In
common with all other EU states, European elections will take place
in Ireland on May 23rd.
In addition, elections to a reformed local Government structure will
also take place on that date. In spite of the interest with which the
mass media is devoting to both these spectacles, it’s a close call
to decide which poll will epitomise most the lack of real and
meaningful politics under capitalism. Socialists make the claim that
national parliaments are little more than talking-shops; full of
theatrics, posturing and verbosity whose main output are
inconsequential debates on the issues of the day. All the while, the
fundamental business of capitalism goes inexorably on, irrespective
of whatever pronouncements and edicts emanate from those
self-important halls. This criticism is even truer of the European
Parliament and local councils. For the former, the inability of the
European capitalist class to agree on a trans-national system of
governance for the Union has rendered the Parliament at Brussels more
meaningless than its national counterparts. One obvious manifestation
of this in Ireland, as with many other EU countries, is the apathy
and consequent low voter turnout that the Euro-elections engender. It
is only the second division of politicians who contest these
elections; the jibe that it is usually those politicians whose
national careers are behind them and who are in search of a
comfortable retirement home still rings true. Most voters, even those
with a reasonable interest in political life, would be hard-pressed
to name even a couple of their MEP’s (apart from the few ‘colourful
characters’ who inevitably are present) and know much less about
any accomplishments of the members. Of course this can sometimes work
to the politicians’ advantage; one Irish MEP in fact has had
prolonged absence from the Parliament in Brussels/Strasbourg (due to
illness) but given the extremely low profile attached to these
positions, this has not been noticed by the electorate and so poses
no electoral risk whatsoever in his bid for re-election. Nonetheless
competition is quite fierce between the rival candidates to prevail
in the forthcoming ballot. This is accentuated this time around
because there are less seats available as a result of the need to
accommodate enlargement of the organisation to Eastern Europe whilst
maintaining the overall number of parliamentarians. There’s no
doubt that the generous remuneration on offer and relatively light
demands of the job are attractive to many career politicians.
What
is the state of play between the rival political parties? The ruling
coalition of Fine Gael and Labour are contesting on their record in
Government for the last three years. They came to power in the 2011
general election replacing the absolutely discredited, previous
administration consisting of a Fianna Fail / Green Party coalition.
Their main task in that time has been to implement the budget cuts
demanded by the troika (EU Commission, ECB and IMF) who came to
Ireland’s rescue after the financial crash of 2008. They now have a
predicament because of Ireland’s recent exit from the bailout
programme. Prior to that all cuts to social welfare, health,
education etc. could be blamed on the bungling of the previous
Government and the strict conditions attached to Ireland’s
financial aid programme. Now it is more difficult to justify the
continuing cuts and the extra taxes on home-owners and new charges on
previously free commodities such as water. That long-time ‘natural
party of Government’, Fianna Fail is hamstrung as it is still
identified by its gross incompetence in the handling of the economy
during the last doomed years of the Celtic Tiger and as they made the
initial agreement to the stringent bail-out terms in 2010, they
cannot logically oppose its consequences of austerity on the working
class.
So
who’s hoping to do well? Sinn Fein is expecting to be the major
winner in terms of tapping into the public disenchantment with the
establishment parties; in fact something similar to the ground being
staked out by UKIP in Britain although Sinn Fein occupy a different
position on the conventional political spectrum. It’s all part of
their progress from solely being the political wing of and apologists
for the IRA to being a ‘radical’, left-of-centre movement.
