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Socialist Outlook : SO/11 - Spring 2007
History/TheoryIreland: The Fight for the Workers’ Republic
The current struggles in the Middle East and in Latin America show that in underdeveloped countries the goals of socialism and national liberation are inseparable. In the first of two articles, James Healy argues that this is also true for the movement for Irish liberation. ‘The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour. They cannot be dissevered.’ [1] In this succinct formulation, James Connolly, the greatest Marxist thinker to date to come out of the Irish revolutionary movement, outlined the essential dialectical connection between the Irish National Liberation struggle and the fight for the Workers’ Republic. In the ten year period which began with the Dublin Lockout in 1913 and ended in the defeat of the Left Republican forces and the working class in 1922, this theory was vindicated by its negation. Every conceivable method of struggle was employed over the period: armed insurrection, general strikes, land occupations, appeals for solidarity action from workers in England, Wales and Scotland, hunger strikes and the formation of soviets. The defeat can be attributed to the failure of the revolutionaries to build a revolutionary party which, coupled to the militant working class and its allies, could have implemented Connolly’s vision. The BackgroundIreland at the time was ruled directly from Westminster with MPs elected to the Parliament in London. The Catholics were an overwhelming majority in the Midlands and South of Ireland. In the province of Ulster, the Catholics were the majority in five counties (Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone) whilst the Protestants dominated in four (Down, Antrim, Armagh, Derry). The Catholic business class, landowners and rural masses were represented by the Irish Parliamentary Party, which in alliance with the Liberals, attempted to introduce a limited form of home rule though Parliamentary means which would leave Ireland within the confines of the Empire. The Protestants had their own party, the Irish Unionist Party – which was firmly committed to the Union with Britain. Industry in the North was geared toward export and was based on connections with the Empire, so the Protestant capitalists had a material interest in staying with Britain. Sinn Fein, which means ‘ourselves alone’, had been founded in 1905 and represented the middle class and elements of the Gaelic cultural revival. Sinn Fein advocated non-attendance in the British Parliament and was in favour of protectionism to allow weak Irish capitalism to develop. The most radical of the nationalist groups was the Irish Republican Brotherhood which was a secret society committed to armed struggle to liberate Ireland. Amongst the workers at the time syndicalism was a major force – the belief that by the formation of ‘one big union’ and control of the forces of production, workers could be the masters of society. Connolly himself was an advocate of this approach and spent a number of years in America promoting such ideas. Jim Larkin, who had formed the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) in 1908, also supported this theory. These, then, were the main players, along with the British state, who would struggle over the future of Ireland. The absence of a Marxist revolutionary party was palpable. James Connolly had attempted to build such a party when he initiated the Irish Socialist Republican Party in 1896 but this and other attempts foundered. The Dublin LockoutAt the time of the Dublin Lockout the conditions for the workers and the poor in the city were worse then those prevailing in Calcutta, with higher mortality rates in the general population and very high infant mortality rates. The conflict began with a lockout at some of William Martin Murphy’s businesses in an effort to check the rise of the ITGWU. The union had grown extremely rapidly and the employers were fearful of its potential. When Larkin responded by pulling out the workers at the rest of Murphy’s companies, Murphy persuaded other bosses to lock out their workers. By September 1913, 400 employers had locked out 25,000 workers and the lockout lasted for another 4 months. Eventually the workers were forced back through hunger and were obliged to renounce the ITGWU. The Church had denounced the workers and Arthur Griffiths of Sinn Fein did the same. The IRB held a neutral stance though some members were sympathetic. Some British workers had come out in solidarity with the Dublin workers – 13,000 either struck or were locked out. The Road to RevoltThe situation was rapidly polarizing in Ireland between those in favour of separation from England and the Loyalist elements all of which was exacerbated by the approaching World War. The Protestant ascendancy formed its own armed organization called the Ulster Volunteers and managed to land 25,000 rifles at Larne in April 1914. The Catholics had set up their rival organization, the Irish Volunteers, on November 25 1913. When the First World War broke out, the promise of home rule was held out to the Catholics in return for their fighting alongside the Brits. John Redmond, leader of the Irish National Party agreed to the deal. The IRB broke with Redmond and the Irish Volunteers split. 