Wednesday 17 September 2008

The Plough Vol 05 No 10

The Plough

Vol 5-No 10

Wednesday 17TH September 2008

E-mail newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party


1) Editorial

2) A Nationalist Distraction

3) The Structure of the Revolutionary Party

4) Trade Unionism in the North of Ireland.

5) The man the bourgeois forgot






Editorial


This edition of the Plough carries two interesting discussion articles.

One by a young comrade deals with the nature of the revolutionary party. Too often in the past republican organisations have become so dominated by strong individuals that debate discussion and arguments became impossible leading to frustration. Or else weak leaderships would drift along leading to lack of direction strategy or ideas again leading to demoralisation and frustration. There is a real need for a centralised ideologically based leadership imbued with the revolutionary Marxist ideas that encourages the widest democracy and discussion but also the firmest discipline in action. There can be no place for windbags, bar room socialists/ republicans, egotists or Sunday activists in a revolutionary organisation. Commitment in time, finance, ideas, in activity, and at all times putting the long-term interests of the working class first are the marks of those comrades genuinely committed to change. Such attributes will ensure that the collective leadership that emerges does not resemble the kind of dictatorial centralised bureaucratic control exercise currently by the Adams faction of provisional Sinn Fein.
The other discussion article outlines some thoughts on the trade union movement in the North of Ireland and accurately points out the failure of the republican left to seriously develop any trade union strategy.
We also include a historical piece by a young Dublin comrades on the life and times of James Clarence Mangan a Dublin born republican almost written out of our history.
Incidentially it is important to claim our history and Ireland has along tradition of links with the international struggle of the working class. Two example
1/ Che Guevara had strong Irish roots His father Ernesto Guevara said in 1969: "The first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels" Che's grandmother, Anna Isabel Lynch, was born in the west of Co. Galway and eventually she moved to South America. Once there she met a man called Guevara, and they had a child they named Ernesto who was Che's father.
(Source http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/che_guevara_irish_roots.htm)
2/ The Hearts of Steel, tillers of the soil, men of tenant farmer, artisan and labouring classes and descendants of the Presbyterian planters branded themselves together on the estates of Lord Donegall in County Antrim during the 1770’s to lower the rents cess and tithes. A graven sundial made in Templepatrick had a sickle and hammer crossed and above the words “Hearts of Steel” and below “Necessitas non habet legem” (Necessity knows no law)
“So the Bolsevik insignia, the hammer and sickle had a County Antrim prototype in the late 18th century” (Source Irish News Sept 17th 1939)


A nationalist distraction.

Recently a Provisional Sinn Fein MLA Barry McElduff said:

'Young people need to be encouraged when they make political statements in a peaceful and political manner.'As many as 50 post boxes have been painted in Tyrone in the past month.
'It is ironic that in Lifford post boxes are green but in Tyrone, only one mile away, they are red. 'This is about blurring the border.'(Newsletter 10 September 2008)


He was talking about some young Provo supporters going around the countryside and painting the post boxes Green. Now there is no doubt that this is an issue that the vast majority of working class people in Ireland have been worrying about and fretting badly about for years.
Never mind rising unemployment within the building trade particularly in County Tyrone, never mind huge increases in Gas prices for consumers never mind huge increases in electricity for consumers, never mind huge increases in home heating oils never mind huge increases in the cost of staple foods for household such as 60%increases in the cost of eggs, never mind huge increases in mortages, and never mind increases in poverty homelessness suicide anti-social behaviour and the credit crunch. Don’t pay attention to the collapse of two of the four largest banks in the USA and the subsequent ramifications world wide for working people loss of jobs, pensions etc., Never mind the failure of the power sharing executive to meet in three months and the inability of Stormont to do anything. Never mind that!!!.

They are all distractions to take away the minds of the Irish people from the supreme task of the moment, the achievement of the national ideal! Paint the post boxes green and unite Ireland.Whoa! Whoa! What a brilliant idea.
Readers when you have finished being sick, remember the words of James Connolly
“If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic England would still rule you”

Colouring post boxes green does not a republic make nor liberates the working class. It is a total distraction by nationalists to avoid facing up to the links between the national and class question.

Gerry Ruddy



The Structure of the Revolutionary Party


“Structure is the very essence, because everything involves around, depends upon and springs from the very structural make up of the movement”-Ta power



These prophetic words from Thomas Power sum up how important the structure of the revolutionary party is; how it relates to everything the party ends up doing; how it influences the behaviour of the membership as well. Power was emphasising its importance in relation to the failures of the IRSM in the past. But was he correct in this analysis? Can we really blame a bad party structure for the bad politics and counter revolutionary behaviour of Republican movements in the past? While we may not allow ourselves to believe that party structure is the only cause of these mistakes, it is nevertheless historically proven to be a re-occurring phenomenon when we look at the failures of the republican movement in the past.

A major failure of the Republican movement has been the many splits from within the party. Most republican parties today can trace their history back to some sort of split with the main party bloc and a lot of the time these splits were aggressive. If we stay with the IRSM for a moment and look at how they came into fruition we can point to the structure of the party the people who formed the IRSP were in before its creation as a major reason for this. We will try to point out how a proper party structure would have prevented the fracturing of the Republican party/movement as a whole and how if this problem had been solved in the years before the major splits we would today be looking at a much larger, co-ordinated and defined republican voice in Ireland.




Historical mistakes of structure

The IRSP/IRSM was a split from Official Sinn Fein. I would like to be able to say that they “evolved” from the Officials but the fact of the matter is that it wasn’t an evolutionary process from one political principle to another, it was a split, and a bloody one too. The reasons for this are clear. The party structure of the Officials was so bad that it basically cut off from the membership any democratic expression of political ideas. Seamus Costello, who would go on to form the IRSP, was working from within the party to try and direct the republican movement in a more left direction for a very long time. He worked tirelessly to put his ideas out into the party to be debated, using normal and legal methods, but the party structure let him down. The structure of the party was so backward that not only did it not allow Costello free expression of ideas but it forcibly cut him off from the party and it was because of this that those who adhered to the ideas of Costello felt they had to split from the main party bloc.

The facts are clear here, the formation of the IRSP was a direct result of the lack of a democratic structure within the Officials. The political ideas of Costello were on their way to securing the shift of party principles within the Officials and because the leadership did not want this it used the backward structure of the party to make this impossible. If the party structure was correct then the Officials would possibly have never split but would have instead accepted the majority will of the membership and would have taken a less reformist position in regard to its activities.

Granted, some would have left, but the party would be intact because its ideas would have been achieved democratically. Any party which secures its ideas un-democratically stops being a party of the working class. This process just defined-of the democratic acceptance of the ideas of the majority and the inevitable result from those who don’t agree to walk away from the party-would be classified as a purge and not a split. This is because the minority idea was subordinated to the majority idea and those who would not accept this left. When the majority idea is suppressed and a walk out occurs this is then a split. A split in a party is a very bad thing, but it is something republicans take as normal nowadays.

A split is completely different from a purge. Every party must purge itself of reformist and counter revolutionary ideas once in a while but a split is different. When a section of the membership feel that the only path left for there ideas is to create a new party and break away from the main bloc then that informs us that freedom of expression of ideas or democratic debate is absent from that party.

If you want to grasp how catastrophic the decision to split the party is you could also look at Provisional Sinn Fein as an example. Imagine that there was no split from that movement. Those who believed in different ideas/tactics had stayed in the main party because there ideas were not suppressed by the leadership. Just imagine how important that section of the party would be today. That section could use the apparatus of the party to secure support for new ideas for the direction of the party and with a majority these ideas would be implemented. But sadly those from within PSF who had different ideas have split on two separate occasions because the democratic freedom of expression of ideas was curtailed, the party structure was wrong. And now any feeling of objection to the direction of PSF ends up in more splits.

