Whither the Irish Left

Mick Hall
EU.

There are important lessons for the Irish Left to learn from the outcome of the recent General Election in the south of Ireland. Not least if the left is to build support and gain momentum at the Ballot box, it must offer its core electorate policies that give hope to Society and especially those within it who are less well off economically. The Left need to collectively draw up a program that advocates re-unification, greater freedom's and democratic accountability, full employment, fairness in the work place, a sustainable environment; affordable homes, and a re-distribution of wealth which brings to an end the massive chasm that has opened up between the wealthy and the majority of the Irish people during Bertie Ahearn's period in office.

The fact that during the election campaign the Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams told the electorate that if asked, SF were willing to enter into a coalition with the governing party Fianna Fail; and the Green Party to its shame actually did so. Means that for the time being these two parties have sadly chosen a road few leftist are willing to tread, the more so as FF were clearly unwilling to make any real concessions to potential coalition partners from the left. Hopeful given time and a new leadership SF and the Greens will come to see the error of their ways and return to the Leftist tradition of Connolly, Mellows, O'Donnell and others who have struggled to unite the Republican left with its natural allies the working classes and the socialist and libertarian left.

However it is simply not enough for the left to continuously harp on about the Fianna Fail led government's maladministration, as important as this is, for come the next general election we will still not be in a position to offer the electorate a real and practical left alternative.* Thus it is imperative the Republican and socialist left and its natural allies look to the future and move forward by creating a vehicle which will challenge the powers that be in both of the political jurisdictions of Ireland. Of late things have begun to look a little more hopeful. The open wounds that many left republicans have suffered due to Mr Adams capitulation to the representatives of Capital, whilst not healing have at least stopped festering. Left Republicans are beginning to understand it is for them to re-build a political movement to represent the Irish working classes and in the immediate future members of SF must look after their own consciences.

The group of republicans in the north who went under the banner of Concerned Republicans during the kerfuffle over SF's acceptance of the PSNI has already begun the fight back by establishing the Republican Network for Unity. In the Statement announcing the formation of the new organization, veteran Republican activist Danny McBrearty said, whilst accepting there were still thorny issues between republicans, given good will and trust these can be resolved. He went on to point out that on the plus side there were "vast resources of skills and experience exist[ing] within [republican] communities, we are confident that these can be tapped in to and channelled into progressive political actions." **

In the southern State, éirígí, an organization that originated within Dublin SF has caught the imagination of many leftists and left republicans. It strategy is very similar to that of RNfU, Brian Leeson a leading member recently wrote an article for the éirígí web site entitled Rebuilding The Republican Movement in which he posed the question whether "the traditional 'party/army' model of a republican 'movement' best serve our collective struggle now and in the coming years or do we need to develop an alternative, new, model upon which to build opposition to the British occupation?" *** For raising this issue Brian must be given enormous credit for it is of great importance if Irish Republicanism is to move beyond being a fringe organization, that only comes into its own at times of enormous political tension and crises.

The fact is the political and social circumstance that would make an armed republican struggle viable are not likely to occur in the foreseeable future; and even if this were not so, does anyone truly believe that given the titanic effort and sacrifice the 'long war' generation of Irish Republicans put into their insurgency, that the 'just one more heave with an honest leadership' strategy could gain legs.. Thus left Republicans must look beyond the traditional post 1916 organizational methods. After all James Connolly never saw his alliance with the progressive wing of the bourgeoisie, out of which Óglaigh Na hÉireann emerged as being permanent, yet this has been the basic platform that left republicans have tied themselves into since it first emerged in 1916. It has to be said in recent times it has looked more like a straight jacket than a vehicle to achieve a 32 County Socialist Republic.

If one looks at the political space in both jurisdiction within Ireland, there is a gaping hole to be filled on the Left and the situation demands that Left Republicans and the socialist and libertarian left come together and jointly fill it. Whether it is reunification, opposition to Neo-liberal economics and the Neo-cons who are its political cheer leaders, US/UK military adventures abroad, State run Health Care, Education, Pensions, Infrastructure and the widening gap between economically rich and poor, the left have very few real political differences.

Yet by ourselves alone we must face the fact that the left does not have the numbers to mount a real fight back against those who represent Capital politically and are willing to inflict the worst excesses of Neo-liberal economics upon the Irish working classes. The situation demands that we on the Left enter into a United Front of left organizations and individuals. As to the name whilst not a member of Eirigi that name seems fine by me as it is both a break from the past and means in English Rise Up, but that decision would be for the comrades who formed the United Front.

The question all of us on the Left need to ask, is not what our preferred outcome would be, but what are the needs politically of the Irish working classes, both north and south? Even at a glance it is clear that the situation demands that the WC has honest, principled leftist representation within the nations Parliamentary forums and local councils. The fact that some Irish workers are amongst the lowest paid in western Europe and the gap between rich and poor increases in the north and south by the day is partly due to this absence of left political representation. Which gives the political representatives of Capital a free reign to exploit and plunder at will.

As to working within the British northern assembly I have no doubt this will be a thorny issue, but if leftists and republicans do not put a peg on their noses and enter this mockney parliament, others will; and their purpose will be to betray the workers they claim to represent by doing their masters bidding. Of course there could be no question of entering Stormont to govern the six counties, the purpose of left representatives being there should both be defensive; and to politically blast away the very foundations of the charade of democracy that Stormont is and has always been.

Many on the Left within other European States have already acted on left unity. In Germany the remnants of the Socialist Unity Party which became theParty of Democratic Socialism after the fall of the Berlin wall, has merged with members of the anti capitalist movement and the left wing of the SPD to create the Left Party, [Die Linke] similar Left mergers have also happened in Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey and a number of other European nations.

An umbrella organization has been formed by these organizations to represent them internationally, the European Left Party. [ELP] To date there is no affiliate to the ELP from Ireland, thus there is an opportunity if the membership wishes it for any left United Front Party that might emerge within Ireland to slot in as an affiliate to the ELP.****

* The same is true about the SF/DUP coalition at Stormont.

** http://lark.phoblacht.net/DMCB070707.html

*** http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest040707.htmprescient

**** http://www.european-left.org/news/latest_news/index_html
--

Ufuk Uras first 'Left Socialist' to return to the Turkish Parliament in 38 Years’

Mick Hall
EU.

Ufuk Uras, head of the Socialist Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP), who was elected to Parliament as an independent candidate from Istanbul's first electoral district, was certified officially as an MP on Thursday.

After registering as an MP, Mr Uras declared he is the first socialist deputy to be elected to the Turkish Parliament in 38 years, since deputies Behice Boran and Mehmet Ali Aybar of the Turkey Workers’ Party, (TİP) he added
“We socialists have broken our run of bad luck. In the period ahead we need to expand the support base of the left. In other words, we will work to fill the gap vacated by the Republican People's Party [CHP] leader Deniz Baykal on the left of Turkish politics, and to promote a restructuring of the left.”

