However, the question requires a much more in-depth examination and answer than one word can provide. Parliamentary politics irrespective of which country a person resides in is a system of government whose primary and secondary role is to defend the interests of that country’s capitalism and capitalist class, the ‘ruling class’. This duty takes priority over all other considerations, including homelessness and the state of the population’s health and education. The needs of the population are very much secondary to the requirements of the ’people’ and this is not a contradiction.
To clarify what I mean, as it does sound contradictory, the ‘people’ are the top ten percent of the wealthy, the ‘population’ are the rest of us. Of course, this fluctuates depending on whether an election is due then, at such time, all of a sudden, we all become the ‘people’ for about as long as the election campaigns last, it becomes inclusive. Then, all reverts back to the exclusive status-quo with the top ten percent resuming their role as the ‘people’. In times of war when the ruling classes want people to fight for them and their system is another example of inclusiveness when we once again all become ‘the people’. When said war is over once again we revert back to our respective places in society. The interests of the ’people’ usually means the interests of the wealthy, not the interests of all of us and the lower down the so-called social ladder somebody finds themselves the less the ‘interests of the people’ applies. It is a very ambiguous, and that’s to say the least, situation which we are led to believe is called liberal democracy which is another misleading term. If we were to put this ‘liberal democracy’ on a scale it would look something like this; Liberal democracy, with the democracy part of the title very much the junior aspect.
In all parliaments which practice this ‘liberal democracy’ which is, admittedly, better than a fascist dictatorship, are the party of government and those who sit in opposition. In the 26 counties at the moment, we have a Fianna Fail/Fine Gael/Green Party coalition executive or government, and the main opposition party is Sinn Fein with lesser parties, Labour, People Before Profit, Social Democrats and Independents also on the opposition benches.
In all parliaments which practice this ‘liberal democracy’ which is, admittedly, better than a fascist dictatorship, are the party of government and those who sit in opposition. In the 26 counties at the moment, we have a Fianna Fail/Fine Gael/Green Party coalition executive or government, and the main opposition party is Sinn Fein with lesser parties, Labour, People Before Profit, Social Democrats and Independents also on the opposition benches.
Sinn Fein are doing, what all opposition parties do, and that is making fancy promises which it is highly unlikely they will keep or, more appropriately, will be allowed to keep by the ruling class of the 26 counties. When Sinn Fein tell us they plan a ‘fully costed’ nationalised health service, ‘single tiered’ they genuinely mean it. What they do not tell us is all their plans, and the government know this, are subject to the ‘vagaries of capitalism’. Neither government or opposition will tell us this because they do not want us to know that our futures and wellbeing, employment, health and education to name just some, are dependent on the ever-changing needs of the wealthy. I have no doubt Sinn Fein have costed their plans perfectly based on figures indicating the state of capitalism in the jurisdiction at the time. They may have even allowed for some fluctuations, which are impossible to tell in an unstable economic system like ‘free market’ capitalism because things change overnight let alone a year. We all live lives of uncertainty because the economic system we live under is uncertain. The only factor which is constant is the rich will continue to be just that, increasing their wealth on a yearly basis as profits become profits on profits. Any decrease on the previous year’s profits calculated as an annual loss, when no actual loss has been made at all, they have just made a little less than the previous year! Sinn Fein's pledges on health will depend very much on the condition and needs of 26 county capitalism. When they tell us about this ‘single tiered’ health service they are not being dishonest. They are just not telling us the whole story including the ‘vagaries of capitalism’.
The same rule of thumb apples in Britain when what was once the Labour Party made promises about the ‘promised land’ which they meant at the time, omitting the ‘vagaries’ of British capitalism. The only time perhaps this rule did not apply so stringently in Britain was after the Second World War. Clement Attlee could confidently tell the population about the launch of the National Health Service (NHS) and the Welfare State, nationalisation of some industries because he could confidently see a clear path with few fluctuations within the capitalist system of the time, the condition of war-torn Britain was not going to change overnight.
