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The Struggle for a Left Praxis in Northern Ireland

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The Struggle for a Left Praxis in Northern Ireland SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad SIT Digital Collections Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection SIT Study Abroad Spring 2011 Sandino Socialists, Flagwaving Comrades, Red Rabblerousers: The trS uggle for a Left rP axis in Northern Ireland Benny Witkovsky SIT Study Abroad Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Political Science Commons, and the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Witkovsky, Benny, "Sandino Socialists, Flagwaving Comrades, Red Rabblerousers: The trS uggle for a Left rP axis in Northern Ireland" (2011). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 1095. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/1095 This Unpublished Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the SIT Study Abroad at SIT Digital Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection by an authorized administrator of SIT Digital Collections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Witkovsky 1 SANDINO SOCIALISTS, FLAG­WAVING COMRADES, RED RABBLE­ROUSERS: THE STRUGGLE FOR A LEFT PRAXIS IN NORTHERN IRELAND By Benny Witkovsky SIT: Transformation of Social and Political Conflict Academic Director: Aeveen Kerrisk Project Advisor: Bill Rolston, University of Ulster School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies, Transitional Justice Institute Spring 2011 Witkovsky 2 ABSTRACT This paper is the outcome of three weeks of research on Left politics in Northern Ireland. Taking the 2011 Assembly Elections as my focal point, I conducted a number of interviews with candidates and supporters, attended meetings and rallies, and participated in neighborhood canvasses. These experiences led me to two contrasting conclusions: in many ways the Left in Northern Ireland appears disconnected from contemporary political scene; and the Left has an important critique to offer the region regarding Sectarianism, the economic collapse and post‐Good Friday Accords politics. Finally, by discussing changes to the Lefts theories, organizations and environment, I attempt to reexamine the Left and illustrate how they might overcome this disconnect and gain support for their proposals. These transformations have only just begun, as they take shape, the Left attempts to realize their platforms will become more important, more dynamic, and more critical to research. Witkovsky 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to all those people who made this project possible, Bill Rolston Aeveen and Clodagh Corona McDaid and Alessio Zanin Eamonn McCann Dermie McLeneghan Diane Greer Connor and Roisin Kelly Dawn Purvis Conall McDevitt Lynda Walker Owen and Paddy Meehan And a special thanks to all of the protestors and demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin over the last several months whose struggle gave me an instant credibility and ice‐breaker with the members of the Left in Northern Ireland. Witkovsky 4 GLOSSARY and ACRONYMS CPI – Communist Party of Ireland Dáil – The Parliament of the Republic of Ireland DUP‐ Democratic Unionist Party GFA – Good Friday Accords – Peace Agreement signed in Northern Ireland in 1998 MLA – Member of the Legislative Assembly Nationalist – Person – frequently Catholic – who believes Northern Ireland should join the Republic of Ireland as a united country. NILP – Northern Irish Labour Party (active from 1924‐1987) NIPC – Northern Ireland Political Collection – Collection of all documents published related to the Troubles at the Linen Hall Library in Belfast PBP – People Before Profit Alliance (the most recent incarnation of the Socialist Worker’s Party) PIRA – Provisional Irish Republican Army – since 1972, the more anti‐Marxist, more violent Republican paramilitary group. PUP – Progressive Unionist Party OIRA – Official Irish Republican Army – since 1972, the more Marxist oriented Republican paramilitary group with some ties to the Worker’s Party and CPI. SDLP – Social Democratic and Labour Party SEA – Socialist Environmentalist Alliance (SWP group in early 2000s) SP – Socialist Party Stormont – The Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland SWM – Socialist Worker’s Movement SWP – Socialist Worker’s Party – the Socialist Worker’s Movement after 1997. TD ‐ Teachta Dála – Member of the Republic of Ireland Parliament ULA – United Left Alliance – Alliance formed between People Before Profit and the Socialist Party for the 2011 Elections in the Republic, proposed but not yet enacted in the North. Unionist – Person – frequently Protestant – who believes Northern Ireland should remain a part of the United Kingdom. Witkovsky 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE# Title 1 Abstract 