This situation is a disaster for the working class struggle. The massive mandate that the PSF party has secured has been let rot by those who split. This mandate is still loyal to the PSF party and the possibility of shifting this mandate towards a more revolutionary position is never going to happen because those with different ideas have split from the party. As we have seen this was because of the lack of democratic expression of ideas within the party which is an effect of bad party structure.

The missing link

There is something lacking from the party. Its absence secures at the point of difference of opinion the fracturing of the Republican Party. This “something” is the party structure of the party which led the masses in Russia to social revolution, the Bolsheviks. It is a structure called “Democratic Centralism”. It might sound like an oxymoron but that’s the key. It’s a dialectical structure in that it contains contradictions. It is both “democratic”, and “centrally led”.

The party which has as its structure a democratic centralism is a party full with debate and freedom of ideas. The party members who disagree with a certain tactic of the movement are comfortable in the party because they are given freedom to express and articulate their ideas from within the apparatus of the party. If they secure a majority and they do not represent a bourgeois infiltration then the democratic structure of the party means that idea is implemented. We must remember that the party is not as important as the principle the party was created to agitate for (a workers republic). If we remember this then we would not have any issue with watching a party which was once revolutionary become a party of reform because we would just accept this majority decision and leave the party and join another organisation which still held the principles we adhere to.

Look at how the Labour party have changed completely in their principles, but the party is not as important as the principle so we just accept this and move on. We must have the same attitude when it comes to our own party. The fear of accepting majority ideas causes the structure of the party to turn into a bureaucracy and traditionalism runs rife. Bureaucracy and democratic expression of ideas can not co-exist in a revolutionary party. The fear of infiltration from Bourgeois ideas is a direct cause for the lack of democratic expression of ideas within the grass roots of the party. This is why centralism is vitally important when it comes to the implementation of this structure.

Centralism

We are talking about parties which are fighting for the overthrow of capitalism and securing the workers republic. We are involved in a war, the class war, and we must implement structures within the vanguard of this war to keep the party safe from reformist or bourgeois infiltration. This is where centralism comes in. The bourgeois party has a central idea which runs through all of its different parties. Bourgeois parties the world over have a central idea which keeps them from becoming a party of the working class(ie supporting capitalism) and the party of the working class must also have a central idea which keeps it from becoming a party of the bourgeoisie.(ie building socialism)

This is why the revolutionary party needs a central leadership. The main job of this leadership is, among other things, to safe guard the revolutionary party from bourgeois ideas. If this is done properly then the fear of infiltration from Bourgeois ideas will be curtailed and democratic expression of ideas will be allowed flourish from within the grass roots. The oxymoron of Democratic centralism ceases to be when they are both implemented together fully. The democratic expression of ideas would not exist without the central leadership to safe guard against bourgeois ideas and the central principle of the party (working class struggle) would not exist without the free expression of ideas from within the party. The central idea needs healthy debate around it in order for the party to understand the importance of defending it against Bourgeois ideas. When they understand this they see the importance of a central leadership. Each element plays of the other and both are vital to the proper implementation of this structure.

Conclusion

A Republican party structured on the idea of Democratic Centralism would end the phenomenon of the split from within Irish republicanism. Once there is an avenue for the expression of an idea from within the party there would be no need to create that avenue outside the party. Democratic Centralism would also encourage healthy debate amongst the grass roots and as a consequence would heighten the calibre of the membership. The central leadership would need to continue to educate themselves in the politics of class struggle so the cadre of the party would also be raised.

The party we see now is a party which is growing in its knowledge and understanding of class politics, from top to bottom, and this knowledge will be of huge importance when it comes to deciding party policy and actions relating to the class struggle. A party which does not have these qualities will be a party which will make the wrong decisions when it comes to the class struggle. The lack of a good party structure inevitably results in poor quality of debate from within the membership which in turn results in a low calibre of class based knowledge. The leadership is also affected in that it becomes a bureaucratic clique and dictatorship.

It is of upmost importance that left republicans structure themselves along the lines of Democratic Centralism if they are to be relevant to the working class struggle. This must come before any attempt at activism because any activism that is not a result of direct party policy only serves to confuse the membership and the masses. The theory must be sorted first and then you can initiate activities and policies from this confident position. You wouldn’t face a snow storm without the proper protective clothing, without being prepared. The same logic must be applied to the class struggle. Without firm theoretical and structural foundations the party is at risk of collapse if faced with stormy conditions. This has been proven throughout history.

Now let us end with another inspirational quote

“If you do not correct your mistakes you will stumble from one mistake to another”-Lenin

“Redflag32”



Trade Unionism in the North of Ireland.

Trade union activities are heavily constrained by the economic nature of the Six counties. Economically, the Six Counties are dominated by a massive public sector comprising some two thirds of the economy (compared to less than 30 percent in the 26 counties). While the state is responsible for 68 percent of economic output, more than 95 percent of the Northern private sector is made up of small businesses. 90 percent of companies there employ fewer than ten people and only 0.5 percent of companies have a workforce of more than 200. In terms of employment, 41 per cent of the work force is employed in the public sector (compared to a UK average of 20 percent), while the rest of the labour force stands at 15 per cent in retail, 13 per cent in manufacturing, 11 per cent in finance and real estate and 10 per cent in construction. On top of that, more than 500,000 people, that is over 40 percent of the working age population, are economically inactive. This is the highest economic inactivity rate of the UK. An economy based on government jobs, corner shops, and state benefits severely limits the material basis for a progressive trade union movement.

In the North of Ireland, the partitionist division of the trade union movement creates an additional problem. Workers are divided between British and Irish unions. Total trade union membership in the Six Counties stood in 2007 at 250, 948 members. The public sector dominates with over 65 percent of membership. 75 percent of members are affiliated to UK unions, 20 percent to Northern Ireland ones and only 5 percent to Irish unions. The first problem facing activists in the unions is that of a divided clientele and an institutionally divided movement. This historically has always been the case. Not only do you have Orange and Green workers, you have Orange and Green unions. James Larkin for example had some successes, not least because he was an official of an English union, and therefore less open to attack by loyalists on grounds of national allegiance. Connolly in contrast was far less successful. For example, his organising of mineworkers in Larne was thwarted overnight once workers discovered that he represented a southern union; which resulted in the miners not only abandoning Connolly, but the strike as well. When Larkin criticised Connolly for not making as much headway as he had, Connolly’s reply was instructive:

“… he [Larkin] is for ever snarling at me and drawing comparisons between what he accomplished in Belfast in 1907 and what I have done, conveniently ignoring the fact that he was then the secretary of an English organisation, and that as soon as he started an Irish one his union fell to pieces, and he had to leave members to their fate” (S Levenson James Connolly: a biography London 1973, p221).

The consequence of this is that with a divided movement, taking political stances outside purely trade union issues would drive away one section or another of the divided clientele. In his book States of Ireland, Conor Cruise O Brien tells of a Communist Party shop steward in the North who was used to bringing politics into the work place and is now busy trying to keep it out because politics inevitably means conflict.

