Gormley plans to break the Union Labour link: what are the bourgeois scared of?

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Wednesday July 28, 2010 20:48

by Tony Healy - Fightback Supporter

ireland at marxist dot com

A ban on trade union donations to the Labour Party will not benefit anyone other than the enemies of the working class and the organised working class in particular.

The Green Party leader John Gormley has announced that the ban is to be introduced, alongside a ban on corporate donations, so much for the Green Party’s veneer of radicalism. This “radicalism” has become very stale and particularly mouldy also. Of course the proposed legislation is designed to appear even handed.

But the truth of the matter is that the link between Labour and the working class is potentially very important and the bourgeois understand that very well.

The Irish Times 26/7/10 reports:

“Is it really good for our society if the unions are hand-in-glove with the Labour Party and dictating policy?

“The Croke Park agreement, which, extraordinarily, Labour did not publicly back because of a possible backlash from some of their donor unions, shows that public service reform is possible and indeed long overdue. If Labour had been in power it might never have happened.”

What does this mean? Could it be that the Greens are trying to protect the poor old Labour Party Leadership from angry workers? Of course they are not. Could it be that the bosses are worried about workers moving into political action and putting pressure on the Labour Leaders to take the lead in fighting the crisis? Sure, now maybe we are getting a bit warmer. Could it be that they are frightened of the consequences of Labour in power, potentially as the biggest party in a coalition, coming under pressure to take action to defend workers? We think that’s much more likely.

While there are some on the left in Ireland who deny that the workers would move through their traditional organisations, it’s clear that the bosses don’t want to take the risk.

On the other hand given the generally low level of political knockabout that the FF and Greens generally stoop to, there’s a distinct likelihood that the coalition are merely after scoring some petty political points, claiming that Eamon Gilmore is tied hand and foot to Liberty Hall.

The reality is quite different. Gilmore and the Labour leaders have consistently dithered over the key political issues. In truth what’s needed is more pressure on the labour leaders and a greater input from the trade union membership. If Labour is going to win the next general election and it is not impossible that it could win a majority, then it needs to develop a political programme that corresponds to the aspirations and the interests of working people.

In other words Labour needs a bold Socialist Programme and it needs to build a mass membership drawn from the factories and estates, from the offices and the agricultural workers. Capitalism has created a huge crisis in Ireland. The task for the most active workers in the movement has to be to strengthen the political edge of the movement and turn it out towards the working class.

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Comments (4 of 4)

The workers' state - there's a long way to go

by Used2bSnowWhite

Tue Aug 03, 2010 23:42

Jovey, attaining worker’s unity is the ideal utopia and yet there’s a lot to be achieved.

The article correctly highlights the insidious link between Labour & the unions (can anyone forget Jack O’Connor’s shameless promotion of Eamon Gilmore on SIPTU’s Liberty Hall?). At the heart of the issue is the subservience and collusion of the unions to preserve social partnership and the few perks gained by union leaders and its well-paid officials. The ordinary worker should be supporting the union donation ban that rots trade unionism in Ireland and yet they are not vocal enough.

Underlying the debate is the unfortunate crux - what are the workers to do when their own unions are too corrupt to organise against the vicious cuts in health, education, the slavish promotion of low corporation tax of multi-national companies (who have too much influence in each state), etc ? And why workers decline to challenge their unions especially in this climate. Pessimistically, I don’t see the ordinary worker in Ireland confronting their union, looking for debate or organising at grassroots. Some might say that that the ordinary workers are still too comfortable and others would say that the unions now appear as bureaucratic and immoral as the present govt here leading the members to utter ambivalence of their membership. Would this happen when Connolly was around, heck no!

Due to their own fault SIPTU are now seeing a split with the fire-fighters and nurses possibly forming their own frontline union. Things are suddenly becoming more interesting for SIPTU, their members and the watching bystander. The current union might run out of bribe money with this exodus and yet the link between the political parties and unions must be broken for better workers’ rights.

The Goal Remains the Workers State.

by jovey

Mon Aug 02, 2010 04:00

A workers' opposition is needed in each and every country to upkeep the struggle to end Imperialist world war. The complete failure of the U.S. Imperialists to win their unjust aggressive wars, and their continual dragging down of the workers unity in each country is no show of strength. It instead shows a light in the end of the tunnel, and the approach of unity towards liberation from the war mongering societies headed by the worlds' Imperium. Unity is strenght and the workers are the constant majority in each and every country. Workers of the world, unite!! You have a world to win.

Johnny fighting for the little people, yeah right!

Sun Aug 01, 2010 22:48

The problem with Gormless Johnny is that he’s still deluded enough to think he’s got an ace up his sleeve with his public reluctance to sign off on the incinerator in Ringsend. Is this position with the union donation ban another last chance to show he’s tough on the big parties? Well, after the comical debacle over the hunting ban, that the Labour party opposed, isn’t it all a bit too late and is it not of out of retribution that Johnny boyo acts? I agree with the trade union donation ban itself, but with a cynical eye, and watch while it’s being spearheaded in particular by the Green party. Eventually Johnny Gormless will disappear along with all the empty promises he made such as the ones to stand by the ‘Shell to Sea’ campaign, ‘Tara’ and hell knows how many, including the upcoming Ringsend incinerator that he will end up endorsing.
He’s learning the hard way – no one will support him because he’s such a flake and the sensible members of his diminished party continue to run away like rats from a sinking ship.
The real workers know that neither the hybrid-wannabe bourgeois Green party nor the Labour party could ever represent them; they will look elsewhere for a socialist programme & alliance in this new decade of guillotine cuts no matter what right-wing government is in place or who it's supported by. It will certainly not include the above mentioned parties.

Strange

by ?

Wed Jul 28, 2010 23:54

So this article is about trade unions being banned from giving donations to the Labour Party?

Why's that a problem?

Why should trade unions have sway over the politics of Ireland when they are not elected to perform as political representatives of the people? All this ban does is clearly redefine the boundaries between two completely separate jobs. Union leaders represent workers in the workplace, not in the Dáil.

If you think this is an injustice of sorts, think about the other end of the sprectrum- Fianna Fáil taking donations from developers. Why should builders have sway over the policies of FF, the ruling party, and hence the country. Of course they shouldn't- the body politic elected FF, not the builders and hence they should be kept away from the decision making process.

My two cents anyway.

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Gormley plans to break the Union Labour link: what are the bourgeois scared of?

Comments (4 of 4)