The Exploited Island

Many thanks to the person who forwarded this to the Archive.

This document, issued by the Communist Party of Ireland in 1972 and written by A. Raftery (a pseudonym for Paddy Carmody who was one of those who four years later left the CPI to establish the Irish Marxist Society), offers what it describes in the Foreword as:

…a rather deeper analysis fo the situation in Ireland, particularly in relation to the North, than do most commentators.

It considers Imperialism, questions ‘why have we joined the E.E.C.?’, examines ‘Political Forces in the Six Counties’, including Paisleyism, People’s Democracy and the Ultra-Left’, the S.D.L.P, Alliance and The Republican Movement.

It argues that:

It is essential to understand that the split in the Republican movement is not just over the question of entering Parliament. The Official movement has grasped the necessity for political and social action. In spite of aberrations when it has tried to out-do the Provisionals, it is moving closer and closer to a working class position. Its weakness is a failure to recognise that the organised working class is the force which must be won to lead the struggle for progress.

It later asserts:

With the entry into the E.E.C. some may be tempted to despair. But the E.E.C. itself is showing that it cannot resolve the contradictions of capitalism. Whether it will exist at all in tis present form in 20 years (or less) is becoming doubtful.

In the Six Counties itself realities will have to be faced, even by imperialism. The crisis of the relationship between Ireland the British ruling class has burst out in the North-East, but it will not be confined to there. In different forms it is going to besought out in both part so the country, whether in political struggle or in fights against the results of imperialism, close-downs, unemployment, the take-over of land.

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