The trade union movement only exists on the basis of the lowest common denominator between workers. ‘Politics’ have to be avoided. So, for instance, the trade union movement has been reluctant to take up the issue of repression because it would alienate protestant workers. A few trade unionists did set up the Trade Unions Committees Against Repression (TUCAR). But when Brian Maguire, an AUEW and TUCAR activist, was found hanged while in police custody in 1978, the union movement was notorious for its self-castration on the issue, fearing to alienate Orange workers.


Throughout the conflict, trade unions have not only avoided politics but have actively OPPOSED the republican struggle (for example during the 1981 hunger strikes leading officials of the Northern Ireland Committee pointed out to police those trade unionists active in the H-Block struggle. )

Despite these structural limitations, the bulk of the left places great emphasis and hope on trade union work. They point to the example of the 1907 strike organised by James Larkin or the 1932 Outdoor Relief Riots when workers of the Falls and the Shankill united. These events have been mythologised by the trade union movement and most left groups as examples to emulate. However, these events –with their bloody aftermaths- in fact show how fragile working class unity was and how easily it could be broken by sectarianism. Though dramatic, these struggles were too short to have any lasting impact on Orange ideology (although a small number of Protestant workers were won to socialism) nor did they help pursue the long-term political interests of the working class movement. Protestant workers would only unite with Catholics when the economic situation was extremely severe and even then the seeds of discord were always present: while overriding political issues such as partition remained unsolved and the major structural determinants of working class disunity ignored, working class unity could only be a short lived, ephemeral occurrence.

The problem with that type of left analysis is that trade unions and sectarianism are viewed as opposites. Sectarianism is seen to exist outside trade unionism, or if inside a regrettable aberration. But sectarianism and trade unionism are not opposites, except in the realms of abstract analysis. Trade unions in a sectarian society cannot remain insulated from the society of which they are part. Workers coming from the Unionist community have a dual consciousness in which proletarianism and sectarianism co-exist. In 1971, for example, a militant engineers’ march against the British government’s Industrial Relations Act was led by Billy Hull. Just weeks later, the same shop steward led the same workers out on a march to demand internment and repression. There is a whole literature about the development of sectarian trade unionism and about the mutual acceptance between unionism and trade unions. In fact, as the example of the 1974 and 1977 loyalist general strikes demonstrate, the loyalists have had more of a trade union base than republicans. Trade union activities and militant loyalism are far from incompatible.

While individual republicans are members or active in trade unions, no republican organisation (including the IRSP) has a formal trade union strategy or programme. Some republican socialists believe that
“reclaiming the unions” should be a priority. They argue that the unions are sound working class organisations, the problem is that they are
“misled by bureaucrats “
What they propose is to mobilise the “rank and file” members of the unions against those “bureaucrats”. But this ignores the fact that the material, social and political conditions of existence of the trade union movement depend on partition.

This is why while it is at best possible to push individual trade union bureaucrats to the left ; it is not possible to do so for the official trade union movement as a whole. As the late Jimmy Brown put it,
“the trade union movement which began as a workers organisation inside the state, has now become a state organisation inside the class “

A radical movement can only be built OUTSIDE OF and in OPPOSITION TO the official trade union movement. Some republicans and socialists have begun this task – Tommy McKearney with the IWU for example. However the IWU remains very small and its impact limited.

LOR






The man the bourgeois forgot
James Clarence Mangan


One would find it odd that a man who walked around Dublin City in the early 19th century ashen faced, dressed in a voluminous cloak, wearing green spectacles, a blond wig and a pointed hat with two umbrellas under each arm would be as inconspicuous to the public as this man is today. Eccentricity though is not what should have made James Clarence Mangan more popularly known. His poetry and essays are prepared with enough beauty and originality to break through the bourgeois face of literary Ireland but alas it isn’t so. Literary Ireland consults Britain and America before it declares which Irish poets are great. Mangan is not one of “the greats” because he was a true Dubliner. To juxtapose him with someone like James Joyce is to create a distinction between a Euro-American prose and a true Dublin prose. Joyce’s prose was on a Dublin theme, Mangan’s prose was Dublin to the core. This all relates to the fact that academic Ireland is national in form but British in content. We haven’t enough space to go into that here but those of you who wish to read up on it would be advised to read the book “The Dubliner-the life and times and writings of James Clarence Mangan” by Brendan Clifford, available from Athol books.

Mangan was born and raised in the south inner city of Dublin, Fishamble Street (now lord Edward Street) in a house opposite the Christ church cathedral. He was the son of a father who he described as a “human boa constrictor” and he blamed his parents for most of his life’s shortcomings. At the age of 15 he took a job in a scrivener’s office in York Street, his work involved the tedious task of copying legal documents by hand. He took up writing as a pastime during his time at the scrivener’s office and began writing poetry, puzzles, and other items in a variety of Dublin publications. During his life Mangan’s work was to appear in such publications as “The Comet”, “The Irish penny journal” and “The Nation”. Although his early work was apolitical his later work had a lot of political content. He had strong connections with the Young Ireland movement and wrote in the paper “The Nation” on a regular basis. Young Ireland was not like the national movement which secured national freedom in 1922. It stood squarely for religious freedom for a start. Young Ireland was destroyed by the bourgeois nationalists in the decade after 1900. In fact, if the Nationalist movement which secured national freedom in 1922 would have been an evolution from Young Ireland then it would have had enough non-catholic support to create a state which included the whole of the island. But national freedom was led by the Catholic bourgeoisie and this meant the partition of the state at the point of “independence”.

Mangan was unfortunately a victim of the cholera epidemic in Dublin in 1849. While he was in the Meath Hospital he sensed his death so he frantically wrote down all his last works on any piece of paper he could find. A nurse binned these pieces of paper after his death because she had previously been reprimanded for not being tidy enough, and so we will never see what was written during his last few days in Hospital. They have been binned. Just like Mangans poetry has been binned by the bourgeois Literary of Ireland. His essays, his influence in Irish political and cultural life, his life story of toil and hardship in an ugly and cultureless Dublin can only be found in obscure pamphlets written not by lovers of poetry but mostly by political activists who understand that culture can only be achieved by man if he is free from the toil of work. Mangan represents the cultural revolution of the working class that would take place after the emancipation of the workers. The bourgeoisie in Ireland are the class of people who have been free from the toil of work who were able to influence what we now call Irish culture. Culture and Art should not be solely in the hands of a minority class, it is for all. Along with the Socialist planned economy and the reduction of hours of work for the working class will come an amazing cultural revolution. The workers will finally be in a position to be involved in Culture and it will flourish.

Unfortunately we just don’t have the material for me to write more about Mangan’s life. A lot of his time is undocumented as he seems to “disappear” for large chunks of history. I could tell you that he had a drink and opium habit, I could tell you which pubs and dens he drank in. But I don’t think that’s important, either is the fact that as he got older he became more eccentric and the description of his attire given at the start of this essay can only really be contributed to this stage of his life. What I can do in this essay however is point out that there is more to Irish culture than what the bourgeois academics of Literary Ireland claim. Its our duty to seek out and reclaim this aspect of our history because nine times out of ten the majority of the population (workers) can not connect or relate to the culture of the rich. Mangan is a Dublin poet true and true, he lived his whole life as a worker in Dublin and his poems and essays were printed in Dublin journals. If your looking for literature that really represents Dublin and Ireland then Mangan is your man.


Mangan was the poet laureate for The Nation. In its first issue he wrote this. Mangan has poems that are more widely known and appreciated, but seen as we touched on his political persuasion in this short essay I think this would be the right poem to re-print.


