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Hailing originally from Ireland where he was active in the Socialists Workers Party, Joe Carolan is a leading member of Socialist Aotearoa. Here he is interviewed by Ian Anderson (Wellington branch of Workers Party and The Spark editorial board).

The Spark: Could you start by recapping what shifts happened in this year’s Irish General Election?

Joe: Well, to start with there was the complete electoral destruction of the favoured ruling class party Fianna Fail. They lost over 60 seats, including seats they’ve held since they first formed as a constitutional political party. In part this represents the death of nationalist illusions in the party, which had to do with their historical participation in the Civil War. The illusion of Fianna Fail as an upholder of national sovereignty was broken by their sell-out to the IMF and to neoliberalism in general.

Then you had the destruction of the Irish Green Party. The Green Party was exposed in two respects. Firstly they demonstrated that Green Parties are not automatically on the left, similar to Germany where the Greens helped to attack the working class and push through neoliberalism. They also sold out principles of their own, for example their craven surrender to Shell Oil, or the use of Shannon Airport by the US Military. So those two ruling parties lost a lot of ground, and good riddance.

There were significant gains by Fine Gael, the other major ruling class party. The split between the major ruling class parties does not go down left/right lines, and has more to do with the Civil War. Fine Gael came from the tradition of IRA leader Michael Collins, who accepted a free state with partition, while Fianna Fail is associated more with republicanism, the idea of a united Irish state.

Fine Gael is socially liberal, so many liberals treat it as a natural ally. The Labour Party has pursued a strategy of coalitions with Fine Gael.

Sinn Fein, a group broadly associated with left republicanism, has also gained seats – even, to their own surprise, in areas they have never previously held. They’ve grown from 4 seats to 13. The growth of Sinn Fein, the growth of the Irish Labour Party, and electoral support for the new United Left Alliance show a strong desire for change among the Irish working class.

The parties have not yet formed a coalition. [Read more…]

February 15, 1951 was the beginning of the waterfront lockout, followed by solidarity strikes in the rail, coal, drivers and hydro industries. Its effects are still with us.

The lockout was initiated by the New Zealand government and British ship owners to smash a militant working class willing to taking action for improved wages and conditions. However, the bureaucratic
Federation of Labour would not take the side of the locked out workers, and the watersiders’ union became increasingly isolated.

In April when the anti-worker legislation comes into effect the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) will hold the last of its rallies in response. This will take place under the ‘Fairness at Work’ slogan. Not only does the slogan sound conservative, the political problem with the slogan is that fairness in the workplace requires radical social change. Falling short of being able to achieve radical social change, appropriate working class slogans must be based on concrete claims that can advance the class struggle, such as freedom of association and action at work, specific wage formulations, and daring new mass demands. The use of soft phrases like ‘fairness’ can serve to limit workers’ expectations. Furthermore, ‘fairness’ is not measurable, meaning there is no political accountability for those who promote the use of the slogan.

Like the previous Fairness at Work marches, this April March will naturally be a bureaucratic affair because the working class has been disempowered by previous defeats, including the defeat in 1951. The
‘partnership and productivity’ approach to unionism, which the CTU has actively constructed and engaged in, has helped to further erode working class agency.

Another part of the problem is that at the top of the union movement, the central strategy has become the re-election of the Labour Party rather than the rebuilding of fighting unionism. But where was the
Labour Party for 151 days in 1951?–“Neither for nor against.”

Watch this award-winning documentary ‘1951’ and see how history repeats itself.

Also check out the March and April issues of The Spark which will carry a first-time published major two-part feature on the 1951 struggle.