Goodbye, Labour
Well, I’ve just left my last Irish Labour Party meeting and handed over my Treasurer’s books to someone else.
Everyone in the Northern Ireland Constituency Council had a decision to make in the light of the report of the 21st Century Commission, which was adamant that the Party wouldn’t allow its Northern members to stand in local elections. This evening we had copies of the full report including details of the membership survey – which showed that two-thirds of respondents wanted Labour to operate on an all-Ireland basis. But that's clearly not going to happen.
I was one of the very few branch members who felt unable to continue their membership under these circumstances. Most are disappointed but think it’s important to keep the branch going. They’ll be represented at the March conference in Mullingar and will continue to argue their case.
But I think the attachment of leading Labour members to the SDLP is too strong to be broken for many years to come. The fate of the separate commission on the future of Party activity in Northern Ireland shows this. It has seldom met, has not considered papers put to it by Northern members, and has met only with the SDLP rather than undertaken wider consultation on how politics is developing in the North and how Labour might fit in. I argued that the committee was a delaying tactic and I was right. I think I’m right again now. I’m surprised Labour’s leaders are so out of tune with the views of the Party’s grassroots, who perhaps have a more realistic view of Northern politics, including the electoral gap which could have been filled by a cross-community democratic socialist party.
Ah well, that's that. It’s been suggested to me that I should check out the British Labour Party, but I’ve decided not to join another party that doesn’t contest elections, and so I’ll be taking a break from party politics for a while. It’ll be interesting to see how the ‘normalisation’ of Northern Ireland politics progresses – or doesn’t – in the new economic climate. And of course you don’t need a party card to keep on blogging…
19 comments:
Sorry to hear this Jenny. Even more sorry for you that you felt it necessary to hand over control of the accounts! Seriously though, it will be a great shame if people like yourself are lost to politics in NI. We need sensible people to be involved if we are to ever to free ourselves of sectarian politics. I hope you find a new home.
Jenny
I wondered if you intent to stay in politics and if so do you have a new home in mind, or is it to early to say. I would also like to ask whether you thought the talk of the UK LP organizing in the North played any role in the LP reluctance to stand candidates etc there.
Best regards
Thanks guys, your good wishes are appreciated. I'm sure I'll be back in something one day - with my collecting bucket and account books!
Mick - I've heard these rumours about British Labour too, but expect any such initiative to be highly constrained, for the same reason i.e. not to harm the SDLP. Obviously both Labour parties talk to each other, indeed I had a separate concern that Irish Labour might become too 'New Labour' through this 21st century Commission report, to which I gather there is much opposition all round.
I can fully understand your decision to give up on them.
But you will have even more space to blog now because I think it was Tony Benn who said he was retiring as an MP to devote more time to politics!
Thanks, Wilted Rose (and that's what I feel like at the moment!) - timing is all, I see they are doing better than ever in the Republic's opinion polls including Gilmore's personal rating.
And as for the blogging, I have a long overdue piece on Australia for Irish Left Review - sorry Donagh!
Jenny I just wanted to say I'm sorry to see you go but understand and respect the reasons you did. Still Belfast is a small ol' spot so no doubt we'll run into each other soon.
Thanks Donal, and as you say we'll meet again, I'm sure. Good luck with your secretarial duties!
You once did a blog predicting politics in 5 years. I think you did it about 2 years ago. You predicted
UUP/Conservative
FF/SDLP
Labour
Alliance/LibDem
You got 1 right but 2 & 3 wrong. So far.
Who knows what UK Labour will do. On the one hand they will surely eventually stand, in some way, because of the democratic logic. However they too have a friendly relationship with the SDLP and would not want to hurt them.
Anon- yes, the FF/ SDLP link seems to have died, perhaps for the same reason that Irish Labour isn't actually considering a merger with the SDLP - a sense from Southern parties that they don't want to get too close. The UUP/ Tory link clarifies a sectarian split on the left/ right axis - if you're a right-wing Irish nationalist or a left-wing UK nationalist, who do you vote for?
I also will be interested to see what British Labour do to square the circle of the logic of following the Tories with their support for the SDLP.
BTW I keep meaning to do an updated version of that normalising politics post.
I dont know if you leaving the ILP was a co-incidence but it is good to see tha the British Labour party is set to become the official labour party in Northern Ireland as per the Belfast telegraph yesterday.
I say this as a Conservative who wants to see normal politics here.
