Shoddy Deal Elects Brady As Mayor

by Magneto Wed Jul 09, 2003 14:17

It was a disgraceful deal.

There are members of Labour who oppose payment. That should not be forgotten. Some of us are trying to move Labour to the Left. Maybe we are misguided, but we are trying.

by Jim Monaghan Wed Jul 09, 2003 14:51

While Labour should take stick for this it is a tragedy that at least some of their Left wing rivals would and do similar deals themselves.Every party on the Left should declare and stick to it that they will not do deals with FF, FG or PD on anything form dogcatcher up.
It should also be remembered that Burke, Lawlor and co. could not push anything through the councils without support form a lot of other councillors.
Alas, some will sell their mothers for a chance of wearing the guady garbs of mayors which are a relic of Imperialism anyway. They sell out and the price is not very high.
We need an alliance of the Left for the next local elections.
Finian McGrath, Gregory, the Greens, Sinn Fein. SWP, SP and the rest of the alphabet soup should come together and offer an alternative. In Dublin at least this would make an impact maybe even win a majority. Even the Labour party might move from it's traditional role as propper up of the establishment if they saw an alliance like this with some momentum.

by Ao'B - LP Wed Jul 09, 2003 15:14

Labour have constantly refused to form an alliance with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael for the Mayorality.

Unlike SF, the first time they got the chance they jumped straight into a deal with FF.

by Killian Wed Jul 09, 2003 15:28

They're only a crowd of ex-commies and idealist!

by Killian Forde Thu Jul 10, 2003 01:10

Zardoz,

Why were the leaflets dropped into dublin central asking people not to vote for fitzy boy as a protest against FF. Surely a more obvious way to protest against FF would be not to vote for Ahern.

I'm not trying to be funny just trying to understand the logic of targeting fitzy rather than bertie.

Oh and that Killian on the comment above is not me.

by joe shmoe Thu Jul 10, 2003 02:11

You vote every five years, thats the way things work out.

Labour did a deal with FF - FF kept their side of it, so Labour naturally wanted to keep their side of the bargain.

Same about all this whining at the moment about FF/the current Govt being corrupt - what did people expect?

If you dont like it, take steps to change it.

by Mr Ed Thu Jul 10, 2003 19:14

Wake up and smell the coffee comrade, you can either get stuck into realpolitik to make real improvements in the lives of ordinary people in this country or you can feck off to the SP summer camp in cavan and have a leftie wank-in about your purity of cause and purpose. Politics is about getting things done, making compromises, and sometimes even voting for wankers. So make up your mind, reality or rhetoric, thats your choice.

by WCA Fri Jul 11, 2003 18:17

The WCA targeted Fitzpatrick because he was run solely to get Fianna Fail 'their' second seat in Dublin Central. Marian McGennis, Bertie's previous running mate, had trotted off to another safer constituency.

It became clear to even the simplest in FF that Royston the Boy Wonder would not hold the seat so Fitzpatrick was dragged out of retirement to fill the gap.

It would be pretty pointless calling for Ahern's defeat, seeing as he was always going to top the poll. Ensuring he did not bring in a running mate was the political point. Very embarrassing, but Fitzpatrick scraped in by 74 votes.

Just to clarify the leaflets were not 'dropped into Dublin Central', the WCA activists involved are all based and politically active in Dublin Central.
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Regarding the Press Release at top a WCA rep was on the late night talk show on Newstalk 106 the other night debating with Roisin Shortall of Labour and she ended up apologising for voting for Brady in the council vote for Mayor and she did seem genuinely embarassed/angry by the behaviour of Dermot Lacey over the bin charges. But maybe she is just a good actor :(

by Killian Forde Sat Jul 12, 2003 20:53

Zardoz/WCA.

Thanks for explaining the reasoning of targetting fitz instead of directly ahern.

As for the "dropped into", this phrase i used in the context of "dropped into the doors".