Just over a year old, the Communist Party of Ireland’s central leadership meets for the second time at an interesting moment, releasing this perspectives document. The mid-30s saw real polarization as the rising fascist Blueshirts fought on the streets against a radicalizing Republican movement while the North saw intense sectarian violence, and occasional workers unity. Confronting its unfinished revolution, disillusionment with the De Valera regime, and the effects of the Great Depression, simultaneous to this meeting a left wing in the I.R.A. was splitting to form the Republican Congress, creating a short-lived united front with the Communist Party.

‘The Political Situation in Ireland and the Tasks of the Communist Party’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 14 No. 24. April 20, 1934.

The following is the text of the main resolution adopted at the recent meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland. The C.C. of the C.P.I. also adopted a further resolution accepting in their entirety the conclusions of the Thirteenth Plenum of the Communist International.

The period since the last C.C. meeting of the C.P.I. (Nov., 1933) has witnessed a steady growth of the discontent among the working masses, the steady growth of the fascisation of the State apparatus, North and South, and the virulent drive of the imperialist bourgeoisie for the establishment of an open fascist dictatorship. The unemployment problem is growing in acuteness in both areas. In the North the imperialists are striving furiously to take away the social insurance standards which the workers have won and the scales of relief gained by the October (1932) struggle; while in the Free State the national bourgeoisie is seeking to evade the demands of the impoverished workers by a new Bill aiming at a spreadover of the relief cost at the expense of the employed and the unemployed workers with large families in the big boroughs.

The policy of the British imperialist bourgeoisie is to strengthen its position at the expense of the Northern Irish and British working class and its foreign rivals, through economies at the expense of the workers, the operation of the tariffs and trade restrictions, and depreciation of the pound–all of which measures are intensifying the class struggle and the general crisis of capitalism.

The national bourgeoisie is applying in the area of the twenty-six counties similar protective measures to those of the Northern and British imperialists, under the slogan of “national self-sufficiency.” A small section of the capitalists are benefactors from this policy, with mass impoverishment of the broad masses of the workers and peasantry (150,000 on outdoor relief, 96,000 registered at the labour exchanges, and less than 20,000 drawing unemployment insurance).

Accentuating all this oppression of the working masses by the capitalist class is the prosecution of the economic war by Britain and the Northern Ireland imperialists against the Free State. The criminal penal enactments of the imperialists are placing terrific burdens on large numbers of workers and farmers in both areas.

These are the many factors driving the working masses in growing intensity along the path of bitter anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist activity, North and South.

The mass opposition to imperialism and fascism encounters the bitterest hostility of bourgeois nationalism, represented by the Fianna Fail government and the Nationalist sectarian politicians in Ulster.

The difference in the relation of forces in the areas consists in the fact that in the north the open imperialist reaction, the representatives of big finance and industry, wields the apparatus of State oppression against the workers and the nationalist minority; while in the south the repression is being wielded by a government raised to power on the strength of the national and class hostility of the working and peasant masses against British imperialism and the rule of the Anglo-Irish bourgeoisie.

The bourgeois nationalists in Ulster (“Irish News,” “Derry Journal”) have come out for increased police terror against the workers’ organisations (Unemployed Movement, F.S.U., etc.). The De Valera government is coming into ever-sharper conflict with the labouring masses. The intensity of the crisis has steadily sharpened the relations with British imperialism–the inner conflict between the national and imperialist sections of the bourgeoisie–but has brought forward as never before the contradiction between the bourgeoisie as a whole and the working class and peasantry. (On the economic field this is demonstrated by a constant and increasing number of strikes in the small industries–Drogheda and Dundalk factories, Polikoff’s clothing factory, Dublin; Kilkenny woollen mills; by the outcry of the nationalist manufacturers at their conference against “wages for idleness”; and from the increasing criticism making its way through the trade unions, the Cuman Na mBan, “An Phoblacht,” etc., against the slave conditions in the new factories.)

The conflict between the working masses and bourgeois nationalism (represented by the Fianna Fail government) manifests itself most sharply in the mass struggle against the imperialist fascists. The De Valera government has exposed itself as the chief enemy of the masses in the fight against fascism by the use of its special powers against the workers, the use of troops and police to protect the fascists, its persecution of the Republican press, and its latest proposals for a pact with the imperialist fascists directed against the revolutionary workers and farmers.

These measures constitute the greatest danger to the national independence struggle and the further advance of the working-class movement against the capitalist dictatorship. The country is developing towards conditions making for a revolutionary crisis, for which the imperialist bourgeoisie is preparing by the organisation of its open fascist bands, and in which the State apparatus is being prepared by the national reformists to strangle the revolt of the workers and peasants, and open the way to a regime of open fascist dictatorship.

The tremendous mass ferment against the imperialist fascists, the mass disillusionment and discontent with the Fianna Fail government, the class bitterness among the impoverished unemployed masses against their intolerable conditions of existence–the organisation and leadership of these powerful revolutionary forces in a united front of action against fascism, against the fascist decrees of the Fianna Fail government, for the revolutionary road out of national subjection and social misery, for the establishment of Soviet power in a United Workers’ and Farmers’ Republic–such are the problems standing before the Irish Communist Party and the revolutionary workers and peasants in the national and labour movements.

