[QUOTE] You were equally dismissive of my views on Tsipras and of the chances that Syriza would transform Greece when it was elected. The problem is not in itself Corbyn - it is the extent to which reformist politics have been tied up in knots by the banking system and the unholy political and military alliance that serves it.
You are correct that I don't at present see any system politician who has realistic plan for moving to socialism. But of course, I would support people voting Corbyn in with the health warning that it would be another 'Greek' scenario unless they were prepared to push things further.
Immigrants can usually join unions, if they are in a work place and immigrants have always been amongst the backbone of left parties. Their experiences give them a lot of political insight.Unless we are going to get into politics ourselves, voters have to be educated and make sound choices as part of their political involvement. Ideally, unless you are an immigrant elsewhere like me, you will also join a Union or some movement and try and get involved in something.
What abstract whataboutery ??This is the same sort of abstract whataboutery we get from academic leftists on here at every election. Maybe you don't believe in elections or democracy or whatever but these things are tools to be used for our benefit if we elect people who best represent us.
I agree with you that the splintering is a problem. However, working together should never be at the expense of not telling what you consider to be the political truth. All kinds of alliances are made on that basis - of some agreement, some disagreement. The Labour Party in the UK is a maelstrom of debate and Corbyn has been in the thick of it.I am a Socialist Republican but the sort of splintering eegitry we see here is why the Irish Socialists are still just as focused on SF as they are on attacking the FF/FG govt. Ireland will never have a party like Labour led by a man like Corbyn and given the nature of our coalition-based voting system our only hope is if SF and the Socialists work together. If Socialist voters at home have/had the sort of abstract indifferent and splintered attitudes you and AMH have we will be stuck with another century of centrist/centre right/occasional hard right rule.
As I expect you know, I've always argued against the SP SWP position on Irish anti-Imperialism (which is not the same thing as nationalism). Anti-imperialism is in my view an essential here if any progress is to be made.
Again, you seem not so much to be putting a counter-case to anything I say, as to be saying I should not express my views at all, as they are not the same as yours.
is a product of UK Labour, that is true, but his current position has come as a total shock there.Ireland will never have a party like Labour led by a man like Corbyn
.and given the nature of our coalition-based voting system our only hope is if SF and the Socialists work together
At certain points, they need to. But why should that entail never expressing the profound political differences that exist ?
If Socialist voters at home have/had the sort of abstract indifferent and splintered attitudes you and AMH have we will be stuck with another century of centrist/centre right/occasional hard right rule in.Europe, I would needlessly alienate many friends/colleagues
I think you should explain exactly what attitudes you are talking about (AMH and I probably don't agree on more issues than you and I do).
Is there any limit at which you would say that a political party or politician has sold out ? Irish Labour Party for example ? Are you OK with everything they have done and not done ? Is there a right to comment on it ?I don't like the attitudes of Fundamentalists in any context funnily enough.
If that is short hand for merging seamlessly with SF I disagree. If you are interested in anti-Imperialism of the kind that inspired 1916, then, what makes you think it is not in the soup ?You could generally do with some Republicanism in your Socialist soup too.
Bookmarks