No Real Alternative

national | miscellaneous | news report Saturday March 01, 2003 21:27 by Dave Gray - The Left youvejustbeengot at hotmail dot com 25 Phillipsburd TCE, Marino, Dublin 3. 018334289

The lack of proper left wing activity in the colleges of Ireland and the bitching, backstabbing in UCD.

No Socialist Alternative

UCD is Ireland’s biggest University. As such, it is a focal point for Ireland’s political development. Many of the country’s top ranking politicians went to UCD and began their careers there. While college politics may seem boring to your average hack, it has a future bearing on who the country will have as its leaders. UCD is very important in that respect.
Until this year, right wingers had dominated the Student Union in UCD. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in particular. Over the last two years the left has been coming together to combat this. Political enemies who wouldn’t talk to each other two years ago are now best friends it seems. Last month three left wingers were elected to the Student Union: Paul Dillon (Labour), Aidan Regan (Ind) and Oisin Kelly (Socialist party) in the positions of President, Deputy President and Education Officer respectively. The left holds 3 out of the 5 positions this has been truly historic, so it would seem.
However it is only a matter of time before this uneasy coalition of Anarchists, Trotskyites, Social Democrats and middle-class liberals falls apart. Paul Dillon, a nobody two years ago, is now the leader of the left in UCD. This puts him in a very powerful position. He has taken this position as he is considered good looking. Politically he is as about as left wing as Michael Noonan and he has no will to get anything done. However, those across the left spectrum admire him and follow him with puppy dog like loyalty. It is quite sad. They are a flock looking for a shepherd and have found it in Dillon. The man is an idiot however and it’s only a matter of time before he screws up student services for UCD.
The left in UCD have always had a cover name for themselves since they began co-operating. Initially it was Student Alliance, now it is CFE (campaign for free education). This was the brainchild of James Redmond, UCD’s resident spotty virgin anarchist. Redmond opposes everyone in power as he enjoys it. If the most anarchist government was elected in Ireland (no joke intended) Redmond would probably join Fianna Fail and Youth Defense just so he could oppose something. The left in UCD have made an uneasy coalition in this group, headed by our man Dillon. Dillon doesn’t say much. He listens to what everyone else says, sees how the room feels and makes a decision in favour of the majority.
Initially, Dillon was not a contender for the Union’s Presidency. Paul Murphy, a rather upstanding yet radical member of the Socialist party in UCD was the head of the CFE group. It was Murphy, which orchestrated all the anti-fees protests. Dillon just tagged along with Murphy, hoping for recognition. Murphy was considered to radical and Dillon, the ‘I’m to cool to admit that I’m in the Labour Party’ Meath-man took all the attention. Murphy, who would have fought fees tooth and nail and ran the Union’s shops effectively is still in CFE and may run in the executive elections.
The next big thing for UCD is the executive elections. These are for the Student Union as well. There are 4 positions available Communications and Information Technology, Irish language Officer, Women’s Officer and Finance Officer. The elections are set for the 26th of March. The only decision made so far is not to run Dara McCarthy. McCarthy ran in the last year’s Exec elections and polled very well. A man who received live oral sex in the Student Bar in UCD and ran a huge campaign for the Entertainment position of the Union defeated him however. The Dillon crowd has stabbed McCarthy in the Back and the CFE group is backing a first year with no Irish and who didn’t even know where to get the nomination forms for the position. McCarthy, who received no help from the CFE last year despite starting Student Alliance, would have been the natural candidate this year. He is the Chairperson of Labour in UCD (Dillon’s own party) and was backed by Bord na Gaeilge (the Irish promotion organisation in UCD) to win the position.
More stabbing await those with whom the clique in CFE does not agree. This is even before not even taking power. What will the left in UCD do if this continues? The answer is of course obvious. It will re-fragment and all of the work McCarthy and Murphy have done to unite it will be washed down the drain by Dillon and his careerist chums. Watch out for Paul Dillon though. He will undoubtedly run for president of USI (like Pat Rabbitte and Eamonn Gilmore before him), probably get a nomination for a council seat in Meath, become Meath’s first Labour TD in history and probably leader of the party in 15 years.
If this happens Labour will be led by a bourgeois sell out who feels guilty that he has more money than working class people do. Some things never change.