Revolt in Ireland!

The election in Ireland, with voter turnout over 70%, has seen the public throw out Fianna Fáil, the neoliberal party that has caused a depression in Ireland (see “Ireland’s Sham Recovery: GNP versus GDP,” September 15, 2010). Voter disgust and anger with current policy is all too clear. But the trouble is that no radical and alternative economic policy has been put forward by the major parties.

The new government will be a coalition of Fine Gael and Labour, with some rhetoric from the Labour party already that it will renegotiate the EU-IMF program. However, this might be doubtful in a coalition government with the centre-right Fine Gael.

One other thing emerges too: the brutal neoliberal austerity of the type that has been pursued in Estonia and Latvia has now been rejected by Ireland.

Unless there is a radical rejection of current policies, more Eurozone countries will be crucified on the cross of gold that is the Euro area and its disastrous neoliberal ideology.

One can only shudder at the new age of austerity that is now being planned in Europe and America by neoliberals and conservatives. If the most extreme of them have their way, we will see what has happened in Latvia: depression, mass unemployment, a brain drain, falling birth rates, and mass poverty.

UPDATE

Here are two other views of the situation in Ireland, which are worth reading:

Harry Browne, “Irish Election Makes Room for the Left,” Counterpunch.org, February 28, 2011.

Daniel Finn, “Ireland on the Turn? Political and Economic Consequences of the Crash,” New Left Review 67, January-February 2011.