Guest Post - Paul Dillane : "Time to Go Looney and Labour"

Paul Dillane is Campaign Manager of the Looney for Tallaght Central campaign.

Time to Go Looney and Labour

The local election campaign of 2009 is now drawing to a close.

By far the most response on the doors has been “so long as you are not Fianna Fail.” It has been a dramatic fall from grace for a party that swept the board at the general election.

When the short, intensive run in to the local elections began, the Dermot Looney campaign turned itself from its focus of political activism on local issues to attempting to gather votes from involvement in these issues. Again and again, we argued with people on the doors that the time was right to elect a campaigner to the council who would continue in the best traditions of Labour in the area.

One of the most encouraging aspects of the campaign has been the opportunity to politically engage with people across the ward of Tallaght Central. There is huge anger at the government and a good deal of disillusionment abroad. Convincing people that a political alternative is available has been a real task.

Many voters who opted for FF in previous elections are willing now to stitch allegiance. But those voters are often very weary of a potential Fine Gael government. We have insisted that we are campaigning for a Labour led government that represents a real break from the past, a real possibility in the now much altered political landscape.

There has been plenty of craic on the campaign trail. Meeting the occasional political loyalist from opposition campaigns has lightened the load considerably. The political grilling is part of the course for canvassers, or knockers as we are known in the states - or bashers, as we are called in some traditional elements of Irish political activism. Almost every voter, however, has been courteous and welcoming and willing to engage.

If you are a voter in the Tallaght Central ward, and you haven’t made up your mind, but are thinking of going Looney, I have a lot to say to you. However, I am warned that the blogospherere won’t hold pages of argument so I have condensed my case into 2 points.

Dermot Looney is:

The Labour candidate.

- Voting Labour is the way to put up a signpost to a new society in Ireland that is genuinely Republican and Democratic.

- Don’t go toward Fine Gael. Look at their policies; they represent more of the same.

None of the smaller parties can lead an alternative government.

Dermot Looney is not:

A member a party whose councillors have nearly ruined Dublin with disastrous planning (we are looking at you FF and FG), or active in a party who continue the dishonourable relationship between wealthy interests and politics that caused the scandalous planning issues in Dublin (we are still looking at you FF and FG).

Please support Dermot Looney tomorrow and thanks for reading the Looney Left during this campaign.

Election Diary: T- 9: Brian's Gone to Iceland

Shhh!

It's three am. Glad to say I've not been drinking, but did manage to make it into town tonight to see off Brian O'Connor, one of the most active and longstanding team members, who's heading off to Iceland (the country, not the supermarket) tomorrow. Brian's been an integral part of the campaign for over a year now and his departure, though heralded a long time ago, is still a loss. Of all the team members I'd say Brian has dropped more leaflets than anyone, not to mention his canvass record and postering abilities. I'm sure he'll have some interesting observations from Icelandic politics when he returns, and I've promised to keep him in the loop on count day, along with other supporters in Australia, Luxembourg, Britain, the US and Thailand.

Our canvass in Tallaght tonight went perfectly to plan - last knock was five minutes before the start of the CL final. Much of the rest of the day after work was spent doing up some last-minute literature and planning the campaign; our Campaign Manager Paul Dillon remains calm throughout the slip-ups and computer freezes, and has guided us over the last few months with the patience of a saint.

8 days left. Most of the candidates have upped their game in the past week. All going well for us, it should be a great final week, but then again events are always getting in the way of good plans!

PS - Forca Barca! Great game, Messi again proving his genius. My favourite player in the world. OK, work in 5 1/2 hours - oíche mhaith!

Election Diary: T- 11: One Down, Thousands to Go

Yesterday's cliché about wearing out my shoes on the canvass is now available in pictorial form - just to prove it!

First things first - it has been pointed out to me that the numbering system on these election diaries is confusing, and I can see why. "T-11" would indicate eleven days left, but when writing after midnight (as I do most nights) I should really take off another day.

In other words, the polls open in a little over 10 days time - the "11" refers to the day just gone, for those not in the loop. And yes, I too am baffled. But it would be even more confusing to change it at this stage.

The Echo have put online the feature with candidate profiles they had in their print edition some weeks back. The wards are a bit mixed up but many of the candidates give an account of themselves.

We paid a quick visit to St Kevin's Well, a historical site in Kilnamanagh, at the end of this evening's canvass. Here's a small group of us outside at the end of a strong night's work, with Chris "Bond Lad" Bond in one of his customary poses.

And to round up the pics we also took a visit to the McHugh's site - you'll find more elsewhere on the blog - to check out the sadly-predicted vandalism which is increasing by the day.

The boost of the day - and one of the biggest personal thrills for me in the short campaign to date - came this evening in Kilnamanagh. I was engaged in a long and at times heated canvass with a resident as our campaign manager Paul Dillon knocked next door. Paul beckoned me in as I finished the canvass to speak to his neighbour.

The man I met told me, with great pride (both for me and him) that he had voted earlier this morning through the postal vote and had given me his number one. Knowing there is at least one number 1 beside Looney, Dermot (The Labour Party) in the system somewhere is, for some reason, both comforting and uplifting. We're looking for a couple thousand more to be elected, mind you.

