Not surprisingly Labour delegates have voted overwhelmingly in favour for the implementation of the 21st Century Commission Report this afternoon, a move party members feel places them on the ‘cusp of greatness’.
During the debate there were 14 members speaking against the commission and 13 proposing it. That more people would take to the stage to oppose was not lost on some party members, specifically those in opposition.
The mood from both sides was that this was a deciding moment in the creation of a Labour party that could feasibly offer decisive alternative leadership after the next election. Speakers against the commission were keen to stress that their opposition to Eamon Gilmore’s proposals was not an opposition to Gilmore himself.
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Proponents of the commission, including the final speaker Ruairi Quinn, asked the audience present to imagine tomorrow’s headlines proclaiming Labour’s leader unable to lead his own party, thus unable to manage the demands of our sinking economy. Proponents of the opposition seemed more aware of the implications of a ‘No’ vote in the public sphere than the opponents.
Though many speakers spoke of the Labour party of the past, the party of the 1913 Lockout founded by James Connolly, there was a definite air of a need to change, in some respects, the image of the Labour party throughout Ireland. It is all too evident that certain areas in Ireland are lacking in Labour representation and remain unconquered perhaps due to an organisational structure lacking managerial, administrative and – in Gilmore’s words – the necessary ’spin doctors’ to move the party forward. Though many delegates demonstrated their necessary respect to the historical foundations of the party – most notably Willie Penrose who pounded his fists while proclaiming that his deceased grandmother, a participant in the Lockout, would be voting for the commission were the dead afforded a vote (!) – there seemed to be a slight movement toward leaving the past where it belongs and offering more of the country Labour’s New Deal than ever before.
Quite happily lacking in all speeches – from what I could see and hear – was the Obama rhetoric so avidly adopted by other parties and politicans. Though the evening is still young and Gilmore’s leader’s address still to go I, personally, was happy not to hear the party’s rhetoric of change being linked to new ‘yes we can’ school of politics.
Gilmore’s speech is at 8.30pm this evening, preceded by a dimming of the lights in honour of Earth Hour at 7.30pm.
Ciara
