Report on the new left unity initiative in the North

antrim | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Saturday October 04, 2003 12:54 by Joe Craig - Socialist Democracy

Report on the meeting to launch a united left campign for possible Stormont elections.

New Left Unity Initiative in the North

Joe Craig

2nd October 2003

A new left electoral alliance for the (possible) Assembly elections in the North was almost launched on 1 October in Belfast’s Unemployed Centre. A platform of five speakers from various organisations spoke on the merits of an alliance which is the fruit of five previous meetings stretching back to May of this year.

The meeting was chaired by Eileen Webster from Derry who is an activist in the white collar union NIPSA. She spoke of the need to oppose the ‘sectarian parties’ and sectarian division and of an alternative that would register as ‘other’ if elected to the Assembly, a pointed rejection of the requirement to register on entering the Assembly as either green or orange in order to have an effective vote on the most contentious decisions.

She argued that this was a propitious time for a united left electoral initiative (while stressing repeatedly that what was being proposed was not a united left party) because of a number of factors. These included the anti-war mobilisations, the Fire Brigades strike and the narrow vote (against) on strike action in the Communications Workers Union. She also noted the role of the peace process in ‘inadvertently allowing a breathing space to allow us to raise the red flag.’

She noted the important role of the State as an issue, referring to events at Carmoney cemetery where loyalists had destroyed grave stones, put sectarian graffiti on a Catholic church, protested at a Catholic blessing of the graves ceremony and issued a death threat to the local priest.

Speakers

The first speaker was Mary Gray from the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) who spoke very briefly and only to support the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). The left, she said, must be a part of it as it was ‘the only show in town.’ To oppose it was to put ourselves in the same camp as Geoffrey Donaldson, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Real IRA. Support for the GFA was the only way forward and we had to be careful not to spoil the chances of smaller parties, although she did not indicate who these were.

Barbara Muldoon from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) emphasised her organisations support for the unity initiative – ‘no ifs and no buts.’ She argued that they all agreed on opposing the right wing programme for government supported by all the parties inside the suspended Northern Ireland Executive. She argued against the approach that had been advocated by the Socialist Party (SP) which proposed supporting independent candidates who had some record or profile in opposing hospital closures etc in local areas on the grounds that these people could well be racist or homophobic. Voters would not know where they stood on these issues and this was a big risk. Around the world apparently millions of people were ‘joining up the dots’ which meant they were linking the various aspects of their oppression in an understanding that it was the fault of the system.

Conditions were never better to combat sectarianism she stated and we did not need to fall out over the national question. All the main parties, she argued, were united on the national question, but divided on questions such as privatisation or a woman’s right to choose. We should therefore not worry if we were divided on the national question but ’sang from the same hymn sheet’ on workers’ and womens’ rights. On the question of the police she asked where in the world working class people did join the cops although it was not clear whether this meant that their projected initiative would therefore oppose anyone joining the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Gerry Grainger from the Workers Party (WP) argued that we all aspire to unity and that to achieve this we should show tolerance for our different ideological positions although he then went on to say that the ideological battle needs to be fought. While there could be different positions on the GFA the Workers Party supported it. Although it institutionalised sectarianism it was ‘the only show in town.’

While he did not rule out a unity initiative he doubted whether this could be achieved before the middle of November, when it has been rumoured any election (if there is one) would take place. He did not think it fair that parties who had stood candidates for thirty years should stand aside for parties who had not stood in an area before, and it could certainly not happen except after a long discussion. He finished by noting the deep disunity within the working class and the importance of Marxism.

The speaker from the Socialist Environmental Alliance in Derry, which includes the SWP, spoke passionately against the GFA arguing that it was not working because it institutionalised sectarianism and was not something we could be part of. She also spoke angrily against privatisation and the recent Iraq war and called for a left unity alliance.

Discussion from floor

The meeting was then opened to discussion from the floor. The first to speak was Anthony McIntyre from ‘The Blanket’ who lamented the lack of the left’s strategic vision in that it did not feel it could oppose the GFA itself. He nevertheless supported a left alliance as through struggle the questions that divide us, i.e. the national question, will be easier to solve. In answer to the difficulty of parties standing aside for others, raised by the Workers Party, he said that it was a PR election and that therefore it was not a problem for two candidates to stand. We would not get anyone elected but it was all about getting a platform and building relationships.

A speaker from the Women’s Coalition said that their own experience was very like the one that the left was currently engaged in and she wished them all the best. While the GFA was imperfect they were a pro-agreement party.

A Socialist Party speaker reported a mass movement in Dublin against the bin tax and defended the idea of standing independent candidates. He spoke of discussions going on of standing anti-bin tax candidates in the Dublin local government elections while recognising that, for example, those opposed to the bin tax may not have progressive views on refugees. This was a risk that we had to deal with. He argued that we should discus our differences as the media would inevitably ask about our attitude to the GFA.

Eileen Webster from the chair said that it was not their view that people had to stand aside and that we could call for a number one vote for an independent candidate and a number two preference for the left unity candidate. We could say that on the Stare and border we don’t agree and give our personal opinion.

An SWP speaker from Derry said that the GFA was ‘an irrelevance’ and ‘will have to wait.’ The important issues were those they agreed on. A member of NIPSA said we should forget about the GFA, we can’t oppose it and people were interested in ‘bread and butter issues.’ A CPI member said the unity initiative should be broader and should not be called left or socialist and pointed to the example of South Africa. We should be sympathetic to the Womens Coalition MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly). A member of the Newtownabbey Labour Party, which has Mark Langhammer as its councillor, said that on no account could it sign up to a platform that supported the sectarian GFA but that otherwise they were supportive. It was announced that Peter Bunting of the Northern Committee of ICTU was sympathetic to the initiative.


At this point the meeting descended into some confusion as many, particularly SWP members, were keen to get on with agreeing practical proposals to stand in each constituency. The CPI argued against accepting this since their priority was not damaging pro Good Friday Agreement candidates and securing a pro-agreement majority. The SWP’s Goretti Horgan argued that, for example, the left unity candidate in South Belfast could help get Monica McWilliams of the Womens Coalition (WC) elected so standing in each constituency was not a problem. The SWP complained that all this had already been agreed and Eamonn McCann proposed that instead of voting to agree to stand in each constituency they should agree to ‘aspire’ to stand in all eighteen. The CPI and WP both wanted to go back to their organisations and consider what had been discussed so it was agreed to meet again next week when each organisation supporting the initiative should send two delegates, with other individuals welcome to attend.

The views of Socialist Democracy on this initiative can be found in the discussion section of our web site.