded of this injustice every evening with the public broadcasting service carrying slick advertisements highlighting the advantages of expensive health insurance, for those who can afford it.
The point here is not so much that Sinn Féin has, like the Labour Party before it, taken a path into the dead-end that is centrist social democracy. That much is obvious. The major issue is that, once again, a significant section of the working class has had its needs sidelined by an agency in which they once saw potential for delivery of improvement. A situation that presents the far right with an opportunity to spread its message of racist hate.
So, what is to be done? For starters, the situation is too serious to afford us the luxury of surrendering to despair. Answers must be sought, identified and promoted. Answers such as that offered by the CPI in its Campaign for Public Housing and detailed in its excellent document, “Build Public Housing Now”.
Promoting this campaign will be difficult but not impossible. There is the example of large-scale public house building in mid-20th century Ireland, an Ireland that had much fewer resources than it has today. Surely, with such a clear precedent and obvious remedy, the task of gaining traction for the demand cannot be insurmountable and certainly beats waiting for another five years.
And, If the campaign were to be successfully promoted, it might even persuade Sinn Féin to end its unseemly affair with the free market
