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Communist Party of Ireland
H HH
Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann
Socialist Voice Partisan Patriotic Internationalist
Number 189 November 2020 €1.50
www.commmunistparty.ie
H H
Page 2 Labour law
HH
Page 4 Licensed to kill
Page 6 Celebrate the Republic
Page 8 Identity politics
Page 10 Reviews
Page 12 Revolutionary strategy
Page 14 Reformism
Page 14 Bolivia
“. . . the intellectuals cast a veil over
the dictatorial character of bourgeois
democracy not least by presenting
democracy as the absolute opposite
of fascism, not as just another
natural phase of it where the
bourgeois dictatorship is revealed in a
more open form.”
Bertolt Brecht
(journal, 16 March 1948).
The Industrial
Relations Act must go
The dispute in Debenham’s has exposed
the 1990 Industrial Relations Act for
the anti-worker legislation that it is.
SV
Socialist Voice
43 East Essex Street Dublin
Jimmy Doran reports Page 2 D02 XH96 (01) 6708707
WORKERS
The judiciary have never been on the
side of workers The Trade Union Left
Forum has been to the forefront of the
campaign to have the 1990 act
abolished and replaced with a Fair
Work Act.
This would guarantee all workers the
right to union access, the right to union
recognition, full collective bargaining
rights, and immunity from civil or criminal
prosecution for any action during a trade
dispute that is in itself not an illegal act.
This would tip the balance firmly onto
the side of workers, who need to have
their rights and conditions protected
from exploitative employers.
The Communications Workers’ Union
is the latest in a growing number of
unions calling for the 1990 act to be
abolished. There are now five unions,
comprising 168,000 members, actively
pursuing this policy.
The Debenham’s dispute has also
revealed the dissatisfaction and mistrust
among large sections of the working
class towards the trade union
movement. Some of this is well founded,
The 1990 Industrial as sections of the trade union movement
were happy with the “social partnership”
Relations Act act puts the model, where a general agreement could
balance of power firmly on be made for all workers, so removing the
the side of employers and need to negotiate agreements for
individual groups of employees
leaves workers powerless independently of all employers.
during industrial disputes This led to thirty years of inactivity,
when unions went into a defensive
and dependent on the mode, to protect what workers had,
judiciary finding in their rather than an offensive mode, where
favour. workers fought for a bigger share of
what they produce, with improved rights
Jimmy Doran reports
Who said “The corporate media’s indifference
to Assange’s trial hints at the fact
that it is actually doing very little of
“Washington needs ‘a new way of
thinking’ that would acknowledge that
today no country is able to achieve
that?
DECLAN MCKENNA
the sort of journalism that threatens
corporate and state interests and that
challenges real power. It won’t suffer
such a unilateral superiority in both
strategy and economics that nobody
will be in a position to threaten it.”
Assange’s fate because, as we shall Henry Kissinger warning the current
see, it doesn’t attempt to do the kind US regime to change course on China or
“Instead of becoming distracted by of journalism Assange and his “we will slide into a situation similar to
the ‘threat’ of populism, we should Wikileaks organisation specialise in.” World War I.” If the king of warmaking is
do more to . . . represent the Jonathan Cook (journalist) worried, then for once let us all join him.
concerns of citizens and to deliver
effective and timely policy “Unity means sharing the fight, the “Schools should not under any
solutions.” risks, the sacrifices, the objectives, circumstances use resources
Daniella Wenger Bennett Institute ideas, concepts and strategies, which produced by organisations that take
for Public Policy, and Roberto Foa, are developed through debates and extreme political stances on
lecturer in politics and public policy analysis.” matters.”
at the University of Cambridge. Fidel Castro Department for Education
2 Socialist Voice November 2020
The Debenham’s dispute has also revealed the dissatisfaction and mistrust
among large sections of the working class towards the trade union movement.
Some of this is well founded.
and conditions of employment. As a the 1990 act, and they would be liable majority vote of unions at its
result, union density collapsed. to criminal prosecution and the seizure of conference.
The question is, How will the 1990 assets. A strike for a political demand is The next step will be to put pressure
act be abolished? Ultimately it will take also illegal under the act, as is a general on the Dáil, as inevitably it will be here
legislative change by Dáil Éireann. strike: a strike can only be called in a that the Industrial Relations Act will be
There are some opportunists pushing trade dispute with an employer. abolished. It is not a change that they
the line that if a campaign of Some argue that if all workers were to will adopt easily: they will have to be
disobedience to the rules of the 1990 come out on a general strike the sheer forced by public outcry and pressure of
act was organised by the trade union numbers would overwhelm the numbers.
movement it would lead to the collapse government and employers and no When we get to the stage where the
of the act and to its being abolished. This prosecutions would take place. It is ICTU is calling for the act to be
may sound attractive, but it is not fantasyland to think that huge numbers abolished, that is the time to bring
credible. Named and unnamed workers of workers would come out on a national people onto the streets in mass
have been served injunctions by the High general strike against the Industrial demonstrations to abolish the act. To try
Court; if these workers breach the act Relations Act at the present time. to mount a “people power” type
they can be fined, or imprisoned. This Unfortunately, only about a quarter of campaign on the streets against the
would certainly get the dispute into the workers are in unions, and of these the 1990 act at this stage would be a
headlines but ultimately is not what’s majority are not calling for the act to be mistake; it would fizzle out, putting back
need for the act to be abolished. abolished. Many haven’t even heard of it. the demand and demoralising those
The media are on the side of the A strategic approach is needed to this activists involved.
employers and the state. While this imbalance of power. It has to be When the campaign does go onto
might grab the headlines for a day, it recognised by workers that large sections the streets it must remain there until the
would be buried very quickly with a of trade union leaderships and members act is abolished, otherwise once it goes
search for Fungie the dolphin or some are quite happy with the act; so it will into the Dáil it will be amended and
other such nonsense. The media can’t have to be a bottom-up campaign to get diluted, just as the Right to Water
tell you what to think, but they can tell unions to adopt it as union policy. Five campaign was.