The Nation’s First Number

Tis a great day, and glorious, o public, for you-
This October fifteenth, Eighteenth Forty and Two!
For on this day of days, lo! The Nation comes forth,
To commence its career of wit, Wisdom and Worth-
To give genius its due – to do battle with wrong-
And achieve things undreamed of as yet save in song.
Then arise! Fling aside your dark mantle of slumber,
And welcome in chorus The Nation’s First Number.

Here we are, thanks to heaven, in an epoch when mind
Is unfettering our captives and couching our blind;
And the press with its thunders keeps marring the mirth
Of those tyrants and bigots that still curse the earth
Be it ours to stand forth and contend in the van
Of the truths legions for freedom, that birthright of man,
Shaking off the dull cobwebs that else might encumber
Our weapon-the pen-in The Nation’s First Number.

We announce a new era – be this our first news –
When the serf grinding landlords shall shake in their shoes;
While the ark of a bloodless yet mighty reform
Shall emerge from the flood of a popular storm!
Well we know how the lickspittle panders to power,
Feel and fear the approach of that death dealing hour;
But we toss these aside – such vile vagabond lumber
Are but just worth a groan in The Nation’s First Number.

Though we take not our motto, Nul n’a de l’esprit,
(As they once did in Paris) hors nos bons amis,
We may boast that for first-rate endowments, our band
Form a phalanx unmatched in – or out of – the land.
Poets, Patriots, Linguists, with reading like Parrs-
Critics keener than sabres – wits brighter than stars;
And reasoners as cool as the coolest cu-cumber
Form the host that shine out in The Nation’s First Number.

We shall sketch living manners – and men – in a style
That will scarcely be sneezed at, we guess, for a while;
Build up stories as fast as of yore Mother Bunch,
And for all twists take the shine out punch;
Thus our wisdom and Quizdom will finely agree
Very much, public dear, we conceive, as you see
Do the lights and the shades that illume and adumber
Each beautiful page of The Nation’s First Number.

A word more – to Old Ireland our first love is given;
Still, our friendship hath arms for all lands under heaven.
We are Irish – we vaunt it – all o’er and all out;
But we wish not that England shall “sneak up the spout”
Then, O’public! Here, there, and everywhere through the world,
Wheresoe’er Truths and Liberty’s flags are unfurled,
>From the Suir to the Tweed, from the Boyne to the Humber,
Raise one shout of applause for The Nation’s First Number.

For more information,

The Dubliner-the life and times and writings of James Clarence Mangan by Brendan Clifford Athol books
http://www.atholbooks.org/index.php

Poems-James Clarence Mangan- Gallery books.

Hidden Dublin-deadbeats,dossers and decent skins-Frank Hopkins (Mercier)

Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clarence_Mangan

(Redflag32)







Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference on:

Re-Building Trade Union Activism
Saturday 20th September

Venue: UNITE Hall,
Middle Abbey St, Dublin


AGENDA

11.30 to 1pm: Pay claims, social partnership and re-building our unions

Speakers: Jimmy Kelly, Regional Secretary UNITE; Owen McCormack,
Busworkers Action Group; Dick Roche TEEU National Executive



Break



2pm - 3.30pm: Public sector cuts and outsourcing: How do we resist
Speakers: Joe Tully, (Nurses Rep); Bernard Lynch ASTI; John Kidd SIPTU
Convenor, Dublin Fire Brigade



3.30pm - 5.pm: Recruiting to the unions: How we organise

Speakers: Paul Hansard, President SIPTU Construction Branch; speaker from
UNITE organising unit.



All speakers in a personal capacity

Entrance Fee ?5 (to cover running costs)



WHY THIS CONFERENCE:

The trade union movement needs a radical change of direction. For twenty one years it backed social partnership deals and this has led to the weakening of the grassroots of the movement. But at the first sign of recession, the employers' organisation, IBEC, told us that workers cannot get the wage increases we deserve. Wages had to be cut - and not profits!
Those who gained most from the boom now want us to pay for the recession.

There is a real danger that employers will try to destroy hard fought-for conditions. Outsourcing and agency working have become the new weapons that are used against workers.

We have to resist. But the present model of union organising will not serve us well for the battles head. Some of the union leaders have become too close to the government and do not know how to fight.
One result of the failed strategies of the past, is that union density has fallen. Ten years ago, more than one in two workers was a member of a union. Today it has fallen to one in three and, amongst young workers, only one in four.We need a return to grassroots trade union activism to tackle this.We would, therefore, would like to invite fellow shop stewards and union activists to a national gathering to discuss a new way forward for our unions.

This gathering is inspired by a few simple ideas:



· That we need strong unions that can take on the employers and win real gains for workers.

· That union leaders must show leadership in this fight - and not be messengers for the government or the employers.

· That we need a strong shop steward organisation that is able to mobilise its members to take action.

· That we should be willing to use all weapons at our disposal, ranging from publicity battles to industrial action. We must do what it takes to win.

· That our unions need a strong political voice and that we cannot be
tied to one political party, which jettisons our interests.

This conference will be a practical, working conference that will bring together grassroots activists from a number of unions. Our aim is to spread the power of good examples, to learn from each other and to build solidarity.

We, the undersigned, support this Grassroots union conference and urge you to attend.

Signed:

Kieran Allen (President, Education Branch SIPTU), Paul Hansard (President
Construction Branch SIPTU), Joe Moore (CWU National Executive), Des Derwin (President Engineering Branch SIPTU), Tommy Hogan (Regional Committee UNITE), Kevin McGaley (President Killarney Branch SIPTU), Doreen Fitzgerald (Shop Steward, Health Professional Branch SIPTU), Niall Smyth (Branch Secretary, Dublin City North Branch, INTO), John Kidd (SIPTU Convenor Dublin Fire Brigade), Mick Scanlon (Shop Steward Cork No 3 Branch SIPTU), Tony Greene (SIPTU area shop steward, Construction Branch), Brendan Begley (Shop Steward, SIPTU Education Branch) Eugene McDonagh (NRBU Executive) Rory
Coleman (shop steward Harristown Bus garage) Tony Kelly (Convenor Waterford Crystal) Mary Ryan (TUI Dublin County Branch Committee member) Alice Sheridan (PSEU Branch Committee member) Dick Roche (TEEU shop steward & President of Waterford Trades Council) Breege Scanlon (Nurses Rep)
(All signatories are in a personal capacity and the descriptions are not
used to indicate anything other than the signatories are union activists)

Please ciculatre details of the conference to any e mail list of trade
unionists.

For further information on the conference contact: 087 2839964 or email:
kallen@iol.ie


What’s On?




18th Sept. DOCUMENTARY:
"HISTORIA DE ROSA" (the Story of Rose) By: Florence Jaugey (2205, 30 min.) Time:19:00 o'clock Where: Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2 The documentary will be introduced by Victoria Díaz García
Organised by LASC and Choice Ireland


19th Sept. LASC STALL IN Culture Night
LASC is taking part in the Global Fair in Culture night with books and crafts from Latin America including fair traded coffee, handmade boots made from the Zapatista communities along with Kankuamo jewellery.
http://www.culturenight.ie/detail.asp?ID=106




LATIN AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT ISSUES COURSE. Starting 23rd September.
This lively and participative course provides an overview of the causes and consequences of lack of development in Latin America. Rooted firmly in the experience of the people of the region, the course will cover historical, social, economic, political and cultural perspectives.
Where: Ballsbridge college of Further Education.
Further info: http://www.ballsbridgecollege.com/dev.html


CHARLA LATINA!!!!
DEVELOPMENT ISSUES THROUGH LATIN AMERICAN SPANISH
Fom 25th September to 27th November. Thursdays 6:00-7:30 pm
To enrol, fill in the booking form you find on
http://www.lasc.ie/activities/charla-latina-08.html
Please enrol ASAP as courses fill up very quickly!!!



