I would like to use this opportunity to thank all those who supported my recent and unsuccessful election campaign to Fermanagh District Council for the Enniskillen Ward. It was a great effort which brought together activists from across the county with support from Socialists from across Northern Ireland and as far away as Limerick and Dublin.
The mainstream parties were successful in preventing this election being fought on the issues and obscured the extent and seriousness of the coming cuts public services; an onslaught that will be deeper than anything experienced since 1924. Instead, they chose to fight this election on the same-old grounds of sectarian identity politics leading to an increased polarisation in the vote which resulted in more support for the DUP and Sinn Fein across the county with a loss of support for the UUP and SDLP.
Indeed, this campaign was fought against the backdrop of the 'tribal' headcount that characterised the previous Westminster run-off between Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Féin) and Rodney Connor (United Unionist). The tensions boiled over at the Assembly count in Omagh in the behaviour of unionists and republicans culminating in Tom Elliott, the leader of the UUP, calling heckling members of Sinn Féin 'scum' from the podium and referring to the tricolour as a 'foreign flag'.
Fighting for Every Vote
In that cauldron of sectarian hatred, it was never going to be easy to offer a radical, anti-sectarian alternative. We were fighting the campaign without a social base and without any immediate connection with local communities.
Despite and possibly because of this we fought the hardest campaign of any party in Enniskillen - a fact remarked upon by many of our opponents (both the DUP and Sinn Féin 'upped' their game in response to our campaign).
We knocked thousands of doors across Enniskillen and unlike any election campaign for the past 40 years we canvassed every estate in the town and all the outlying village centres. We canvassed in every area regardless of whether a union flag or a tricolour was hanging from the lamp-post and for the most part we were met with an open, honest engagement and received a positive response.
Unlike every other party who campaigned on the basis of 'maximising OUR representation', at every door we brought an inherently political message. We engaged people on what was happening. We discussed how we could challenge the right-wing agenda that will see local public services devastated in our County at a time when the private sector economy here is on life-support.
At times, it was not easy as we were bringing a very different message to that propounded by all the other parties. We stood openly and unashamedly as socialists and spoke to people about the possibility of democratising the ownership and control of the economy as a way to pay for public services.
On many doors we struggled to gain a hearing from households who were simply sick of the lies of politicians who 'tell you anything' to get a vote every four years. On one memorable door one of our canvassers was told that if he was a 'Banker or a Politician' he should go away - this was not the only occasion but reflected many people's understanding of the empty promises of a political class who were implementing cuts to pay for the banking crisis.
We also struggled through our perceived novelty and our lack of a base in the town. We don't run constituency services and were relying on people grasping the seriousness of the crisis facing us and agreeing with our position of 'fighting back' on a cross-community basis at a time when our political opponents tell us that there is 'no alternative' to the Tory-Stormont cuts.
Results and Prospects
Turnout in Enniskillen was poor as usual with turnout in the more deprived areas falling to below 50%. As such, the 248 who gave us a number one preference vote was a respectable beginning to our work in the county. After the votes of other candidates such as the Green Party Alliance and another independent were redistributed we stood at 280 votes but this was not enough to catch up with the lowest polling Sinn Féin candidate (on 375) and we lost out.
In addition to this vote, we have built the rudiments of a party branch in Enniskillen and this will be critical in developing grassroots and cross-community politics in the County. We have made many contacts with nurses and workers in many estates around the town.
We look forward to further engaging with these contacts we made over the course of the campaign. The Socialist Party will increase our activity in Fermanagh as we grow stronger. The campaign for the next council election starts here.
We remain steadfast and committed to the building of cross-community opposition to defend public services and demand a scheme of public works which will create local employment and develop the productive capacity of our society (in public ownership).
Given the sectarian divisions, there is massive alienation of a large section of people from the political process and politicians, in particular. We recognise that we have work to do to make the case for people to get registered and vote for a fighting alternative. We also need to build the Stop the Cuts Alliance locally involving the layer of advanced workers we have encountered in our campaign. That is the task facing the Socialist Party in Fermanagh in the months and years to come.
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