So anyway, the election and stuff.
Yeah, the campaign seems to have went well. Clare’s profile has definitely increased from last time around. Anyone who keeps abreast of politics in Dublin North, knows that Clare’s record is head and shoulders above the rest. Not everyone does though. There-in lies one of the problems of the type of “democracy” we have.
For most people it seems, politics is something that happens elsewhere. It is not of interest to them. It is boring. This type of alienation is beneficial for the main parties. If the majority only tune into to politics for the couple of days before an election, they can say more or less what they want and enough people will buy it to put them in the Dail. Of course with the main parties having huge financial resources, the smaller parties, particular the left have to work ten times as hard to get noticed.
The reason Clare Daly and Joe higgins have such high profiles is because they have been campaigning alongside communities on the issues that effect the lives of ordinary working people. They’ve been out there getting their hands dirty and people know this. However there are candidates running in this election who have absolutely no record of anything political and some of them will be elected because of the money their parties can put into their campaigns.
Those people who think politics happens elsewhere should realise that everything around them is political. If you live in an estate with no amenities for miles around, this is down to a planning decision made in your local council chamber and is therefore a political decision. The fact that the main parties receive megabucks in donations from the building industry illustrates whose interests they represent.
One thing I have noticed on this election however is that a growing number of people are coming to realise that politics effects them. They are beginning to support people like the Socialist Party. It is only a matter of time before some of these become actively involved in politics through community campaigns. Some of those will join the Socialist Party and other left groups. Others will join those forces in constructing some sort of broader formation. This will provide the basis of a fight back against the neo-liberal policies that are so detrimental to quality of life in modern Ireland. As the neo-liberal attacks increase, more and more people will become involved in political activism. To use the Marxist terminology, “quantity will turn into quality”. Then the parties who stand for nothing but the interests of big business will be laid bare. When that happens, the neo-liberal establishment will find itself in stormy waters.