you what to think about. unions have already adopted this policy, All union activists must push their
Other opportunists call on the Irish along with the Union of Students in unions in a more militant direction, to go
Congress of Trade Unions to call a Ireland, representing 367,000 of the on the offensive, get the 1990 act
general strike of workers against the act. next generation of workers. abolished. A pay increase might make
This is also disingenuous, for a number All unions need to get on board, but life a little bit easier, but it does not
of reasons. Most prominent is the fact it is up to union activists and branches empower workers; but abolishing the
that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is to force the issue and get these motions 1990 act will tip the balance of power
not calling for the act to be abolished. proposed at union conferences. When a firmly in favour of workers, away from
Even if it wanted to abolish the act, a majority of unions affiliated to the ICTU employers.
majority of the unions affiliated to it are calling for the act to be abolished This will give workers the tools to
would have to be of the same mind. This this can force the ICTU into adopting it fight, to end precarious work, and to win
is not the case. as policy—just as it was forced, against the right to union access, the right to
Furthermore, if the ICTU was to call a its will, to adopt the right to water as union recognition, full collective
general strike it would be illegal under policy a number of years ago by a bargaining rights, and much more. H
(Britain), directive to schools in “I congratulate the winners and ask their own greedy pockets.”
England. An extreme political stance them to govern with Bolivia and A letter to the Midland Topic from “A
is defined as “a publicly stated desire democracy in mind.” local farmer.”
to abolish or overthrow democracy, Jeanine Áñez Chávez US-backed
capitalism, or to end free and fair “interim president” and coup plotter, “Do they know the word
elections,” and then goes on to list lecturing the winners of the presidential ‘intervention’ acts as a euphemism
other issues. election in Bolivia. for cold-blooded murder under false
pretenses . . . For what fascism and
“Aaron Leonard’s works continue to “It’s time to put humanity and life, liberalism share is their undying
shed light on the paranoiac police not just carbon, at the centre of the devotion to the capitalist world order
state known as the United States of climate crisis and our solidarity.” . . . The fundamental dividing line is
America.” Aruna Chandrasekhar not between two different modes of
Ron Jacobs American commentator independent journalist from India. capitalist governance, but between
on The Folk Singers and the Bureau, “Socialism is the only solution for the capitalists and anti-capitalists.”
documenting the FBI’s attempt to Irish farmer, because capitalism is the Gabriel Rockhill Franco-American
destroy the left-leaning folk singers enemy, the friend of the elites who philosopher, dismissing any real
Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Josh are trying to destroy Irish agriculture difference between liberals and
White, Lee Hays, and many others. and using it only to fatten even more fascists. H
Socialist Voice November 2020 3
STATE
Licensed
to kill
FRA HUGHES that played a part in the dark and
dangerous world of spies and
A
CCORDING TO the BBC, “MI5 has informers.
up to 700 staff in Northern Ireland The Police Service of Northern
based at regional headquarters in Ireland, and before that the Royal
Holywood, County Down. It took over the Ulster Constabulary, led the state’s
lead role in intelligence gathering on fight against the Irish Republican Army
‘dissident republicans’ from the police in and the Irish National Liberation Army.
2007. The operational framework was It ran agents and informers who
set out as part of the St Andrews gathered information on both loyalist
Agreement a year earlier.” and republican proscribed
On its web site MI5 (the Security organisations, including the Ulster
Service) claims to have had fewer than Defence Association, Ulster Volunteer eradicate the threat to the integrity of
fifty operatives working out of Stormont Force, and Red Hand Commando. the United Kingdom posed by militant
Castle during the “Troubles.” As Together with accusations of the republicans, battling to end Britain’s
republicans can testify, they faced a “shoot to kill” policy against colonial occupation of the north-east of
plethora of state agents and state republicans by Margaret Thatcher, Ireland.
intelligence agencies during their “war of coupled with persistent and proven This is borne out by the leading role
liberation,” including the police Special cases of state collusion with loyalist MI5 plays in securing the state of
Branch, the Military Reaction Force, murder gangs, the role of the state Northern Ireland within the United
Force Research Unit, SAS, and who security apparatus was, first and Kingdom. MI5 has sole responsibility for
knows what other shadowy agencies foremost, the battle to marginalise and operational jurisdiction here against
The sectarian virus Statistics like these, however, are
unlikely to dampen the enthusiasm of
the sectarian statelet’s diminishing band
GEARÓID Ó MACHAIL Stormont’s Department for of cheerleaders as they take to the
Communities revealed in May 2020 that streets in 2021 to mark a hundred years
N
EXT YEAR the unashamedly right- 19 per cent of people in “Northern of sectarian bigotry, corruption,
wing and sectarian Orange Order Ireland” live in relative poverty, including economic decline, and armed conflict
will mark the centenary of the approximately 107,000 (24 per cent) that has resulted in thousands of deaths
creation of the Northern Ireland statelet children. Previously the department and injuries.
with “a massive number of events,” the published a biannual summary of Against the backdrop of the
centrepiece of which will be a huge homelessness statistics that showed forthcoming centenary, the minister of
parade from Stormont in May 2021. It that 9,673 people in the North were agriculture, Edwin Poots, recently dog-
behoves all on the Irish left to analyse described as homeless last year. whistled to the communally divided
the immediate future for this “failed At the beginning of 2020, before the population of the Six Counties that the
political entity” and to task ourselves social and economic upheaval wrought transmission of the covid-19 virus was
with educating Irish workers on the by the covid-19 pandemic, the BBC six times higher in “nationalist areas” of
lessons to be drawn from partition, reported that “Northern Ireland” now has the jurisdiction.
sectarianism, and the imperialist “the highest suicide rate in the UK,” with In 2013, as minister of health,
domination of our country. five people taking their life each week. Poots banned blood donations from
4 Socialist Voice November 2020
MI5 has sole responsibility for operational jurisdiction here against “dissident
republicans,” while the PSNI retains primacy over loyalist paramilitary activities as
well as ordinary crime.