However even that radicalism is now being dropped for being too
intimidating to the voting public on the basis that it could hinder
the party’s electoral advance. Sinn Fein is now positioning itself
as a much more ‘respectable’ party which inevitably means their
erstwhile ‘socialistic’ policies are now being discarded and
being replaced by a more mainstream platform although some leftist
rhetoric is maintained for effect. The impact on the election outcome
of the recent arrest of Gerry Adams is difficult to gauge. On one
level it will cement his appeal to hard-line republicans and the fact
that he recently spent four days in a British police station being
questioned about ‘republican activities’ during the ‘armed
struggle’ will do him no harm. As against that there is the crime
he is associated with and its resonance with the wider public
particularly down South. Jean McConville was a woman, a widow, a
mother of ten children. Even in 1972, PIRA recognized the damage the
claiming of her execution would do to their image and hence her fate
of being secretly buried rather than the usual end of those the IRA
termed ‘informers’; beaten, shot dead and their bodies dumped
along the border. The fact that former close ‘comrades’ have
implicated him directly in her murder will make the Party nervous.
Finally regarding the remaining election contestants, there are a
clutch of minor groups and independent candidates going forward. The
minor groups tend to occupy the left end of the spectrum and broadly
indulge in Euro-sceptic rhetoric and promoting ‘grassroots
resistance’ while the independents can be impossible to
meaningfully classify though are usually inchoate populists and as
likely to be right wing as left wing.
Apart
from media coverage, the other unmistakable manifestation of the
on-going election campaign is the proliferation of posters on any
available lampposts and poles. These are remarkable for their
uniformity and all bear the imprint of some prior consultation with
an advertising agency. More than half of the poster space is taken up
by a picture of the candidate, photo-shopped onto a bland background.
A shirt and tie is the standard attire for the men, jewellery and
make-up for the women. About a third of the poster has the
candidate’s name in large letters with the word ‘Vote’
prominently displayed beside it. Interestingly the name of the Party
that the candidate is representing is quite small: with the demise of
major ideological differences between the parties and the weakening
of the party system, increasingly elections are morphing into
straightforward personality contests. Generally the posters for the
mainstream politicians don’t carry any slogan. Even when one is
present it is only distinguished by its vacuous nature; ’Power to
the People’, ‘Strengthening Your Community’, ‘Working For
You’ etc. etc. Concerning Sinn Fein, twenty or more years ago their
candidates’ pictures on their posters had the appearance of men
still in or recently released from prison (which indeed quite a
number were). Now they are more likely to be young, presentable and
female designed to obscure any association with balaclavas, car-bombs
and Armalites. The impact of money on the election process is easy to
discern from the appearance of the posters. Those of the independent
candidates and fringe parties are smaller, more likely to be
mono-chrome rather than glossy colour and much less ‘professional’
in appearance. One redeeming feature of them is that at least these
posters have some quasi-political slogan on them indicating an
attempt to promulgate a message rather than relying on personality.
In fact the overall nature of the posters can be seen as a succinct
metaphor for the state of politics now. Any real engagement by the
electorate with the process is being diminished with time which means
the parties themselves realise it is pointless devoting time and
space to programmes or manifestos. Image and spin is much more
important to success which entails the indiscriminate harvesting of
votes and is unconcerned with any understanding or agreement with
policies.
It’s
a pity that the opportunity that elections present, in terms of a
slightly higher interest by the general public in politics, is
completely wasted. The fact that people don’t engage is probably
because they realize, either consciously or subconsciously, that the
result of these elections will make no difference to their lives. If
you have a house and job, you’ll probably continue to have both
after this election. If you’re unemployed, you may or may not have
a better chance of picking up a job. If you’re a billionaire,
you’ll almost certainly remain very wealthy whoever wins on
election day. There is an unstated realism at play; at some level the
electorate know full well the pointlessness of this charade in terms
of real impact on their lives. That’s why the Socialist Party does
not engage in this type of smooth and glib electioneering. We do not
involve ourselves in the hiring of image consultants and
spin-doctors, the cynical analysis of focus group responses to
discern wherein lies the greatest electoral advantage or the
cultivation of the media to project some image. We openly state that
our aim is the replacement of the current basis of society
(Capitalism or the free market) by an alternative society
(Socialism,) and we work towards this aim. That is the real
difference we want to make.
Kevin Cronin
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