Welcome to the new, flexible mainstream Sinn Fein
A cleansed, remodelled Sinn Fein is out to capture the ground lost by Fianna Fail, writes Eamon Delaney
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IN the week that Sinn Fein had its very conspicuous think-in in the Shelbourne Hotel, the Socialist Party was criticising SF's refusal to back non-payment of household tax, and join its campaign of civil disobedience against this and the impending water charges. It was a clear sign that, as we go into a new and uncertain political season, wide gaps are opening on the broad left, as the cleansed and remodelled new republican party seeks to secure the lucrative middle ground from the now vanquished and confused old republican party, known as Fianna Fail.
The entry of Martin McGuinness into the presidential race is part of this. Regardless of his unsavoury past, McGuinness is a veteran of Stormont government, imposing those right-of-centre 'establishment' cutbacks. No wonder the Socialist Party and the United Left Alliance have started suddenly questioning SF's 'radical' credentials.
This centrist trend was particularly apparent during the week with Pearse Doherty's performance on Vincent Browne's late night TV3 show, where he spoke with great knowledge and, it must be said, considerable respect for the international bond markets and the possible options facing Europe.
Far from engaging in sloganeering and easy denunciations of the capitalist system, Doherty showed an impressive and nuanced approach to the global financial situation and the whole issue of why we are where we are. It made you wonder how much more successful SF might be if it had him as leader instead of clinging to the old Troubles relic Gerry Adams, who is quite simply a jaded turnoff for the public.
This mainstreaming of SF is, of course, only catch-up with where the party is in the North, implementing Tory-inspired cuts: an amazing paradox, which it has been getting away with for ages.
Meanwhile, the party has outfoxed Fianna Fail, which doesn't know how to present itself. It is torn between being either half-supportive of the current government -- given that it was Fianna Fail which messed things up -- or outright opposition, which looks silly and destructive. By contrast, SF is in a clearer position and can present itself as more responsible than those noisy Trots on the United Left Alliance (ULA).
On RTE, Micheal Martin described SF as "cynical" and "the party of protest", but Adams politely declined to respond. Except to say, "We are facing into an autumn which, unfortunately, because this Government is implementing Fianna Fail policies, is going to see more distress heaped upon citizens." Ouch.
And that's the problem. Anytime Fianna Fail gets up on its high horse about the country, SF, and others, can continue to say, "Well, this is all your responsibility really, and anyway in power you'd be no different than the present IMF-led crowd." And anyway SF is now "the republican party in the Dail", added Adams, just to rub it in.
Which begs a more fundamental question. Is SF really a left-wing party at all, or is it a left party (in the broad 'radical' sense) en route to growing further as an unreconstructed old-style nationalist republican party, which is its ultimate ambition?
It has always been a source of irritation to more varied republicans that SF automatically presents itself as a left-wing party, given that the republican movement is a distinctly, and necessarily, very broad church in its origins.
Certainly, the ULA must be wondering what the story is, and has urged SF voters and 'ordinary members' to join its Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes: "A mass grassroots campaign can repeat the success of past boycott campaigns but it seems all this will have to be achieved in the face of Sinn Fein abstention!" Ouch again. And a subliminal reminder there that in Westminster, the ULA would at least take its seats.
However, if the ULA had only looked North, it would have seen that there is no mystery to SF's incredibly flexible radicalism. The Stormont budget for 2011-15 as presented by SF, with the DUP, includes a reduction of £4bn in public expenditure, an 8 per cent cut in current spending, a 40 per cent cut in capital spending, and a public sector pay freeze for all those earning over £21,000 annually.
Meanwhile, public assets are to be sold to the value of £540m -- this is about 75 per cent of the €2bn proposed in our coalition's Programme for Government, if you account for population size and exchange rates. It is also proposed to raise about £1bn in revenue, by increases in household rates among other means.
In true partitionist fashion, the party has completely different tax policies North and South. In the South, it advocates higher taxes (of course), including the introduction of a 1 per cent wealth tax, and a third tax rate of 48 per cent on individual income in excess of three times the average industrial wage (€100,000) per annum.
However, up North, the party has advocated lower taxes and, according to Martin McGuinness, "the granting of the power to lower the rate of corporation tax will be a huge boost".
So there you go. If only Fianna Fail could exploit this glaring difference, but then the old republican party is still searching for a new direction. And besides, playing the two sides of the street, or the two sides of the island -- isn't that what Fianna Fail used to do so well?
Welcome to the new 'mainstream' SF, jumping into the centre ground and fighting for that cushy seat in the Aras.
Originally published in