“dissident republicans,” while the PSNI against republicans by becoming not explicitly permitted for the first time
retains primacy over loyalist paramilitary only judge, jury and executioner but also under British law to commit crimes. This
activities as well as ordinary crime. the recruiter, organiser and promoter of will legalise what many believe has
Republicans are viewed as a threat dissident republican activity, by using its already happened in Britain’s dirty war
to the state, but apparently loyalists are embedded assets, both inserted and against Irish republicans.
not; in fact they may be deemed at recruited as agents provocateurs within Always remember, the crimes the
times an asset to the state—a local these organisations. British establishment commit on the
militia? The rationale is not to defeat its Irish people will eventually be used
The whole thrust of British state enemies but to create an endless against its own citizenry.
intelligence work, with a budget of conveyor belt of young and old Thankfully, elements within the
possibly billions, is directed solely republicans being sent to Maghaberry British political class are standing
against republicans, north and south of Jail and Hyde Bank prison while securing against this new legalised criminality; but
the border that partitioned Ireland on massive funds for its operation, in effect their voices are few.
behalf of British interests in 1922. creating a perfect storm of intercepted Will the trial involving Dennis
Republicans and nationalists have missions and compromised leaders and McFadden, MI5’s star witness against
always claimed that the security services a perceived continued threat to the the alleged leadership of the New IRA,
and security forces operated here with peace talks and the Belfast Agreement, and the Palestinian Dr Issam Hijawwi
impunity, using torture, false the bogey man and woman of Irish Basalat be the first showcase trial where
imprisonment and shoot-to-kill republicanism. an undercover operative admits being
operations alongside extrajudicial When is the state protecting itself, involved in illegal activity, previously held
murders and covert state executions. and by extension its citizens, from a to be criminal but now to be accepted
Now many people in both Ireland and militarised threat and when is it as the hard face of Britain’s fight against
the United Kingdom see the new promoting, using and funding that international terrorism?
Security Bill brought before Parliament threat? Why has this legislation been brought
as the next phase of Britain’s dubious There are numerous examples of forward at this time?
and at times discredited security assets within organisations, legal and Will it be used in the trial of Teresa
operation in Ireland. This act of illegal, being used to promote illegal May’s would-be assassin, entrapped and
Parliament may well be a “get out of jail” activity. These cases have been well possibly set up by the state?
card for MI5 operatives and others who documented by the CND movement, Is it to help keep Dennis McFadden
flout the law, break the law, and commit socialist organisations, and civil society and others out of jail?
such crimes as recruitment to proscribed groups, involving deep-cover agents— The “Covert Human Resources Bill”
organisations, procurement of arms and some of whom had physical must be opposed by all those who
ammunition, entrapment, incitement to relationships with those they were spying defend democracy. Entrapment by the
maim and murder, directing terrorism, on, in order to cement their place in the state will become a tool for criminalising
and prosecuting a war against the state group—and incited violence in order to individuals, groups and communities
in order to protect the state. brand them as criminal and militant in opposed to the state and for creating
It is my opinion that this new the eyes of the public. false-flag attacks on society, to
legislation will allow MI5 to operate even Undercover informants working for manipulate public opinion in favour of
more aggressively, immorally and illegally the police and MI5 are going to be the state narrative. H
gay people, saying, “I think that people Attempts to show the correlation imposed by sectarian leaders and tribal
who engage in high-risk sexual between the prevalence of low-wage loyalties. In 1932 thousands of workers,
behaviour in general should be front-line employment in working-class Protestant and Catholic, went on strike
excluded from giving blood.” areas and the spread of Covid-19 among throughout Belfast while tens of
Incidentally, the esteemed minister is the community were but background thousands packed the streets in front of
also a “young earth creationist,” who noise to the cacophony of tit-for-tat Belfast City Hall to listen to speakers
believes that the earth was “created” sectarian exchanges between unionist from communist and labour
in 4000 BC, an analysis that was and nationalist representatives, egged on backgrounds lay out their demands for
sufficient to see him awarded the post by mainstream media commentators welfare and a living wage. One speaker
of minister for the environment in a with a pro-imperialist agenda. declared: “Let our slogan be ‘No
previous Stormont Executive. Concerted attempts to divide workers surrender to poverty, misery, and
Socialists were quick to point out on sectarian lines have been a feature destitution.’”
that areas experiencing unusually high of the Northern state since its inception. A window in that same City Hall
transmission of the potentially deadly An entity founded on the very basis of a commemorates the heroism and
covid virus in the North correlated to sectarian head count was unlikely ever courage of those workers from both
areas of multiple deprivation. Derry— to escape the strictures of its very raison traditions in the North who joined the
“Northern Ireland’s second city”—has d’être. International Brigades to defend the
some of the worst deprivation indicators Nevertheless Northern workers have Spanish Republic against the fascist
in western Europe. on occasion broken free of the shackles uprising. H
Socialist Voice November 2020 5
NATION
Celebrating the people’s struggle
for a progressive republic
TOMMY MCKEARNEY and only talked about in public if undermine the idealism, introduce the
absolutely unavoidable. unpleasant, and imply that there is still
C
OVID-19 has not been all bad The proffered rationale for this worse to be uncovered. For example,
news for those who govern neglect is invariably misleading and trite. Kevin Barry was willing to “kill and to
Ireland’s 26-county state. Apart “Say little in case it might inflame die,” ran the tendentious headline in a
from giving Leo Varadkar and Micheál passions in the North,” they mutter. No recent Irish Independent article. Other
Martin continuing opportunities to pose need to revisit that period, since we are sources spin the tale that civilians died
solemnly in front of the television now so friendly with Britain, we are in crossfire, women were sometimes
cameras it has allowed the Irish assured. Best not to dig too deep, abused, and caring fathers were among
establishment to quietly ignore seminal because your neighbour’s grandfather police casualties.