I presume you will avail of their services. Very good luck
Seymour - I wish them the best of luck, but they will be no more 'official' here than the Irish Labour Party has been since 2004, which it was properly constituted.
The British LP is not planning to stand for election in NI either, citing sensibilities around the SDLP, and I have no intention of spending any more time in a 'political party' which doesn't do the main thing political parties are for - putting together a manifesto and trying to implement it through gaining political power through standing candidates for election.
Is not the British Labour P set to stand here Jenny.
Would you not consider it, besides the issue here is always about riding two horses due to the economic set up in the Republic - the euro and then sterling in Britain. The London financial centre is a beast of its own to figure out and as we come out of this mess there needs to be real answers to what caused the problems where sterling-generated money is concerned, then economic problems in the republic will have an indirect knock on in NI needing its own set of responses and exchanges with Irish labour - if it becomes an important player next election.
To me it will always be about an alliance between the two and reflecting that in a localised/regional labour party.
I was considering looking into the NI Labour Party, after the banking fallout it is so important to understand global economic factors which shape so much of our lives and having an intelligent response to the problems. Then working out how to put it in a local context.
And to do that we need to draw on support in an 'invisible hand' sort of way from those both main national parties.
The SDLP is too green and not hot on the issues that matter right now. From now on you cannot claim to be a socialist unless you are on top of the capitalist system knowing just what is happening in financial markets and thus money creation.
How can you really help unless you really know the problems. And if socialism is just an 'i told you so' about capitalism - frankly it is of no use.
Oh and re the New Labour in Irish Labour - what's the alternative?
Is it continually losing and therefore not helping anyone?
The Irish Labour Party had a campaign last election asking:
"Are you happy?"
I think people in the republic weren't able to answer - or were still trying to figure out if they were back then - but they seem to be making their minds up now!
Oh and just one final final thing.
Can you imagine the mess we would be in if it were a Tory party in power.
No on ever stops to think about that one, there would be a fat chance of them being able to see woods for trees given their own love of money and the markets, it would have been v interesting. Frankly a deafening silence was the only option for Cameron.
DC - thanks for these points. Totally agree that democratic socialists need to understand markets, finance and so on - especially at the moment. The British LP, though, won't be standing candidates either and so the ability to argue a point will be constrained by being unable to do so in an electoral forum. The Tories are being smarter in that they could get a UUP/ Tory seat or two here, which woudl prop up a small majority in the next Parliament.
And as for the situation in the South, there was always going to be a rebound and it was going to be a case of how it was handled by Cowan et al. Labour is the natural party for people to turn to at the moment and I hope they continue to do well.
Sorrry I didn't mean to rant on. There are so many advantages of a new party such as labour setting up specifically linked to the highlighting the collapse of political integrity of all parties post GFA implementation, and the lives given up for that integrity. Basically the reluctance of local leaders to fess up about their ideological failings. But a labour party could build on the only real success of blair and draw on the positives of the peace process under n labour.
Are you sure about the not standing issue as boyd black seems sure they will contest next local election??? As for the sdlp re labour links and the sensitiveness towards them, there are probably many nice rhetorical ways of putting this re sdlp as any form of labour party, but I am stuck like a stuck record with the words 'what a load of fianna fail-loving shit'.
Anyway enjoy your political break.
DC - by all means rant, that's what blogs are for!! I'm very sure that Labour won't be standing in elections here for a long time; and the reason is because we in Irish Labour were also aiming at 2011 and, to be frank, the SDLP mobilised to stop us. They will do the same with British Labour, although they may not have so much support from within the Party. But I think they will succeed - although I hope I'm wrong.
And as for your comment about the SDLP, you may say that, but I couldn't possibly comment...
Jenny as you know there are people in UK Labour who support standing candidates in NI - and the folks who oppose it aren't as strong as they once were. Yes the SDLP will hold it up but its not clear they can stop it ultimately. There is a strong logic to being able to vote for the party that sets taxes, as Boyd Black always says.
Justin
Justin - the taxes argument has much force, but begs the question why so many people here are happy to vote for parties that don't.
And in terms of the support within the British LP (or rather, as we should say now, UK Labour Party) I do know it's there, but it was there in Irish Labour too. What we don't know is how these supporters would react if the SDLP started to kick up. I'm suspicious that UK Labour will also get sold down the river when it comes to elections.
After all, we should be asking not what's in it for us, but what's in it for them.
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