Siptu chief calls for unified leftist alternative

In spite of concerted criticism that the party is failing its leftist ideals, Siptu president Jack O’Connor has said Labour is “defending working people and civil society within Government to the limits of its electoral mandate”.

In an address to his union’s biennial delegate conference in Dublin, Mr O’Connor also said the union did not indulge in describing Sinn Féin’s economic policies as “fantasy economics”, but said those policies were largely consistent with trade union research.

He also called for parties on the left to build a “unified, cohesive, and credible alternative” and warned it was not sufficient to vie for leadership of the opposition but should seek to construct policies for Government.

Mr O’Connor said the Labour party was “battling against the very gates of hell, outnumbered by more than two to one (by Fine Gael) and against the background of the Troika agreement”.

“Does it mean that we regard the Government’s budgets to date as fair? No, we most certainly do not,” he said. “But neither do we subscribe to the simplistic ‘it’s all Labour’s fault’ analysis because it ignores the elephant in the room — the inconvenient truth that 60% of those who went out to vote in the last election voted for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and the others who guaranteed the rich that they would be required to contribute little or nothing — and that, based on the current opinion polls, if there were an election in the morning those people would still command an absolute majority in the next Dáil.”

He said that, while Siptu praised the economic policies of Sinn Féin — which he said were consistent with the analysis of the union economic thinktank, the Nevin Institute — and while the union did not challenge the integrity of the people “further to the left”, “we do respectfully argue that there is a poverty of ambition on the left”.

“The left has a responsibility to embrace the lessons of history and to build a unified, cohesive, and credible alternative that faces the hard choices to challenge the outlook and value system that has been dominant in Ireland since 1922. Otherwise it will never command the support of a majority of the electorate.”

With regard to greater ambition among leftist parties, Mr O’Connor told the Irish Examiner that would mean facing up to saying unpopular things when necessary. “For example going on and on about how bad it is and unfair it is, is a description of how things are. It is not actually a strategy for getting out of it. It does mean facing up to the problems identified by the legacy of debt and the requirement to comply with international agreements. Otherwise the strategy is to default which is a one-way ticket to the Stone Age.

“Really, you have to come up with a feasible strategy out of where we are and that often does mean not just telling people what they want to hear.”