The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire
In 3 War Years Russia Will Have Spent $3... Thu May 09, 2024 02:17 | Anti-Empire
UK Sending Missiles to Be Fired Into Rus... Tue May 07, 2024 14:17 | Marko Marjanović
US Gives Weapons to Taiwan for Free, The... Fri May 03, 2024 03:55 | Anti-Empire
Russia Has 17 Percent More Defense Jobs ... Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:56 | Marko Marjanović Anti-Empire >>
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy
Stand With Palestine: Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day Thu May 30, 2024 21:55 | indy
It is Chemtrails Month and Time to Visit this Topic Thu May 30, 2024 00:01 | indy
Hamburg 14.05. "Rote" Flora Reoccupied By Internationalists Wed May 15, 2024 15:49 | Internationalist left
Eddie Hobbs Breaks the Silence Exposing the Hidden Agenda Behind the WHO Treaty Sat May 11, 2024 22:41 | indy Human Rights in Ireland >>
Farage Calls for Referendum on European Convention on Human Rights Wed Jul 24, 2024 17:39 | Will Jones Keir Starmer says he will never withdraw from the ECHR because there is "no need" and Rishi Sunak did not disagree, despite it being the reason he failed to stop the boats. Nigel Farage says it's time to ask the people.
The post Farage Calls for Referendum on European Convention on Human Rights appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Fifteen Year-Old Swiss Girl Taken into Care After Parents Refuse to Consent to Course of Puberty Blo... Wed Jul 24, 2024 15:00 | Dr Frederick Attenborough A Swiss girl has been been taken into care because her parents stopped her taking puberty blockers, breaching a ban on conversion therapy. Is this what Labour means by a "full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices"?
The post Fifteen Year-Old Swiss Girl Taken into Care After Parents Refuse to Consent to Course of Puberty Blockers appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Net Zero is Impoverishing the West and Enriching China Wed Jul 24, 2024 13:30 | Will Jones The West's headlong rush to jettison fossil fuels and hit 'Net Zero' CO2 emissions is impoverishing us while enriching China, which is ramping up its coal-fired industry to sell us all the 'green' technology.
The post Net Zero is Impoverishing the West and Enriching China appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Threat to Democracy Wed Jul 24, 2024 11:29 | James Alexander 'Populists' like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage are a "threat to democracy", chant the mainstream media. In fact, they are just reminding our politicians what they are supposed to be doing, says Prof James Alexander.
The post The Threat to Democracy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
In the Latest Weekly Sceptic, Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Biden?s Withdrawal, Kamala Harris... Wed Jul 24, 2024 09:00 | Toby Young In the latest Weekly Sceptic, the talking points are whether Biden was the victim of a palace coup, Kamala Harris's staggeringly bad speeches and Kim Cheatle's humiliation.
The post In the Latest Weekly Sceptic, Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Biden?s Withdrawal, Kamala Harris?s Chances and the Kim Cheatle?s Shame appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en
Will Israel succeed in attacking Lebanon and pushing the United States to nuke I... Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:40 | en
Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en
Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Sinn Féin growth to be found as a republican, left alternative
Sinn Féin growth to be found as a republican, left alternative
In a personal assessment of Sinn Féin’s general election performance, EOIN Ó BROIN argues that the weaknesses and limitations of the party’s election campaign need to be corrected by an immediate return to community-based campaigning and radical republican politics. There is much I agree with in Mícheál Mac Donncha’s election analysis in last week’s An Phoblacht. The most important question he asked was why Sinn Féin was not in a better position to weather the storm that was Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s election success.
Much discussion since the count has focused on the smaller parties being squeezed by the presidential-style campaign waged by the two larger parties and the national media.
However, while this is certainly the case for the PDs and Independents, for the parties of the left no squeeze occurred. Rather Labour, the Greens and Sinn Féin simply remained stagnant. In our case progress was halted, not simply by a Fianna Fáil fightback, but by weaknesses and limitations in our campaign which with the benefit of hindsight we need to analyse, understand and correct.
Fianna Fáil’s gains were at our expense. Across the country, their percentage increases almost matched our decrease constituency for constituency. Our gains in 2004 were primarily at their expense, and our target seats for 2007 likewise.
