Welcoming the hatred of the establishment

Last week, People Before Profit launched a new pamphlet making the case for a left government that would break with capitalism. The response from the media was the usual “won’t someone think of the children” pearl-clutching, with Leo Varadkar branding the pamphlet 'bonkers'. Cian Prendivilles argues the left should welcome the attacks of the establishment, and use these opportunities to advance a socialist vision for Ireland.

PBP recently warned that the rich and the forces of the right will use their power and resources to try to block a left government from implementing the radical socialist policies we need. In response, the Indo and others whipped up a mini red-scare. To criticise a politician or decision is one thing, but to question the institutions of power themselves was tantamount to heresy for some. 

““To criticise a politician or decision is one thing, but to question the institutions of power themselves was tantamount to heresy for some.””

The pamphlet reviews how democratically elected left governments across Europe have again and again faced opposition from big business, media moguls, and the state’s permanent bureaucracy. It also talks about how state forces in Chile were used to violently overthrow a left government there. Cue headlines trying to present PBP as some sort of hair-brained conspiracy nuts or coup-plotters.

The Irish Independent was predictably at the head of the charge. The paper was founded by the brutal capitalist William Martin Murphy (of 1913 Lockout fame), and previously owned by such ‘captains of industry’ as Denis O’Brien and Tony O’Reilly.  This is a paper with a long history of hostility to the left, from calling for the execution of James Connolly to backing fascist Franco when he overthrew a democratically elected left government all the way to trying to paint the water charges revolt as some sort of dissident republican plot to attack Gardaí.

No ruling class has ever given up power without a fight

The truth is that the pamphlet is completely correct to forewarn of the obstacles a left government will face. This is a subject Rupture has discussed many times in the past, and no doubt will discuss again soon. Time and time again we have seen how left governments have been elected on promises of change, only to be blocked, beaten, and ultimately end up betraying those who elected them. It would be naive to the point of carelessness not to study these examples and outline a plan for how we can overcome whatever undemocratic tricks and obstacles the ruling class put in the way of socialist change.

The Corbyn experience in England, Wales, and Scotland shows how the media can whip up faux-scandals, but more to the point, we also saw some in the military making preparations for armed resistance should Corbyn become prime minister. In the US, even the election of Wall Street-favourite Biden was met with violent resistance by the far right - imagine how they would have reacted to a Sanders presidency!

The media objected the most to the example of 1973 Chile, where the left government of Allende was violently overthrown by the Chilean military, led by General Pinochet and backed by the USA. The establishment really wants to dismiss this example as irrelevant, because it shows it is not just a few bad apples and far-right nuts. But you only need to look at the events in Peru in the last few months to see something very similar play out. Over 60 people were murdered by state forces as part of a coup to overthrow a democratically elected centre-left President. That was 2023, not the 1970s. 

Closer to home, we saw in Greece in 2014 an effective coup to block an anti-austerity programme that was twice voted for by ordinary Greeks. That time they used banks, not tanks, but the effect was the same.

The establishment is scared

This media attack is only a preview. We can expect more and more media hostility in the years ahead. The rich and powerful feel their control slipping. They see that support is growing for socialist policies such as nationalising the energy sector and shutting down the tax havens of the super-rich. 

They fear a left government, and want to keep those looking for change in line. We saw this last year in the witch hunt response to the comments by Sinn Fein’s Eoin O’Broin that a senior economics advisor to government and state should be sacked. Why? Because this advisor was so ideologically driven that he replied “FFS” (for f**k sake) when the ESRI suggested the government borrow money to build housing. Before even reviewing the evidence, he simply set about defending the failed housing policy of recent decades. Clearly, such an ‘economist’ is not going to be much use to a left government.

““The establishment can accept a short-lived left government so long as the rich keep the ‘real power’””

The establishment can accept a short-lived left government so long as the rich keep the ‘real power’ in the economy, media, and the state. But the idea that a left government might actually change the power structure is not acceptable and so an apology was demanded, which Sinn Fein and O’Broin shamefully delivered.

Now they have a socialist party boldly saying that a left government should not simply play by the rigged rules of the rich. Instead, the party calls for breaking with the market and building a new, democratic and socialist state. This is like a red-rag to a bull, and we can expect more attacks in the future. You only need to look at the witch hunt against Corbyn when he was leader of Labour to see what we are in for. We must develop a thick skin, retreating or flinching under these attacks will only bring on more. Instead we must learn to turn these attacks and the platform they give us into opportunities to expose the system and explain our ideas.

Using their outrage against them

The water charges revolt provides a starting example of how to do this. When the TDs from the socialist left announced they would be boycotting the charges and called on others to do the same, the media reacted with outrage. This was ‘law-makers’ advocating ‘law-breaking’! Sinn Fein again ran for cover, saying their TDs would pay the charges. But rather than flinch under the pressure, the socialist left grabbed every opportunity to go on TV and radio and proudly advocate our position. A quiet and apologetic defence would have looked weak and invited further attacks, but a bold and forceful case won support.

Similarly when the establishment tried to attack Paul Murphy TD and others for the Jobstown protest, they did not panic and retreat. Instead, again and again, they used the opportunities to expose the hypocrisy of the establishment. ‘The crowds at Jobstown were angry,’ the media said. Yes, but can you blame them? Perhaps if Labour didn’t lie during the election and betray the people of Jobstown, then they wouldn’t have been so angry! ‘Joan Burton had to stay in her car for two hours, that’s not fair!’ What about all those who are having to sleep in their cars because they cannot get a home because of the policies of Burton’s government?

The socialist left must develop this skill as we will need it again and again in the years ahead. The book ‘Socialism on Trial’ is a masterclass in this bold, proud yet calm defence of socialist ideas in the face of hostile opposition. It contains the transcripts from a court case in 1940s USA where socialists were arrested and put on trial for the ‘crime’ of supporting socialism.

The tasks for a left government

As well as developing our communication skills and building strong independent, socialist media projects to counter these media attacks, the left must also prepare for overcoming the obstacles mentioned above, which a left government will face. This is where we need mass people power, radical socialist policies, and a left government genuinely committed to socialist change.

““We need a left government that is willing to take on the landlords and billionaires, one that will mobilise the power of working people, not ... disappoint them yet again.””

Some will respond to the attacks from the right by trying to soften our messaging, to appear more ‘reasonable’, and in government would suggest a slowly-slowly approach to change, for fear of upsetting the right too much. This may seem sensible on the surface, but is in fact a trap. Such an approach would render a left government unable to deliver the real changes promised, undermining its support from below, while allowing more attacks from the right. We need radical measures that deliver real change for ordinary people in the first 100 days of such a left government. That’s why People Before Profit is correct to insist on core demands as a prerequisite to join such a left government. We need a left government that is willing to take on the landlords and billionaires, one that will mobilise the power of working people, not one that will buckle under the pressure and disappoint them yet again.

A left government needs a bold socialist programme of rapid and radical measures, both, to deliver for the 99% and to disarm the 1% of their tools of sabotage. This is something I have written about more extensively in issue 3 of Rupture. A left government would need to rapidly bring the key sectors of the economy into democratic public ownership, so energy prices, rents, and the cost of living can be brought down to affordable levels, and green jobs created in building homes and renewable energy. A plan to democratise the media is needed. The current state, controlled by overpaid apparatchiks of the ‘permanent government’, will undoubtedly seek to block such change, that's why we must fight for a state democratically controlled from top-to-bottom by ordinary people.

Get the pamphlet and see for yourself, you can buy it online on the PBP website.