In keeping with the spirit of our times, on Tuesday I watched an online ‘meeting’ with Paul Murphy TD of RISE (formerly of the Socialist Party/ Solidarity) and Brid Smith TD of People Before Profit. It was a virtual version of the public meeting that most of us on the left know, but may not necessarily love.
I wanted to know whether the new party being mooted was a runner and what form it would take. Paul’s organisation RISE have been making overtures to members of the Green Party who may be disillusioned with their party entering government with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. He argues that they should leave the party and, along with other groups on the left, launch a new party. Similarly, People Before Profit released a statement proposing the formation of a new left party. Another small group called Independent Left, many of whom are former PBP members, released a statement welcoming the move. The elephant in the room in all of this is that Rise and People Before Profit are part of a parliamentary grouping called Solidarity – People Before Profit. Solidarity have said nothing on all of this. Solidarity and People Before Profit operate a marriage of convenience for electoral and parliamentary purposes. Until last year, they were evenly matched electorally, with 3 TDS and just under 30 councillors each, based on significant gains made at the previous local and general elections. The local elections of 2019 reduced the numbers of councillors for each party. There were gains for Sinn Fein and the Greens, and this was an indication of things to come.
Background of Solidarity – People Before Profit
At the core of both Solidarity and PBP is another party. In essence, each of these parties is a party launched by a Trotskyist party to have a slightly broader appeal. Detractors often use the term Trot as a slur, but essentially a Trotskyist is just somebody who wishes the Soviet Union had been communist. PBP was launched by the Socialist Workers Party in 2005. The SWP had a long history of launching front organisations and everybody laughed at them. Surprising, however, PBP gained some traction and has many members who are not members of the SWP. In 2018 the SWP renamed itself the Socialist Workers Network in recognition of their role inside PBP. The SWP was part of an international organisation called the International Socialist Tendency. Most Marxist parties are members of international organisations, which reflects the view that socialism must be international.
The Socialist Party launched the Anti-Austerity Alliance out of the anti-water charges campaign. They later rebranded the AAA as Solidarity, in order to reflect a broader political remit. Initially Solidarity had many members who were not members of the Socialist Party, but this doesn’t seem to be the case any more. The Socialist Party was part of an international called the Committee for a Worker’s International (CWI). In 2019 there were a number of acrimonious splits in the CWI when the Socialist Party of England and Wales, a moribund and grey skinned organisation which was the tail that wagged the dog of the CWI, took umbrage at the Socialist Party of Ireland adopting a number of correct and successful positions. The awkward thing about the CWI was that a lot of member organisations were in countries that were former parts of the British Empire and the SPEW was used to bossing them around. Not so much international solidarity as cultural imperialism. The majority of sections sided with the Socialist Party of Ireland and in a bizarre twist of events, the minority faction kept the name CWI while the majority became the International Socialist Alternative, which is a much better name in fairness. A handful of Irish comrades inexplicably remained with the CWI and called themselves Militant Left.
Separately but simultaneously Paul Murphy left the Socialist Party and Solidarity and took a small group of people with him. They called themselves RISE and came to constitute a third component of Solidarity – People Before Profit. In the 2020 general election, PBP retained their three seats. Paul Murphy retained his seat as did Mick Barry of SP/Solidarity. Shockingly Ruth Coppinger lost hers. Sinn Fein and the Greens gained seats in her Dublin West Constituency at the expense of Solidarity and Labour (good riddance to Joan Burton though). Ruth Coppinger was a fantastic TD and activist who played pivotal role in repealing the Eighth Amendment and numerous other campaigns. The loss of her seat was bad not just for Solidarity but for the country.
Following his departure from the Socialist Party, Paul Murphy has cooperated more closely with People Before Profit, in particular since the last general election. That he and PBP are jointly launching this initiative without the Socialist Party is not surprising, although it is disappointing.
I am a former member of the Socialist Party
I am a former member of the Socialist Party and still support the party. I don’t agree with them on everything. I don’t agree with Paul Murphy on everything. I don’t agree with People Before Profit on everything. I do, however, agree with all of them on enough that I could be in the same party as all of them. Provided that party was democratically run and had clear and accountable structures and processes.