Mr Uras expressed his belief that leftist deputies could make a serious difference; something he said would become conspicuous once Parliament convenes. “I am very positive about this Parliament. For the first time all colors of society are reflected in Parliament. For the first time we will have the opportunity to confront the fundamental questions of society. It is important to take permanent steps on issues such as the democratic and political solution of the Kurdish question. I think this Parliament is one that can take those steps and resolve concrete problems. We will form a will that does not create problems, but rather one that solves problems. You will see the results of having a socialist deputy in Parliament after 38 years. We will start showing the extent of what we have lost in the past 38 years.”

He said his electoral success was made possible by support from all the colors of the left, including the Alevi movement, the political Kurdish movement, the socialists and environmentalists. “We are thinking of formulating this model as one that is directed to Turkey as a whole.”
Uras did not specify whether he would join the parliamentary group of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), but he said he would be open to cooperation with the DTP, recalling that the party had supported him as an independent candidate.

It is clear from Ufuk Uras election along with that of the 26 independent candidates representing the Kurdish people and Movement that there has been a blossoming of democracy in Turkey that has not been seen for some time. Much of the credit for this must go to the AK Party leader and Prime Minister Recep Erdogan. For not only has his period in office gradually reinserted into the public consciousness that not all politicians are corrupt on the make shysters. It has also help create that half inch of space which does not normally exist under governments of the right, that allows politics, the arts and civil society to burst forth, create, grow and think the unthinkable.

Democratic Deficit at Heart of Turkish Democracy.

We who live in Democratic and open societies tend to take the electoral process for granted, people who within living memory have been at the sharp end of political violence and authoritarian government treat their Democratic Rights and responsibilities in a less cavalier fashion. For they understand only to well the true value of a democratic system, despite being perfectly aware of its shortcomings.

The Turkish people fall into this category; thus they take their democratic responsibilities very seriously, as they demonstrated on Sunday 23rd July, when approx 42 million of them voted in the Turkish General Election. The Western media had portrayed the election campaign as being the battle of the veil, a fight between the secular parties and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of outgoing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Not only was this analysis far to simplistic, but it totally misunderstands the type of political party the AK Party is, which is something I will return to in the coming weeks.

Whilst the Turkish Army Generals and most opposition parties claimed a vote for AKP was a vote for the introduction of Sharia Law at some time in the future. The Turkish people in their wisdom thought otherwise when they returned Mr Erdoğan and his party to government Office with an increased majority, with 46.3% of the vote which means they will have 340 seats in the new Grand Assembly. [Parliament]

Only two other parties managed to pass the 10% threshold which it is necessary to pass to enter Parliament, the Kemalist Republican Peoples Party (CHP) 20.68% --111 seats and the far right MHP 14.28%--71 seats.

What conclusions can one briefly draw from the outcome of this elections, firstly Neo-liberal economics in Turkey if not defeated has had some manners put on it. All of the Parties who will enter the new Parliament supported to one degree or another an extension of the Welfare State, especially health care, state education and infrastructure. Indeed those parties like ANAP- ANAVATAN who led the Neo-liberal charge in Turkey from the mid 1980s onwards and there recent incarnations the Democratic Party [DP] and Young Party failed to pass the threshold, gaining a miserable 8% of the vote between them. If you take into account that the predecessors of these parties ruled Turkey for much of the mid 1980s-90s and at times there members held both the Prime Ministership and Presidency then one gets an idea of the scale of their defeat.

Another welcome outcome of the 2007 election is that the pro Kurdish Democratic Society Party [DTP] will be represented in the new Parliament . Due to the inability of a minority party to pass the 10% threshold, the DTP leadership decided to stand as independent candidates who are not covered by this rule. They were extremely successful gaining 26 seats thus there will be a sizable DTP faction with the new Assembly.

In the south east of Turkey it was the DTP indies and the AK Party which swept the board. In the mainly Kurdish region of Diyarbakir all ten seats where shared equally between the AK Party and the DTP indies. Which should the incoming AK government find the courage, offer a means for them to enter into negotiations with the Kurds to bring the PKK insurrection to an end once and for all.

Whilst the independent lefts academic Baskim Oran failed to gain a seat, Ufuk Ufa the former leader of the Freedom and Solidarity Party [ODP] an alliance of socialist and libertarian organizations was more successful gaining a seat as an Indie in Istanbul. 46 women will sit as MPs in the new Parliament which is twice as many os the old Assemble.

On the down side there is little doubt this wave of independent candidates testifies to the democratic deficit at the heart of the Turkish electoral system, by this I mean the ten per cent threshold. The incoming parliamentarians and Government must act to reduce it to at the very least to 5%, as it is in many EU countries.

The Turkish Daily News pointed out that the centre right parties DP and GP jointly polled 8.39%, which is approx 1.9 million voters, equal to the population of Slovenia and means in reality that number of Turkish people have been all but disenfranchised. It is impossible not to conclude that despite the increasingly strong heart beat of Turkish democracy, this short fall is a national scandal which must be rectified at the earliest opportunity.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned to office.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party [AKP] claimed victory in Turkey's General Election, the party is expected to take 342 seats in the new Parliament, with the opposition centre left Republican People's Party taking about 20 percent of the vote, and the far right Nationalist Action Party gaining almost 15 percent. Independent candidates including those close to the Kurdish DTP look like getting between 20-25. The official count will not be made public by the electoral authorities until the 27 July.

European Greens Briefing Paper Claims CHP-MHP Coalition would spell Disaster

As the July 22 general elections draw ever closer, political groups in the European Parliament (EP) are assessing the different outcome scenarios of the election and the likely fallout. The Greens of the EP, who strongly support Turkey’s bid for European Union membership, believe a coalition between the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) would be disastrous in several ways.

In a briefing paper to the group seen by Today’s Zaman, the Greens argue that the worst possible outcome of the polls would be a CHP-MHP coalition, although it is underlined that many pundits see it unlikely. “In such an event, the political crisis would be total for a longer time span, not just in Turkey but also in relations with the EU,” says the briefing paper.

Dubbing the CHP a “state party,” the paper strongly criticizes its stance vis-à-vis Turkey’s fundamental problems. On the Kurdish issue, the CHP is accused of being under the control of the military. “Under the leadership of the military, the nationalists, the CHP and sections of the left see any demand, even merely to use the Kurdish language, as a first step towards separatism and making concessions to terror,” says the paper, while labeling the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), liberals and some leftist groups as the parties representing viable alternatives.

The paper criticizes the AK Party as well, on the grounds that it did not make itself clear in terms of its stance on Turkey’s secularism. “The AK Party, which unexpectedly came to shoulder governmental responsibility, had and still has a well-founded criticism of Turkey’s authoritarian secular system yet failed to develop any ideas on how it might be reformed once in power”.