events of a century ago. may have been a member of the RIC or All undeniably true; but the story is
While the pandemic has obviously even a Black and Tan. And look at the not being told in context.
restricted public gatherings, official difficulties that commemorating that This misleading slant is often followed
Ireland has done little to highlight or bunch of thugs caused Charlie Flanagan, by raising questions such as Tom Barry’s
reflect upon the past. It’s almost as if not to mention the leadership of Fianna account of the false surrender at
the War of Independence was a Fáil. Kilmichael, or insinuations that the IRA
disturbing and uncomfortable family Of course if discussion of the period was guilty of sectarianism in certain
secret, best when seldom mentioned cannot be avoided, then endeavour to areas. These are well-practised tactics
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 workers in the last hundred years should service, free at the point of use and
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 be the real story in commemorating the funded by progressive general taxation in
beleaguered history of the sectarian addition to wealth taxes.
An anti-sectarian consciousness was statelet. In the coming period the onus is on
again briefly raised among a section of It’s clear to all but the wilfully blind communists, socialists, left republicans,
Northern workers in the heady early days that partition, sectarianism and the trade unionists and other progressives to
of the civil rights movement in the late capitalist system of economic relations use the centenary of the imposition of a
1960s. Not surprisingly, the trusty old in Ireland are hampering efforts to British border in Ireland not merely to
Orange card was once again dusted off contain the spread of the covid expose the catastrophic influence of
and employed to lethal effect by pandemic. Working people in the North imperialism, north and south, but to unite
unionism and its imperial puppet- of Ireland deserve better than sectarian and organise working people around the
masters. cat-calling and should immediately join demand for a new, secular republic for all
The few but inspiring instances of the demand for a fully equipped and fully our people—an anti-sectarian, anti-
working-class unity among Northern resourced all-Ireland national health imperialist workers’ republic. H
6 Socialist Voice November 2020
By 1920 there existed in many parts of Ireland a situation of virtual dual power. An
insurrectionary movement had rejected, and in places supplanted, the authority of a
long-established and powerful regime.
designed to muddy the waters in order to work-places and unashamedly declaring crony capitalism and in effect beholden
provide scope for those who wish to them to be workers’ soviets. for its survival to the tenets of
equivocate, criticise, or deny. This aspect of the War of contemporary imperialism, whether
It has to be said too that certain Independence—that is, the potential to British, American, or European.
republicans have tended to oversimplify build a different, secular, socially and Hardly surprising, therefore, that the
the conflict rather than critique it. They economically progressive Ireland—is Irish establishment is so uneasy about
have promoted a view defining the often overlooked. Yet it remains central taking part in a deep reflection on the
aftermath as one merely of betrayal of an to a proper understanding of those War of Independence and its immediate
ideal. In reality this is a version of the events in our history. Moreover, it is one aftermath. Uncomfortable questions
“great man or bad man” theory of history. of the main reasons why today, apart would be asked about the southern Irish
However superficially attractive the from recalling a few outstanding state’s failure to address so many issues.
view may be, it fails to provide a concrete episodes, the Irish establishment is How is it that almost a century later, and
analysis of the past and therefore cannot reluctant to revisit that period. To do so in the grip of a dangerous pandemic, we
offer a telling insight into the present. would involve examining the struggle for have a two-tier health service, failing
Ireland’s War of Independence is a Irish independence within a wider and abysmally? Why indeed have we two
story worth telling at any time and more meaningful context than self- uncoordinated health services on this
certainly not something to be shied away government alone. small island? Why have we a
from. Nevertheless it was more than a What were the defining homelessness and housing crisis? Why
series of military engagements, no characteristics of the Sinn Féin do we still have a financial sector
matter how spectacular some of them movement of the time? What were its unanswerable to the people? Why is the
may have been. It was a time of objectives, and why did it fracture? Most Taoiseach unwilling to declare his support
revolution, with mass popular important of all, why were working people for an end to partition?
participation at the grass roots—a time left out of the post-war settlement? These and other questions will be
when the potential existed for Writing later, the socialist republican addressed during a three-day digital
fundamental social and economic Peadar O’Donnell made the incisive festival organised by the Peadar
change. That this latter possibility did not observation that “the middle class, which O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum to
come about is not only revealing but has lurked in the shadow of the republican celebrate and analyse Ireland’s War of
a crucial bearing on the present day. movement from its rise to popularity, was Independence. Taking place on the 27th,
By 1920 there existed in many parts no part of the freedom forces; it had no 28th and 29th of November, it is
of Ireland a situation of virtual dual aim that could not be realised in Home designed to coincide with the 100th
power. An insurrectionary movement had Rule within the British Empire.” anniversary of the Kilmichael ambush.
rejected, and in places supplanted, the Therein lies a profound and accurate The festival will explore, in conversation
authority of a long-established and explanation for the Civil War, the genesis with a range of expert speakers, many
powerful regime. In its stead the of which lay in conflicting class interests aspects of the struggle. In particular it
insurgents had established their own within the insurgent forces. will asses the effect of those events on
governing institution, with its judicial Unfortunately, such clarity or insight was the present day, with a particular
system, police, and army. Not only did missing from among a majority of the emphasis on the theme that now, and
this new order have majority support in anti-Treaty forces, a blind spot that after such heroic struggle, “Labour must
the country but it enjoyed significant focused attention then and subsequently wait no longer.” H
backing from within organised labour, as on superficial aspects rather than the
demonstrated by a number of substance of the new 26-county N Festival details and timetable will be
widespread, paralysing politically inspired arrangement. This misconception available on the Peadar O’Donnell
strikes. Moreover, labour was flexing its facilitated the emergence and endurance Socialist Republican Forum’s Facebook
muscle, seizing control of a number of of a bourgeois state, a state immersed in page.
