LABOUR PARTY MEMBER AND FORMER ELECTION CANDIDATE LUKE CROWLEY-HOLLAND FROM KENMARE OUTLINES HIS VIEWS ON THE FUTURE OF HIS PARTY
IN a predictable article in the Irish Times earlier this year, ahead of the party’s leadership election, Enda O’Doherty outlined what he saw as the plight of the Labour Party. O’Doherty is correct that the party cannot continue to cling to the comfort blanket of — what he calls — the ‘ liberal agenda’.
With hindsight it’s easy to say that the success of Marriage Equality and repeal of the Eighth amendment were a natural social evolution the country was ready to undertake. But put yourself back into 2010, and I’m not so sure you’d say those victories were a given.
But the idea that Labour jettisoned our traditional base in order to deliver these landmark social changes back to middle class voters doesn’t tell you the story of the Labour Party over the past ten years.
The real story here lies in the failure of modern social democratic politics. The reputation of the Neoliberal project might be in tatters; but when the banks, and then the country, needed bailing out, the imaginations of major political parties and individual thinkers were extremely narrow.
Ultimately, those who made their fortune in the mass privatisation and deregulation of the economy over the previous 30 years escaped; either criminally under-hindered or totally scot-free.
This was not a phenomenon unique to Ireland; nor was it solely the failing of the Labour party. Rather, the left across Europe floundered in the face of the 2008 crisis.
The response to the crisis across the board — with a few (and only a few) exceptions — was to leave working families and ordinary folks screwed while wealth inequality grew rapidly.
It’s true the Labour Party wasn’t able to successfully: One) Win the 2011 election and Two) Argue an alternative path to austerity. Good politicians, who’ve devoted their lives to the betterment of others, lost their seats in 2016 as a result.
At the same time TDs, who championed the policies that left the country on its knees, returned to Leinster House. Those Labour TDs will say they were the bulwark against the real agenda Fine Gael wanted to pursue.
But it’s hard to win an election trying to argue the evidence of absence. The only party to have voted against handing a blank cheque to a failing banking system was the party that carried the can in 2016.
Labour weren’t the only party in Europe to suffer as a result of their reaction to the 2008 crisis. But this is not, in my view, why the party’s credibility has failed to recover.
It’s been the inability, or unwillingness, of the Party and its leadership — prior to this year’s election — to adapt to the rise of a new left. A left that is attracting the votes of young people all over the western world.
A real solution to the serious electoral ailment that only two per cent of young people voted Labour this year; a fact Aodhán Ó Ríordáin rightly highlighted but was unable to successfully argue for a solution that would win him the leadership.
The bandwidth for radical change wasn’t there in 2008, but it is now.
The party needs to realise this. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Jeremy Corbyn and Bernard Sanders have showed that another world is possible. Labour cannot shrink from that path because these respective politicians failed to win power; that should not scare a party polling on four per cent.
As Alan Kelly takes the party forward, he needs to show that he can bring his undoubted ability as a politician to bear on a truly transformative agenda.
The 2020 election was fought under the slogan ‘Building an Equal Society’. Well, in my humble opinion, that starts with radical policy proposals. Do you want an equal society? Then eradicate inequality in education by eliminating fee-paying schools.
Equality doesn’t happen in a country with a two-tier medical system; nationalise private hospitals now! (I was delighted to see Alan Kelly call for this a number of weeks back).
Let’s make GP care free to all at the point of entry, so that we no longer live in a country where people regularly have to weigh the pain and strain of a physical or mental complaint against the cost of diagnosis. And where childcare is never a barrier to work.
Let’s not just commit to building a set number of houses; but rather commit to bring the percentage of the overall housing stock that is government-supplied to levels upwards of 35 to 40 per cent.
That is ambitious, but it’s the type of long-term housing policy this country needs.
It’ll help us ease the scourge of the landlord, which has blighted this country since the Norman conquest, and reverse the trend of hoarding wealth in private property.
One of the real achievements of the 2011-16 government was the low pay commission, collective bargaining legislation and twice increasing the minimum wage.
Let’s go further: let’s open up the conversation around a fourday week. Push the living wage. Hopefully this COVID crisis has shown us that our work life balance is all askew. Incentivise Trade Union membership;
I’ve always said that I believe we need to give supports and tax incentives to areas of work traditionally associated with precarious employment, once they start paying a living wage, and have unionised workplaces.
Or why not push for mandatory union membership? This is the natural policy ground the Labour Party should thrive in.
Let’s end the disgrace that is Direct Provision. And treat asylum seekers with the respect and dignity they deserve.
Let’s bring in a wealth tax and not be afraid to raise corporate tax. Because our patriots didn’t die so we could become a tax haven that mistreats vulnerable people who have come here looking for help building a better life.
Let’s bring rural Ireland into the fold; with investment in infrastructure like we’ve never seen before.
Make Ireland the envy of Europe with an ambitious plan that expands and improves road infrastructure, train lines and broadband.
The real scandal of the last government’s Broadband plan was that there should be any private ownership of the network.
A national nationalised broadband system is what this country needs. Creating a level playing field and generating secure jobs is also how we win people over to the cause of reaching our climate goals.
As the biggest barrier, which I’ve seen, to this is people’s own economic and social insecurity. That’s why there is a growing perception that the Greens are bad for rural Ireland, because rural Ireland is dying — and no one is offering a lifeline.
And that’s just the tip of what Labour representatives should be on the radio, TV and across social media championing each and every day.
We should not be afraid to say: look this is what the state can do. To end inequality. To build a country for the many. Only then will Labour rise from its knees.
Because, at this moment, the constant conversation about Ireland’s progressive future — one which the Labour Party was at the heart of for 100 years — is taking place at a gathering we haven’t been invited to.