On the surface it looks very much like Fianna Fáil's leader Bertie Ahearn
reeled the Green Party leadership into his coalition government like
children who had sneaked down from their beds on Christmas Eve in an
attempt to get a peep at their presents. The deal that the Green Party
eventually accepted could have been on the table last weekend, but Bertie
knew if it were, a full Green Party conference would have to be called and
not as occurred on Wednesday evening, a round robin of the membership within
Dublin and the surrounding counties. More importantly the weekend papers
would have had the details well before the conference took place, which
would have enabled the GP membership to contemplate it in detail, and
in the light of day the deal would have been revealed as a win-win for
Bertie Ahearn.
There is little in this deal that the Greens could not have achieved by
standing back and offering FF their support in the Dáil on an issue by issue
basis. Indeed, by doing this the Greens could have guaranteed that FF do not
renege on any agreements; the incoming FF/PD government would have had
nowhere else to go, as Ahern had already publicly ruled out any deal with
SF. In the process, the Greens would have maintained their independence of
action.
Up until now the Greens have made much of honesty in politics. Now
they have joined a coalition government led by a man who has a host of
questions to answer due to the evidence given to the Mahon Tribunal. However
even if Mr Ahern turns out to be an honest politician, he is a pro-globalization free marketeer, who is an advocate of neo-liberal economics.
He is about to privatize much of the public health care system which goes
against the best interest of the Irish people and is against Green Party
policy.
This deal also spits in the face of the Iraqi people and for the Greens to
claim on cutting a deal with FF that they continue to support the Iraqi
people was shame-less. Green negotiators failed to get any real guarantees
over Shannon Airport and the USA's illegal renditions and the movement of US
military personnel through Shannon.
The fact is what the Greens have done is join a coalition government with
the two most right-wing parliamentary political parties in the south of
Ireland as their partners, which negates the whole purpose of the Green
Party to date and ties it into cabinet responsibility, which cannot but
silence 2/3 of the Green parliamentarians from voicing doubts and
differences over FF government policy. With this act Mr Ahern has
silenced a major section of the progressive opposition to his policies in Dáil
Éireann.
To write that many of us on the Left, who until this tragic decision had
been willing to take the Greens at their word and view them as part of the
progressive political family, feel totally betrayed would be an
understatement. For myself, this betrayal is equal to what SF did when it
recognized the right of the UK state to govern the north of Ireland.
In all honesty I am bewildered why any left progressive environmentalist
party would join a conservative government which only considered the
environment as an after thought when it was unable to govern in it own
right. If the Greens had achieved a hard deal over the main policies within
their election manifesto such as an end to the use of Shannon airport by the
US military/security services, or the abandonment of plans to build the M3
motor-way near the Hill of Tara, or a ban on corporate donations, and an
end to the plan to build private hospitals on public land, I could have
understood the Greens entering the coalition. But Bertie made it clear none
of these were a runner. They did not even managed to achieve the position of
An Tánaiste.
Am I bitter? Sure I am, bitter and angry, as any decent man should be
whenever an honest man is enticed by a reactionary satrap. As to those who
claim the Greens can repeat the success of the PDs in the last FF led
coalition, they are mistaken; for there is a major difference between the
PDs as a FF coalition partner and the Greens. Bar the fine detail, there are
few real political differences between FF and the PDs, thus the latter have
always been pushing against an open door when it has managed to get part of
its platform through, not least because FF and the PDs are both pro business
and pro globalization parties.
The same cannot be said for the Greens, and they are far from natural
bedfellows with their two coalition partners. I feel people are missing the
point of the raison d'etre of a radical green party. It is not to tinker
at the edges here and there, but to wake up the general public and through
them, central government, to the sheer waste and dangers
society environmentally faces if we continue along the same reckless
political path.
Once in government they are bound by Cabinet responsibility, so, for example,
how can they make a fuss over the violations of human rights and the law at
Shannon, they cannot. Some Greens will claim they can have more influence
quietly blowing in the Taoiseach's ear. In your dreams, one is tempted to reply,
for the fact is the Greens are a public pro-active party which forewarns the
electorate, or they are nothing. Entering government must be the icing on the
cake for a party like the Greens and must be with progressive partners with
whom they can make real and lasting changes for the good.
The Greens by entering into this coalition, have now joined a long list of
once radical organizations who have chosen to become, as Chris Gaskin wrote, "the mud guard of the
two failed civil war parties".
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