2 Glossary 3 Introduction 5 Methodology 8 Party Overview 13 Analysis Leaving Sandino’s: The Isolation of the Left 17 Not Just Waving the Flag: The Real Value of the Left 27 Rousing the Rabble: Turning Ideas Into Change 37 Conclusion 49 Works Cited 52 Appendix Election Data 54 Interview with Connor and Roisin Kelly 58 Interview with Dermie McLeneghan 60 Interview with Eamonn McCann 63 Interview with Diane Greer 67 Interview with Lynda Walker 71 Interview with Dawn Purvis 73 Interview with Conall McDevitt 75 Interview with Paddy Meehan 77 Witkovsky 6 INTRODUCTION I arrived in Dublin this January amidst the excitement and turmoil of the Irish (and worldwide) financial collapse and the 2011 elections. A sign for the newly formed United Left Alliance (ULA) caught my eye and spiked my curiosity in Irish Left1 politics. Following this initial interest I had several conversations with members of the Socialist Worker’s Party (SWP) and attended a few events at Connolly Books put on by the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI). Because of my family background, upbringing in Madison Wisconsin, and education at several likeminded schools, I have always had a left/socialist bent to my thinking and politics. However, I had seen Left parties in the states as wishful unrealistic ideologues and never as the viable alternatives I saw in the ULA in Ireland. I realized as I delved further into Left politics (in Northern Ireland now) for this paper that people tended to approach the Left parties in the same way that I approached those in the States – marginal, out‐of‐touch, powerless. But something in being a stranger to this context allowed me to take them a bit more seriously and I think that that ‐ perhaps misguided ‐approach has been productive. Beyond a personal and political desire to see Left politics as a viable alternative to the status quo take root anywhere, as a student focusing in issues of Peace and Conflict I was attracted to Socialist/Marxist politics in Northern Ireland for several academic reasons. Primarily I find that Marxism’s critique of ethno‐ 1 I struggled for sometime deciding how to name the politics I am referring to, not all of the parties are Socialist, not every memBer would identify as Marxist – the word “Left” seems most general and most inclusive which is why I chose it, however I do not want to give the mistaken impression that these parties all act as one unified Left. Witkovsky 7 national identities and the way they divide the working classes to be powerful way of reframing the conflict in Northern Ireland and begging for an alternative. In addition, from the work of Johann Galtung I come to the belief that economic inequality and poverty are themselves forms of violence – thus any “Peace Process” that doesn’t include redistribution of wealth and an economic leveling of society cannot rightly be called one (Galtung, 1969). In the Northern Irish Left I hoped to find these two critiques of the current state of Northern Ireland and alternative solutions proposed to redirect the Peace Process here. Combining these interests in Left politics and the current political situation in Northern Ireland led me to examine the Left parties and their campaigns in the 2011 Assembly Elections. As I spent time with these parties and politicians I found myself simultaneously enthralled by the ideas they espoused and disenchanted by their isolation and powerlessness. While this was politically unsettling, it proved analytically productive, leaving me with the questions that make the basis of this paper. What causes the Left parties to appear so disconnected from the political reality? Why don’t people take them seriously? And what is lost – what ideas, proposals and potential for progress overlooked – by writing these parties off? And finally, what would the Left parties need to do to change this perception and gain more support, is there any hope that their valuable ideas will not be disregarded? By examining Left politics as a struggle for political praxis – an attempt to take theory and implement it to change society – space opens to counter the dominant perceptions of the Left and to demonstrate how their analyses of sectarianism and the economic collapse could gain ground in the future. Because it marks the Witkovsky 8 conclusion of the first full term of Stormont since the Good Friday Accords and because it coincides with four billion pounds of cuts coming through the executive, the current election marks a significant moment in Northern Irish political history. But as the people vote on May 5th it is uncertain whether the Left will fair any better than they have before, but I think the developments on the Left show that their fight is far from over. METHODOLOGY I conducted this research over a period of about three weeks, including one week in Derry
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