The same rule of thumb apples in Britain when what was once the Labour Party made promises about the ‘promised land’ which they meant at the time, omitting the ‘vagaries’ of British capitalism. The only time perhaps this rule did not apply so stringently in Britain was after the Second World War. Clement Attlee could confidently tell the population about the launch of the National Health Service (NHS) and the Welfare State, nationalisation of some industries because he could confidently see a clear path with few fluctuations within the capitalist system of the time, the condition of war-torn Britain was not going to change overnight.
By the 1960s changes in the needs of capitalism and the capitalist class in Britain began to appear, hence the first round of serious cuts in the NHS. Unfortunately for Harold Wilson, a well-meaning man (for a Huddersfield Town supporter) the Labour Prime Minister of the day and, therefore the head of the party who introduced the NHS, he had to preside over these cuts, decisions exploited by the Conservative opposition who, if in government, would have done exactly the same. The NHS has undergone more cuts since those heady days of Harold Wilson and, at this rate, in decades to come the NHS will be consigned to the pages of history. Already there are 90 privately run health care companies owned by large capitalist companies all out to make profit out of people’s health. The last remnants of Clement Attlee’s parliamentary socialist experiment will be no more. British governments are doing nothing to prevent this grab of profits by the capitalist class simply because there is nothing they can do!
The misleading statements made by opposition parties, be it in Britain, the 26 counties, Germany’s Bundestag (now situated in the old Reichstag building in Berlin) in fact any country are the same. Honest at the time, to a point, but knowing they may not be able to keep their promises which is dishonest by not pointing that out! Already in Britain the modern excuse for Labour, their leader Keir Starmer, is beginning to backtrack on some of his earlier grand sounding promises, which if they were not promises they must have been lies? So far, I have tried in brief to look at the heads side of the coin, which allows for the opposition parties making statements they may or may not be able to keep. Not strongly dishonest but certainly not the whole truth.
The tails side of the coin is far uglier and involves the ‘nihilisms’ of the opposition and governing parties. After promising us the earth while on the opposition benches and not even delivering us a beach at Howth the former opposition gang becomes as morally bankrupt as their former governing foe. They will then tell us how, having promised us the world while they were in opposition, why they cannot deliver on said promises. They will tell us it is all the previous government's fault, they are to blame, the British Conservatives are still blaming the former Labour government which have been out of office for thirteen years! They will not, however, tell us they cannot deliver because to do so would endanger the interests and privileges of the wealthy, those who own the country’s wealth and means of production, distribution and exchange. They will not tell us the real reason for being in government which is not to look after the population as a priority, but to look after the interests and wellbeing of the wealthy, the exclusive ‘people’.
The truth is, opposition parties will tell us anything while they are in opposition to get elected into government. They are dishonest ‘nihilists’ whose sole interests are to govern the affairs of the wealthy. To paraphrase Karl Marx, governments are nothing but committees to run the “affairs of the entire bourgeoisie”. The leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Anas Sarwar, said on a Sunday morning programme some weeks ago; “I am not bothered about principles, I just want to get elected” - in other words policies and political pledges can go and whistle, I’ll say anything in opposition but in government do not expect me to carry out my election pledges!
Well over a century ago in Scotland, James Connolly was Secretary of the Social Democratic Federation. On an occasion his party had finished a respectable fourth in an election and had gained a larger than expected number of votes. He and his comrades could be heard celebrating the occasion. The larger parties wondered why, coming fourth, it gave rise to celebrations? Connolly informed them; “we came fourth on telling the truth, you won the election or came second on a pack of lies”. I wonder what James Connolly would have said had he heard Anas Sarwar’s statement about not being “bothered about principles”??
It can only be concluded that modern parliaments can only be viewed through one lens, the lens of reality. These so-called ‘cathedrals’ of virtue are the exact opposite full of ‘nihilists’ who hold no political principles, as openly admitted by the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, no genuine political positions except to fulfil their task of getting elected at any price to look after the interests of the wealthy, the bourgeoisie and, in the case of Britain, the landed aristocracy. They are paid well for maintaining this shroud of ‘democracy’ which is supposed to fool the rest of us.
