By Steve Jolly
The recent Dublin West parliamentary by-election has stunned political observers. Militant Labour's Joe Higgins won 23% of the first preference vote and lost by only 370 votes.
Australian Militant and Irish Militant Labour are both affiliated to the Committee for a Workers' International.
In a sign of the growth of socialist ideas in working-class areas of Dublin, the Militant Labour vote surged from almost nothing in the last election.
The main capitalist party, Fianna Fail, won 24%. Its partner in the governing coalition, the right-wing-led Labour Party, won only 3.8%. Labour's vote collapsed from 22.6% at the last election, reflecting the working class moving to the left.
The second capitalist party, Fine Gael, won 13%.
The Workers Party (a former semi-Stalinist split from the IRA) won 10% of the vote. If they had agreed with Militant Labour's offer to exchange second preference votes, Higgins would have won. As it was, their second preferences were split between Militant Labour, Fianna Fail and abstentions.
The Irish Echo reported that "the big talking point in this constituency was the strength of feeling against water charges, which benefited Higgins, who had campaigned on this issue. [Higgins leads the mass campaign in the Irish Republic against water charges.] The collapse of the Labour vote ... has created a major worry for the coalition partner." [See further report this page.]