LASC RESOURCE CENTRE AND SHOP - Books, organic produce from Latin
America, Latin American craft and much more!!
http://www.lasc.ie/resources/index.html


12th Sept SEVENTH NORTH SOUTH INTERCULTURAL FORUM
NATIONAL CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE ON RACISM AND INTERCULTURALISM (NCCRI)
Place: Tower Hotel, Derry, County Derry Time: 9.30 am
More info: www.nccri.ie and 042 935 2730




13 Sept. IPSC SPONSORED WALK THROUGH THE DUBLINMOUNTAINSTime: 11:00am in the car park of The Step Inn
Further info:http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/ipsc/displayEvent.php?eventID=458




15 Sep. SAMI MOUKADDEM: LAUNCH NIGHT OF NEW CD "THE FACTS OF LIFE FOR THE PALESTINIAN"
Time: 7:30PMVenue: The Button Factory, Temple Bar (aka Temple Bar Musisc Centre),
http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/ipsc/displayEvent.php?eventID=456

19 and 20 Sep. CONFERENCE 'HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE'.Place: St. Patrick's College
Website: www.spd.dcu.ie/chrce



9th of Oct. "GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT - ISSUES AND CHALLENGES THAT FACE OUR WORLD. Time: All Thursdays at 7.pm.
Place: Dundalk Institute of Technology.
Further info: http://www.learn.ie/www/product.asp?pID=117&cID=3

Friday 5 September 2008

The Plough Vol 05 No 09

The Plough

Vol 5-No 9

Friday 5th September 2008

E-mail newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party


1) Editorial –the vacuum!

2) Recession

3) Roddy Connolly and the Struggle for Socialism in Ireland

4) Lisbon Dead But Is It Buried?

5) Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference

6) Letters




Editorial
Where political vacuums exist there is always someone to rush in and fill the gap with alternatives. The current paralysis at Stormont has created a gap. The failure of the DUP and Provisional Sinn Fein to come to agreement on the devolution of policing and justice and the inability of the executive to meet over the summer has lead to a growing disillusionment among some sections of the population. Many nationalist who having once lent their votes to H-block candidates many years ago decided to stick with Provisional Sinn Fein as it moved towards its peace process. They once hoped that, not only would peace break out, but that huge political gains would be made by Northern Nationalists. They indeed did get a cessation of violence but they also got Ian Paisley as First Minister, Peter Robinson as First Minister, MI5 now officially based in the North of Ireland and with full control of security matters relating to Republicans. They also got a local administration under the financial control of the British Treasury and committed to the implementation of the privitisation policies of the Blair /Brown Governments. On the plus side it could be argued that reforms were achieved including the reform of policing, the recognition of an all Ireland dimension, a commitment to equality and human rights and cross border bodies.
Regardless however of the arguments pro and anti the Good Friday Agreement there is as yet no widespread opposition to the agreed political structures in the North. Yes there is a cynicism, and there are doubts among the general population about the long -term stability of the Stormont system but no strong viable alternative exists.

Within what could call the broad republican traditions there are conflicting views. Some of the existing organisations that emerged from the provisional tradition believe in the efficacy of armed struggle while others while condoning street rioting hesitate at calling for a return to armed struggle. Some base their politics on events that happened ninety years ago while others appeal to so called traditional republican values.

Those who emerged from the official Republican traditions of the early 1970’s based their politics and actions on various interpretations of Marxism. They placed class struggle at the heart of their beliefs. Along the way some of them ditched the national question and concentrated only on the class issue. This lead some of them to join the British Imperialists in condemning the republican hunger strikers and labeling anyone who did not share their analysis as “terrorists” “ultra leftists.” They confused nationalism and the struggle for national determination and so became cheer leaders for rapid industrialisation under capitalism. In this they were accompanied by some of the so called far left who while formally recognising there was some kind of national question in practice ignored it and made pious appeals for class unity as they attempted to build a base within the trade union movement.

The Republican Socialist movement itself made errors mistakes and took wrong turns during the years of its existence. That said there is no such thing as the perfect organisation. To err is human. A sign of the genuineness and relevance of a revolutionary organisation is its ability to learn from its mistakes. Organisations are set up to pursue specific policies and have a clearly defined set of beliefs. They are not set-up simple to exist. Once the existence of an organisation becomes more important than the ideals and principles that set it up in the first place then it no longer deserves to exist for it will inevitably corrupt its ideals in the interests of perpetuating its existence.
The current demand by the Democratic Unionist Party for the disbandment of the Provisional IRA’s Army Council has a certain amount of logic. After all where it is now is certainly not where it was when set up in 1970. Certainly not in terms of beliefs, aims and objectives and certainly not in terms of principles. Perhaps that could be said of a lot of organisations. After all external changes in the world have a direct impact on events in Ireland.
For example the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major shock for many on the left with a smattering knowledge of Marxism. It was such a shock that many became so disillusioned that they abandoned politics. Those on the right gloated and said it was the end of history and that capitalism had won the class struggle. Previously revolutionary national liberation struggles now began to make peace with the Imperialist overlords. Hence the Irish Peace Process. In retrospect it now clear that the visit of people like Adams and Mc Guinness to the USA in the early nineties was to pay homage to the world’s only super power and promise to forget all that “revolutionary nonsense” they had previously sprouted.
Others took from the collapse of the Soviet Union and from the internal sectarian squabbling of far left organisations that marxism itself had failed. So called revolutionaries dismissed Marxism as irrelevant to the “real revolutionaries.”
Yet Marxism is the only thing that can make sense of what is happening in the world. History was not ended. Class conflicts have arisen all over the world. In recent years the masses in South America have shifted to the left and socialism has taken root in place like Venezuela and Bolivia. Of course that is no guarantee that it will last but it does prove the essential validity of the Marxist analysis.

The IRSP from its foundation in the mid 1970’s was always influenced by Marxism. People from Seamus Costello through to Ta Power had an essentially Marxist analysis of the national question in Ireland. Ronnie Bunting was another Marxist influenced at one time by Maoism. The essential document for all republican socialists -the Ta Power Document is a Marxist document and has guided the leadership of the Republican Socialist Movement for at least the past 14 years and was the guiding document for Gino Gallagher when along with others he began the rebuilding of the movement. But Marxism is not a religion it is a guide. Those who fetish the writings of Marxism are no better than the fundamentalist preachers who try to ram the Bible and creationism down one’s throat.
It is the use of Marxism methodology and approaches that should guide the IRSP in the coming period. We have been consistent in our analysis of the current political peace process and have on that basis clearly pointed out the folly of taking the armed road at this historical juncture. We are not pacifists and we do seek revolutionary change but that will not come about simply because we want it. We have clearly stated in the past that while there is no basis for organisation unity with other republicans there is room for –co-operation on matters of mutual interests including demonstrations pickets etc.
We have also firmly set out our stall. We are socialists and we firmly base ourselves on the needs and aspirations of the working classes in Ireland. Our way forward is to build the revolutionary party and that means the fullest commitment from all our comrades concentrating, not on blaming other republicans for the political vacuum but posing instead the alternative way forward, the Marxist , the republican socialist road. With out 100% commitment from all those who call themselves republican socialists that road will be all the harder to travel.
At a time of credit crunches, inflation, lay offs rising food petrol prices and a general air of economic despondency we Republican Socialists need to make sure that the really class issues are raised and not get side tracked by the blind alleys of anti-social behaviour, drugs, flag waving or sectarian issues. The national question is inextricably tied up with the class question. It is our job to clearly put both to the fore.
jm