The misleading statements made by opposition parties, be it in Britain, the 26 counties, Germany’s Bundestag (now situated in the old Reichstag building in Berlin) in fact any country are the same. Honest at the time, to a point, but knowing they may not be able to keep their promises which is dishonest by not pointing that out! Already in Britain the modern excuse for Labour, their leader Keir Starmer, is beginning to backtrack on some of his earlier grand sounding promises, which if they were not promises they must have been lies? So far, I have tried in brief to look at the heads side of the coin, which allows for the opposition parties making statements they may or may not be able to keep. Not strongly dishonest but certainly not the whole truth.
The tails side of the coin is far uglier and involves the ‘nihilisms’ of the opposition and governing parties. After promising us the earth while on the opposition benches and not even delivering us a beach at Howth the former opposition gang becomes as morally bankrupt as their former governing foe. They will then tell us how, having promised us the world while they were in opposition, why they cannot deliver on said promises. They will tell us it is all the previous government's fault, they are to blame, the British Conservatives are still blaming the former Labour government which have been out of office for thirteen years! They will not, however, tell us they cannot deliver because to do so would endanger the interests and privileges of the wealthy, those who own the country’s wealth and means of production, distribution and exchange. They will not tell us the real reason for being in government which is not to look after the population as a priority, but to look after the interests and wellbeing of the wealthy, the exclusive ‘people’.
The truth is, opposition parties will tell us anything while they are in opposition to get elected into government. They are dishonest ‘nihilists’ whose sole interests are to govern the affairs of the wealthy. To paraphrase Karl Marx, governments are nothing but committees to run the “affairs of the entire bourgeoisie”. The leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Anas Sarwar, said on a Sunday morning programme some weeks ago; “I am not bothered about principles, I just want to get elected” - in other words policies and political pledges can go and whistle, I’ll say anything in opposition but in government do not expect me to carry out my election pledges!
Well over a century ago in Scotland, James Connolly was Secretary of the Social Democratic Federation. On an occasion his party had finished a respectable fourth in an election and had gained a larger than expected number of votes. He and his comrades could be heard celebrating the occasion. The larger parties wondered why, coming fourth, it gave rise to celebrations? Connolly informed them; “we came fourth on telling the truth, you won the election or came second on a pack of lies”. I wonder what James Connolly would have said had he heard Anas Sarwar’s statement about not being “bothered about principles”??
It can only be concluded that modern parliaments can only be viewed through one lens, the lens of reality. These so-called ‘cathedrals’ of virtue are the exact opposite full of ‘nihilists’ who hold no political principles, as openly admitted by the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, no genuine political positions except to fulfil their task of getting elected at any price to look after the interests of the wealthy, the bourgeoisie and, in the case of Britain, the landed aristocracy. They are paid well for maintaining this shroud of ‘democracy’ which is supposed to fool the rest of us.
Well, you can ‘fool some of the people, some of the time’ but it cannot go on indefinitely. One day a generation will catch themselves on and see through these false elections. The problem may be, will the backlash lead to socialism, harmony and complete democracy on an international scale eventually and world peace or, and I hope not, could the situation be hijacked by an element of the present rich and powerful and a fascist takeover replace liberal democracy, as happened in Chile? That is the danger, a danger the bourgeoisie are well aware of and are, under certain conditions, prepared to exploit.
Perhaps it is time for the would be revolutionary socialist and communist groups to stop bickering over unimportant things like what kind of state the USSR was and start thinking how the flaws in the present system can be exploited. The only force capable of replacing it, the organised working-class, shop steward’s committees, trade union rank and file and those presently not in unions but want to fight, must be kept informed politically by these groups. Start thinking strategic and stop putting the respective party line as the be all and end all because these lines are meaningless without the proletariat to fight and take power as a class. Catch yourselves on before it is too late!
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
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