170,000 joined Redmond’s National Volunteers while 11,000 remained with the Irish Volunteers and refused to fight for the Empire. James Connolly had seen all his hopes dashed. With a few noble exceptions, the parties of the nominally Marxist Second International sided with their own bourgeoisies in the war. He began to think that an uprising needed to be organized in Ireland to break the reactionary domination of Europe. As the old refrain went – ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’. As Connolly saw it, the uprising would, ‘set the torch to a European conflagration that will not burn out until the last throne and the last capitalist bond and debenture will be shrivelled in the funeral pyre of the last warlord’. [2] He looked to the IRB and the Irish Volunteers as allies. These would fight alongside Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army which was set up during the Dublin lockout to protect workers. It is said to be the first example of a Workers’ Guard, though it was predated by the Paris Commune. The Easter UprisingAll through 1915 Connolly applied pressure for an uprising. The left wing of the Irish Volunteers, represented by Padraig Pearse and others, came over to Connolly’s plan and a secret Military Council was set up within the IRB to plan the revolt. Not everyone knew of the Council as other members of the IRB disagreed with the uprising. The uprising was set for Easter Monday, 24 April 1916. However, by this time a German ship carrying arms for the uprising had been intercepted. The Irish Volunteers were given orders to carry out manoeuvres on that day. However, the head of the official command Eoin O’Neil, on hearing of the plan, sent out a countermanding order. On the day only 1,500 of the Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, which numbered 200, turned up to fight. The Irish freedom fighters took over all of the strategic points of Dublin City. Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers took over the General Post Office (GPO) from which the Proclamation of Freedom was read to an astonished crowd. Connolly’s advice to the Irish Citizen Army before the fight was as follows: ‘The odds against are a thousand to one. But if we should win, hold on to your rifles because the Volunteers may have a different goal. Remember that we’re out not only for political liberty but for economic liberty as well.’ [3] The British subjected Dublin to a ferocious bombardment in which 1,351 people died. The rebels surrendered after a week to avoid further civilian deaths. The British Government then moved to crush the movement, executing the leaders including Pearse and the seriously wounded Connolly, who was shot tied to a chair. Lenin opposed those who described the actions of the Irish as a putsch: The term ‘putsch’... may be employed only when the attempt at insurrection has revealed nothing but a circle of conspirators or stupid maniacs, and has aroused no sympathy among the masses. The centuries-old Irish national movement… expressed itself in street fighting conducted by a section of the urban petit bourgeoisie and a section of the workers after a long period of mass agitation, demonstrations, suppression of the press etc. Whoever calls such an uprising a ‘putsch’ is either a hardened reactionary, or a doctrinaire hopelessly incapable of picturing the social revolution as a living thing….Whoever expects a ‘pure’ social revolution will never live to see it. [4] From the Easter Uprising to the War of IndependenceInitial reaction to the uprising had not been very positive, but as the executions continued, a wave of anger and revulsion swept Ireland. A number of by-elections took place in 1917 with victories for Sinn Fein, whose membership reached 250,000 in October. Membership of the ITGWU was also growing rapidly at that time. In the 1918 general election, called shortly after the First World War ended, Sinn Fein won 73 seats out of 105. The Unionists won in six counties in the North but there were surprisingly good results for radical socialists in working class areas. The first female MP was elected to Westminster: Countess Markievicz, the radical Irish Nationalist, who had fought in 1916 in the Irish Citizen Army. The Sinn Fein MPs who were not in jail met to form the Irish Parliament. The first country to give official recognition to the Irish Republic was the Soviet Union. The War of IndependenceOn September 11 1919, the Irish Parliament was declared an illegal assembly by the British. The War of Independence had effectively begun. British troops began pouring into Ireland and the IRA, the army of the Republic, began attacks which eventually restricted the British troops to their barracks. The IRA fought in what were known as ‘flying columns’, which were small groups of armed men which could strike and then melt away back into the populace. Notably, they also gained the upper hand over the British in the intelligence war. This advantage was to prove decisive in forcing the British government to the negotiating