References and further reading
l BBC News, “Suicide prevention l Michael Farrell, Northern Ireland: l Seán Mitchell, Struggle or Starve:
‘top priority,’ health minister,” The Orange State (1987). Working-Class Unity in Belfast’s 1932
21 January 2020 l Neil Hegarty, “When Belfast’s Outdoor Relief Riots, Chicago:
(https://tinyurl.com/yx9gwn6z). Catholics and Protestants rioted Haymarket Books, 2017.
l Steve Bradley, “Why is Derry so together,” Irish Times, 2 September l Public Health Agency, “Poverty”
poor, and why is nothing being done 2017 (https://tinyurl.com/yyejf8d2). (https://tinyurl.com/y33yoqwf).
about it? (Part I),” 9 March 2018 l Sam McBride, “Orange Order’s l Paul Stewart, Tommy McKearney,
(https://tinyurl.com/y8edu5lo). plan to mark Northern Ireland Gearóid Ó Machail, Patricia Campbell,
l Department for Communities, centenary revealed: A huge Stormont and Brian Garvey, The State of
“Poverty” parade, fireworks, gardens and Northern Ireland and the Democratic
(https://tinyurl.com/y6kp3xd5). more,” News Letter, 23 October, Deficit: Between Sectarianism and
2020 (https://tinyurl.com/yy8gyzdf). Neoliberalism (2019).
Socialist Voice November 2020 7CLASS THEORY
Identity politics, On the right, identity politics is leveraged to deliberately
divide and fracture workers, pitting them against each other,
most frequently on the basis of race, gender, religion, or
the far right, nationality.
The left variant of identity politics emerged from the post-
modern paradigm that has come to dominate much of
and masks progressive politics within the academic world. As the past
thirty years have shown, a politics that over-emphasises
individual identity and difference over the potential to unite
With the rise of the far right it is worth disparate groups under shared class interests leaves much to
considering the issue of identity politics be desired. Nevertheless the focus on identity and difference
is necessary, even if it served as an over-correction to certain
and the left. This, Eoin McDermott historical tendencies on the left that treated the working class
argues, is a type of politics that takes as a homogeneous, abstract, uniform mass.
identity, often essentialised, as the The problem here is not universality but rather abstract
universality. In the overreaction against such descriptions, the
central category for organisation and post-modern position throws the baby of concrete universality
analysis. Its left-wing variant is out with the bath water of abstract universality. Forgoing
suspicious of power, preferring to engage universality as a concept and revelling in difference has led to
in academic taxonomies of oppression nothing but the fracturing of progressive forces into small
cliques incapable of pursuing a collective emancipatory
which prove incapable of addressing project with the power to address the needs of the majority in
underlying causes. society.
8 Socialist Voice November 2020....you cannot bring the unionised male European worker and the female Bangladeshi
sweatshop worker together by asserting the primacy of a traditional model of class
over the real interests and feelings and needs of that Bangladeshi woman.
Our model of class must recognise difference while torrent of class struggle, ultimately petering out before they
stressing the concrete universality of class, based on the reach their goal.
subject’s relationship to the means of production. As the The goal of the communist movement should be to tear
Marxist philosopher and founder of the school of critical down the barriers where they exist and incorporate the
realism, Roy Bhaskar, states, streams in the broad river of class struggle. This cannot be
you cannot bring them [the unionised male European worker achieved by ignoring barriers or chastising people for not
and the female Bangladeshi sweatshop worker] together by placing class above those interests, such as race or gender,
asserting the primacy of a traditional model of class over the that they feel most pressing to their personal experience at a
real interests and feelings and needs of that Bangladeshi given moment. We must show how their interests are
woman. You have got to do it by appealing to the interdependent with, and not independent, of class.
commonality of their enemies and then the particularity of Finally, how do we address the anti-maskers and the far
their own interests and differences.* right? The first thing that must be acknowledged is that the
anti-mask movement is not really about masks. The mask, or,
Class is the concrete universal, the unifying commonality more accurately, the absence of the mask, is an
that has the potential to unite all workers. Yet there are social overdetermined signifier that unites a broad group of
structures and forms of oppression that impede this unity. discontented working people who are suspicious of the
These should not be dismissed as secondary concerns: it must opinions of experts. In this sense anti-mask politics is a
be shown that the vines of racism, sexual discrimination, politics of identity, division, and scepticism.
xenophobia etc. rely on the healthy tree of capitalism, and that With this in mind, we must not be too quick to blame
only through a universal struggle to destroy that tree’s root can people after experiencing the so-called economic expertise
our collective concerns be adequately addressed. that both created and “fixed” the 2008 economic crisis—an
With this in mind, let us consider the present moment, in expertise that has left people worse off than they were a
which most people are feeling considerable pain because of decade before. Now we witness health experts issuing sound,
the economic and public-health consequences of organising scientific public-health advice that is not supported in turn by
society around the accumulation of profit, at the expense of economic policies capable of protecting people’s jobs and
public need. The far right has recognised and leveraged this livelihoods, thanks to the skewed priorities of Fine Gael,
pain and discontent, displacing it onto spurious issues of Fianna Fáil, and the Green Party.
identity, such as the wearing of face-masks or attempts to It is no surprise that so many people have reacted as they
blame immigrants for shortages of housing and health have. Instead of turning against the economic system that is
services. the cause of their suffering, friends and neighbours have been
It should be clear that the average person who turns up to fed poisonous lies and conspiracies by right-wing forces that
protests surreptitiously organised by the far right is not a the advice of health experts trying to protect them is the very
fascist but rather has legitimate grievances that are being cause of their problems.