RECESSION



As the economies of the two artificially separated parts of the island of Ireland both limp from one crisis to another it would appear, certainly from media reports, that all sympathy is aimed in the direction of the employers and business. There is little mention of the people who really suffer when capitalism finds itself in trouble, the working class. This should come as no major surprise as it is the capitalist class, the wealth accumulators, and not the wealth creating working class, who own and run society for their own benefit. Governments, Irish, British and those who sit in that farcical Northern Assembly who call themselves a government but lack full governmental powers, are there to govern the affairs of and in the interests of the capitalist class. On a recent UTV, news report the regional newscaster was almost in tears as she was informing the viewers, some of whom had probably lost their jobs, how hard the ‘economic slowdown’ would be for business and how bad business’s would be hit, how profits would suffer etc. Needless to say there was very little words of sympathy for the working class many of whom stand to lose their employment, not chiefly because of any bad government decision or policy,( after all they only do what their capitalist masters require them to do,) but because of working in an unstable, unreliable and uncaring system.



Capitalism is a system geared solely to allowing the minority capitalist class to amass huge profits on the backs of the majority working class. It is true that in these post modern times some working class people don’t see themselves as working class and for these people a reality check is probably about to ensue. Working class (proletariat) people are only permitted to make a living and improve their living standards on the strict proviso that the capitalists are to amass huge profits out of the labour power of these same workers. If it is not profitable it does not get produced irrespective as to how much society as a whole needs the product, no production no labour required.



In the Twenty Six Counties the picture is much the same as in the Six Counties. The building trade, as far as labour is concerned, is in a mess because property speculators can not make as much profit out of once vastly inflated house prices. Therefore the people who actually build the houses, workers in the form of Bricklayers, Carpenters, Electricians, Plasterers, Glaziers, Painters and Labourers etc., are “laid off”. Less profits for these speculators and employers should not be confused with no profit it simply means not as much profit. This scenario is not specific to the building trade as it is repeated in many other sectors.



What can those gallant men and women who consider themselves fit to govern sitting in Dail Eirean do about the situation? The strange fact is that, like most people who are in jobs they are incapable of carrying out, they don’ know what to do! Even if they did have in inkling as to which way they should proceed they would find progress very difficult because they blindly follow an economic policy placing the interests of the “market” over and above all other considerations (and if the Lisbon Treaty is ever passed these interests will take an even larger preference). They take a minimum intervention stance in the economy, a modern equivalent of the 19th century Laissez Faire economic ideology initially based on the “invisible hand” theories of the 18th century economist Adam Smith, and even he accepted labour as the chief contributor in creating wealth. If these people who sit in Dail Eireann and their counterparts who do the same in the parliaments of other countries had any idea of what to do, or had the balls to do it, they would take a more hands on approach to the economy, whether it suited the needs of the capitalist class or not (and whether Brussels approved or not),

1/stop tax breaks for big business,

2/nationalise all medium to large companies, including the building trade,

3/cap profits

4/back away from the notion of a pay freeze at the instigation of the employers.

Economic planning as opposed to the anarchy of the so called free market would become economic policy. Had this policy previously been adopted the economic slowdown which could reach recession levels may have been avoided. Instead of giving corporate tax reductions and tax breaks to their masters in big business the same money, after all public services were taken care of, could have been saved for times of crisis. Put simply a socialist planned economy based on production for the needs of people as opposed to the profits of the few.



Well fellow proletarians it looks for us like the crisis is about to arrive, and when Brian Cowen, An Taoiseach,went to the piggy bank guess what!, it was empty. Poor Brian and his cabinet did not know what to do when suddenly he, Brian, had an idea We’ll BORROW the money from our capitalist friends abroad. What Brian and his puppet government did not realise is that capitalism has no friends, they even despise each other such is the ruthless nature of the system. As a consequence of this imbecile system, governed by fools for the benefit of thieves, it is the working class and not the robber barons who normally suffer. This we are constantly reminded is the only way, the finest route, the only pragmatic political avenue, to follow in the management of our affairs, and the problem and tragedy is people, even those who stand to lose their jobs and therefore their income swallow it and, tragically will encourage their children to do the same.

(Kevin Morley)



Charlie McGuire
Roddy Connolly and the Struggle for Socialism in Ireland
Cork University Press, 2008. 328pp.

As the son of James Connolly, Roddy Connolly wished to continue the fight for the realisation of his father’s ideals through involvement with the Republican Movement , the Communist Party (of which he was one of the founders) and finally in the Irish Labour Party. Until his death in 1980, Roddy Connolly took part in the Easter Rising, formed Ireland’s first Communist Party, was briefly involved in the Workers Party of Ireland in 1926, and ended up joining the Irish Labour Party with the intention of taking it to the left. In the 1940s, he was twice-elected Labour TD, and in the 1970s returned as chairman and Senate member. Charlie McGuire’s book is important not only because it is the first biography of Roddy Connolly to be published, but also because it challenges the dominant interpretation of the extraordinary times through which Roddy Connolly lived.

« An examination of Connolly’s career assists those historians who wish to challenge these conservative interpretations because it illuminates the thread of radicalism that runs throughout twentieth-century Irish social and political history, and in so doing, alters appreciably the latter’s overall appearance. »

This book,

« dedicated to all those redoutable and often forgotten women and men who were ever part of the struggle for socialism in Ireland »,

is written from a perspective sympathetic to the ideals that motivated Connolly father and son. This book will be of great interest to Republicans and Socialists. The only problem is that it is very expensive –49 Euro- but it is possible to get this important book through library or interlibrary loan.



Roddy Connolly continued his father’s fight after his execution for taking part in the 1916 Rising. McGuire provides a succint but valuable assessment of the reasons behind James Connolly’s decision to take part in the Rising. This is all the more important given that he is often accused of having abandoned socialism for nationalism, taken a pro-German position, and subordinated the working class movement to petty-bourgeois forces. A key factor pushing James Connolly towards the rising was his analysis of the world war and post-war perspective.

« Connolly clearly believed that the war was a result of the crisis of a decaying British capitalism and imperialism, as opposed to a general crisis of world capitalism and imperialism. (Note : this distinguishes Connolly’s analysis from that of Lenin or Luxemburg –LOR)



He saw the British Empire…as a brake on the economic, political and cultural progress of colonial nations throughout the world and Ireland in particular. In the light of the failure of the Second International to stop the war, Connolly moved to the position that the next best outcome would be a British defeat and the destruction of its empire. But Connolly also feared that if the British won, they would be able to offset their declining power for another generation. This would allow them to carry through the partition of Ireland…Connolly also looked at the disappearing liberties of the working class in both Ireland and Britain and felt that these might be permanently lost in the post-war period.

» These are some of the reasons why James Connolly came to favour a German victory in the Great War ; something not mentioned in the usual hagiographies of Connolly. Better the victory of « German State Socialism », as he called it, as it carried « more possibilities of progress » than British imperialism.



