Preface
By Gerry Ruddy
(Ard-Comhairle member, Irish Republican Socialist Party)
Irish Republicanism is in crisis and not for the first time. Generation
after generation of Irish Republicans have thrown themselves into the
struggle against the British occupation of Ireland. Some of the finest
flower of their generation fell in death and defeat in the struggle.
One only has to mention, among others in a long litany of dead, the
names Tone, Emmet, Connolly, Mellows, McCann, Costello, Bunting and
Power [1]
to realise that indeed the best and most radical people of every
generation had flocked to the banners of Republicanism. And yet each
generation fought and failed.
It is customary to learn from experience and indeed the best
elements learn from the defeats of the previous generations. James
Connolly was unrelenting in his criticism of the nationalists of his
day, having analysed Irish history and quite correctly saw that
militant nationalism even when it masqueraded as Republicanism would be
unable to deliver full freedom from the British Empire. His writings
were so dangerous to the aspirations of the Irish capitalist class that
for nearly a full fifty years James Connolly, Marxist Republican
socialist, was presented to the Irish people as a good Irish Catholic
nationalist.
Liam Mellows, when the armed Republicans split over the Treaty,
quickly realised it was a class struggle between Empire or the Republic
and they, the Republicans, had to take up the class questions if they
were to succeed. To justify his execution, the Free Staters were quick
to release his writings and brand them communist in a country
overwhelming under the rule of the crozier of the Roman Catholic
Church. This was a McCarthyite witch-hunt before anyone had heard of
Senator Joe McCarthy.
When the IRA under the influence of radical socialist and communist
ideas declared a new political party called Saor Eire, the Roman
Catholic Church once more raised its voice and the IRA leadership fell
into line. During the Thirties the Roman Catholic Church was to the
forefront in attacks against the radical left. It was sufficient to
call organisations or individuals communist to weaken their influence.
During the Nineteen Fifties while the unemployed of Dublin were
electing two of their number to the Dail on the back of unemployment
protests, Republicans were planning Operation Harvest [2] and were told to ignore social and economic issues. The failure of Operation Harvest led to a rethink.
Seamus Costello, who had been involved in the armed campaign, was in
the forefront of the swing to the left. With the emergence of the Civil
Rights struggle the Republican left was in the ascendancy but with the
outbreak of violence the Free Staters with guns and money split the
Republican movement and backed the emergent anti-communist Provisional
Republican movement. The subsequent decision by the Official Republican
movement to back the concept of the reform of the six-county state led
to Seamus Costello and other comrades walking away to form a party
based around the most advanced ideas of republican socialism. That
party was the Irish Republican Socialist Party, a party I have the
privilege of being a member of.
The ideas of Republican Socialism have been so dangerous to the
powers that be that they encouraged armed attacks on our Party to wipe
us out. In the Nineteen Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, armed attacks
were launched against our movement leading to the tragic loss of great
thinkers and charismatic leaders like Seamus Costello, Ta Power and
Gino Gallagher. During all this time our movement made many mistakes.
But we have learned from those mistakes. The greatest weapon we have is
our ideas. And it was our ideas that lead us to correctly analyse the
Good Friday Agreement. We called for a “no vote”, arguing it would
institutionalise sectarianism, fall far short of Republican aspirations
and copper fasten partition. Our own analysis, we were glad to find,
was shared by the author of this book.
Alan Woods has here written a book that will make uncomfortable
reading for many Republicans. It is a trenchant criticism of
Republicanism based on a Marxist analysis. One does not have to share
Alan’s perspectives however to see great validity in much of what he
says. Hopefully, it will stimulate debate and analysis. Serious
revolutionaries, genuine Marxists, committed Republicans will read this
book with thoughtful interest. They will give it the respect it
deserves. Of course many others on the left will reject his
perspectives and indulge in the usual leftist rhetoric that passes for
political criticism. Alan’s past membership of the Militant tendency in
Britain will be enough for those who play at politics to write his
ideas off without taking the trouble to read them. People of a narrow
nationalist outlook will ask what gives him, a Brit, the right to
comment on Irish Republicanism. These same people forget that James
Connolly was from Scotland, Erskine Childers was an Englishman and
Eamon De Valera, a citizen of the U.S.A. Where people come from matters
not today.
In a world of rampant imperialism it is clear that nationalism has
little or nothing to offer. On the other hand, here in Ireland a
radical Republicanism based on the centrality of the working class to
its own liberation and the most advanced ideas of the working-class
movement worldwide has a lot to offer the working class. That
Republicanism must not be confused with those who pander to nationalism
and tried to build a pan-nationalist front with the enemies of the
working class.
That Provo Project has failed. Despite acts of decommissioning,
despite paying homage to the war-mongering George Bush and accepting
the restoration of Stormont and making some electoral gains by donning
the clothes of Fianna Fail and the SDLP, Sinn Féin Provisionals have
seen their elected Assembly closed down four times and their strategy
based on the Good Friday Agreement collapse.
Now is the time for a rethink for all those who genuinely have an
anti-imperialist and socialist perspective. Hopefully this book will
stimulate a new debate for Irish Republicanism. A new turn is
necessary. Armed struggle is no longer a viable option and the
Republican dream of uniting “Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter” seems
pie in the sky when we see the rising levels of sectarianism in
working-class districts.
When the members of the Republican Socialist Movement took back
control of that movement from an apolitical leadership in 1994/5, they
were guided by the writings in particular of Ta Power because he had so
much to say about the internal mechanisms within revolutionary
organisations. Based on those writings, we have in the RSM returned to
our roots of Republican socialism.
We firmly believe that if this book by Alan Woods begins a process
by which Republicans and socialists return to Connolly and the best
ideas of the Irish and international left, then the future struggle for
socialism in Ireland will be greatly advanced.
Belfast, 1st March 2005
Footnotes:
[1]
Wolfe Tone, father of Irish republicanism died 1798, Robert Emmet died
after abortive uprising in Dublin 1803, James Connolly, outstanding
figure of Irish socialism and Marxism and executed fro his part in 1916
uprising, Liam Mellows, radical republican executed by Free Staters
1922. Joe Mc Cann, left wing socialist member of the official IRA
gunned down by British Army 1972, Seamus Costello, Ronnie Bunting Ta
Power founding members of the Republican Socialist movement all
murdered by the enemies of the Irish working class.
[2] Operation Harvest was the name of the IRA operation against the Six-County state 1956-61. It was a dismal failure.