The Greens underline that they are not happy with the EU approach towards Turkey’s accession process. “The EU now plays virtually no role in the ongoing election campaign. Or if it does, it is a purely negative role. The election of Sarkozy in France has merely reinforced this mood. It is virtually impossible to get optimistic views about the EU across since any comment made by European politicians, however well-intentioned, are invariably misinterpreted. Consequently, virtually all European politicians in favor of Turkish integration are staying well out of the election campaign: Hence the field is left almost entirely clear for opponents of Turkish membership whether in Turkey or EU,” says the paper.

20.07.2007, Zaman.

SELÇUK GÜLTAŞLI, BRUSSEL.

Latest Poll Points to Three Parties in the New Parliament

Recent poll suggests three parties in Parliament,
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will make it to Parliament after Sunday’s elections, according to a recent poll, plus approx 25 independents, including MPs who are close to the Kurdish Party the DTP.

The survey, conducted by the Genar Research and Consultancy Company, aimed to take the pulse of the people as the countdown begins to the big day.
According to the survey, conducted on 3,524 individuals over the age of 18 from 26 towns, the AK Party will get 39.8 percent of the vote, followed by the CHP at 21 percent and the MHP at 13.3 percent. The total percentage of the vote the independents will take is 7.7 percent, the survey suggested.

Some 12.6 percent said they were still undecided. A majority of respondents said the recent crisis in the presidential election -- where Parliament overwhelmingly voted for the AK Party nominee in the first round only for it to be canceled by a somewhat dubious Constitutional Court decision -- had worked in favor of the government party.

The findings of the poll showed that the number of votes on the left hadn’t increased overall. The pollsters said the polarization of society during the presidential election process had worked in favor of the CHP and the MHP as well. However, the report introducing the findings said the alliance of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the CHP had not really had a significant effect. “In light of all these evaluations, we can say that the CHP will remain the main opposition party,” it said.

The poll suggests that the MHP faces no risk of staying under the 10 percent threshold barrier as they did at the last general election.

Some 1.4 percent of respondents who said they would vote for the AK Party said they still had some reservations, followed by a 1.2 percent of such voters among CHP supporters and 2.1 percent for MHP supporters. Genar also calculated the possible seat situation in Parliament after the elections. The AK Party is expected to have at least 297 deputies, the CHP 125 and the MHP would have at least 75 deputies. There would be at least 25 independent deputies, the poll found.

The considerable sum of 80.1 percent of respondents said they would certainly vote in the elections, while only 6.2 percent said they were not going to vote.


19.07.2007

First published in the Turkish daily newspaper Zaman.

Professor Baskın Oran may be a first time candidate but determined to defend the rights of those who have been ignored or alienated - the Kurds, the Alevis, the gypsies, the gays among others. The first-time candidate is adamant about being a powerful voice in Parliament but expresses himself surprised at how many people are now supporting his campaign

GÜL DEMİR and NIKI GAMM
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

  An academic who postponed retirement to stand for a seat in Parliament, Baskın Oran has begun to capture the interest of the public in Istanbul as the national elections approach. Oran was catapulted to nationwide attention this year when he was accused of insulting Turkishness under controversial Article 301 that covers freedom of speech and expression. Until then Oran was not particularly well-known outside academic circles although he has published extensively on minorities, nationalism, foreign policy and globalization. He taught political science at Ankara University where he earned his credentials by being dismissed three times following the 1980 military coup. In short he had a normal academic career that one would expect of a leftist. Intellectuals who were left-leaning have embraced him completely and even more so after he formally declared his candidacy.

  Oran is running as an independent. The Constitution stipulates that parties must get 10 percent of all votes to get representation in Parliament. The goal of this regulation is to encourage the development of a stable government and a two-party system but it does not take into account the small political parties that might get less than 10 percent of the vote. These parties are barred from Parliament. However, this time some parties, and in particular the pro-Kurdish Democratic Social Party (DTP), decided they would encourage and support independents for whom there is no barrage limit. Their sympathies are known and which political party supports them. All in all an interesting concept and we will see how it works at election time.
  The DTP, a pro-Kurdish leftist party, has put its weight behind independent candidates and initially supported Oran. However, it then decided it would be better to support its own chairman in Istanbul. In Oran's case the years of lecturing on political science in the university and the many books and articles he has written tell in his favor. His interest in minority groups led him to chair the Prime Ministry's Minority and Cultural Rights Sub-Committee and its Human Rights Advisory Council. He prepared its report on minorities that turned out to be quite controversial, relating out briefly the history of the term “minority” in the Ottoman Empire and how this definition affected Turkey's relations with the outside world and especially the European Union. He proposed that the Turkish Constitution be rewritten on the basis of freedom, plurality and democracy for those who wanted to speak their own language and preserve their own culture.
A powerful voice, a citizen's duty:

  The suggestion that he run for Parliament came as a shock to him and his wife since they were planning on retiring to Bodrum where he would write books. It turned their lives upside down when he finally decided to run because he still sees himself as an academic rather than a politician. He has found however that his wife is one of his greatest supporters and offers him good advice on everything from clothing to voice tone. An attractive blonde, she is usually at his side during rallies and marches.

  The first-time candidate is adamant about being a powerful voice in Parliament but expresses himself surprised at how many people are now supporting his campaign. He also says he is going this not out of intellectual bravery but because he believes it is a citizen's duty. Referring to the independent candidates in the upcoming election, Oran attributes the fact that people have become more willing to run and to speak out to the effect of the changes made to harmonize Turkish legislation with that of the EU.

  Suddenly Baskın Oran has become one of the new names catching people's attention in a field where the same people run over and over again and get elected over and over again, where people keep their holds on the party they represent even after they have been defeated several times. The reference is to the Republic People's Party (CHP) In the west if a political party keeps losing, its leader resigns, but not in Turkey.
  People actually are tired of listening to people who have no real answers to offer and they are doubtful about voting for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) that has been in power with a comfortable majority since the last election in 2002. When asked why he had not joined any political parties, he openly said that he couldn't work with any of the parties in Parliament or with any of the current party chairman. He pointed out that the people don't choose the candidates, the party chairman does.

  Oran knows the prison and court system from his own experience but it has not damped down his sense of humor. A video on his life is filled with quiet humor. Academic career must be good for public speaking. Knows how to catch and hold people's attention. If you can keep a class of young 20s something interested, you can keep a crowd of interested people at attention.

  This man with short gray hair, gray beard and moustache and glasses has given a different air to the election in Istanbul Second District: Beyoğlu, Beşiktaş, Alibeyköy and Sarıyer. His people fan out from a small office in Beyoğlu and have a small stand on İstiklal Street outside the Benetton store where they hand out pamphlets. But he has also embraced the Internet with zest and his website includes everything from a video biography and the more traditional curriculum vitae, his schedule, what the media has said about him, selections from his writings including the “Minority Report” and matters of interest.
  