Because James Connolly did not see the war as a general crisis of imperialism (he viewed it only as its British variant) Connolly did not foresee the post-war convultions that would rock European capitalism in the 1917-1920 period. As McGuire notes,

« He did not hold to the perspective of a maturing European working-class revolt, but felt that the Irish working class’s only chance at avoiding the terrible fate he saw awaiting it lay in an immediate strike at the British before the limited window of opportunity afforded by the war was closed off for another generation. »

James Connolly ultimately threw in his lot with a section of the advanced nationalist petty bourgeoisie in 1916. This did not represent a failure of his politics or an abandonment of socialism. The problem for Connolly however, was that the respective balance of forces in this joint venture was weighted heavily in favour of the adavanced nationalists. The problem with this from a socialist point of view is that

« rather than the organised working class leading the revolt pulling behind it the revolutionary petty bourgeoisie ; the opposite was true. » The petty bourgoisie would lead the revolt with only a marginal input being made by the organized working class that had been badly weakened by both the Dublin lock-out and the war. Charlie McGuire defends Connolly’s stance : « It was not the revolt he had envisaged or worked towards, but one, given the perspective that he held to, that Connolly felt he had no choice but to organize and be involved in. He had not abandoned socialism…but was, in his view, acting the only way a socialist could, in the given circumstances. »

This disgression to show that the quality of Charlie McGuire’s discussion of 1916 illustrates the overall strength of his analyses throughout the book.



A substantial part of McGuire’s biography of Roddy Connolly deals with the period usually referred to as the ‘war of independence’ and the ‘civil war’. Since the second half of the 1990s, ground breaking studies of the period have been published. Most of them reject the idea that class struggle was central to the dynamic of the period and argue that it had no real socialist content or potential. In contrast, Charlie McGuire’s book « show that the assumption made by most historians that this was a purely conservative revolution –and Richard English, Tom Garvin , Peter Hart and Henry Patterson are just four in a long list of historians who hold this view- is one in need of major qualification. It is, in fact, more accurate to see the Irish Revolution as springing from various, and at time conflicting, sources , some proletarian, other bourgeois. True, it was led by the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois elements and ultimately served sectional interests within those classes. This though, does not alter the fact that there was a proleterian aspect to it as well. The level of strike activity and agrarian disturbances, the fact that the land question lay unresolved, the existence of soviets and workers’ rule, shows this demonstrably to be the case. The input of the Communists during the Irish Revolution highlighted these social aspects. It introduced a Marxist subjective factor into the objective situation, which helped to illustrate its class component. This was particularly the case after the outbreak of the Civil War in June 1922. … In short Connolly and the CPI recognized the social strand within the Irish Revolution and, considering it to be its most significant component, sought to make it the basis of the entire anti-Treaty movement, warning that this was the only way it would succeed. This shows that there was logic behind the communist argument that involvement in the Civil War was involvement in the class war. And as a whole, it illustrates that the Irish Revolution was not the straightforward conservative, bourgeois revolution that so many regard it to be.



» This challenges Richard English’s argument that the ideas of Socialist Republicans of that time had little value and no real basis in reality.



The same goes for the twenties and thirties. The political and economic problems of the Free State « created considerable political space on both the national and the social fronts and constituted a golden opportunity

» for the left. « Instead Fianna Fail, which emerged simultaneously and which courtesy of its much wider base and superior level of organisation was able to occupy with ease the radical anti-Treaty ground in Irish politics, swamped it. For three years the Irish Left had had numerous chances to build an alternative to the neo-colonialism of Cumann na nGaedheal but had wasted them all. Now it was too late. Fianna Fail’s potent mix of economic and political nationalism, coupled with promises of industrial jobs and land reforms, allowed de Valera to win over large sections of the working class as well as the petty bourgeoisie. In effect, he had taken up both the national and the social questions, linking social and economic improvements with progress on the national question, albeit in a non-republican, non-socialist manner, and stymied any hopes the Left might have had of emerging as the main opposition to Cumann na nGaedheal. »



It is not that Republican Socialists such as Roddy Connolly did not have a real chance. « That Irish workers voted for material reasons for (Fianna Fail) the party that they saw upholding their interests, and could link those interests to the national question politically and economically, suggested that a party in the James Connolly tradition might receive a fair hearing. »

The problem for the left is that « whereas Fianna Fail was from its inception a large party that looked capable of defeating Cosgrave, the WPI was tiny. In such circumstances, there could be only one winner in the struggle for the anti-Treaty political ground. » Charlie McGuire shows the negative and divisive role played by James Larkin in those formative years of the Irish communism. Larkin bears a heavy responsibility for the fact that there is no significant Republican Socialist party in Ireland today. James Larkin is probably one of the worst things that happened to the Irish left. The book provides excellent material on the early years of Irish communism.



Roddy Connolly was involved in the short-lived Republican Congress . « Could Congress have succeeded ? In his Rathmines speech, Connolly made the assertion that the working class was becoming more and more militant, more confident…Connolly’s core argument did contain more than a grain of truth. After several years of sporadic, unsuccessful, defensive strike activity designed to minimize wage cuts, 1934 had seen a resurgence in working-class struggle. … Conditions were becoming more favourable for working-class struggle. It is possible that had Congress survived Rathmines…a healthy movement might have been created, having as its aim the directing of this militancy. This is not to argue that such development would have been certain. The power of Fianna Fail was considerable in the early period of its rule. In addition was the impact of the Red Scare, formented by the Catholic Church and possessing virulent qualities. In these conditions the creation of a healthy left-wing movement would have been an immensely difficult task. At the same time, however, the contradictions within Fianna Fail, which had already become evident and which were highlighted by the activity of Connolly and the rest of the Congress, had created a degree of political space for the Left to operate in. Rathmines, though, ensured that this opportunity would be passed up and that the Left would continue to exist in extreme marginalization. »



After the failure of the Republican Congress, Larkin confined himself within the Irish Labour Party, and as time passed, moved increasingly to the right. At the end of his life, Roddy Connolly had become a right-wing social-democrat (he supported the expulsion of John Thorne and the Irish Militant Tendency) instead of communism, and defended the institutions of Leinster House rather than their overthrow. Charlie McGuire mentions the links Roddy Connolly had established with Seamus Costello during the 1960s. They were from the same area in Wicklow, and Connolly had welcomed Costello’s election ; although in the 1970s he would come to denounce Republicans engaged in subversive activities North and South. Using Roddy Connolly’s example, the second part of the book offers solid grounds for rejecting the strategy of transforming the Labour party from within, the implicit conclusion being that the development of working class politics requires political and organisational break with Labourism.



Liam O RUAIRC







LISBON DEAD BUT IS IT BURIED?

On the 12th June 2008 the voters of the twenty six counties were asked to vote for acceptance or rejection of a document compiled by the custodians of European capitalism known as the Lisbon Treaty. The electorate, comprising of a relatively high turn out of well over 50%, voted in excess of 100,000 votes to reject this treaty. This sent a clear message to the government of the Free State for conveyance to their so-called counterparts in Europe that they had been given a democratic mandate by their people not to ratify Lisbon.



The rules of the game were for the Lisbon Treaty to become enshrined in European legislation all 27 member states had to ratify the document. The Irish people, who were the only population in the European club to get the opportunity to vote, said NO. The fact that the Irish people voted to reject Lisbon should have signaled the death of this treaty and, it is broadly felt, if the whole of the peoples of Europe had the chance, which the Irish had, they would have in all probability also rejected this illegible rubbish.



There were many reasons why the people voted NO in this referendum not least the tireless work carried out by umbrella groups such as the Campaign Against European Union Constitution (CAEUC), which consists of a number of affiliated political parties, groups and individuals the Irish Republican Socialist Party being one. As far as individual reasons why people voted to reject the treaty it is fair to say there is no single issue which could give a pointer. Some people, with much justification, were afraid of the “market” becoming the lead factor in the administration of public services. After all the health service for example is already in a poor state for working class people who, unlike the private patients, rely on the public sector without the profit factor becoming the dominant force. Other people voted for rejection because the text, that is those who could get their hands on a copy, was illegible and those who could not obtain a copy, the majority, did not hear one tangible argument as to why they should vote to accept the treaty. Another reason cited by many was that acceptance would signal the final death knell for Irish military neutrality. So the reasons for rejection were many but there is one thing for certain; the concise arguments for a NO vote won the day much to the wrath of the Irish and European establishments.



