Marxism Today: Special Irish Number
| Date: | 1973 |
|---|---|
| Organisation: | Communist Party of Great Britain |
| Publication: | Marxism Today |
| Issue: | Volume 17, Number 6 June 1973, Special Irish Number |
Contributors:
Info | Seán Nolan, Michael O'Riordan, A. Raftery, Tom Redmond, Betty Sinclair, Edwina Stewart, James Stewart |
| Collection: | The British Left on Ireland |
| Type: | Publication Issue |
| View: | View Document |
| Discuss: | Comments on this document |
| Subjects: | Sunningdale Agreement, 1973 Communist Party of Ireland |
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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution
10th November 2008
Here is a document that should be of some interest.
You can find copies of Marxism Today over the years available here . However they currently run from 1978 onwards. This edition is a bit earlier and significantly different in tone. As ever the point of the Irish Left Archive is to not just give you the text but also a sense of the physical presence of these documents… The materiality of it, as it were.
Anyhow, Marxism Today, venerable journal of the Communist Party of Great Britain and later cheerleader of the Euro-communists devoted this edition to the issue of Ireland. And this it does in a series of interesting articles.
Some of the names will be familiar. This shouldn’t be surprising since they are culled from the Communist Party of Ireland. Here is Michael O’Riordan, writing on “The White Paper on Northern Ireland”. There is Betty Sinclair writing about Trade Unions in Ireland.
Others are less so.
The concerns are those of the further left during this period - and after. The North, The Common Market and so on. And the CRA is prominently featured. Notable is the absence of any British voices.
It’s a nice production with a more than faintly academic aspect to it. Scientific socialism indeed. Hence the journal-like pagination starting at page 161. The Starry Plough on the cover is a nice touch, and one that links it directly to the iconography of the CPI. And for those of us familiar with more orthodox forms of communist organisation the advertising at the back of the journal will bring back memories.
Due to its size I’ve split it into two files, both 5mbs each which I’ll post over the next two weeks. I’ll also post the full file next week.
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You can join this discussion on The Cedar Lounge Revolution
By: Communist Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:41:46
There wasn’t a World Festival of Youth and Students in 1977, you may be referring to the one on Cuba in 1978. Our line was not that the Provos were progressive, but that British imperialism was the primary source of the violence. So please get whoever told you the story to refine it. If two people who were shot by the Provos were prepared to take a rational Marxist view of where they came from and why they weren’t going to go away no matter how many times the WP called them fascists, then I would say that points to a remarkable political maturity, utterly missing in many WP members, especially those in the south who never saw a provo, let alone fought them.
As I remember in Havana in 78 there was a leading WP member who had an interesting nickname and who was never very well known for tolerating dissent himself. He spent a lot of time over the years condemning kneecapping. It used to get a lot of laughs from those who knew him.
Opposing violence per se is not a pro-union position. Condemning republican prisoners as criminals and denying that you have any prisoners yourself is a bit more problematic.
If people want to read what the CPI’s position was then the material is available, in the Irish Socialist and Unity. We had protestant working class members who actually stood for elections in their unions and didn’t hide their views. We often called for co-operation with the WP but they seemed to like the Northern Ireland Office better.
Reply on the CLR
By: Garibaldy Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:25:01
The 1977 was indeed a typo. I heard the story from more than one source, and they said the same thing, though I understand you have a different memory of it.
The Provos were never going to go away no matter how many times The WP called them fascists because they represent a very real and deep-rooted tendency in society in the north. And a very regrettable one, which is one of the main obstacles to the development of genuine left politics there.
As for whether the paramilitaries in the gaols were criminals or not. I guess that a sectarian murder or blowing up a shop in a Protestant area can be politically motivated but whether people involved in organisations that carry out sectarian murder and attacks deserve to be put on pedestals because of their treatment by the state is a different matter. I know USI for example had ten demands for all prisoners, and rejected the elitism of the paramilitary groups who sought to keep ordinary prisoners in poor conditions so they were guaranteed privileges. That seems to me a more humane and progressive response to the problems of treating prisoners.
Left cooperation is certainly vital, now more than ever. In the past, the main problem was as I understand it that people were calling for joint action with forces that were carrying out the sectarian murder of workers. I was just saying over at Sluggerotoole what a great and unfortunately rare example of cooperation the Spanish Civil War memorial in Belfast is. The meetings that have taken place recently between the CPI and WP are certainly positive developments.
BTW, you haven’t mentioned the burning of the office. I assume you accept it now took place.
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By: Baku26 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:05:02
I am surprised at the resurrection of that hoary old myth that the WP was pro-Union. It was a condition of party membership that recruits subscribe to the Party Constitution which was unequivocally republican. I am also surprised at the suggestion that during the H-Blocks campaign and the 1980’s the word “republican” wasn’t mentioned given that not only was it a regular part of the internal discourse but figured as well in publications like Workers’ Life and Making Sense.
In the February 1983 Workers’ Life Des O’Hagan stated that “the Provisionals have gradually dropped all pretences to being in the Republican tradition” and accused them of abusing “the language of Republican philosophy and struggle …” In an interview with Workers’ Life in May 1982 Sean Garland stated that building the Workers’ party was fundamental to establishing a democratic Socialist Republic. Tomas MacGiolla’s Presidential Address to the Ard Fheis in 1981 is replete with references to republicans and republicanism. He stated that Fianna Fail, who had locked up republicans “thought that they had smashed the power of republicanism in Ireland” but discovered that “the Republican ideal was stronger than ever … and was leading the fight for democracy in Northern Ireland”.
Prejudice, myth and memory may do grave injustice to the facts.
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By: Pete Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:47:07
Its all got a little lets refight the 1970s here. I think the the above post answers the Republican question. But then again I think Mr Harris (and his fan base) may have walked out in a bit of huff at one of the above AFs and may have been giving Mac Giolla a bit of guff at the time about his Republicanism. of course that hero did not raise concerns about Garland – he was always a man of felxible princple, or favourable McCain/Obama fan.
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By: Old SFWP Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:27:18
Don’t go blaming Harris and the RS for all the mistakes. We were all caught up in it. We were all for co-operating with the CPI one minute and then they were provos, but that was never argued out.
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By: WorldbyStorm Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:16:35
V. v. true Old SFWP. There’s an awful lot of retrofitting to avoid the truth of charges of hunting with the hounds while simultaneously running with the fox – or perhaps more accurately willing to tolerate those who did so. That’s true of all formations to some extent, but as regards the WP of the 1980s *everyone* whatever their initial or eventual position could play this game. To be honest as the years go by I think it’s a bit of seeing what people want to see… Republican, surely, tinged with Unionism (de facto ather than de jure) no doubt, and so on…
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By: Garibaldy Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:21:26
De facto unionism? Do you mean the principle of consent? If however you mean the desire of the opportunists to dump the north, then that is probably fair enough. It does seem though that there may have been a gap between the attitude developing in the north and the south. I don’t think that the DL people in the north were ever seen as unionists for example.
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