SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER
Britain's beleaguered Education Secretary Estelle Morris surprised everybody by quitting, just as she had been thought to have gotten over her worst trials (see previous WEEKs). More remarkably Morris admitted that she had not done as well as she wanted in her resignation letter. Ironically, her candour about her own performance has muddied the waters even further. Instead of leading to an understanding of what is wrong with Education policy Morris' frank resignation letter led to a general soul-searching on the part of the media and political establishment as to why they had failed to accommodate such an honest and open person.
Morris' many sympathisers - who seem to include the Prime Minister - have tended to blame the system for failing Morris, rather than the other way around. Questions are asked whether political life, and the demands upon a minister of state are just too tough for any individual to bear, without becoming some sort of robot, as Culture Minister Tessa Jowell suggested. Proposals are being considered to reform the House of Commons, cutting back sitting times, and to restrain aggressive questioning by the press.
In fact the same attitude that held back Morris' work as Education Secretary, a willingness to indulge failure and undermine standards is now being shown her in turn. By donning sack-cloth and ashes, Morris has made herself everybody's favourite.
END OF THE ROAD FOR IRELAND'S LABOUR PARTY
How different it was just a decade ago. In 1992 Ireland's Labour Party under Dick Spring had its best results ever, holding the balance of power between the two exhausted parties of the Civil War, Fine Gael (FG) and Fianna Fail (FF). Mary Robinson, Labour's candidate, upset the form by beating FF's Brian Lenihan to the Presidency. At last it appeared to some that Eire had broken out of the strait-jacket of Civil War politics to assume the more mainstream European model of public debate along the left-right axis.
At the recent General Election the current leader Ruari Quinn promised further breakthroughs following a historic merger with the Democratic Left party, that derived its origins from a socialist breakaway from Republicanism. But instead of advance, the two parties combined got as few votes as Labour had in the previous election. While 'Third Way' Social Democratic parties have been breaking the mould of traditional politics all over Europe, similar aspirations on the part of the Irish Labour Party have singularly failed.
Labour's difficulty is that the upsets of the early 90s were a sign of the break up of traditional nationalist politics in Ireland, but not of a re-emergence of the contest of left-right, which was also on the decline throughout the Western world. Labour itself might appear to be well-placed to gain from the collapse of nationalism, having pointedly refused to take a stand against Britain's occupation of the Six Counties of northern Ireland throughout most of its history. Its 'Democratic Left' partner was schooled in the attempt to stand down the IRA in the 1970s at the height of the conflict, in a previous incarnation as the Officials. The difficulty for Labour, though, is that it represents no alternative constituency to the national mobilisation of the Irish people. With Ireland's trade unions playing a relatively small part in the struggle over resources, Labour's socialism, like the Democratic Left's was largely a rhetorical posture, through which it tried to regain the moral high ground over nationalism. The Party's actual commitment to social justice took a back seat to a dizzying succession of opportunistic electoral alliances with Fine Gael, the Progressive Democrats, Fianna Fail and now finally the dregs of the Official IRA.
Without any obvious feeling for the Irish working classes, Ruari Quinn earned himself the nickname 'Mr Angry of Sandymount' as the Party relegated itself to the role of intellectual critics rather than players. Typical was the Party's opposition to the national sports stadium that taoiseach Bertie Ahern set about as a monument to his term of office. Labour joined the Dublin 4 literati's scoffing at this white elephant indifferent to the real appeal that sports play to working class voters.
Not only does the present day Fianna Fail continue to have a surer feel for southern Irish aspirations than Labour, it has under Ahern been the main beneficiary of the critical dismantling of the old FF machine. It was Ahern who abandoned the constitutional claim on the North; and through the mechanism of the Tribunals of Enquiry into the previous Taoiseach Charles Haughey's presumed 'corruption', Ahern's FF has purged itself of its nationalist past. In the North, too, it has been the Democratic Left's old rivals in Provisional Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness that have had more success with the policies originally proposed by the 'Officials', recognition of the Unionists' and of Britain's role as fair broker. The news this week that Labour has elected the Democratic Left's Pat Rabbitte as leader indicate that the Party is incapable of recreating itself.
VICTORY TO THE FIREFIGHTERS - BUT THIS IS NO RETURN TO THE CLASS STRUGGLE
The Fire Brigade Union's 40 per cent pay claim - '30k' - has the attraction of being ambitious and confident in an age when most claims are advanced in the language of victimisation. Attractive too is the FBU's abrupt dismissal of the government's proposed pay review body - the sort of bureaucratic fix that would appeal to most union leaders. Behind the FBU's militant stance, though, is a concern to defend the union office rather than the conditions of the fire fighters themselves, which have deteriorated over the years without much challenge from head office. However cocky the 30k demand appears, it is quickly reinterpreted by strike sympathisers into the argument for a special case.
It might appear, too, with the intervention of the train-drivers leader Bob Crow, that trade union unity is on the increase. A number of recent disputes, mostly in transport have delivered pay rises. More telling, though, is that these disputes have failed to generate a wider support within British society. The officially indulged and mostly middle class anti-capitalist activists have largely ignored these recent disputes. Wider solidarity amongst organised labour has hardly been an issue, and would be unlikely to materialise. A tighter labour market has allowed some unions to negotiate better deals in recent times, but these hardly add up to a renewed class struggle.
A victory for the fire fighters would be a plus for them, but it would not challenge the mood of the times. Where society is arranged to reward special pleading the resonance of a wider conflict between workers and employers is minimal.
-- James Heartfield The 'Death of the Subject' Explained is available at GBP11.00, plus GBP1.00 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'