The campaign for a NO vote began in earnest several months ago with many public meetings taking place throughout the country. The hard work paid off. However unfortunately it is becoming increasingly clear that despite the large mandate afforded to the government to take back to Brussels for rejection it is not the end of the saga. It was reported well before the referendum that 499 MEPs had taken a decision that if the Irish voted for rejection that vote should be ignored and the treaty enshrined anyway. In other words the Irish can vote which ever way the please it alters nothing. The IRSP raised this issue even to the point of over labouring perhaps but it is becoming clear that those labours may have been well founded. For example one French newspaper headlines read ‘The Irish Must Vote Again’ and there is much talk of a second referendum just like what happened with the Nice treaty a few years ago. If this moving of the goalposts does occur again it, to all intents and purposes, will render all future referenda in Ireland worthless. Worthless because if the people do not vote the establishments way they will simply be asked to vote again until they get it right. However it has not yet been decided by the European elite whether the Irish people will have to vote again but there is one thing which appears to be a certainty and that is if they do it will not be the governments decision, though publicly it must appear to be so, the order will come from Brussels and/or Paris. It must be remembered that there is no mandate for a second referendum because as the establishment kept constantly reminding us all in the run up to the referendum if the treaty is rejected “there is no plan B”.



Another option for Brian Cowen and his team of political masquerades, which again there is no mandate for, is to renegotiate the Lisbon Treaty perhaps giving it a different name, for example The Leafy Suburb Just Outside Madrid Treaty, making it slightly more legible but not wholly comprehensible, dotting a few I’s and crossing the T’s and resubmitting what would essentially amount to a treaty consisting of the same content with a different name. This would be difficult to do because the reason the Lisbon Treaty was made illegible was in the words of the Belgian Foreign Minister, Karel de Gucht, “the aim of the constitutional treat was to be more readable; the aim of this treaty (Lisbon) is to be unreadable”. Perhaps the reason the French and Dutch electorate voted to reject the original “Constitutional Treaty” could well have been because it was readable. If Lisbon was to be resubmitted under whatever title in a legible form the establishment run the risk of an even larger humiliation, after all imagine just for once playing something like a slightly more honest hand and still being kicked into touch.



The twenty six county government could, if they wish negotiate a completely new treaty but must remain mindful that for Ireland Lisbon is dead. Any new treaty must include, among other points, the following:

1) Public services must be exempted from the merciless mechanics of the “market”.

2) Irish troops must be withdrawn from PFP (Partnership For Peace which is NATO led) and any other aggressive military organisations such as battle groups. Only then will people be reassured that Ireland’s neutrality is safe.

3) A democratic Europe where the people are the final arbiters.

4) A bill of rights within Europe including a charter for workers which takes preference over all other considerations including the “market”, profits, the needs of the minority employers and must include free collective bargaining for all employees to be recognised by all employers. Any charter on fundamental rights, from an Irish perspective, must include the right of the Irish people as a whole to self determination unmolested by outside influence and artificial borders.

5) A socially inclusive Europe for all its peoples.



The government should remember that their people have given them a mandate and a strong one at that. They should forget about appeasing Mr Barrosa, President of the European Commission, and the French President Mr Sarkozy along with other European leaders and work with the mandate they have been given.

Kevin Morley

Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference on:

Re-Building Trade Union Activism
Saturday 20th September

Venue: UNITE Hall,
Middle Abbey St, Dublin


AGENDA

11.30 to 1pm: Pay claims, social partnership and re-building our unions

Speakers: Jimmy Kelly, Regional Secretary UNITE; Owen McCormack,
Busworkers Action Group; Dick Roche TEEU National Executive



Break



2pm - 3.30pm: Public sector cuts and outsourcing: How do we resist
Speakers: Joe Tully, (Nurses Rep); Bernard Lynch ASTI; John Kidd SIPTU
Convenor, Dublin Fire Brigade



3.30pm - 5.pm: Recruiting to the unions: How we organise

Speakers: Paul Hansard, President SIPTU Construction Branch; speaker from
UNITE organising unit.



All speakers in a personal capacity

Entrance Fee ?5 (to cover running costs)



WHY THIS CONFERENCE:

The trade union movement needs a radical change of direction. For twenty one years it backed social partnership deals and this has led to the weakening of the grassroots of the movement. But at the first sign of recession, the employers' organisation, IBEC, told us that workers cannot get the wage increases we deserve. Wages had to be cut - and not profits!
Those who gained most from the boom now want us to pay for the recession.

There is a real danger that employers will try to destroy hard fought-for conditions. Outsourcing and agency working have become the new weapons that are used against workers.

We have to resist. But the present model of union organising will not serve us well for the battles head. Some of the union leaders have become too close to the government and do not know how to fight.
One result of the failed strategies of the past, is that union density has fallen. Ten years ago, more than one in two workers was a member of a union. Today it has fallen to one in three and, amongst young workers, only one in four.We need a return to grassroots trade union activism to tackle this.We would, therefore, would like to invite fellow shop stewards and union activists to a national gathering to discuss a new way forward for our unions.

This gathering is inspired by a few simple ideas:



· That we need strong unions that can take on the employers and win real gains for workers.

· That union leaders must show leadership in this fight - and not be messengers for the government or the employers.

· That we need a strong shop steward organisation that is able to mobilise its members to take action.

· That we should be willing to use all weapons at our disposal, ranging from publicity battles to industrial action. We must do what it takes to win.

· That our unions need a strong political voice and that we cannot be
tied to one political party, which jettisons our interests.

This conference will be a practical, working conference that will bring together grassroots activists from a number of unions. Our aim is to spread the power of good examples, to learn from each other and to build solidarity.

We, the undersigned, support this Grassroots union conference and urge you to attend.

Signed:

Kieran Allen (President, Education Branch SIPTU), Paul Hansard (President
Construction Branch SIPTU), Joe Moore (CWU National Executive), Des Derwin (President Engineering Branch SIPTU), Tommy Hogan (Regional Committee UNITE), Kevin McGaley (President Killarney Branch SIPTU), Doreen Fitzgerald (Shop Steward, Health Professional Branch SIPTU), Niall Smyth (Branch Secretary, Dublin City North Branch, INTO), John Kidd (SIPTU Convenor Dublin Fire Brigade), Mick Scanlon (Shop Steward Cork No 3 Branch SIPTU), Tony Greene (SIPTU area shop steward, Construction Branch), Brendan Begley (Shop Steward, SIPTU Education Branch) Eugene McDonagh (NRBU Executive) Rory
Coleman (shop steward Harristown Bus garage) Tony Kelly (Convenor Waterford Crystal) Mary Ryan (TUI Dublin County Branch Committee member) Alice Sheridan (PSEU Branch Committee member) Dick Roche (TEEU shop steward & President of Waterford Trades Council) Breege Scanlon (Nurses Rep)
(All signatories are in a personal capacity and the descriptions are not
used to indicate anything other than the signatories are union activists)

Please ciculatre details of the conference to any e mail list of trade
unionists.

For further information on the conference contact: 087 2839964 or email:
kallen@iol.ie