A Century of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael!

We’re now just a few days out from General Election 2024 and, as expected, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, who’ve shared power for 100 years, have promised the Irish electorate the sun, moon and stars but have fallen completely short.

Neither Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael have ever had the interests of the working class at heart and that is evident not just in the policies they implement in government but also in the interactions they’ve had with workers, careers and ordinary people on the streets during this election campaign.

Both parties have historic ties to the rich and to the Catholic Church. In more recent decades, both parties have forged close relationships with property developers and international vulture funds while 1 in 4 Fine Gael TDs and 1 in 3 Fianna Fáil TDs are registered as landlords.

Ireland is a society that benefits the rich while the rest of us fight for scraps and it’s been that way since the foundation of the State.

During Ireland’s revolutionary period between 1913-1923, mass struggle coupled with a massive interest in self determination, and helped in no small part by socialist Trade Unionists like Jim Larkin and later James Connolly, saw the Irish working class rise up and gain confidence.

However, the revolutionary period took its toll on the working class and on Irish society as a whole. The Great War, the Rising, The Tan War and the Civil War had left the new Free State in flames, literally and metaphorically. In the absence of Connolly and Larkin, the labour movement, which showed its power when it brought the country to a standstill during a general strike against conscription in 1918 and took over Limerick City in 1919, collapsed.

In this vacuum, conservative upper class Catholic revolutionaries took control of the new Free State. Partition lead to what socialist James Connolly prophetically described as a “carnival of reaction” on the island of Ireland with a conservative Green state in the 26 counties and a conservative Orange state in the 6 counties.

The Treaty and partition not only dragged the country into a Civil War, it also split Sinn Féin and the IRA – Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin and IRA and Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin and IRA. Fianna Fáil can trace their roots back to the former and Fine Gael the latter.

Immediately, the Pro-Treaty forces of the new Free State set about ensuring upper class Catholic supremacy by handing over hospitals and schools to the Bishops. This was done partially because the new state was broke but Church control of Irish society was always about holding workers down.

Church control was then enshrined into the constitution by Fianna Fáil led my Éamon de Valera in 1937. The Irish Constitution was unofficially written with the “help” of Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid. The legacy of all of this is still a lived reality as 2024 draws to a close. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have have tried their best to mould the country in their image with greed and corruption at it’s core.

Since the 1980’s FF & FG’s electoral vote share has dropped dramatically election after election. Where once they could command 85% of all votes - they’re now on 40% and falling.

While both parties still have huge numbers of wealthy loyalists who will always ensure there is an establishment vote - voting for their own class interests, their support is nowhere near what it once was. From this writer’s own perspective growing up in the 90’s, Irish politics was dominated by just a handful of issues: political corruption, church abuse scandals and the Troubles.

Off the back of devastating austerity and chronic unemployment in the 80’s and consistent failure of the “centre ground” in Irish politics in the early 90’s led to frequent shuffling of the decks. One main party swapped another for power, usually with the help of a smaller party, like Labour, as a mudguard.

Fianna Fáil’s rise in the late 90’s under the corrupt gangster Bertie Ahern led to an obscene property bubble built on foundations of sand. Ireland was refered to as the “Wild West” of deregulated capitalism. The inevitable economic crash and the subsequent bank bailout devastated a generation. We, the working class, are still facing the consequences today. Fine Gael, along with their mudguard Labour, swooped in as saviours and implemented the most brutal austerity the country had faced in more than 30 years.

Throughout the history of the Irish state, the political establishment didn’t get a smooth run. Workers have been at the forefront of many battles.

While workers struggles and social movements have been at a low ebb for a number of years, the memory of working class fight back cannot be forgotten. When we fight back we can win. Recent movements against austerity like the water charges campaign were some of the biggest the state had ever seen.

Working class communities mobolised in their tens of thousands. Similarly, both the Marriage Equality and the Repeal referenda mobolised young people like never before. Environmental campaigns in 2019, ahead of the last General Election, politicised a generation of young voters.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have always been out of touch with workers but they’ve always given enough crumbs to sections of working class to win them over, albeit temporarily. Fianna Fáil won over urban blue collar voters with a combination of nationalist rhetoric and the promise of housing, while Fine Gael courted rural voters and white collar workers.

But as recent polls indicate, the two big parties may have a combined vote share of roughly 40% after Friday.

This is in stark contrast of the 2002 election (a very unsuccessful one for FG, FYI) where the parties got a combined 60% of the vote. Every election cycle since the 1980’s the grip of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has loosened. This Friday is a perfect opportunity to put the nail in the coffin after 100 years of power.

In the socialist Red Network of People Before Profit we want to see the obliteration of the two biggest right-wing neoliberal parties but as revolutionary socialists being tactical in our voting is key. As is honesty.

We have no illusions in Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, Labour or Greens. We know they won’t attempt to implement any kind of policies beyond the narrow constraints of the capitalist political system we live in. This has to inform a socialist approach to these parties.

SF have not ruled out coalition with the Right and they have given assurances to the ruling class that they won’t be a threat to vulture funds, developers or employers. Should SF remain the biggest opposition party, they will try to squeeze out the socialist left then flip flop left then right when it suits them.

Soc Dems have not ruled out coalition with the “big two” either and it looks as though they want to follow in the footsteps of Labour and the Greens and be a mudguard. They’re waiting for their chance to sell their souls to manage Irish capitalism with either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil. Something the self titled “Centre-Left” like to call “grown up politics”.

A Sinn Féin led government, with support from the likes of the Soc Dems and Greens, should be supported by socialists on a case by case basis and externally. That’s the only way to discipline them. The numbers don’t look like that’s possible this election.

But unlike all the parties mentioned above, we need People Before Profit to hold the ruling parties to account as we have done for years. Having socialists in the Dáil is important for representation of the working class. We need fighters in the Dáil and we need to ensure we keep them there on Friday.

Socialists must be “disturbers of the political peace”, to paraphrase the great James Connolly. It’s imperative for workers rights, for the environment, for health, for housing and more that we have representation from below in the form of socialist TDs.

Politics isn’t only parliamentary. Politics is in communities, in workplaces and on the streets. Voting is one form of political expression but fighting back is a duty for the working class. We won’t win unless we get organised in our communities and workplaces.

The ruling parties have voted in their own class interests for over 100 years, it’s now time for the working class to do the same - that means voting socialist. We will continue the fight against the establishment until it is done.

This is the only way to finally get Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil out!