LETTER: Never the Two Shall Meet!

In her recent article published in the Comment section of the Irish Independent, Jenny Maguire, President of the Trinity Students Union, argues for greater unity amongst the opposition parties, holding that this is the only means by which we can successfully sell a vision for a government without Fine Gael or Fianna Fail to the Irish public.¹ She remarks on the protests that opposition TDs made against the Government’s attempt to allocate opposition speaking time to government-aligned independent TDs. At the same time, a ‘debacle’ showed the power of a united opposition and its ability to project an issue and its solution. She is not wrong in recognising this. The event was unique in its circumstances, bringing TDs like Paul Murphy and Ruth Coppinger together in an argument on the same side as Peadar Tóibín and Michael Collins; we saw the opposition as united as it had ever been. Jenny goes on to say that while she does not argue for Aontú and People Before Profit to join forces, she does believe that there is a need for those forces who share a certain outlook to come together to focus on the issues that are at the forefront of the political race at the moment, presumably housing, disability rights and healthcare. 

This is an understandable request, one shared by many across the country who are justifiably desperate to see Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael removed from office as soon as possible. While Sinn Féin previously appeared to be ascendant, the last two general elections have shown that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are ready and willing to put aside old grudges to prevent a Sinn Féin government from forming. What Sinn Féin needs are the numbers to break the coalition block to their rule, and while it’s likely that given the chance, Sinn Féin would go into Government with Fianna Fáil, Fianna Fáil’s leaders remain unwilling to see this come about. Sinn Féin’s only option remains a potential alliance with the various parties on the left and independents, which would then become a rainbow coalition government if an election was won. This is what Jenny advocates for and what many across the country hope may one day become a reality.

People Before Profit, as part of the opposition to the current Government, will likely be under pressure to take part in such a coalition if one were to arise, especially if we had the TDs necessary to stabilise a Sinn Féin-led coalition majority.  However, as a member and activist within PBP, it remains clear to me that we can never, under any circumstances, go into a coalition government with capitalist parties unless the immediate dismantling of the bourgeois state is a programmatic demand of such a coalition. PBP should never be interested in administering the capitalist state and capitalist system, even as part of a coalition of left-of-centre parties on a platform of reform and welfare. When parties enter government, they do so under the pretence of enforcing the state’s laws, administering the state’s functions, and ultimately upholding and defending the state’s systems and economic organisation. As a party that stands in direct opposition to capitalism, austerity and the capitalist class, PBP would not be able to enter Government without breaking with its foundational principles. 

It must also be recognised that the state is not some neutral entity, as many like to envision and as many are tricked into believing. In reality, the state is a product of the capitalist class in the establishment of their class rule. More specifically, Ireland is a product of the free state counter-revolutionaries, an institution of explicit class rule, regardless of who is at the helm at any given moment. Its institutions, including the Gardaí, the army, and the bureaucracy, are not politically neutral and exist to defend property rights and the class interests of the capitalists. There can be no illusions about what would happen if PBP were ever to try to take the reins of the state while remaining true to our politics, as was correctly recognised in the Left Government pamphlet. ²

Jenny mentions the New Popular Front, which won the French elections last summer (though it did not manage to form a government) as an example of such an opposition coalition success story, and while what the NPF managed to pull off was impressive, it is more accurately an example of the limitations of such an alliance. More than anything else, the NPF was an anti-fascist front. One that was fused with a genuine fear that the National Rally might come to power. This fear might have been somewhat overblown, with NR coming third after the NPF and Macron’s centre-right alliance. Still, such fear was powerful enough to pull these forces together under an impressively radical programme for a reformist grouping. However, rather unsurprisingly, this front was unable to form a government and was snubbed from doing so by Macron. Since then, cracks have only grown, with the front being unable to agree on a common platform of opposition and the right-leaning parties being tempted to jump ship at the hint of some ministerial roles. This was inevitable. Such a coalition would only have lasted if the radical socialist parties had willingly rowed in behind the more conservative forces and thus abandoned the very politics that had not only gotten them elected but made them an actual opposition at all. In the case of a comparable coalition in Ireland, a similar fate would await such a temporary solution to a long-term, far-right problem. 

Of course, none of this should preclude PBP from supporting a rainbow coalition government’s policies on a case-by-case basis. At the end of the day, PBP must support any measures that advance the class interests of workers, whether they be welfare measures or improvements in workers’ rights. What must nevertheless be recognised is that PBP can never enter such a coalition, even with progressive parties like the Social Democrats, as a ruling partner, and that doing so would only serve to destroy our credibility as a genuine party for socialist change. To do so would be to become complicit in the enforcement of property rights, evictions and all the evils of the capitalist system, both domestic and international. PBP should only ever enter the Government to implement an immediate socialist programme that would tear down the systems of the old and raise the new. There is only one solution to the threat of the far right: The Socialist Republic. 

1. https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/jenny-maguire-irelands-opposition-parties-can-unite-to-deliver-alternative-policies-and-end-government-legacies-of-inequality/a899420025.html ↩︎
2. https://www.pbp.ie/content/files/2024/11/The-Case-for-a-Left-Government—Getting-Rid-of-Fianna-F-il-and-Fine-Gael.pdf ↩︎