We live at a turning point in world history. It is a time in which
many idols have fallen, and in which men and women all over the world
are thinking hard about which direction to take. For many it seems that
the harsh sacrifices made in the course of a lifetime of struggle has
been in vain. The old systems of oppression remain in place, seemingly
set in stone. They seem to laugh at our efforts to overthrow them. They
say to us: “Miserable fools that you are!” Did you really believe you
could ever succeed?”
Ours is an age when once cherished ideals are trampled brutally
underfoot. It is the age of the cynic, the opportunist, the careerist
and the turncoat, of people who permit themselves the luxury of
spitting on their own past and encouraging the young people to become
like themselves: pitiful creatures with no belief in the past, no life
in the present and no hope in the future. Deprived of its ideals, the
young generation is being suffocated like a man slowly drowning in a
fetid bog.
We have known such periods before: periods of apostasy that always
follow hard on the heels of a great historic defeat. They seem never
ending, like a dark night that never dawns. But just as the night
always gives way to the day, such periods end in new and even greater
upheavals. The human spirit cannot remain forever submerged in the
Slough of Despond. Beneath the surface of apparent calm and stagnation
new forces are being prepared, new contradictions engendered. Sooner or
later they will burst to the surface.
I am old enough to remember the period of the 1950s and ‘60s, which
also seemed stagnant and never-ending. But I also remember the
tremendous revolutionary upheavals in France in 1968, which I
experienced first hand. I remember how the supposedly apolitical and
cynical youth took to the streets of Paris and fought bare handed
against the armed thugs of the CRS. I remember too how this worldwide
revolt of the youth found its reflection in Ireland with the Civil
Rights movement in the Six Counties, when courageous young men and
women faced the wrath of the B-Specials and the Paisleyite thugs.
That movement was an inspiration to us all. I am a Welshman by birth
and a proletarian internationalist by conviction. I do not believe in
frontiers of any kind because I believe that the nation state has
outlived its usefulness and that it is the task of the working class to
sweep away all frontiers. But as a Marxist I am duty bound to support
every struggle against oppression, whether social or national.
I was a young student in 1968-9, following with passionate interest
the dramatic events unfolding in the Six Counties. I did not see these
events as something alien to myself. To my way of thinking, the
struggles of the youth in Derry and Belfast was my struggle, their
enemies my enemies, their cause my cause. How they fought! Yet
ultimately their fight did not succeed. It did not fail for lack of
courage. If there is one quality that the people of Ireland never
lacked it is courage. But we are in a war, and in war courage by itself
is never enough to win. How many times in the history of warfare has a
big army composed of brave soldiers been defeated by a smaller force of
well-trained professionals led by good generals?
They say a defeated army learns well. It would be a very poor
outlook if that were not the case! After every defeat it is necessary
to adopt that marvellous maxim of Spinoza: “Neither weep nor laugh –
understand!” If we are prepared to ponder on the causes of defeat, to
analyse them calmly and to draw the conclusions, then we can begin to
pull things together again, regroup the old fighters and give them a
perspective, win new recruits among the youth and educate them on the
correct methods of fighting. We can prepare for the new battles that
impend – for such battles are inevitable.
The first condition for a new beginning is to have the courage to
face up to past mistakes, not to take refuge in false optimism, lies
and self-deception. It is necessary to look the truth squarely in the
face. It is necessary to say what is. That can be a painful experience
but it is the only way in which one can put the past behind one and
take a step forward.
The present work has doubtless many defects. It will have its fair
share of critics and detractors, and many will strongly disagree with
its central premises. That is not a problem. It is intended to provoke
a debate on the central questions of the Irish Revolution. If it does
not give all the answers, I hope that it at least has the merit of
asking the questions that need to be asked. At a time when most of the
Left in Britain and internationally seems to have nothing at all to say
about Ireland, that seems to me to be at least something.
The last thing the present work claims to be is original. I do not
say anything new here, but merely restate the traditional ideas of what
we call Marxism and what I believe is known as Republican socialism in
Ireland. Everything I have said and written was said and written long
ago – and much better – by that great Marxist revolutionary and martyr
of the working class, James Connolly. And when some people ask me why I
still defend these “old” ideas, I answer simply: because we still have
the “old” problems.
After the fall of the USSR many have written off Marxism as a force
in the world and even as an idea. Like a baneful chorus in a Greek
tragedy the enemies of socialism chant their tedious lines: the end of
socialism the end of Marxism, the end of history. They work on the
well-known principle of Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister,
that if a big lie is repeated often enough, people will begin to
believe it.
Yet history has not ended and every day that passes we see that the
capitalist system is in an ever-deeper crisis. There is no way forward
for humanity on the basis of capitalism. And there is no future for the
struggle for the national and social emancipation of the people of
Ireland unless it is part of a struggle for the socialist
transformation of society. The struggle against the old oppression in
Ireland will triumph under the leadership of the working class or it
will never triumph. That was the message of James Connolly, and it is
the message of the present book. It has been vindicated time and time
again in Irish history, and in the most tragic way in the history of
the last thirty years. And just as an army needs officers in order to
win a war, so the working class needs a party, a programme and a
revolutionary leadership to overthrow the bourgeois state and take
power into its hands.
The message of this book is that the destiny of Ireland is a
Workers’ Republic, a republic of those who Wolfe Tone called the men
and women of no property, a free Republic without landlords, bankers
and capitalists. It is a message of hope not despair, of confidence in
the future of Ireland, the working class and socialism. It is a
non-sectarian message equally addressed to all thinking people from
different backgrounds, political convictions, religions and other
opinions, but especially to the cadres and the youth of the Republican
movement, who have paid a very heavy price for the last thirty years
and who are now seeking explanations. If it helps even in the smallest
way to get people to pause and think on the lessons of the past and the
way forward, it will have been worthwhile.
My thanks to Espe Espigares for the design and layout of the book,
to Rob Sewell for proof reading and Phil Mitchinson for his advice on
different matters pertaining to Irish history and politics. I would
also extend my appreciation to comrade Gerry Ruddy for his invaluable
comments on the book when it was still in the manuscript stage and his
incisive and helpful foreword. I would like to extend my particular
thanks to my dear friend and comrade Peter Black, a veteran Irish
socialist Republican who originally gave me the idea of this book and
provided me with much invaluable documentary material for it.
