Independent Left joins SWP

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis Monday October 15, 2007 11:15 by Left Eye Lopez

The Campaign for an Independent Left seems to have reached the end of the road as its members join the Socialist Workers Party in setting up a Dublin Central branch of People Before Profit

The Campaign for an Independent Left was set up two years ago to build a new workers party. It brought together supporters of Dublin City Councillor Joan Collins (ex-Socialist Party), Tipperary TD Seamus Healy, the Irish Socialist Network and some others. At around the same time People Before Profit was launched, consisting mainly of the Socialist Workers Party and some other individuals.

Lots of people at the time questioned the point of having two similar initiatives, but there were clear differences. The CIL programme was more specific about standing for the interests of workers, while PBP preferred a more catch-all populist approach. Neither had a clear socialist programme, however. The issue of SWP domination of PBP also differentiated it from the CIL.

The CIL held some public meetings in Dublin and brought out two issues of a newsletter. It was weakened when the ISN left it at the end of last year. Seamus Healy’s defeat in the General Election effectively removed the Tipperary section - which apparently was never that involved to begin with. Collins didn’t do as well as expected in the Election.

The PBP never broadened beyond its initial base of the SWP plus a few others. Its Dun Laoghaire candidate Richard Boyd-Barrett did well in the Election, but its other candidates didn’t. A transfer pact operated between Collins and Brid Smith (PBP/SWP) in Dublin South but with little result. Both CIL and PBP lacked the credibility of the Socialist Party’s campaign based on years of hard work on the ground.

Since the Election leading CIL people have been meeting with leading SWP people and have agreed to cooperate in launching a Dublin Central branch of PBP. Both sides are building for a public launch meeting in early November in the Teacher’s Club.

So far Collins and her supporters don’t seem to be fully on board, but both the SWP and the rest of the CIL expect this to change. The local elections in 18 months, and another transfer pact with Smith, could be the opportunity for this. At the moment Collins and her supporters may be reluctant to abandon her City Council platform to an SWP led initiative.

SWP people are making no secret of how pleased with themselves they are. They are quoting this move as proof that PBP is not just an SWP front after all. (Or maybe they see it as the chance for it finally to become more than an SWP front?) The fact that the PBP name and programme has been accepted by all involved, rather than the initiative taking place under a separate name and programme - that PBP is essentially ‘swallowing’ the CIL - is more vindication for the SWP position as far as they concerned. Over the last week or so their attitude towards others on the left has been very smug in light of the CIL link up.

The CIL have obviously lowered their sights quite a bit. From pushing for a new independent workers party, they have joined an all-class populist grouping. From rejecting SWP hegemony, they are now prepared to go along with it.

Whether this initiative is successful remains to be seen. But the future doesn’t look bright. The conditions for building a mass party of working people just don’t exist at the moment. In the coming economic downturn, thousands of workers and young people will draw revolutionary conclusions and will be prepared to rally to radical class politics. In such circumstances a mass workers party will be very much on the cards. Trying to jump the gun before the conditions are ripe is a recipe for failure. It has certainly brought the CIL to failure. Some will say that coming under the SWP’s PBP banner is a failure in itself.