There was no electoral breakthrough for the left after a decade of centre-right rule. So does the left have a future in Irish politics? Yes, argues Tony Kinsella, but only if Labour modernises its appeal
Issues from healthcare to climate change are driving a new collective political era. Parties of the left that grasp this (such as José Luis Zapatero's PSOE of Spain) thrive, while those focused on yesterday's debates (France's communists) wither away.
The left in Ireland, in the most generous collective description possible, won something over 20 per cent of the vote in the recent general election. In the 1992 "Spring tide" Labour won just over 19 per cent - indicating that little has changed.
Parties of the left seem more capable of taking seats from each other, rather than winning them from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael - Labour from the Greens in Cork South-Central or the Greens from Labour in Carlow-Kilkenny. In Dublin North neither Labour's Brendan Ryan (9.6 per cent) nor the Socialist Party's Clare Daly (8.9 per cent) won the seat that one of them could reasonably have aspired to.
The presence, or absence, of a pre-election coalition pact - however much it may exercise Labour members - also makes little difference. Labour, without a pact, won 21 seats in 2002. In 2007, with a pact, it won 20. Pacts reinforce the presidential aspect of elections by offering voters a choice of taoiseach, but are otherwise largely neutral.
Why does Ireland lack a major centre-left social democratic party?
Part of the answer is the low level of industrialisation of the newly-independent Ireland, which provided a small, urban working-class base for a 1920s socialist party. Labour was confined to representing some of that base, and through the Land and Labour League tradition, a crescent of rural constituencies across the south of the island.
Since parties in other countries with comparable levels of economic development - Finland, Norway, Greece, Portugal - expanded beyond their initial bases to become major political forces, the question of why Labour could not manage a similar expansion arises.
The so-called national question posed a key challenge to Labour. Ireland's two radical traditions were the universal social one, and the "national liberation" one Labour preferred to avoid. An avoidance which would continue, with occasional aberrations, until Dick Spring led Labour into a serious and productive engagement with the peace process in the 1980s. This avoidance not only restricted Labour's appeal, it divorced it from one major source of Irish radical thought - the republican movement. Those of the 1930s Republican Congress, and the 1940s Clann na Poblachta under Seán MacBride, did not migrate from republican orthodoxy towards Labour.
The exception came from the 1960s work by figures such as Cathal Goulding and Roy Johnston which would, eventually, lead to Democratic Left, its fusion with Labour, and Pat Rabbitte's leadership.
The peace process has now created a broad consensus, eliminating the national question as an active, or even an emotive, political issue, so one of Labour's self-inflicted handicaps is losing its bite.
A second handicap continues to haunt it - its divorce from the emergence of other, semi-secular, progressive social demands. Clann na Poblachta's Noel Browne is remembered as the instigator of the Mother-and-Child health scheme. Universal access to secondary education is associated with Fianna Fáil's Donogh O'Malley, while the emergence of a modern secular society first received public affirmation when Garret FitzGerald's Fine Gael talked of a "just society".
Many of these initiatives were Labour policy, and supported by the party, but their introduction is not associated with the party.
The scale, and nature, of the Labour Party impedes its development. The 20-odd TDs, many defending vulnerable seats, tend to be largely autonomous and hesitant when it comes to radical policy departures. The disciplinary carrots of office and sticks of competing TDs from the same party within a constituency are absent.
The scale of the party - it has 3,500 members - is small, even incestuous, lending an isolated, sometimes schizophrenic, flavour to internal discussions. Members seek to preserve their ideological purity, something more usually found in smaller groupings, while dreaming of exercising transformational power - the stuff of major parties.
Labour, like its social democratic counterparts, needs to maintain its lofty aspirations, celebrate its traditions, while focusing on specific, achievable, short-term political goals. Vital beliefs need to be distinguished from their historic manifestations. This is a difficult, often dangerous, intellectual and organisational challenge.
If the socialist bedrock principle of collective solidarity is at least as valid as ever, expressions of that principle in terms of rigid social class structures are meaningless, even counter-productive, in today's Europe. Recognising that the market economy is the basis of wealth generation only involves a betrayal of democratic socialist beliefs when that recognition is not accompanied by a series of proudly affirmed redistributive measures. Tony Blair's domestic legacy is a prime example of such measures - without any political celebration.
In today's intelligent economies, Labour should be seen as the party that facilitates individual entrepreneurial access. Entrepreneurial success is then taxed to finance an agreed level of social justice.
Social justice in terms of access to housing, to all levels of education, to quality healthcare, and the right to live in a safe and sustainable environment are not only core Labour values, they are prerequisites for economic development. Modern Labour should not be about confrontation between the social and the economic, but about harnessing the economic to serve the social.
Addressing the challenge of climate change requires collective courage. Only society can act to facilitate the move away from fossil fuels. Will Labour be at the forefront of this societal change, advocating a capital programme to electrify our railways and expand light rail services?
Might Labour accept the challenge of creating a modern, secular republic? Tackle the time bomb of our religious-owned educational system? Address the need for abortion legislation? Make the argument that global economic development depends on justice between peoples and states?
The historic struggles for universal suffrage, social justice and the collective good as the bases for individual liberty are now being transposed to the global stage. Socialists, as the heirs to those who first engaged in these struggles, should be to the forefront here.
In Ireland this could be a revitalised force built from today's Labour Party. A force that reaches out to other individuals and groups to build for change. Such a force for change will emerge. The question is whether Labour is capable of being its catalyst.
Tony Kinsella is a writer and commentator living in France. He was director of elections for Labour Party leader Dick Spring in 1992, deputy director of the party's campaign in the subsequent European Parliament elections and was also the party's international adviser for security and development. He will address the Parnell Summer School this year on the labour movement in Continuity and Change in Irish Culture, Society and Politics
Tomorrow: Richard Boyd-Barrett