I wish parties on the left would spend as much time trying to keep members as they do trying to recruit members. There are thousands of people out there who are former members of the Socialist Party/Solidarity and SWP/PBP. These people joined for a reason and they left for a reason. You can’t dismiss their departure as a lack of ideological purity or commitment. You need to listen to your members. If people don’t feel their voices are heard inside an organisation they leave. The internal democracy of Irish left parties is deficient, but more than that, a culture tends to pervade where those who express an opinion that is different from the leadership don’t have their opinions heard. Instead it is explained to them why they are wrong. Let’s call this cadresplaining.
One point of difference I always had with the Socialist Party was that I never felt they did enough to bring about a new broad-based left-wing party, although they always claimed this was something that they believed in. Their argument was that such a project was doomed to failure unless the conditions were right. In the past 30 years we have had every set of conditions imaginable and yet somehow a new party has not magicked itself into existence. There comes a point where you must re-examine your strategy. That I hold this view won’t be news to anybody in the Socialist Party who knows me. However, I feel now more than ever that now they need to take the initiative and be proactive in launching a new party.
The new left – right divide in Irish politics
We have heard a lot of talk about the sweeping changes in Irish politics. What is clear is that there is now a left – right divide in Irish politics that never existed before. That Fianna Fail and Fine Gael were not even able to assemble a simple majority between them is incredible. We may not have gotten a decent government this time but we are witnessing the death of the traditional two party system. The Labour Party, the traditional third wheel and fake left option are nearly obliterated as a result of their history of supporting austerity governments. The Greens have willed themselves out of existence by using their resurgence to prop up the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael government. It seems they have not only forgotten what happened the last time they went into government, they have forgotten what happened in the election afterward. Still, the number of votes they received shows people are concerned about environmental issues, and this on its own is not a bad thing. The opposition to the government then is Sinn Fein (a party which has attempted to evolve from being the political wing of an armed group into being a big tent left nationalist populist party), the Social Democrats (a party that models itself on Northern European social democratic parties without learning any of the history) and Solidarity – PBP. There are also a large number of independent TDs encompassing a broad range of views.
Sinn Fein surged in the last election, not because of their past but in spite of it. They ran on a left-wing programme and, even if everyone on the left knows they are not serious about implementing it, it resonated with voters and won them support. The Soc Dems also experienced a growth in support, but it was a long time coming and not quite as surprising. The socialist left must not only point out the failings of other parties, we must show we are better than them. And the socialist left has done this. With Repeal, with water charges and a myriad other campaigns the socialist left has shown it can have a profound impact on discourse and has succeeded in shifting the conversation in Ireland firmly to the left. It is not good enough that other parties are then able to take advantage of this groundwork. The socialist left has proved its capabilities in adversarial situations, now we must prove our capabilities in imagining and constructing a new political, social and economic reality.
What is necessary to succeed
A new left party must put forward a clear and unified message and fight a unified campaign. The arguments on minor points of policy can be had inside the party. With open and fair debates and democratic processes we can hash these topics out and come to agreement on a clear programme. The United Left Alliance of 2011 was a missed opportunity for the left but there are lessons to learn. There were no democratic structures and members of the ULA who were not members of the component organisations of the steering committee had no say in the organisation. Clare Daly’s gravitation away from the ULA and the Socialist Party opened up fissures for which there was no recourse for a resolution. Any new party has to have new structures and new leadership. If the Socialist Party don’t join the new party it will just be an expanded PBP and this would not be ideal. This could lead to its failure or alternately, it could be a roaring success and the Socialist Party will find themselves eclipsed.
The Socialist Party is right that a new party is meaningless if it only comprises the usual suspects. A new party must attract thousands of new members to be successful. But in order to do this it must first exist. The Socialist Party must engage with PBP and Rise and any other groups or individuals to launch a party that is pluralistic but socialist and secular. That sets out a clear anticapitalist programme for elections but also engages in grass roots struggles. That fights against racism, sexism homophobia, transphobia and all forms of bigotry. That fights against the destruction of our planet for the sake of profit. That situates all of these struggles in the fight for socialism. There is a definite space here for Solidarity – PBP to launch a new party and potentially win thousands of supporters. They have an advantage in that they are already in the public view and have been the clearest voices advocating socialism in Ireland. A party launched by Solidarity – PBP could win back former members of its constituent organisations, defectors from the Greens or Sinn Fein, perhaps some left wing independents and their supporters, those who already identify as left but are not in any party and more importantly young people and workers who have never been politically active as they never felt any party represented them.