What others think:
  Oran has the support of writer, Yaşar Kemal, who has already said that he will vote for him, noting that in previous elections he did not really have a good answer but now he felt he did. Author Adalet Ağaoğlu is not only going to vote for Oran but she is busy recruiting others to vote for him as well.
  Writer Mehmed Uzun of Kurdish origin tells of how very happy he is to know that the Kurds can participate in the election through independent candidates. He went on to describe Oran and Mehmet Ufuk Uras as the voice of Turkey.
  Emine Uşaklıgıl is a member of the Baskin Oran electoral campaign. He sees Oran's getting into Parliament as an opportunity for Turkey. “He is intent on protecting human rights, rule of law and democracy and developing these. Oran is preparing to be the voice of all of us in Parliament.” She stresses, however, that he needs money for his campaign and, of course, votes.
  David Tonge is the managing director of IBS Research & Consultancy and a former Financial Times journalist. He says of Oran: “His scientific output is impressive for its range and for his willingness to lift the veil on those awkward corners of modern Turkish history, the use and abuse of nationalism in state building in Turkey, the treatment of minorities in Turkey and their property, the Kurds, and what he calls the two taboos, Cyprus and the ‘Last Taboo,' the problems of Turkish public opinion on the ‘Armenian Issue.'”

  Regarding Oran's candidacy, Radikal writer Neşe Düzel says that it is a protest against today's political structures because in his own words he sees himself as “a spokesman for those who have been alienated, rejected, restricted, silenced, pained, had their self-confidence destroyed, or been threatened by the paranoia that Turkey will be broken up as by the Treaty of Sevres. Alevis, Kurds, minorities, gypsies, women, the young, girls who cannot enter universities with head scarves, workers, those not represented by unions, unemployed, homosexuals, transvestites, the starving, the handicapped, environmentalists. All these seek to raise their voice through e-mail groups and meetings. It is important that their voices are heard in the Assembly.”
  So if Baskın Oran wins a seat in Parliament this month, the public can certainly be sure that he will bring fresh life to that August governing body.

The Main Left-wing Political Party’s contesting the 2007 Turkish General Election

The Main Left-wing Political Party’s contesting the 2007 Turkish General Election


It is a fact of the 2007 Turkish General Election that there are few left wing political party’s that have a viable hope of passing the 10% threshold which all parties must acquire to gain entrance to Parliament. The only party which is regarded by some to be on the left which is certain to pass the threshold is the CHP, which has entered into an electoral coalition with the Left Party. This CHP/DSP coalition looks likely to attract left-wing voters who, were there a viable alternative would not normally vote for CHP. There is little doubt the fact that there is no other serious left-wing alternative and that the CHP remains the only secular center-left challenger to the AK Party may well increase the votes it attains.

The Republican People's Party [Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi or CHP]
http://www.chp.org.tr/

The Republican People's Party [CHP] was established in 1923 by the founder of the Turkish Republic General Mustafa Kemal [aka Ataturk] and his closest comrades. For decades the Party ruled Turkey without parliamentary opposition. It is only since the late 1980s that it has had to operated in a multi party democracy for any length of time, as whenever democracy has been restored on previous occasions the Military stepped in after a comparatively short period of time.
Thus until very recently it was the party of choice for the Turkish establishment. This history has had a corrupting effect on the party who came to believe it ruled by divine right due to the status of Ataturk within the Turkish Republic. It regards itself as being a social democratic party and indeed to the chagrin of a number of its affiliates,the CHP is affiliated to the Second Socialist International to which most of the world’s Social Democratic Parties belong, including the UK and Irish LP, the SDLP and the mighty German SPD.

With the rise of a new middle class within the Anatolian heartlands the CHP has seen its power base within the business elite chipped away by newly emerging parties of the center and right, especially Ozal’s ANAP and now the AK Party of Erdogan is become the party of choice for the newly enriched upwardly mobile members of the Anatolian middle classes.
However the CHP can still regard the military leadership and its NCO’s as its bedrock and jointly they have organized the mass demonstrations in favor of secularism that have recently taken place in Turkeys largest cities, after PM Erdogan attempted to slot his Deputy Abdullah Gül into the Presidency. Whether the CHP will maintain the support of the military when the sons of the newly enriched middle classes move through the ranks is another matter, although they probably will as few of the offspring of the new bourgeoisie choose a military career, preferring to follow their fathers into business or the professions.

The Democratic Left Party [Demokratik Sol Parti, DSP]
http://www.dsp.org.tr/MEP/

The Democratic Left Party was founded by former Prime Minister and one time leader of the CHP Bülent Ecevit and his wife Rahşan Ecevit in 1985. It continued as a minor party unable to pass the 10% barrier, until it won 76 parliamentary seats in the December 1995 general election.

In 1998, the 55th government of Turkey was toppled and Ecevit received the mandate to form a new government. He founded a minority government of the DSP until general elections were called. During this period the leader of the PKK Abdullah Ocalan was captured by military intelligence. Thus the DSP managed to win 22,19% of the votes in the general election of April 1999 and it's leader Bülent Ecevit became for the fifth time the Prime Minister of Turkey. The party is currently led by Zeki Sezer whom Ecevit regarded as his heir; and its platform is not dissimilar to the CHP and would be recognized by right wing social democrats the world over.

Democratic Society Party [Demokratik Toplum Partisi - DTP]

The party was founded in 2005 out of political necessity after the Turkish Constitutional Court had banned its forerunners DEHAP and DEHEP for spurious reasons. The DTP was established by the veteran Kurdish politicians and former Parliamentary Deputies Leyla Zana, Orhan Doğan, Hatip Dicle and Selim Sadak upon their release from prison in 2004. Since its inception, the party and its leaders have faced legal problems as opponents of Kurdish autonomy are once again claiming the party has ties to the Kurdish separatist movement the PKK.

Whilst the DT party governs countless towns and villages in south Eastern Turkey, including large Cities like Diyarbakir, they have been unable to pass the 10% threshold since it was introduced to deny them access to the Grand Assembly. Thus in the 2007 election the DT party has decided to support a raft of independent Kurdish candidate through out the Kurdish region, who do not have to abide by the 10% rule, a number of whom may well be elected on the 22nd of July. If so this will mean that Kurds will be represented under their own banner in the new parliament for the first time in a decade and more.
The STP program calls for more autonomy for Kurds within the Turkish State and could be supported by European left reformist social democrats.

To conclude, there are other small left wing parties standing in the 2007 election, but due to time and space and the fact that none of them have a hope of gaining entrance to parliament due to the 10 % bar, I will have to return to them at a later date.*

* Additional information was gained from this site. http://eng.sandik.org/

More on the Turkish General Election

Below is a brief history of the main political Parties who are standing candidates in the 22nd July Turkish general election, today I will deal with the Right-wing Parties.