manipulated and channelled into dangerous dead ends by While liberals and the media sneer at these people,
pseudo-intellectual charlatans of diminutive stature. dismissing them as the uneducated dregs of society, we
If class offers the means of uniting the majority of working should recognise that their grievances and fears are real and
people to pursue their common emancipation from the not entirely irrational. We must push back against anti-
constraints of capital but this unity is hindered by external scientific talking-points of the far right against masks that
factors, how can we think about organising on a class basis if cause nothing but harm to the communities they seek to
issues of identity seem to take precedence? Here an analogy exploit, while at the same time recognising the just scepticism
may help us. about neoliberal economic expertise and acknowledging that
We know that water has a general tendency to flow fears and grievances over the future are real. We must stress
downhill, because of the effect of gravity; yet the simple that the cause of these grievances is to be found in the mode
presence of the law of gravity doesn’t mean that the course of of production that gives priority to profits over human life and
water is guaranteed to flow along a predetermined path. All not a piece of cloth that can save lives. We must push hard
sorts of structures can be built to divert and channel the water against attempts to lump doctors and nurses in the same
away from its original course. One who insists that water category as establishment politicians and neoliberal
should flow downhill of its own accord and along a economists.
predetermined path, ignoring diversions and dams, has a If we succeed we can break down the dam of anti-
tenuous grasp of reality. If we wish to enable the water to flow intellectual and dangerous demagoguery offered by the far
along its proper course towards the sea there are structures right and offer a path for thousands of people to properly
that must be removed and new ones that can be erected to address their particular concerns through the universality of
help channel the many weak trickles into streams, and class struggle. This is why identity politics is not enough: only a
streams into a river capable of exerting tremendous force in its class politics capable of integrating difference in its model can
movement. offer a way forward. H
So it is with issues of identity and class struggle. Certain
identity positions established by the right, such as unionism, *Roy Bhaskar, “Critical realism and the left,” in From
may hinder the development of class-consciousness like Science to Emancipation: Alienation and the Actuality of
dams, others may simply act as parallel streams flowing in the Enlightenment (London: Routledge, 2012), p. 190–201.
same direction but independent and weaker outside the
Socialist Voice November 2020 9REVIEWS
Her face in wrathful lines.
Scene from The Young Marx (2017)
She took the money, safe it kept;
Treasured ’til January,
To Ireland fast and sure she sent
The money, so did Mary.
’Tis for my land’s salvation,
I give this to your coffers!
Arise, and whet your weapons.
Engels and Stir up the ancient hatreds!
The Rose of England strives to choke
marriage
Shamrock of Tipperary
Warm greetings to the best of blokes,
O’Connell, from our Mary.
[translation by Jenny Farrell]
Mary Burns was instrumental in
JENNY FARRELL Mary introducing Engels to the horrendous
From Ireland with the tide she came, conditions of the Manchester proletariat.
F
RIEDRICH ENGELS, whose 200th She came from Tipperary: As the 24-year-old Engels wrote in The
birthday falls on 28 November, had “Oranges, fresh and good for sale” Condition of the Working Class in
a very personal connection with So cried our lassie Mary. England (1845), “The rapid extension of
Ireland. Soon after being sent to help run And Moor and Persian and Brown, English industry could not have taken
the family textile factory in Manchester in Jews, Gentiles overwrought— place if England had not possessed in
1842 he met twenty-year-old Mary All people of the trading town, the numerous and impoverished
Burns, daughter of an Irish dyer. Engels’s They came and bought, and bought. population of Ireland a reserve at
friend the revolutionary German poet ... command.” However, the Irish also
Georg Weerth wrote a poem about Mary And with the money that she gained brought a tradition of struggle. Many
after he met the couple. It is a rare For juicy, golden mandrines, became trade unionists, and Feargus
contemporary account: She hurried home determined O’Connor was elected to Parliament in
Setting our discourse on the left. This light, informal
style certainly benefits from the book’s
origins as spoken material as Harvey
sights low moves from subject to subject with an
effortless momentum. As a consequence
the book is suited to seasoned readers of
David Harvey, The Anti-Capitalist left theory as well as those just curious to
Chronicles (Pluto Press, London, 2020) explore critiques of the iniquitous
capitalist system we live under.
RAYMOND Ó DUBHGHAILL Harvey’s status on the left is that of a
sort of benign elder statesman whose
F
OR ANYONE in the Anglophone popularity transcends traditional
world with an interest in Marx or sectarian categories. This is partly due to
political economy, David Harvey is his congenial and gentle personality, as
probably a figure who needs no well as his tendency to generally avoid
introduction. The British professor, who controversy in his interventions in
celebrated his 85th birthday on 31 popular discourse. Or at least this was
October, is one of the most prominent so until recently, when some of his
theorists and spokespersons of the pronouncements resulted in an
contemporary Western left, whose enormous amount of well-publicised
studies of Marx’s Capital and recent criticism from fellow-Marxists.
successful forays into podcasting will be These criticisms centred on his
familiar to many readers. climate change to political responses to assertion that capitalism, in the
It is from the latter source (also the covid-19 pandemic. monstrous, globe-encompassing manner
entitled “David Harvey’s Anti-Capitalist Harvey’s great skill, in writing as in in which it exists at the present day, is
Chronicles”) that much of this present speech, is to explain complex theories, “too big to fail,” and that the notion that
volume has been drawn, or adapted into histories and ideas in a clear, a revolution could quickly overturn this
book form, covering a range of topics, conversational style that avoids the economic system to build socialism is a
from surplus value, the history of pitfalls of impenetrability and prolix that “fantasy” that belongs solely to the
neoliberal capitalism, alienation and characterise much of contemporary material conditions that prevailed in the
10 Socialist Voice November 20201847 as the first Chartist. In 1856 Engels and Mary visited may even have hidden them briefly.
