The party in the flats

Abstract:

The complex relationships between housing movements and the political party form have not been theorised or explored in depth. This article investigates the potential role of political parties in both politicising housing struggles as well as in undermining the autonomy and militancy of grassroots housing action. It draws on theories of the relationship between political parties and mass movements using the concept of the ‘party as articulator’, which identifies the party’s key functions as unifying social forces, politicising mass movements and providing continuity and stability over time. These perspectives are applied to the mass rent strikes which took place in Ireland in the early 1970s. We highlight the failure of any single party to fully carry out the role of articulator which arises from the fact that none possessed both organic roots in the tenants’ movement while simultaneously articulating radical demands and politicising the rent strikes. The article also investigates the tension between grassroots housing movements and parties oriented towards electoral politics. It demonstrates that, in the case study, the weakness of the institutional left in Ireland meant that it was not possible to fully co-opt and demobilise the rent strikes by redirecting them towards electoralism. The article’s overall contribution is the development of a framework to understand the specific activities through which political parties might contribute to generalising and politicising housing movements.

doi.org/10.54825/ESFP3948