The Nationalist Movement Party (also translated as 'Nationalist Action Party') (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP)
http://www.mhp.org.tr/

Founded by Alparslan Türkeş in 1965, The party is on the far right of Turkish nationalism bordering on Fascism. Under Türkeş leadership, the MHP’s para military wing the Grey Wolves were responsible for the assassinations of opposition left wing politicians, students and others which convulsed Turkish society in the 1970’s, often in collusion with the Turkish Secret State which is made of the security services, criminal elements and military intelligence.
Its current leader Devlet Bahçeli the MHP has tried to reposition the MHP as a moderate right-wing party and a possibly coalition partner. Strange as it may seem, whilst its para military wing spent the 1960- 70 murdering leftists, after the 1999 election it became part of a coalition government that was led by veteran leftist politician Bülent Ecevit, who in the 1970s was the number one target of the Grey Wolves, such is the idiosyncrasies of Turkish politics.

True Path Party (Doğru Yol Partisi or DYP)
http://www.dyp.org.tr/

A right wing secular conservative party in the US or UK mould, created out of the remnants of Adnan Menderes* Democratic Party which was banned in the military coup of 1960. The party was founded by DP veteran Suleyman Demirel in 1983 but was quickly banned by the military government only to emerge freely in 1987.
Demirel became Prime minister in 1991 to be replaced by Turkey first woman PM Tansu Ciller after Demirel became President. Cillers period in office was known for its corruption, whilst not as blatant of one of her predecessors Turgut Ozal, it was pretty blatant and was one of the reasons why many on the centre right turned to Erdogans AK Party in later years..

The Motherland Party of Turkey, (ANAP)
http://www.anap.org.tr/
Founded in 1983 by Turgut Özal, a favorite of the leader of the 1980 military coup General Kenan Evren, ANAP was a for runner of neo-liberal economics which have been such a disaster in much of the Third world. Özal believed the state should be totally restricted as to the role it should play; and “it should favor private capital and enterprise, and which allows for some public expressions of religion”. Under Özal the Turkish economy boomed for a while before over heating, becoming a free for all with winner takes all, and inflation hit the roof whilst the Turkish currency fell through the floor. Ozal’s watch words were enrich yourselves and make no mistake he was first in the Queue with his brother acting as bagman.
In early 2007, ANAP made an attempt to unite with the True Path Party under the name of Democratic Party. [Democrat Parti.] However so far this has come to nothing due to legal wrangling and personality clashes and both parties will be contested this election under their old names.

The Justice and Development Party [Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AK Party]
http://www.akparti.org.tr/

The AK Party comes from a line of Turkish Islamic political party’s that have come and gone since the foundation of the Republic. Its immediate for-runner the Welfare Party was broken up by the military for allegedly threatening the secular nature of the State. A faction of reformist members within the old Welfare Party formed the Justice and Development Party in 2001 with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had become Mayor of Istanbul in 1994 as leader.
Erdoğan was a popular Mayor and even his opponents regarded him as an effective administrator. As the mayor of Turkey’s largest city, he become one of Turkey's most admired politicians. He worked hard building up Istanbul's in-frastructure and transportation systems, whilst beautifying the city. It has to be said AK Party mayors throughout the country have followed his example and many of Turkey cities, towns and villages are unrecognizable from the chaotic places they were prior to the AK party taking power. Unlike many of his predecessors as PM, Erdoğan is not personally corrupt nor is his party known for corrupt practice; and it is this fact that has made his Party an attractive choice at the ballot box for people of both the right and left. The worst his critics could claim about his period as Mayor of Istanbul, was that he stopped the Council owned ferries that ply their trade on the Bosporus from selling alcohol in their refreshment bars.
The AK Party is in the mould of European Christian Democratic parties, it believes in a free market but also a welfare state, including a version of free health care at point of need. The party is well organized at ground level and has a very effective election fighting machine, more often than not made up of women party activists who target voters methodically.

That concludes the main parties of the right who are contesting the election, tomorrow we will look at the Left. I would just add if one looks at the sheer greed and avarice of two if not three of the political parties I have mentioned above. One can see both why the Generals become exasperated with some of the nations political leaders and why as I have already mentioned many voters from both the left and right are prepared to give the AK Party a chance.

* Menderes was later hanged on the orders of the military.

Ali Hassan al-Majid al-Tikriti followed Winston Churchill's Example.

Some may prefer not to see to the link between the vital need for a
Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the north of Ireland; and Mr
Ali Hassan al-Majid al-Tikriti, a senior military commander and one
time Defense Minister in Saddam Hussein brutal Ba'ath Party
dictatorship; but if one probes a little deeper, the link becomes
clear and we ignore it at our peril. Ali Hassan al-Majid al-Tikriti
became infamous in the 1980s-90s due to the leading role he played in
the Iraqi government's program of mass deportations and killings of
its Kurdish and Shiite population.

He was captured by the US Army shortly after their invasion of Iraq in
2003; and like his master before him, he was sentenced to hang after
what amounted to a less than perfect trial for his role in the regimes
al- Anfal campaign of the 1980s. Dubbed "Chemical Ali" by the Western
media after he authorized and over-saw the use of chemical weapons to
attack the Iraqi Kurds, which culminated in the notorious attack on
the Kurdish town of Halabja, in which over 5,000 people were gassed to
death.

However, Saddam and his instrument al-Majid al-Tikriti were not the
first to use poison gas against the Iraqi Kurds, for Winston Churchill
can claim this dubious honor. As Minister of War and Air (1919-20) and
Colonial Secretary (1921-22) Churchill was partially responsible for
the British Mandate of Mesopotamia.[Iraq] When faced with an
insurrection which started in the Kurdish north and threatened to
ignite the whole country, Chruchill decided to crush the Rising and cower the
population by using the British Royal Air Force. After taking advice
from his military advisors such as Wing Commander J A Chamier, who
suggested that the best way to demoralize local people was to
concentrate bombing on the "most inaccessible village of the most
prominent tribe which it is desired to punish. All available aircraft
must be collected, the attack with bombs and machine guns must be
relentless and unremitting and carried on continuously by day and
night, on houses, inhabitants, crops and cattle."

The officer in charge of putting this cruel strategy into practice,
Squadron Leader [bomber]Harris reported after several such raids, "The
Arab and Kurd now know what real bombing means, within 45 minutes a
full-sized village can be practically wiped
out, and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured, by four or five
machines which offer them no real target, no opportunity for glory as
warriors, no effective means of escape."

Whilst Chamier and his political boss Churchill never said so publicly
at the time, it
soon leaked out that the armaments that were used to crush the
uprising, included special ammunition, i.e. chemical weapons. Although
at the time there was a minor public outcry within the UK and the west
over the use of these chemical weapons in Mesopotamia [Iraq], it
failed to gain momentum and there was never any proper enquiry into
what amounted to a fragrant violation of international law. However
within Iraq where the effects had been dire, knowledge of this crime
was passed down through generations and the likes of Saddam and
al-Majid al-Tikriti must have reflected on the western attitudes to
the use of chemical weapons in 1920s Iraq. For the latter was heard to
say in a tape played at his trial, "I will kill them all with chemical
weapons! Who is going to say anything."