The situation of proletarian families Ireland together. He wrote to Marx Following their execution, in both the
led Engels much later to note in The following this trip: “Ireland may be Marx and Engels-Burns households the
Origins of the Family, Private Property and regarded as England’s first colony,” and “I women expressed their support for
the State (1884): “now that large-scale never thought that famine could have Ireland by wearing green ribbons with
industry has taken the wife out of the such a tangible reality.” black for mourning.
home onto the labour market and into Both Mary and Lizzie were very In September 1869 Lizzie, Engels
the factory, and made her often the involved with and supported the IRB’s and the fourteen-year-old Eleanor Marx
bread-winner of the family, no basis for struggle for an independent Ireland. Aged spent three weeks in Ireland. The
any kind of male supremacy is left in the only forty, Mary died suddenly on 8 demand for an amnesty for the IRB
proletarian household.” January 1863. She had been Engels’s prisoners held in British jails had revived
Engels understood marriage and partner for twenty years. He was deeply the liberation movement. Tens of
family as directly linked to the ruling class shaken when Marx failed to respond thousands of people were out on the
system, in which the accumulation of compassionately to his loss; it nearly streets of Dublin and Limerick. Engels
wealth led to marriage, strict monogamy broke their friendship. planned to write a comprehensive study
of women, and female submission: “. . . After Mary’s death Engels and Lizzie of Ireland and began research in earnest.
in proportion as wealth increased, it became lovers and moved into a small Lizzie and Engels moved to London
made the man’s position in the family terrace house in Mornington Street in the in September 1870. Their house
more important than the woman’s . . . Ardwick district of Manchester. This is the became a centre for the socialist
[and the resulting] overthrow of mother- house where Marx visited a number of movement. Lizzie died on 12 September
right was the world historical defeat of the times, as did his daughter Eleanor. 1878. Engels wrote about her: “She
female sex.” Eleanor struck up a deep friendship with was of genuine Irish proletarian stock
Engels decided never to marry. He Lizzie and through her became an Irish and her passionate, innate feeling for
lived first with Mary Burns and, following patriot. Lizzie was a member of the her class was of far greater importance
her early death, with her sister Lydia Fenian Society, and there are indications to me and stood me in better stead at
(Lizzie). In effect he led a double life: one that she joined the First International. all critical moments to a greater extent
as a manager in his father’s factory, the In 1867, when Manchester police than all the pseudo-intellectual and
other in a suburban cottage rented under captured two IRB men, Kelly and Deasy, clever-clever ‘finely educated’ and
an alias for Mary and Lizzie, his real Lizzie became involved in the ‘delicate’ bourgeois daughters could
home. unsuccessful plot to rescue them. She have done.” H
early part of the twentieth century. tendency to focus on macro-economics, many—too often he is content in his
A debate ensued over whether these for want of a better term, to the pronouncements to merely suggest a
statements constituted a rejection of exclusion of the realities of class struggle bargaining with capitalism, rather than
Marxism, whether they had been that is Harvey’s great weakness, albeit call for its overthrow: for example when
misinterpreted or exaggerated or were one he shares with many in today’s left. he declares the necessity for the
simply reactionary in nature, the The book is rife with topics to which capitalist state to mitigate the worst
privileged musings of a professor resident Harvey applies his brisk and broad excesses of finance capital, or generally
in New York, long since detached from critical lens. He rarely gets bogged down to act as a bulwark against the
any real-world proletarian struggle. in historical detail, offering instead a economic system’s inevitable tendency
For better or for worse, these divisive critical, whistle-stop tour of his subjects: towards increased exploitation in the
claims are repeated here, and fleshed the Chinese tech industry, name of profit (a tendency he
out somewhat in the opening chapter, financialisation of the economy, CO₂ understands well!).
titled “Global unrest.” If Harvey begins emissions under capitalism, and more, Such social-democratic attitudes, if
this passage in a tone of finger-wagging all get this treatment. However, he they can be labelled as such, may be a
reprimand to the younger generation sometimes makes time for welcome necessary consequence of abandoning
(warning that, because of the all- anecdotal or literary asides, on his visits one’s revolutionary aspirations in the
pervasiveness of capital, the upheaval to Nanjing, or quoting Shakespeare to here and now.
associated with a revolutionary period discuss the rise of merchant capitalism. It’s hard to escape the feeling that
would be “potentially lethal for a large His breadth of knowledge and diverse Harvey’s quite lucid criticisms of the
portion of the global population”), he interests are clearly evident, and these direction in which our economic system
ends it with the far less controversial enrich an already compelling document is and has been going deserve a more
thought that “revolution is a long on a range of important issues facing inspiring and radical over-arching
process not an event.” the planet right now. message than to aim small and set our
One might very well argue in turn that All of which goes to say that this is sights low; because the capitalists are
the all-pervasive capitalist system in an eminently readable, diverting and strong, after all. One is reminded of
which human life persists is nonetheless informative book from a distinguished Marx’s immortal words in his criticism of
quite literally lethal already for a large and even beloved figure of the left. Feuerbach: “The philosophers have
portion of the global population, and this However, it should be approached with hitherto only interpreted the world in
fact is reason enough for its violent the caveat that, for all Harvey’s various ways; the point, however, is to
overthrow. But perhaps it is simply this analytical qualities—and they are change it.” H
Socialist Voice November 2020 11STRATEGY
From
A to B
and everything in between
The Communist Party of Each one of these demands has led themselves as an alternative in
Ireland has, time and time to the establishment of, or a confronting capitalism and the
again, shown its analysis contribution to the narrative of, establishment political parties, Fianna
campaigns, with varying degrees of Fáil and Fine Gael.
of capitalism and success, some of which are But taxing the rich, which is a
imperialism to be correct. continuing. Importantly, however, they progressive idea, is not in fact
Where we have been able challenged both the establishment confronting capitalism but merely trying
to intervene and make a rhetoric and narrative and the to reshape the structures within
contribution to the wider reformist demands of the “left” capitalism: a changing of the guard in
political movements, wing—socialist, republican, and favour of labour.
