Michael D Higgins' "open mind" to NAMA
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anti-capitalism |
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Thursday August 06, 2009 23:48
by Niall Farrell
Michael D a Monkey in the Superstructure?
So the Labour Party's conscience - Michael D Higgins = has an open mind to NAMA.. Read the learned man's thoughts in an interview with the Galway Independent:
http://www.galwayindependent.com/local-news/local-news/...r-us/
In the mid-1980s Peadar O Donnell spoke at an Anti-Regan event in Galway (it was in opposition to Regan being awarded an honorary PhD),
Peadar's speech was later published entitled: Monkeys in the Superstructure. The monkeys Peadar was directly referrring to were those TDs that play the politicial game in so-called parliamentary democracy. We all know the point being made. The opposition huff & puff but they certainly don't want to blow the house of capitalism and exploitation down.
The irony is Michael D Higgins wrote the introduction. As he gave Labour's support to NAMA, this monumental folly - a folly that for decades the ordinary people of this country will pay for-one wonders did Peadar's words cross Higgins' mind, Probably not.
I'm sure they didn't cross his mind either last year when he was extolling the virtues of the Lisbon Treaty. One such virtue Higgins told the local Galway media was that under Lisbon the EU will have its own Peace Corps and young Irish people could joint its ranks. Not a word, however, from the Great Old Man of Labour concerning the 20 pages of articles dealing with the militarisation of the EU and Ireland. No talk of the neo-liberal agenda enshrined in the treaty......
And we keep feeding these bloody monkeys!
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3I don't think it's fair to criticise Michael D. Higgins for a malaise that has wormed its way into the organised Left on many levels. It is a commonplace now for frustrated writers who would like to be seen as espousing the Left (for instance) projecting a Leftish image while behind the scenes underhandedly trying to wipe out genuine subscribers to the Left. Galway is full of them. Michael D. Higgins is not one of these, and has put his head on the block over issues others in Labour have dodged.
Michael D. Higgins has long since stopped being a genuine left. The early 1990s was the final nail in that coffin. He jumped into bed with FF and then FG sitting in cabinet presiding over tax amnesties and passports for sale. It's sad really to see someone who was a decent left public figure turning into a proponent of conservatism and the political establishment. Like many of these ex-left academic types he's got a big ego. A symthom of this was his bid for the Áras in 2004.
I agree that Michael D's left wing days are long past. The breaking point was 1992/3 when he spoke in favour of coalition with Fianna Fail at the Labour Party special conference on the issue. The Michael D of the 1980s would have bucked the party line and said no to Lisbon. But no more.
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