Thus he was clear in his mind that he, like the British military and
political leaders before him would never be brought to book for his
genocidal gas attack on the Kurdish people. He was partially correct
in this as he was never tried for the attack on Halabja; and as he
walks to the gallows perhaps he will reflect on the injustice that
sends him to his doom and leaves Churchill and Harris as heros in
their own land.

And there's the link between the wretched Ali Hassan al-Majid
al-Tikriti and the demand for a T@RC, for if those who inflicted
painful deaths on Iraqi Kurd by gassing them with chemical weapons in
1920's Mesopotamia had been brought before a court of law, or at the
very least driven from Public Office. The likes of Saddam's henchman
may well have thought of the consequences before he did his masters
bidding. Whereas what actually occurred was that this example of the
UK governments collusion in criminality was quickly and decisively
swept under the governmental carpet to be buried deep in the faults of
the UK Secret State. Until
that is some future satrap dusted it down and repeated
the obscene outrage.

Whose to say that at this very time members of the British Army's
Intelligence Regiment, or the Security Services are not colluding with
Iraqi criminal elements to murder the UK state's enemies in Iraq, much
as they did in the Six
Counties during the 'long war'. All of us who shudder at the thought
of history repeating
itself, must support the call for a six counties/NI Truth and
Reconciliation Commission*

* This article was first published on The Blanket. http://lark.phoblacht.net/MH070707.html--
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Poll Claims Turkish Minority Groups Moving Towards AK Party

As few within the UK and Ireland seem to be covering the Turkish General Election which takes place on 22nd July, I thought I would offer the odd piece on this subject to readers of Organized Rage. We are now into the meat of the campaign and it looks like the AK Party will gain enough votes to continue in office. A couple of interesting things that have arisen in recent days is that two of Turkey,s main minorities groups, the Kurds and Armenians look like voting for the AK Party of Prime Minister Erdogan in considerable numbers.[Justice and Development Party (AKP).]

The problem smaller parties have in Turkey is they must gain 10% over all to gain entrance to Parliament. In the mainly Kurdish city and provinces of Diyarbakır, the AK party is expected to win at least as many seats as the latest incarnation of the Kurdish movement, the Democratic Society Party (DTP). While the composition of the population in this area is predominantly Kurdish, the AK Party has become the first truly national party to draw away support from the Kurdish movements in decades. It increased its support in the region from 15 percent in 2002, to 30 percent in 2004 and is expected to increase it even further this time around.

In order to bypass the 10-percent election threshold which works against the best interest of minority groups, several of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party executives resigned and are running as independent candidates. It seems likely that the four independent candidates backed by the DTP are sure to get elected, the challenge facing the party is the fact that a significant part of their electorate cannot read or write in Turkish and will find it hard to locate the name of the candidates on the two-meter-long ballot paper. Unlike other provinces in the region, Diyarbakır is not dominated by the feudal clan structure (Aşiret) due to the hundreds of thousands of displaced villagers moving into the province during the 1990s conflict between the army and PKK. Consequently, the main issues that will dominate are ethnicity, in favor of the DTP, and religion which will favor the conservative political islam of the AK Party.

In Istanbul where a majority of Turkish Armenians live, the Prime Minster and leader of AK Party Recep Tayyip Erdogan since coming into office has been assiduously courting the Patriarch Mesrob II, head of the Armenian church in Istanbul and Turkey. He has even offered close associate’s of the Patriarch places on the AK Party 2007 candidates list, thus guaranteeing that some of them will be elected to the next parliament.

The Glorious Twelfth

I thought I would post up Ms Fitz photos of the Unionists in the north celebrating the 12th of July, what is great about these pics is there is not a sight of a flying bottle or stone or a Peeler dressed in riot gear. For once the participants are entitled to call their celebrations The Glorious Twelfth.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/missfitz/781308638/in/set-72157600769506532/

One Village Boycotts Politicians, Another Elections Altogether

Turkey is currently in the midst of a general election campaign, as elsewhere many Turks get pretty fed up with the promises politicians make to gain their votes, only to disappear to the Capital once elected never to be seen again until the next election. The article below is an example of how the people of two villages are expressing their frustration.

One village boycotts politicians, another elections altogether,
Amid all sorts of promises made by political parties to garner votes, there are still some villages in the country that to this day have no running water forcing inhabitants to migrate

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

As election campaigning gathers speed across the country, general disillusionment with politics is prompting certain small communities to shut themselves off from the debates entirely.

The villagers of Akyar in the southern province of Osmaniye have announced their intention to boycott the parliamentary elections on July 22, reacting to the failure of successive governments to build roads, provide medical facilities and collect garbage.

With a population of 1,400, Akyar is just five kilometers from Osmaniye city center but does not enjoy the amenities usually associated with being so close to urban hubs.

A pharmacist's assistant Cemil Utku told the Doğan news agency that they were forced to burn their garbage because no one came to collect it. “Villages farther away from Umraniye got roads. We will vote for no party until our problems are solved,” he said.



‘Politicians not allowed'

Meanwhile, a village in the eastern province of Van is taking more dramatic action in response to the state's failure to provide them with services: They are banning politicians from entering the village.

The muhtar – local administrator – of Kuşdağı, İbrahim Erdoğan, told the DHA that they have been carrying water to their homes with donkeys or on their back for the past 80 years. “No one can deceive us anymore. We will not allow any politician to enter our village,” he said.

While most of the villagers have migrated elsewhere because of the water problem, those left behind do not want to hear any more empty promises.

They put up a sign at the entrance of the village that reads, “No politicians should enter.” Villagers are furious with politicians, who they accuse of making promises with no intention of keeping them.

Women and children wait for hours in front of the village well. Erdoğan said that fresh water supplies for the entire province came from their region, while the people of Kuşdağı had to migrate due to lack of water in their own houses. “We still don't have water in our homes in this day and age,” he lamented.

He said their only hope was the Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt. “Maybe he'll help us. Our people did not migrate because of economic difficulties or terrorism. The only reason is lack of water. When there is no water, there is no life,” he said.

Osman Bekleyen from the Doğan news agency contributed to this reports.

Targeting Journalists as if they were Combatants

The news from Gaza that the BBC journalist Alan Johnson has been freed is long overdue and most welcome. Now Mr Johnson is free, it is worth analyzing just how journalists working within a conflict zone, have gone from non combatant status to become regarded by [some] governments and insurgents alike as legitimate targets.