social-democratic forces—by Many parties proclaim themselves
debates and campaigns consciously bringing a sharp class socialist and want to bring about
we have actively analysis and the transformative socialism in Ireland, the CPI included. If
intervened in what were demand to the particular issue. we are conscious of our goal we must
popular reformist It was only after this conscious effort work backwards to assess our best path
demands, shifting them to by the party that we have shifted the towards that goal of successful
transformative ideas and balance of thought from reformation to revolution for building socialism. In
transformation, from a basic economic reality, at this point if we were to
demands, in a number of analysis to a class analysis; and now we present a “socialist programme,” what
crucial areas: (1) must bring that central feature of party is the real likelihood of different groups,
repudiating the debt, work to the battle of ideas that is communities, work-places and unions
(2) austerity is working, (3) constantly evolving on many issues. not only endorsing it but actively
the triple lock of We know that the left parties in pursuing it?
imperialism, Ireland—Sinn Féin, the Trotskyists, the In other words, has the working
Social Democrats, and others—will take class reached a level of class-
(4) public ownership of up populist and, in the main, progressive consciousness where it is ready to take
water enshrined in the positions, but because they are up the cause of socialism—industrially,
Constitution, fundamentally wedded to the electoral socially, politically, and, if necessary,
(5) universal public process and have distanced themselves militarily? Would the different arms of
housing, and from opposing EU, American and British industry, services and agriculture work
(6) repeal of the imperialism they seem to lack a vision together, in unison and in solidarity with
for the working class outside of other sections of society, to bring about
Industrial Relations Act, capitalism and its imperialist structures. a change in the mode of production,
to name a few. “Tax the rich” is about as far as these willing to defend it at all costs?
Eoghan O’Neill reports parties will go when presenting This is where we not only want them
12 Socialist Voice November 2020The weakness of just seeking reforms within the system is that it excludes a
distinctive class and anti-imperialist line of analysis and understanding, because the
target of the demand is not striking at the class nature of the state...
to be but need them to be. However, and in a wide range of countries, which The reason for emphasising this is
this is not where the collective class- is the most essential element in our that it is clear that capitalism, by virtue of
conscious is at the present time. So the struggle for a just society, an end to the historical fact, is incapable of either
question is one that has haunted exploitation of the people—wherever solving or resolving the issues of the
socialist movements for generations: they live and labour—and for a re- people and the environmental emergency
How do we go from A (where we are rebalancing of the earth system, which as well as resolving its own internal
now) to B (socialism)? is tilting towards a point of no return. contradictions and crisis. The choice for
We start from an analysis of where The capitalist system and the capitalism and capitalists will always be
we are now; and at the moment the capitalists who benefit from the mode to save themselves, save their wealth,
working class is in a defensive state, of production, when put under the even going so far as jeopardising the
because our livelihood, wages, jobs, strain of these reforms under the planetary system in pursuit of their private
services, communities, health and the weight of their own contradictions, accumulation of capital and wealth.
environment are under persistent and enter into a state of crisis. In modern The question is, How do we present
sustained attack, which has only history (after the Second World War) an alternative to capitalism that is in
increased since the onset of the covid- this is exactly what happened to tandem with the people’s state of
19 pandemic. We see examples such Western economies after a prolonged defence yet is capable of stretching the
as the valiant efforts of the Debenham period of state and public investment in horizon of workers’ demands, and
workers, who have been on strike for what was known as the “Golden Age” of advancing towards a programme for
more than 200 days against an capitalism, what I would deem the socialist revolution and a socialist mode
unscrupulous capitalist enterprise. golden age of social democracy. A boon of production?
These attacks on workers, their jobs, for the public became a crisis for the I would argue that the best way
their livelihoods will only increase private capitalist class; and, beginning forward—that open space between A
further in the months and years ahead. in the late 1960s, a profitability crisis and B—is to popularise a
I have become more and more emerged, which is shown in the graph. transformative democratic programme
convinced that if we only present and To counter this free fall in rates of profit that lays open an expansion of the
mount defensive actions, or the capitalist class and the imperialist democratic demands of the working
concentrate on individual insular powers went about implementing the class towards socialist revolution and
reforms related to the particular greatest shift of industrial productive socialist construction. The time has
business or industry, we may be in forces in history, ushering in what is passed for thinking about separate
danger of losing a lot more ground to generally called the neo-liberal age: the campaigns that deal with one particular
the forces of reaction and intolerance— age of manufacturing in the global issue: we must begin to link the
the very people who were rightly beaten south, of de-industrialisation in the individual struggles (e.g. the Debenham
off the streets a few weeks ago. global north, of the dismantling of strike) with the broader class struggle
Without a conscious effort of class- welfare states, and the privatising of (company profits over workers’
conscious forces to expose and rupture state-owned industries, services, and livelihoods) and explicitly expose this in
the contradictions and fault lines that land. any and all campaign literature.
exist within the system we will forever
be back and forth seeking reforms,
from all shades of political parties in
government. We cannot underestimate
the ability and resourcefulness of the
bourgeoisie in maintaining their class
rule. The capitalist system is fully
capable of meeting the individual
reforms when enough pressure is
applied. The workers’ movement in
capitalist countries, which has fought
tooth and nail for every reform to better
their conditions, is testament to that.
Capitalist governments are fully
capable of imposing taxes on the rich,
are fully capable of nationalising
industries and services, are fully
capable of securing welfare and social
safety nets, are fully capable of
improving their infrastructure, and fully
capable of moving towards “green
Source: “Profitability, crises and inequality: some
energy” and “zero carbon” economies. heterodox views,” Michael Roberts blog
What they are not capable of is doing (https://tinyurl.com/yxf3lexj). CONTINUES OVERLEAF
all these at once, for a sustained period
Socialist Voice November 2020 13You can also read
