Not a wedding but a funeral
BY MICHEAL MacDONNCHA
It was a clever piece of public relations for the Labour Party
leader Ruairi Quinn and Democratic Left leader Proinsias de Rossa
to announce their discussion about the future of their parties in
the wake of the Good Friday referendum result.
The timing allowed them to say that the Good Friday Agreement
meant a realignment in Irish politics and could ``profoundly
alter'' politics in the 26 Counties. This gimmick masked the
reality that Democratic Left is on its last legs and if they
don't hitch themselves to Labour the four DL TDs face total
oblivion.
Democratic Left members admit that as a party they are finished.
They couldn't muster 100 people for their last conference. They
are believed to have less than that number as members. De Rossa,
Liz McManus, Eamon Gilmore and Pat Rabbite are four TDs without a
party. De Rossa only scraped home for the fourth seat in his
Dublin North-West constituency last year and is set for defeat
when it becomes a three-seater. There is speculation that he may
run next year in the European Parliament elections in Dublin
where he held a seat between 1989 and 1992.
That period was when the Workers Party (formerly Sinn Féin the
Workers Party, formerly `Official Sinn Féin') was at its height.
They had seven TDs and an MEP.
But they carried within them the seeds of their own destruction.
Deep divisions resulted in a bitter schism in 1992. It was less a
split than a defection from the party by its leadership in
Leinster House. It left the new group - first called New Agenda
and then Democratic Left - with four TDs but no organisation.
After the collapse of the Fianna Fáil/Labour government in 1994
Democratic Left went into coalition with Fine Gael and Labour. De
Rossa built up a close relationship with John Bruton. Their
anti-republicanism was the one big thing they had in common.
De Rossa's influence contributed to the lack of drive in the
Rainbow government with regard to the peace process. John
``f....ing peace process'' Bruton failed to stand up to John Major
and thus contributed to the collapse of the first peace process.
With all pretensions to being a radical socialist party gone,
with no climate left for their anti-republicanism, and with a
single-page membership list, the only reason for the existence of
DL was to make up the numbers in a coalition and ensure
ministerial seats for their TDs. Their decline has seen them rate
consistently below Sinn Féin and the Greens in opinion polls.
They have had high profile TDs but never built up a party identity and now they
have come to a point where that will jeopardise their election
prospects.
This is the real reason for the Quinn/De Rossa discussions. This
is not a Labour/DL wedding. It is DL's funeral. The talk of a
realignment on the left of Irish politics is just so much
rhetoric to muffle the death-rattle of a discredited party.
However the winding up of DL is managed it will amount to their
absorption by Labour.
There is a change occurring on the left of Irish politics and it
is partly because of the peace process. That change is the growth
of Sinn Féin. The peace process has neutralised or eliminated the
most anti-republican elements in the 26 Counties. Conor Cruise
O'Brien has become an apologist for Paisley. De Rossa's party is
on the way out. They will soon be followed by the Progressive
Democrats. With Labour shifting rightwards the field is open for
the left-wing, republican alternative which is Sinn Féin. But it
must be built and that is the task in the months ahead.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)