PS - Belated Happy Birthday to one of our most sterling campaigners, Colm Lawless, who turned the ripe old age of 17 on Sunday. Colm has been an integral part of our campaign over the last year and mixes an extraordinary political mind for someone so young with a keen sense of politics as action. He can't vote himself - despite our efforts with the Votes@16 campaign - but is gaining so much for us with his work. Lá breithe shona duit a chara - le déanaí.

Election Diary: T- 24: First On the Ballot

Huge apologies for the lack of posts of late. I've decided to regularise my blogs by posting a 24 Day Countdown - no Jack Bauer here, just 24 days of candidate blogging.

At 10am on Saturday morning I was delighted to meet with the Returning Officer and staff of South Dublin County Council to lodge my nomination papers. I have been officially nominated by Councillor Eamonn Walsh, who has been Labour's voice in our community for more than a quarter of a century - and a Councillor for 18 years. Eamonn, as you may know, is stepping down from the Council this June and is fully behind my campaign for election. It's a huge and genuine honour to have his nomination for election and I hope to do him proud in the fight ahead.

I was accompanied by Eamonn and my Campaign Manager, Paul Dillon and as well as meeting the friendly and welcoming staff, we also bumped into a number of candidates and agents including our old UCD colleague, Paul Murphy, who is working behind the scenes for Cllr Mick Murphy of the Socialist Party.

I met, for the first time, Arthur Doohan - the Green candidate in Tallaght Central - and Baby Pereppadam, an Independent candidate in Tallaght South, who had a huge entourage with him to register his papers.

Getting on the ballot was by no means easy, given the tough selection process for any significant political party, particularly for such a young candidate. But now that we're on it, we're pushing hard to have as many "1's" beside my name as possible.

For what it's worth, here's the pic that'll appear on the ballot.

Guest Post - Paul Dillane

As part of a new series of occasional guest posts, I am asking members of our campaign to let the readers of this blog know about their motivation for involvement, the work they do and the hopes they have for our campaign for community and change.

This week's guest blog post is from Paul Dillane (pictured with me on last year's demo against education cuts, right). Paul and I both studied Social Science in UCD, where he encouraged me to get active in politics and to join the Labour Party. In 2003 he recruited me as his campaign manager for his successful bid to become President of UCD Students' Union, and we have shared many platforms and campaigns ever since. Paul plays a key role in our campaign here in Tallaght Central, and as an activist across issues and at many levels - including on the National Executive of the Labour Party - he is unfailing in pushing for a socialist alternative in Irish politics.

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"Dermot Looney campaign points to a different and better way for local politics."

When an election candidate's close friends and political colleagues start paying tributes to him/her, things generally start getting fairly embarrassing. We are generally asked to believe in a candidate’s tremendous ability to "get things done", their unstinting track record of "hard work" and their localness to a particular area. It is as if a good political candidate has the qualities of a saint (they can intervene on your behalf with unknown powers), a horse (can work and work and work...) and a priest (is at the heart of the parish).

In reality, some of the powers claimed by local politicians are powers that do not long belong to them at all. For example, the planning process has been taken out of the hands of local councillors. The claims of politicians to be able to deliver planning permissions and stop your neighbours from building extensions are just that-claims.

That is not to say that politicians cannot work with local communities to develop good planning or put pressure on developers who are neglectful, but to state that politicians are simply not gifted to make the final decisions when it come to planning matters.

The functions of budgeting have also been broadly removed from councillors. For example, the controversial and unfair bin taxes lie not in the hands of people we elect, but with the county and city managers and the Department of the Environment. This is not to suggest that it is okay and right for councillors to vote for privatisation of services under protests of "they would have done it anyway" or "we had no choice", but to point out that the capacity of politicians to intervene in some of the most important local issues is extremely limited.

It is the not the work of a conspiracy theorist to suggest that real power often does not lie directly with people we elect. What then is the role of a local councillor, particularly one concerned with bringing about real political change?

It seems to me that a local councillor who uses his/her position to campaign, mobilise and organise people in pursuit of political goals is the best response in a system that is undemocratic and where decision making does not lie directly with those we elect. The alternative to such an approach is politicians claiming credit for things that have nothing to do with them or justifying decisions that they had no power in shaping.

It is one thing to claim be a local campaigner and organiser of people as an alternative to the clientelist model of politics, and another thing to pursue and deliver on this goal. However, the Dermot Looney campaign is seriously showing how politics can be done in a different way. The campaign to redevelop the McHugh’s site in Greenhills- a site left derelict after the developer in question knocked down the once key amenity and then did something of a runner- is one such example of this alternative approach, where Dermot mobilised local opinion through petitioning to put pressure on the council. And there are others - such as Dermot’s involvement in anti-education cuts initiatives, which have attempted to mobilise people against the cuts culture of the government.

So, if you are willing able, please consider voting Dermot Looney in the local elections. Better still, consider getting involved in a campaign that is genuinely different and where you will be sure that your involvement will make a difference.