Unity

From Unity, 17 February 2007

Setting the electoral agenda

by John Molloy

There was no palpable feeling of popular excitement at the announcement of elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly to be held on 7 March. This is not surprising. As recently as 2005 a survey of political attitudes in the North captured general uncertainty, particularly among the young, about whether to vote at all.
     This is meat and drink to the ruling class, for whom the absence of democratic accountability, created by an electorate too disillusioned to vote, is a welcome bonus.
     However, while our rulers seek to define politics as what politicians—rather than what people—do, an apparent indifference or apathy about formal political life should not be confused with generalised stoicism or passivity. As local anger and mobilisation over direct misrule, and international outrage over war crimes in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine shows—despite the corporate media falling into fewer and fewer hands—the people know and react to lies when they hear them.
     The major difficulty, however, lies in the disconnection between what politicians obsess on and what the lives of ordinary people are most affected by. A short-term political task, therefore, is to use the run-up to an election to remind them of what should be on the agenda. The purpose of this is twofold: not only to push a progressive message to politicians but also to expose their ideologies as inadequate for the reconstructive role they are required to play in shaping the future of the North.
     The first part of the challenge involves outlining the crisis we are in. This involves focusing the electoral agenda on
     (1) the economy—where, with the race to the bottom to attract the short-term selfish interests of transnationals, there is no solution to the structural weaknesses, particularly in terms of manufacturing and production, of the Northern economy;
     (2) deprivation and social exclusion: the North is one of the most unequal societies in the developed world, with over a quarter of households in poverty and seven of the UK’s ten lowest-paid areas in the North;
     (3) the scale of youth and long-term unemployment;
     (4) poor health: the North has among the worst health statistics in Europe, ill served by hospital waiting lists, among the highest in the UK;
     (5) homelessness: record numbers of homeless people and numbers of unfit dwellings coexist with a housing “policy” completely enslaved to the private profit of the market, resisting the need for social housing and providing no barriers to irresponsible development;
     (6) the imposition of water charges—a perfect example of the unaccountable economic vandalism that direct rule represents;
     (7) rate increases that will further compound these inequities;
     (8) an education system built on winner-takes-all inequality, becoming even more financially elitist in its use of student loans and top-up fees.
     The second challenge, then, is to reiterate the message that any representative body, whether it is an Assembly, a council, or a parliament, is there because of us and should be there to represent us. The key question for those who seek our votes on 7 March, therefore, is, what are their views and policies on the above? If they cannot answer, or if their only response is “more of the same,” they are wasting our time: they are, as Brendan Behan described some theatre critics, “eunuchs in a brothel.”
     By contrast, the potential for a new Assembly can provide a focus for future political campaigning that demands a programme for government based on a progressive alternative economic and social strategy. This would stress the importance of the manufacturing and public sectors, make full use of the opportunities for mutually advantageous co-operation on an all-Ireland basis, and aim to end poverty and social exclusion.

Home page > Publications > Unity > 2007 > Setting the electoral agenda

Baile > Foilseacháin > Unity > 2007 > Setting the electoral agenda