Targeting journalists as if they were combatants and thus legitimate targets is a comparatively new phenomenon, covering wars and insurgencies has always been a dangerous business for the reporters involved, but bar the odd unstable or vengeful combatant, the actual targeting of journalists as part of an over all military strategy was almost unheard of until the late 20th Century. Many people believe that a sea changed occurred when Tony Blair justified the decision to send Nato war planes to bomb Serbia’s State run TV station in 1999, which resulted in the death and injury of many of the stations employees. At the time, international organizations that represented journalists were quick to realize the dangers of such a strategy and publicly condemned both the Nato bombing and Blairs statement that followed it. As they understood only to clearly the decision to attack the Belgrade TV station all but sanctioned in war time attacks on critical media outlets and by so doing made journalists legitimate targets. *

Later in the same year the Russian President Putin sent his armed forces into Chechnya to brutally suppress that countries independence and in the process a number of his critics in the Russian media met brutal deaths. The most recent being Anna Politkovskaya, whose death many people believe can be laid at President Putin’s and his security service goons door.

The US administration of G.W.Bush was next to break the taboo that in a war zone journalists must be regarded as non combatants. When a US war plane dropped a 500 pound bomb on the Kabul offices of the Arab satellite TV station al-Jazeera just prior to the fall of the Afghan Talaban government. Approximately two years later during the US led invasion of Iraq, on March 8 2003 a US missile hit the Baghdad Office of the same TV station killing one reporter and wounding a staffer.**

Thus the agenda having been set by the worlds political princes; and working on the pretext of what the big boys did yesterday the minnows do today. We can see how the disastrous decisions by Bush, Putin and Blair to target in war time critical sections of the media, has been replicated further down the political food chain.

When you add in the Wahabi sectarian creed of islam, which boils down to if you are not with us you are our enemies and less than human at that, you have a recipe for disaster and darkness. For if independent minded journalists are unable to report freely from the worlds trouble spots how can we in the west possible keep track of what our governments do in our name overseas.

If we look at Iraq alone we get an idea of just how dangerous reporting from a conflict zone has become, according to the web site Reporters without Borders,*** between March 2003 and 20 March 2006 191 journalists and media assistants were killed in that brutalized nation. At first the insurgents concentrated on terrorizing western journalist off the streets, eventually making it impossible if not foolhardy for them to do their jobs. All they could do was report from the safety of their hotels or the green zone whilst blood flowed in the Bagdad streets.. To combat this loss of copy, much of the western media started using Iraqi journalists or other arab nationals. If one looks at the names of the majority of those who are on the Reporters without Borders death list, it is clear that being an Iraqi or Arab national is no guarantee at all against the Death Squads.

The end result of this murderous mayhem is that at a time when the US and British forces of occupation in Iraq need to be scrutinized in fine detail, there are few on the ground who are capable or willing to do this vital task. As Fallujah showed, US and Iraqi security forces have been given a free reign to carry out search and destroy mission knowing full well their handy-work will not be reported by the worlds media; and in truth the US/UK tax payer just does not know exactly what their tax pounds/dollars are paying for, nor how many innocent Iraqi people have had their lives stolen at their expense..

The opposition to America’s involvement in Vietnam built to a crescendo due to the blanket coverage the US media gave to that foolish military adventure. It became clear during the invasion of Iraq that the US military intended to learn the lessons of Vietnam by keeping the media on a very tight leash, However they themselves must have been surprised that organizations like Al-Qaeda in Iraq did their bidding for them. For by video taping their leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi hacking the heads off his terrified and helpless victims he could not but be terrorizing western reporters off the streets and back to gaining their information solely via official US briefings. Whether Zarqawi was a CIA renegade or just another muslim who took the Wahabi creed quite literally we do not know, but we do know that media coverage is one of the few powerful weapons in the arsenal of those suffering under occupation or oppression. Thus it makes no sense for those fighting to end the occupation to destroy the freedom of the press. For in many ways the western media despite all its shortcomings, is the Palestinian and Iraqi peoples best friend, for at its best it is a window through which the world can witness their suffering and the often appalling lives they are forced to endure due to the occupations of their lands.

For when the media has unrestricted access to the worlds trouble spots, no one, whether politician, solder, insurgent or citizen can turn around and say with an honest heart, as millions of people did about the Holocaust, I didn't know.


* http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,2763,206975,00.html

** http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2927527.stm

*** http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=20

Interesting Statement from Hamas Condemning recent UK Terror Attacks

Below is an interesting statement from Khalid Mish'al, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic political organization Hamas, which condemns the recent terror attacks in the UK. I hope the new UK government, unlike its predecessor will be able to see the differences between the various islamic political organizations instead of grouping them together under a single Al-Qaeda like 'war on terror' banner.


Hamas' Statement

TOGETHER with all freedom loving peoples, we in the Islamic Resistance
Movement, Hamas, shared the moment of sheer joy yesterday when Alan
Johnston
stepped out of the darkness of captivity into the light of freedom.

We pay tribute to the stoic dignity with which the BBC correspondent
in Gaza
bore his ordeal. We commend the patience and faith of his parents and all
the British, Palestinian and other people around the world who campaigned
and prayed for his release. From the outset, we committed ourselves to
securing his release. I entered into discussions with British officials,
shared information and gave assurances of our concerted efforts to secure
Alan's release.

The Palestinian people have been struggling for their freedom for
almost a
century. In our own land we have been denied basic human rights by an
occupier that has enjoyed, under various spurious guises, international
support. As Alan Johnston returns home, we hope that the British, and
people
the world over, reflect on the fact that more than 12,000 Palestinians
are
languishing in Israeli jails, unjustly denied their freedom. They include
ministers of a democratically elected government, parliamentarians, women
and even children.

Like Alan, they all have loved ones who long to see them again. Many of
these hapless captives are their families' breadwinners. But the reality
today in occupied Palestine is that there is no bread to win because the
international community has imposed comprehensive sanctions on the
Palestinians, denying them even the most basic necessities for
survival. All
of this is done to coerce us into accepting the occupier's terms.

Nowhere can a free people be made to surrender their historical and
national
rights. Accordingly, Palestinians will continue to make every sacrifice
until we gain our freedom. In that endeavour, we are ready to work
with all
who wish to pursue our people's just aims. We look to Britain's new prime
minister, Gordon Brown, to begin a constructive new chapter in our
relationship.

Many in the international community warned that the imposition of
sanctions
would undermine security and bring chaos to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Their warnings were ignored. The kidnap and 114-day-long captivity of
Alan
Johnston took place within a dysfunctional environment imposed from
beyond
Palestinian borders.

Is it not absurd that a duly elected and constituted government should be
denied the authority, by external and internal forces, to control its
security services? Is it not bizarre, is it not scandalous, that a
national
security force should itself become a mechanism for the spread of
disorder?
Where else in the world today would an elected prime minister find that
persistent assassination attempts were allowed to pass without any
security
measures taken? Where else would the known would-be assassins be
allowed to
walk free? Where else would assailants and racketeers be given the
licence
to attack at will? It is to address such chaos in Gaza that Hamas was
compelled to take charge.

