New Year’s Message from the President of the Workers’ Party, Michael Donnelly
On behalf of the CEC/Ard Comhairle I would like to extend New Year’s greetings to all Party members and their families and to our Comrades, friends and supporters both at home and abroad.
I would like also to take this opportunity offer my condolences and sympathies to the families and friends of Comrades who died in the year gone by, as well as to Comrades and friends who lost loved ones.
As always, this is a time both to reflect on events and occurrences of the year gone by and to anticipate the year that lies ahead. In that regard it is worth noting that the Party Ard Fheis this year was generally regarded as a successful one in that it laid out a clear path of work to be done along with a coherent and unambiguous commitment to basic socialist principles. It was an Ard Fheis when the Party not only re- committed itself to the achievement of a secular, socialist, republic for the workers of Ireland, but did so with a certainty and confidence that was both clear and palpable. No one who attended would have been left in in any doubt whatsoever about who it is the Party represents, or where it is we intend to go in the future.
It was also most refreshing to listen to the many excellent contributions to debate from members new and old, young and not so young at the same Ard Fheis. It was also quite invigorating to note that after some years in the political doldrums the Party has finally begun to be refreshed by an influx of new, younger members and by the emergence of a strong presence of women coming to the fore both as members of the CEC and as candidates for elections. This too gives great hope for the future. For the first time in many years Party members can justifiably look forward in confidence and expectation, not back in regret and recrimination.
But there is still a lot more that needs to be done and the year that lies ahead will bring with it ever greater challenges to the Party as it seeks to give guidance and clear leadership to the ordinary working people, the very ones who have suffered the most hardship under the reign of the current Labour-Fine Gael coalition government in the Republic.
We have consistently argued that any government that commits itself to relentlessly pursuing an unashamed pro-banker/financial speculator agenda by draining scarce funds away from health, education and public welfare, pumping it instead into the coffers of the very people who caused the crisis in the first instance, does not deserve to continue in office. This is particularly true in respect of the very serious issue of the scarce water resources, where the Government has made it abundantly clear that it intends to continue in its attempt to impose a water tax on ordinary people as well as carry out what is in effect a policy of privatising it as well. And, despite the enormous numbers of workers and ordinary people publically demonstrating against the profound injustices that are inherent in this policy, the Fine Gael-Labour coalition continues to ram it through, following virtually to the letter the instructions from their EU and World Bank masters.
It is not fit for office and the sooner it goes the better!
This is as true for working people in Northern Ireland as it is in the Republic. Look at the recent ‘deal’ done between the sectarian parties currently in Government there. Hailed as a ‘great breakthrough’ the entire package of so-called reform measures are filled with a commitment to welfare cuts, reduced social spending along with major redundancies in the public sector. In addition, it also contains a fundamentally anti-democratic provision to seriously reduce the levels of representation within the Assembly. The latter measure will also ensure that the two largest sectarian parties, namely Sinn Fein and the DUP will be its major beneficiaries. And all of this was deliberately obscured by the so-called ‘deal’ being wrapped in the mandatory green and orange ribbons and faithfully sold by an ever compliant mass media.
As a ‘deal’ it makes it even more difficult for genuine anti-sectarian parties like ours to win electoral contests to the Assembly. But it must not deter us from that task. The forces of sectarianism still represent the main obstacle to the development of real class politics in Northern Ireland and must be confronted at every available opportunity. The Party must always seek out opportunities both to challenge sectarianism in all its manifestations as well as to offer a real socialist alternative to the political primitives that deliberately instil fear and suspicion among people to simultaneously feed off it for personal and party political advantage. We have a proud, unchallenged record in that regard and we must continue it for as long as it takes.
Sectarianism never rests; neither should we!
The year that lies ahead then is likely to be a very important one both for the Party and for the people we represent. There is a definite election in Northern Ireland and a possible one in the Republic cannot be definitively ruled out at this stage. In this regard we must re-double our efforts to present a real and radical alternative view to workers both north and south.
I am very confident that if we do that that in conjunction with our new-found confidence and with younger people and women in particular now taking more prominent roles within the leadership of the Party we can achieve political gains this year, and will increasingly be viewed as ‘dangerous’ by the establishment parties. For, whatever else may be said about the state of our respective economies, we know that the class question is the one to ask, and by asking that we will ultimately be successful.
Michael Donnelly
Party President