Sir, - Contrary to the reason given by Joe Higgins for his expulsion from the Labour Party (Alison O'Connor's report on the by election April 4th), he was in fact expelled following a motion passed by an overwhelming majority at the Labour Party National Conference in 1989 making membership of Militant inconsistent with membership of the Labour Party. Militant's policy at the time was one of entryism into the Labour Party in order to achieve the Militant's aims. Militant is a Trotskyist organisation whose secretive methods and democratic centralism were totally at odds with the open and democratic nature of the Labour Party. Militant has its origins in the Revolutionary Socialist League and is the same Militant that produced Derek Hatton and the much publicised fiasco of the Militant led council in Liverpool.
The purpose of Militant's policy of entryism into both the English and Irish Labour Parties then was to bring about a worker's revolution by raising the consciousness of workers by looking for a series of transitional demands that would ultimately prove futile, being impossible to implement in Government. To me the anti water rates campaign is such a transitional demand, putting local county councillors in the impossible position that if there were no water service charges (which raised £46 million outside Dublin in 1994 for example) basic local government services would have to be cut, hurting most the least well off and most disadvantaged in the community - i.e., the very people Joe Higgins and Militant Labour purport to represent.
Joe Higgins polled very well and luckily for him the media didn't investigate much of his background or his "real political beliefs" during the by election. I hope that when Joe Higgins and Militant Labour put themselves forward in future elections this organisation will come under more scrutiny from the media, as should any political candidate or party in a democratic society.
Yours, etc.,
Esker Branch of the
Labour Party,
Esker Lawns,
Lucan
Co Dublin.