It is in this context that we condemn the attempted attacks in London and
Glasgow — as we have done in the past after attacks in Spain and the
US. We
could not be clearer: Hamas will not accept nor tolerate anyone
exploiting
the sacred cause of the Palestinian people to commit acts of murder and
carnage around the world. Our strategy has always been and remains firmly
based on the principle that the resistance should be fought only within
Palestine.

We appreciate and commend the support given to our cause by international
civic society, and hope that support will continue in the pursuit of
justice
and freedom for the people of Palestine. *

* Khalid Mish'al is head of the Hamas political bureau

A Promise of Gravy Tomorrow.

The Irish Green Party has taken a considerable battering in the media
after it became public knowledge that the outgoing Fianna Fail
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, prior to leaving office,
signed an order that brought about a resumption of work on the M3
Motorway near the Hill of Tara. The incoming Green Party Minister of
the Environment John Gormley, on learning of this made a statement to
the media that he was unaware of Mr Roche's decision prior to taking
Office and he was unable to rescind it due to the manner in which the
decision was made.

The furore that exploded after Gormley's comments and the Green Party
leaderships response to it has raised a number of interesting
questions about exactly what the Green Party hoped to gain by
entering into a coalition with FF and the PD's and whether it is not
time that the smaller radical political parties reassessed their
raison d'être for existing and putting themselves before the
electorate..

Having acquiesced to members of their party entering the Fianna Fail
led coalition government, the Green Party membership has now had the
time to read the detail of the deal that their leadership struck with
FF. It has to be said many party members were astonished at the lack
of hard policy agreements between the two parties and have demanded an
explanation from there leadership as to the advantages of the deal for
not only the Green Party but the environment in general. The members
having pointed out there was almost nothing in the deal about the
fight for social justice and the war on poverty beyond vague promises.
The same is true of what is a central tenet of the Green movement
internationally, opposition to the US/UK occupation of Iraq and their
so called 'War on Terror'.

If we add the absence of these main planks of the Green Party
platform with the M3-Hill of Tara fiasco, what are the Greens
left with to justify becoming the mud guard for FF's reactionary
polices. The justification for joining the coalition which the party
leadership has given privately to trusted members, in many ways negates
the need for an independent Green Party, as it boils down to "better us
than the PDs heading the Environment Ministry." Which one cannot but
find dispiriting as it is not that different to the reasoning behind
Bertie Ahearn decision to ask the Greens to join his government, only
he saw it as "better they piss out of the tent than in." If one takes
this justification by Bertie at face value, the advantages for him are pretty obvious.
For as well as getting the necessary parliamentary arithmetic, as members of the FF led coalition, it is difficult to see how the Greens can engage in extra-parliamentary activities if they conflict with the polices
of the FF led government, for example over the M3 or Shannon airport.

On hearing this justification for entering a coalition with FF, many
rank and file GP members must have been wondering what they had been
doing all those years building an independent radical Green Party.
When if the aforementioned argument holds water they could have taken
their green politics into Fianna Fail and formed a
green faction within it, in the hope of gaining ministerial seats.

However it is difficult not to conclude that the Green Party Ministers are
displaying a great deal of naivety if they believe all it takes to
implement progressive policies is a Ministerial Chair. One only has to
read Tony Benn's Diaries about his experience as a Cabinet Minister in
a UK Government or to have watched the TV comedy Yes Minister, to
understand that an individual Minister's freedom of action is far more
limited than many people realize.

True if the Minister and the Taoiseach's politics and strategy mirror
one and another, then the Minister is pushing at an open door when it
comes to getting policies onto the statute book.[As was the case with
the PD's in the last government] But if not; and the Ministers program
conflicts with the Taoiseach, then the senior civil servants and the
political establishment will stall and hinder the Minister at
every turn. Until the Minister in questions head-spins and the
Taoiseach finds a way to either transfer them to another department or
remove them from Office entirely.

As things stand today, almost all the smaller parties within the south
of Ireland appear to lack real political ambition; and are only too willing
to become the mudguard if not lick-spital of the old, tired and failed
civil war Parties. Even Sinn Fein succumbed to this disease in the
lead in to the 2007 general election, when Gerry Adams and other party
leaders went around the country telling all who would listen that they
were ready and willing to serve in a Fianna Fail led coalition; and
this before they had a clue what demands Bertie Ahearn would make of
them.

Perhaps it is time that political party's like Sinn Fein, the Greens,
the Socialist Party, and possibly even the Labour Party along with
organizations like the Workers Party and éirígí, decided exactly what
their function is within the current system and who their main
political enemies are. Is their purpose to gain a share of political
power at all costs, or is it somewhat different from Irelands two main
parties Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael.

Historically radical left parties represented the working classes and those progressive
elements that exist within the middle classes. Within some European countries this
enabled them to gain enough votes to govern in their own right.
However with the diminishing numbers of the industrial working class
this is less certain these day. Yet if radical left political parties
are to earn their keep they must remain as a bulwark against the
exploitation of the economically poor whilst linking this with the
best interest of the broader mass of working people.

This cannot be done by rushing into coalition with reactionary parties
who represent the middle class at the expense of the aforementioned
30% plus of the population. Yes enter into a coalition if a program of
progressive legislation can be agreed upon by being set in stone.
However the lesson from the FF-Green Party deal reveals that as far as
FF was concerned such a deal was never on the table; and all Ahearn
was prepared to offer up to the Greens was a promise of gravy
tomorrow, which given his track record amounted to now't.

History teaches us that numerically small radical left parties can
grow and gain electoral support if they apply the correct political
strategy, to understand this one only has to look back before the days
when SF became happy clappey with Bill Clinton and the US green
capitalists, when SF were proud to proclaim they combined their
electoral campaigning with extra parliamentary activities. If we add
in the Green Pary, Socialist Party and the Workers Party as it was, it
was through this type of duel political activities that all four
parties built their core support base that enabled them to gain a toe
hold in Dáil Éireann.

There can be little doubt that as far as SF is concerned, the Party's neglect
of this duel strategy, partially led to their poor results in the 2007 general election,
especially in the Dublin area.

Even so a return to the aforementioned duel strategy alone will not
increase the lefts electoral support beyond a certain level, not least
because as far as electoral politics is concerned, the Left works
against the best interest of one and another by standing candidates
against each other in constituencies where a single left candidate
could well gain a seat. When it comes to campaigning against the
use of Shannon by the US Security Forces on their way to Iraq etc, the
environment and climate change, the war on poverty, anti racism and
countless other vital issues, the various left parties have hardly a
smidgin of difference between them. But when it comes to electoral
work they become mortal enemies and allow the bosses men home.

If ever there were a time for the left to cease being an also ran in
Irish politics; and attempted to create a common front from which they
could emerge as a force in there own right it is today. With the march
of neo-liberal global capitalism creating the largest gap between the
economically rich and poor the planet has ever experienced, the times
cry out for Left Unity, either via a loose electoral coalition or a
United Front..
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