Socialist Party Local Election Campaign Launch 12th May 2009 (Part 1)

The launch of the Socialist Party's local election campaign in Buswell's Hotel in Dublin on the 12th May 2009. This is Part 1 of 3. The Launch was chaired by Cllr. Mick Murphy (South Dublin County Council - Tallaght Central Ward).

www.socialistparty.net

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Socialist
• Party
• Ireland
• Dublin
• CWI
• Local
• Elections
• Joe
• Higgins
• Mick
• Murphy
• Clare
• Daly
• Ruth
• Coppinger
• Dennis
• Keane
• Socialism

[LewisQ]

Seriously? Sinn Féin is a nationalist (something antithetical to socialism) sectarian party which is governing Northern Ireland according to the precepts of free-market capitalism. Many of its most prominent members spent much of their adult lives in organisations which butchered working class individuals in GB & NI because of their ethnic identity.

The Socialist Party is a socialist party.

[LewisQ]

Very disappointed there's no candidate in Ballymun Whitehall. Ripe for a Socialist candidate. Guess we'll have to vote for Labour to keep the idiot Shinners out. Would love to have the option of a SP candidate in the next General Election.

[Kit087]

same, tutor and english teacher :L now ive got mr hind

[MrKarltonn]

Ruth Coppinger use to be my English teacher :L the blonde one! :L

[DublinDilettante]

They WANT to reinforce the class system, or rather to help people become conscious of the fact that it exists, that they are part of it, and that they should fight the ruling class. I don't think I've ever heard a Socialist Party spokesman use the term "middle class" in an official capacity. Most of the civil service employees whose struggle they've been backing to the hilt recently would be considered "middle class."

[bacabu30]

My point is, maybe the socialist party are reinforcing the class system in people's minds, by continually going on about 'working class' this 'and middle-class' that. If we're all workers in Marxist terms, (apart from those who have a means to production), why don't the SP broaden their appeal to more middle-class areas. It can't be denied that most of their support comes from disadvantaged areas. IMO, middle-class voters don't perceive the SP as a party for them.

[DublinDilettante]

In Marxist terms, the working class refers to anyone who draws a wage and doesn't own the means of production.

Your last point is incomprehensible. If we crave a society free of oppression, should we stop harping on about the oppressed?

[bacabu30]

I think the reality is that the capitalist system will always be the one that's in place, albeit in different degrees. Labour's left-wing politics will be as far left as things ever go in Ireland. I think too many people in high places have too much power to give up and they never would/will. I think anyone thinking there will be a return to collective farming and shared ownership of everything is living in cloud cuckoo land. Man, by nature, is greedy and there will always be corruption around.

[bacabu30]

I think the socialist party is admirable in the way they fight for minority rights. But I think they should not keep emphasizing that their market (pardon the pun) is only the working-class. I think this alienates potential supporters from the middle-class who see themselves as libertarians and might admire many of the socialist party's ideas. If the socialists crave a classless society, why keep harping on about the 'working-class'?

[bacabu30]

I'm not a supporter of Sinn Féin. I'm not a supporter of any party actually. But I actually do think Sinn Féin are socialist in their views. In NI, they might work according to the precepts of the capitalist system, but that's not by choice I'd imagine. They have to compromise with the DUP in their partnership coalition.

I don't agree that socialism is or needs to be antithetical to nationalism. Nationalism isn't just right-wing.

[LewisQ]

SF say a lot of things that aren't true. They're pursuing capitalist policies in NI, where they're in government. The proof of the pudding...

The Socialist Party, and Joe Higgins in particular, was one of the major factors in the defeat of the Lisbon referendum.

[bacabu30]

SF always say they're socialist too though and they sit with the socialists in the Euro Parliament.

Is the Socialist Party anti-Lisbon?