cation Free publi ············1:jUY.ilU,SttOOi . ···· i 1alist.net . orll � !ww.irisbsoc . Irish Sociallst tletw ofit­ the inclusion of the and Greens. While the near­ class demise of the PDs is etter welcome, capitalism will fthe get along fine without its ther pocket-rottweilers. The y of Election shock: gap between profits and em- wages will continue to grow, US troops will class continue to pass through "arly By Colm Breathnach (ISN) Shannon on their imperial adventures and the tion TwoTweedledum major right-wing parties offer more of the same. privatisation wins! of health, robbery of our natural has Three left-of-centre parties offer to prop up the right­ resources and dependence on multinationals will neo­ wing parties. Is it any wonder that we ended up continue apace. just with ... well. ..more of the same! Coming after a long Sure, elections are not irrelevant: the end of capitalist boom, it's hardly surprising that many Michael McDowell's reign can only be good news working people voted for the safe bet of Fianna Fail for victims of miscarriages of justice and for asylum or the non-alternative of Fine Gael. Fear of a down­ seekers. Yes, some power lies in the hands of the turn also probably convinced more people to vote suits in Leinster House, but most of it lies in the for these conservatives. Despite the obvious inequal­ hands of the O'Learys and O'Reillys. Ultimately, it ities of Irish society, people were essentially afraid is their ladders that we must kick away from the of losing what little they had gained. lamp post. The so-called left parties - Sinn Fein, Labour and This was also a bad election for the radical left. the Greens - helped this process along by having Almost all of the far left candidates saw a drop in almost exactly the same policies as the parties of the their votes, including the sole ISN candidate: John right. They did badly because voters opted for the O'Neill in Dublin North West. The loss of Joe real thing rather than the mini-versions. The only Higgins' and Seamas Healy's seats, combined with thing that Pat, Gerry and Trevor could offer was the the failure of others to win new seats, was a big set­ prospect of propping up the conservative parties back for the working class. Even if the smaller parties in government in return for a seat or two at the and independents were squeezed - especially in the cabinet table. Not exactly enticing stuff! 'Enda versus Bertie' atmosphere generated by the The new 'Fianna Fail-plus' government, will pro-capitalist media - the far left cannot entirely impose the same basic neo-liberal policies, despite continued over Irish Socialist Networ k• www· iri shsocial'ISt.net Saving the �lanet? The left andBy Fintan Lane (ISN)tfi e environmentpublic health waiting list. ment, particularly from plundering profit­ This planet is too important This is not to say that driven corporations such as Shell and to be left to the Greens. the issues of climate Esso, are as necessary as 'traditional' class If anybody was in any change and the local conflicts in the fight to construct a better doubt about this, it environment are life for everybody. They are part of the became very clear in unimportant. same struggle. Ultimately, we need another June as the Green Quite the socio-economic world, another way of Party binned many contrary. These doing things, not a Green-tinged govern­ key policies, opted for are crucial issues ment that supports business as usual. meres and perks and that must be The Green Party, largely middle class entered government addressed by in composition and mentalite, is clearly 1 with the right-wing, anybody seeking a unable to see this organic connection 1 neo-liberal Fianna Fail better world. The with working-class concerns and has 1 and PD parties. Beaming environmental move­ become an ineffectual prop in a neo­ \i broadly, John Gormley and ment has done much in the liberal government. It is now just \i Eamonn Ryan toddled off to the past few decades to alert people another establishment party. • C Park to be anointed as fully fledged to the importance of a wide range of tasks \ members of 'Team Bertie'. that currently confront humanity. We From here on, collective cabinet cannot continue to live as we do and we responsibility kicks in. The Greens will must tackle the issue of global warming be obliged to defend every nasty policy if we are to avoid well-signposted catas­ implemented by the current government, trophes. from 'co-location' in the health sector to However, the Green Party, as a polit­ the building of a motorway through Tara ical expression of the environmental to support for Shell in Mayo. They will movement, is fatally flawed, believing as remain bit-players, with little influence, it does that it can 'save the planet' by but they will defend this right-wing making deals with devil- with the social government to the hilt. conservatives, neo-liberals and capital­ In addition, they will be co-equally ists who believe that the market rules responsible for the presence of the US and that big business must always come military at Shannon airport, a complete first. In truth, it is the so-called 'free u-turn for a party that was once viewed market' and its promoters who are as an intrinsic - albeit moderate and primarily responsible for the environ­ weak-kneed - element of the anti-war mental degradation of this planet, and movement. As US troops in their tens of it is the poor and the working people thousands trundle through Shannon who suffer most from its effects. airport on their way to kill people in the The radical left has failed in the past Middle East, it can said, without hesita­ to make environmental concerns a �ion, that 1 the Green Party has blood on central element in its politics. That must �s hands. It is complicit in Bush's impe­ change. A better, collective and egali­ rial �ars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and tarian social world necessitates a sustain­ pr�vides his war machine with practical able way of living on this small planet assi stance. of ours. The 'anti-globalisation' move­ The Greens, of course, will tell us that they ments are imperfect, but they do hint have bigger fish to fry- they have to at ways in which the desires for social save the . pla net... and it seems th at Iraq and justice and env ronmen al sustainability th e people � � of Finglas and Knocknaheeny can be meshed m non-hierarchical polit­ are not an espe . l c1. all y significant part of this ical formations. P an et. They c . and an continue to die .m thehere For activists on the radical left, mass­ now at en d of a US bullet or on a based campaigns to protect the environ- Standing with Palestine - but how? By David Landy Palestinians are no less cultured, no less Palestine - isolated, imprisoned and reasonable and a lot more politically denied a right to exist by Israel - desper­ savvy about their situation than ately needs our solidarity. But we need to ourselves, but this message needs to be ask what kind of solidarity is needed. repeated time and again. 'Critical solidarity' is a common reaction And yet ... there's no escaping the against 1960s 'third-worldism' - when reality that there are problems with left-wingers in Europe acted as cheer­ Palestine. Taking Hamas as an example, leaders to Third World elites, something we can argue that it is democratically that led to such grotesque nonsense as elected and we can point out that, with desperately trying to establish connections, the glorification of Chairman Mao. their political pragmatism and btdrock but it is precisely this contact with the Instead, it was proposed that Westerners nationalism, they are certainly no Al­ outside world that Israel is choking off. should support liberation movements Qaeda. In fact they're more like our own Anyone who invites Palestinians to Ireland elsewhere, but fed free to offer friendly Sinn Fein circa War of Independence - knows that all arrangements are provi­ and constructive criticism. another party of religious, nationalist, sional - most institutions give up or don't It sounds good, but can be tricky when socially-conservative revolutionaries. even bother trying. it comes to Palestine because, uniquely, The British government demonised It's easy to go on about other problems we have an active anti-solidarity move­ Sinn Fein as religious fanatics, psycho­ with Palestinian solidarity - the growing ment to deal with - various Zionist and pathic murderers and so on - the same bias of the media, the fractured nature of pro-Israel groups. Even if they haven't way that Hamas is demonised now. the Palestinian leadership, and so on. But, convinced anyone that Israel is good, they While socialists have no business in in the end, the difficulty of solidarity 1 have convinced many that Palestinians buying into this poison - the propaganda work doesn't make it any less necessary. are bad - primitives under the sway of an used in all colonial wars - it is still fair to The spread of anti-Palestinian demoni­ alien fanatical culture - who we should ask if we'd have supported the Sinn Fein sation in our media, the urgency of have nothing to do with. And this is all of that era any more than Hamas now. opposing Israeli aggression against Zionists need to do: if they make people Certainly not uncritically.