United Left Alliance National Forum

by John Meehan - ULA Sat Jun 11, 2011 17:55

Discussions relevant to the ULA National Forum are at these links :

http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/dublin-west...00082

http://tomasoflatharta.com/2011/06/11/the-united-left-a...tral/

by Alan Gibson - ULA Cork branch Mon Jun 20, 2011 12:54 alan.bolshevik at gmail dot com

http://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?t=8222
http://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?t=8485
http://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?t=7533
http://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?t=8287

by Rhona Sat Jun 25, 2011 18:36

Any reports from today's conference?

by pat c Mon Jun 27, 2011 12:45

I was just running a stall at the forum so I wasn't in for the workshops or plenary sessions. There seems to have been an interesting debate on what sort of party should be built and on the issue of female quotas.

Heres an email I got from Paddy Healy:

AFTER ULA MAKES A DIFFERENCE FOR LOWLY PAID, 300 PACK LIBERTY HALL FOR ULA FORUM

On Thursday last Richard Bruton announced that the bill to cut the pay of shop assistants, cleaners, agricultural labourers and others on JLC rates and those covered by Registered Employment Agreements was being deferred until the Autumn.
This followed the discussion in the Dail of a private members motion from the ULA calling on the government to abandon the measure. The Labour Party and Fine Gael voted down the motion, but the array of deputies voting for the motion frightened the Labour Party.
Voting for the motion were Seamus Healy , Joan Collins T, Joe Higgins, Richard Boyd-Barrett, Clare Daly (all ULA), Thomas Pringle, John Halligan, Catherine Murphy, Maureen O’Sullivan, Finian McGrath, Luke Ming Flanagan, Tom Fleming (All Technical Group). Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail also supported the motion.

On the proposal of Cllr Declan Bree (ULA), Sligo Co Council had already passed the motion.

There was a “robust discussion” after Bruton addressed the parliamentary Labour Party on the following day. Bruton then announced the deferral.
Clearly the ULA are in a position to exert serious pressure on government on behalf of the poor and employees generally due to the threat posed to the Labour Party. ULA will remain highly vigilant in order to be in a position to resist the bill when and if it is introduced. Meetings on the issue in several centres will continue. The next public meeting will be held in Hearns Hotel Clonmel on Thursday June 30 at 8 pm. The meeting will be addressed by Seamus Healy TD, Pat Neill, President of Clonmel Trades Council, and Paddy Healy , Steering Committee ULA

Forum at Liberty Hall

300 people from all 32 counties attended the ULA National Forum in Liberty Hall last Saturday. A report was given of 40 meetings held throughout the country in recent weeks. Branches are being set up in several parts of Dublin and in many provincial centres. The intention is that these branches should organise local support for national ULA initiatives, such as resistance to pay and social welfare cuts, water and house charges, and opposition to repaying the debts of private banks. The organisation is preparing for a major push to increase the number of ULA councillors from the current 20 to a target of fifty in the next local elections.

A National Trade Union Activist Network is being organised with groups in all trade unions. The first national Meeting will take place in Teachers Club, Parnell Sq on October 1.

There was considerable discussion on the process to be followed which might result in the transformation from an alliance to a political party.

For a detailed discussion on way ahead in Trade Unions, read “How ICTU Failed Us, The Necessity for Election, Re-Election of General Secretaries” on my Blog:http://wp.me/pKzXa-gw

Paddy Healy 086-4183732

by Alan Gibson - ULA Tue Jun 28, 2011 14:24 alan.bolshevik at gmail dot com

see http://revolutionaryprogramme.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/...orum/ for my report on, and assessment of, the ULA national forum

by Anne Mc Shane Thu Jun 30, 2011 13:21

Anne Mc Shane reports on the United Left Alliance forum. Full report at link.

On June 25 the United Left Alliance held its first national membership gathering - not a democratic conference, but a forum. Despite the election of five ULA TDs in the February general election, both the Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Party, the two main components, seem incapable of uniting in a ULA party.

As I noted in my article last week, the SWP wants the ULA to be a broad front which does not describe itself as socialist (‘No to ULA talking shop’, June 23). In the first plenary session Kieran Allen told the 350 comrades gathered in Dublin’s Liberty Hall: “It’s not about how many times you mention the word ‘socialism’. It’s whether you are capable of spelling out in concrete ways what it means and how you will get there.”[1]

On the face of it this seems an entirely reasonable position. Marxism is, after all, about theory and practice. Simply calling for socialism without putting forward a programme would be hopeless. But actually what comrade Allen was really doing was trying to obscure the fact that he and the SWP leadership are totally opposed to the inclusion of ‘socialism’ in the ULA bullet-point platform and literature. It is not that he does not want the word used abstractly - he does not want it used at all. In other words, SWP leaders are divorcing socialism from the immediate struggle.

Instead they want the ULA to continue as an electoral bloc ... meanwhile let the working class learn “from the experience in struggle”. But such an organisation needs semi-Keynesian policies. Professor Terrence McDonagh from National University of Ireland was invited to provide intellectual legitimacy for this voodoo economics. He seriously proposed a scheme which could “be implemented within 48 hours and turn the economy around”. The plan would involve not only defaulting on the debt, but also leaving the euro, relaunching the punt, creating a ‘good bank’ and nationalising the Corrib gas field. This would create the basis for full employment, as control over currency would mean there would be more money to invest.

by Kieran Fri Jul 01, 2011 03:42

Well it seems that the views of the two strongly organized groups, the SWP and the Socialist Party, are too divergent to enable either of them to get their way without a schism. It seems pragmatic for the ULA to therefore stick to its present loose structure. Keep organising fora, outside and in Dublin, to clarify people's grassroots ideas, and to keep up membership cohesion and momentum. But keep the Alliance in the ULA name. It can't really be a party if two heavy groups want to steer the wheel according to contradictory steering methods. The vehicle is bound to crash that way.