Jeremy Corbyn’s success in winning the leadership the British Labour Party and Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic Party nomination show that where a clear left-wing position is articulated it can win massive support. However, they also show that where the right is strong inside a party they would rather surrender power and ruin the party than hand control to the left. The media of course were complicit in attacks on Sanders and Corbyn in particular, but each was limited by trying to work inside a party where there was massive resistance to change.
In Britain or America it is nigh on impossible for a third party to break through as people fear that voting further to the left will throw their vote away and benefit the right. Ireland has an electoral system that encourages pluralism, even though we did have a de facto two party system for years. The left are not tied to a larger party in order to guarantee success. Proportional Representation Single Transferable Vote means that people have nothing to lose by voting left as, if their first choice does not win, their vote goes to their second choice etc. In addition, the fact that coalitions are commonplace means you do not have to convince people you will win the most seats in order to justify them voting for you. You just need to make it clear who you would and would not go into coalition with and under what circumstances. A new Irish left party could act as a magnet for left wing support in the manner Corbyn or Sanders did, but be unencumbered by having to work inside a compromised establishment party. Elections are only part of what is necessary in order to defeat attacks on the working class and ultimately win socialism, but engaging in them is an important part of the struggle.
However, there are a range of parties looking for support on the left. If the socialist left look like they are more interested in long winded debates on minor points of policy than attaining power, you can hardly blame people if they decide to hold their noses and vote for Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein after all looked serious about taking power. Yes, only socialism can deliver the changes necessary to satisfy the material demands of the many, deliver equality to the oppressed and halt the destruction of the planet. Other parties who claim to be left promise change but will always capitulate to the demands of capitalists, but if we haven’t looked like we are serious in winning support for socialism, we can only blame ourselves when we fail. It is time that the socialist left gave the Irish people the option of a cohesive left-wing party and this has to happen soon. By the time the next election comes the space will have closed if the left aren’t organised Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats will have taken their support.
I hope a new left part comes into existence, because that is the party I want to join. If, like me, you are an independent socialist who would like to examine ways to make this happen please feel free to get in touch.
Modern Distortions 
The biggest problem with left parties historically is an addiction to authoritarianism and a clear belief that they are the only people fit to lead. This has lead to behaviour within the parties and campaigns in which they participate that alienates huge swathes of activists from joining or supporting these organisations. However I do sense as a result of the success of mass popular movements in recent times Marriage Equality, together for Yes and the anti water charges campaign and the emergence of an evironmental movement distinct from the Green party that there is a change. That change is the willingness of at least some on the left to envision a more open democratic and participatory “party”.
What needs to be understood is that the people who have become active around these campaigns are by and large unwilling to submit to some all knowing leadership. The dissent in the greens comes primarily from that new membership, who are unlikely to remain long in a party where they feel marginalised or ignored. SF if it doesn’t drop the authoritarian structure will shed it’s new members too. Can a new organisation be formed where open and frank debate occurs without rancor, where democracy out weighs the need for the ideological gurus to be in charge? Maybe
Excellent points James. My own experience was that it can be very hard for people to understand that their organisation has a culture that is separate to their politics. There is a tendency to rationalise all conflict or disagreement inside the party as being the result of holding or not holding the correct position, and a failure to understand there are other social or organisational factors at work. It leads to a culture that creates a citadel that people are either inside or outside of. I think many good people get swept up in this and I am not pointing the fingers at individuals in any organisation, but once the culture exists people either have to embrace it or remove themselves from it. I think the nineties were a bruising time for many left organisations and led to this culture becoming entrenched. I really do hope it is changing and I suppose I figured that if I wrote this piece a couple of people might read it and reflect on it. I also think it is important those of us outside the organisations have these conversations in advance, so should a new party emerge we are prepared to engage with it.
Did your ever read an article you wish you had written? More or less.