[lbo-talk] Social-Democracy in Ireland?

[Philip Pilkington]

There's some words I didn't expect to hear a few months ago, but there's an
increasing possibility. The conservative government, already caught in a
major banking scandal which it is becoming increasingly implicated in every
day, are now facing a major public sector strike wave across the country. At
the exact same time the Irish Labour party are moving from the sidelines to
front and centre as more and more Irish people become fearful of the looming
possibility of unemployment. They've already begun a major recruitment drive
and a huge reorganisation. If the aforementioned problems manage to cause
the current government to fall then we're looking at a very good possibility
of, what I would consider a reasonably honest social-democratic party being
elected as the majority shareholder of power in Ireland.

To move from an extremely integrated trade-union system, coupled with strong
a neo-liberal elite controlling both political and media power and a weak
Labour party to these circumstances in such a short space of time - mere
weeks! - is, frankly, bewildering, in whatever positive sense that term can
connote. This especially since Ireland is looking straight down the barrel
of the IMF's policy gun as it finds itself in ever more precarious
circumstances with regard to its finances. God knows what Labour will
inherit, the smoldering remnants of some sort of neo-liberal structured
American Dream gone wrong, but dammit at least they might inherit it!

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http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0218/transport.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0218/pensions.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0218/banks.html