table. Land occupations began by landless labourers and small farmers but when such disputes were referred for arbitration to a court set up by the Irish Parliament, the court, in the majority of cases, found in favour of the large landlords. The IRA was then charged with the task of enforcing the judgement, which they duly did in the Midlands and North, but not in Munster. In local government elections on January 15, 1920, Sinn Fein won majorities in all but four northern counties. By March, the British had introduced troops who would become notorious for atrocities: the Black and Tans. The Unionists organized pogroms against the Catholics in July and subsequently and many were killed, injured or driven from their jobs and homes. In this period a host of soviets were set up, the most important of which was the Limerick Soviet. The Limerick Soviet reached the point of printing its own money along with organizing food supplies and controlling the passage of vehicles. The Soviets were destroyed either by boycotts by farmers or directly by British troops. However, those running the Soviet in Limerick were appointed from the unions and not directly elected by the workers and so when these leaders moved to end the Soviet, there was no procedure for removing them from office. In May 1921, elections were held for two separate parliaments, for 26 counties in the South and six in the North. Again Sinn Fein won an overwhelming victory, though the Unionists won the majority in the artificially separated six counties. On June 24, 1921 Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, started negotiations with Irish President Eamon de Valera for a peace settlement. In October 1921 Michael Collins and Arthur Griffiths were sent to take part in a peace conference in London. The infamous threat of ‘immediate and terrible war’ by Lloyd George brought the talks to a conclusion and the Irish signed. The agreement gave the 26 counties dominion status within the British Commonwealth – similar to Canada’s status. These counties would be known as the Irish Free State, while the six counties in the North would remain within the United Kingdom. On 7 January 1922 the Irish Parliament voted narrowly in favour of the agreement. De Valera resigned from the post of President and with the Anti-Treaty deputies formed a new party, the Republic Party. The IRA also split, with a majority against the Treaty. Elections were held in June, increasing the parliamentary majority for the Pro-Treaty side. The Civil WarThe Civil War began on June 28 when the Free State forces attacked the Four Courts in Dublin, which had been occupied by the Anti-Treaty forces. The Free State forces were supplied with British guns and recruited massively from the legions of unemployed. Summary executions were carried out on republicans like Liam Mellowes and the Free Staters resorted to methods such as tying dynamite to prisoners and then detonating it. The republican forces fought in the traditional flying columns in which Irish Citizen Army members participated. On April 30, 1923 the IRA ‘dumped arms’ and the war ended. Aftermath and ConclusionsWith the republican movement smashed, the Free State moved on to attack the workers and drive down wages and conditions. It would be almost fifty years before the status quo would again be threatened. The ‘carnival of reaction, North and South’, which had been predicted by Connolly came to pass. Syndicalism had been totally discredited as an effective tool for bringing about workers’ power. The ITGWU managed to become a mass union, was decimated and then rose to new heights, only to lose the vast majority of its members as the movement was defeated. This method of struggle brought together the workers in great offensive waves but, during a downturn, could not be the organizational structure which united the revolutionaries with the vanguard of the working class. For this a revolutionary party was necessary, but when the revolutionaries, inspired by the Russian October, formed the Communist Party of Ireland in October 1921, already many opportunities had been lost. The CPI spent its time urging the republicans to follow the revolutionary socialist road and played a minimal role in the workers’ struggles at the time. By the time the party had learned some of the lessons, the shadow of Stalinism was already falling over it and it would never arrive at the correct combination of anti-imperialist and socialist struggles. The Irish movement reached heights never reached by their English brothers and sisters, then or since. The future of the revolution in Britain in many ways depends on what happens in Ireland and on the reactions of the British workers to that struggle. Until the hold of anti-Irish feeling over the British workers is broken (and this is far from being the case), then the British ruling class will successfully maintain its hegemony. [5]
NOTES [1] Quoted in P. Berresford Ellis, A History of the Irish Working Class, 1972 p. 226. [2] Berresford Ellis (1972) p. 212 [3] Berresford Ellis (1972) p. 226 [4] Berresford Ellis (1972) p. 234 [5] For further reading, see:
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James Healy