Johnson backs partition and the union

Deputy Leadership candidate Alan Johnson today launched an assault on Labour's traditional policy of Irish unity by consent, by saying 'We had a ridiculous situation in the party where people in Northern Ireland could not even join Labour. However, I think an unstoppable momentum is building up which will see party members here, in the not too distant future, being able to contest elections.'

Under legal pressure from GMB activist Andy McGivern who has been threatening to challenge the party on race discrimination grounds, the Labour Party has now allowed individuals to join in the north of Ireland, as well as a 'Forum' which will be able to send delegates to the annual conference.

Johnson's latest statement suggests high level support amongst Blairites to also stand in Irish elections.

Having played a progressive role in establishing the Good Friday Agreement, any intervention into elections would be a disastrous policy and roll back trust in the Labour Party amongst Irish republicans.

There is an argument within the Labour Party that it would be able to overcome 'communal divisions' or 'religious divisions' and campaign on bread and butter working class issues. However anyone who takes up this argument is looking through a traditional blinkered and thoroughly colonial mentality. Any mainland British party who seeks to organise in the north of Ireland - or any part of Ireland - is clearly a unionist party, seeking to maintain the political link between the north of Ireland and Britain. Any moves in this direction and we risk our working relationship and trust from Irish republicans.

This also ignores the fact that there are already parties campaigning on working class issues. Sinn Fein and the SDLP are both democratic socialist parties, clearly with different agendas. The fact that it is the parties of the nationalist community that are putting forward progressive policy, and not those of the unionist community (which has a mass working class base) is clearly a result of Irish unionism's political leadership maintaining close links to the British establishment.

A Labour Party in the north of Ireland however does not have good prospects for electoral success. A party's stance on the union and on partition is still a key issue, and as a result attempts to organise as a Labour Party have failed. The most recent attempt, Malachi Curran's candidature for the Northern Ireland Assembly in South Down, standing as Labour Party (Northern Ireland) might generously be termed 'unsuccessful'.