There is little doubt that their party strategists and local organisation understood the nature of the Sinn Féin threat. Fianna Fáil set out to convince these floating republican voters to return to the Fianna Fáil fold through a combination of the Enda Kenny fear factor, anger at the PDs, the rejection of Sinn Féin in government and effective, on-the-ground organisation.
The degree to which this strategy succeeded surprised everyone, including Fianna Fáil, but clearly it worked. In effect Fianna Fáil set out to halt and reverse the trend set by Sinn Féin in 2004.
Sinn Féin weren’t squeezed by a presidential-style campaign. We were held back by an experienced Fianna Fáil electoral machine that understood its vulnerabilities and responded effectively. That we failed even to notice this in the course of the campaign is a consequence of our own organisational weaknesses and inexperience in the 26 Counties.
It is important to acknowledge the relative size and inexperience of our election machine in the South. It is equally important to grasp that as we grow our understanding of the differences between electoral realities North and South will become clearer.
Our understanding of our electorate in the 26 Counties, both core and potential, is only developing, as is our understanding of how and why they vote in both local and Leinster House elections. The assumption that we can simply translate positive feedback on the doors or previous election results into polling day gains clearly isn’t adequate.
In future we need to be more circumspect and more sophisticated in assessing and projecting our core strength and potential growth, and develop our constituency and media campaigns accordingly.
We also need to be mindful that our electoral growth has and continues to be built on slow, gradual, grassroots campaigning and community work. Our dramatic failure to poll well in Dublin Central, let alone win a seat, should be a lesson to us for the future not to deviate from what has worked in the past.
This was the first election in which Sinn Féin fought the public and media battle primarily on the basis of policies. A substantial reduction in negative media coverage coupled with significant progress in the peace process ensured that on television and radio, in the papers and on the doors, we were involved in policy debates about the economy, taxation, health, housing and crime.
On all of these areas we have strong, radical, left-of- centre republican positions. However, we clearly failed to defend these positions effectively. The leaders debate on RTÉ was just one of a number of interviews post Ard Fheis in which senior party spokespersons appeared weak and uncomfortable with our policy positions.
Our attempt to avoid the issue of taxation was seen by the media for what it was: an exercise in evasion. The pre-election abandonment of our policies on corporation tax, capital gains tax and a 50% upper band made us appear inconsistent to many, irrespective of their actual view on the policy.
More importantly, it also alienated left-of-centre voters, who chose instead left independents such as Brid Smyth and Joan Collins, almost costing Aengus Ó Snodaigh his seat.
The centre ground is a crowded political place. Sinn Féin does not belong there and should not be in the business of trading fundamental redistributive policies in the hope of short-term electoral gain. That’s a kind of politics that we should leave to Fianna Fáil.
If we want to build an Ireland of equals, we need to be able and willing to explain to the electorate exactly how much this will cost and where the money will come from, including those instances when increased taxes are the most appropriate course of action.
Without trying to spin our way out of what was undoubtedly a bad election, we nonetheless need to find positives from which to build for the future.
Firstly the most important fact of the election must be that the 143,410 people who voted for Sinn Féin on 24 May can now be considered our core vote. That in itself is an important achievement and a solid base to build from.
Secondly, in a number of constituencies our vote increased, most significantly in Donegal. All of this growth bodes well for the upcoming local government elections in two years’ time.
Thirdly, for those areas where growth was small or nonexistent it should be a good incentive to focus on the task ahead and immediately return to what we do best: community-based campaigning and radical republican politics.
Finally, and probably most importantly, we need a serious and open debate about the political and economic position that Sinn Féin wants to occupy into the future. Mícheál Mac Donncha was absolutely right when he said in last week’s An Phoblacht that ‘Sinn Féin is a part of the left in Irish politics.’
To those activists who thought that a shift to the centre would benefit us in this election, I would say that you were proved wrong. Avoiding and then abandoning sound policies in the mouth of an election is bad politics.
Sinn Féin should continue to develop and defend our platform as a radical, left-wing republican party, building Irish unity and an Ireland of equals. Fianna Fáil’s success in this election was made in spite of growing public discontent at the quality of public services. The absence of a clear and meaningful alternative was Fine Gael and Labour’s weakness. That is the space where Sinn Féin belongs and where our future growth is to be found.
• Eoin Ó Broin is Director of Sinn Féin’s European Department
|
View Full Comment Text
save preference
Comments (47 of 47)