The united front mass action of the workers against fascism is taking place spontaneously, as instanced by the powerful mass action of the workers at Drogheda against the Blueshirt parades, action which only military action could quell, and Tralee, where the workers organised a general strike for the release of the anti-fascist prisoners, which only the personal intervention of De Valera was able to stifle and side-track. The burning problem for the Party is to find its way to this anti-imperialist ferment and to organise it around its revolutionary propaganda with concrete slogans and definite grouping of the militant elements into a broad united front organisation, such as the Labour League Against Fascism.

The main obstacle to be surmounted by the Communists in the building of a mass Party and in the struggle for the realisation of a united front of action against fascism and the economic needs of the workers is the existence of bourgeois ideology among certain strata of the workers, nurtured by the Labour, Nationalist and Orange officials.

The Party must sharpen its propaganda against these reigning ideas in the ranks of the organised workers, and in particular combat continuously the Labour reformist slogans of “no politics” in the Trade Unions, making clear that this has meant and means the bondage of the workers to bourgeois nationalism and Orange imperialism. At the same time, the work of the Party in these mass organisations must at every step be linked with the economic day-to-day interests of the workers, on wages, victimisation, short time, etc.

Labour reformism in Ireland, as elsewhere, is the main social prop of capitalism within the working class, and the chief hindrance to the unity and action of the working class against imperialism. Because of the limited strength of reformist labour in bourgeois politics, the virtual political monopoly of the imperialist and nationalist parties of the bourgeoisie, the C.P.I. has tended to fall into the error of not conducting a sufficiently sharp struggle against social reformism. The reformists control the key positions in the trade unions, conduct all negotiations with the employers on the vital questions of wages, hours, conditions; are in control of the finances of the working-class movement, and from these points of vantage are in a position to sabotage every action of the workers against the capitalists.

Irish reformism is now as in the past acting the part of a faithful servant of the national and imperialist bourgeoisie. The Northern reformists, under the cloak of socialism, and the Southern reformists, under the mask of national Labourism–each loyally serve the interests of their respective capitalist groups. Northern reformism is silent on the questions of the arbitrary arrests, savage sentences and deportations of revolutionary workers and nationalist opponents of Craigavon, and in the South the trade union leadership remains neutral on the question of fascism, while the Labour leaders in the Dail loyally support the De Valera government in its coercive measures against the anti-fascist masses (Davin calls for repressive measures against the Republicans).

The C.P.I must take up an energetic fight against reformism on the basis of practical work in the unions around the everyday issues and secure the leadership of the branches and committees for class struggle against capitalism.

The petty bourgeois Republicans, while on the one hand forced by the feeling of the masses again to attack Fianna Fail and to publish pseudo-socialist articles in “An Phoblacht,” are actively assisting to keep the Republican masses chained to the reformist De Valera government (prevention of independent anti-fascist action, expulsion of Communists, organisational measures against discontented members, etc.).

The C.C. raises before the Party membership the urgent necessity for fulfilling the tasks laid down at the November meeting of the C.C. The Party is able to register some advance in the carrying out of these tasks, but the majority still remain unfulfilled; the Party membership remains almost stationary, the revolutionary workers are not being attracted to membership in sufficient numbers; the Party works in practical illegality in all but an area of Belfast.

Such successes as have been achieved prove that the Party can overcome the difficulties and rally the workers to its support, provided it applies itself with earnest revolutionary endeavour to its tasks. The continuous publication of the “Irish Workers’ Voice,” despite pogroms and boycott, the getting of the paper once more to a number of shops in Dublin with poster displays, the organisation of dock, rail and factory sales, the securing of worker correspondence on housing and factory conditions, the sales by a number of members on the jobs and in the union branches–all are practical proof of the possibilities for fulfilling the tasks of the November resolution.

The C.C. emphasises that the Party as a whole, and the Dublin district in particular, is guilty of the grossest underestimation of the importance of the “Workers’ Voice” in the building of the Party as reflected in the scandalously low sales of the paper, and places the task of a mass sale of the paper as the foremost problem facing every Unit and individual member of the Party. In view of the conditions under which the Party organ is being produced and circulated, the C.C. directs every Party Committee and Unit leader to take up the question with each and every member and organise them as enthusiastic agents in the spread of the sales of the “Workers’ Voice.”

The Party can record a further progress in the direction of work among the organised workers in the unions. The winning into Party membership of Trades Council delegates in Belfast, the securing of Party representation on the Executive of one of the important unions, the steady progress in the work of the F.S.U. in lectures, addresses to union branches and the building of an active branch of the I.L.D. are evidence of the influence of our Party among the workers, and the willingness of the workers to fight with the Communists, under Communist leadership. But the very successes in this work only serve to emphasise the weakness of the Party in relation to the possibilities. The Party membership, which should reflect the growing influence among the workers, is not growing, is subject to heavy fluctuations. The devoted work of the active Party members in the penetration of the ranks of the industrial workers is not being reflected in political and organisational growth.

The wide attraction of Republican and non-Party workers to the lectures organised by the Dublin Units, the steady growth of Communist literature sales and the popularity of Party leaflets against fascism, etc., issued and distributed to the railway workers, dockers and other sections, the response to the “Workers’ Voice” exposures of sweating conditions in some of the factories and jobs–all these are convincing proof that only opportunist passivity holds back the Party from the mass of the workers and from rolling back the lying propaganda of the class enemy against Communism. The initiation of the organisation of the Labour League Against Fascism, the approaches to the union committees and branches mark a step forward in the building of the united front, but the League is in the gravest danger of being still-born by its failure to launch out into mass propaganda against the fascist menace, to get into active touch with the anti-fascist prisoners and to conduct a campaign for their release. Opportunist “waiting until the organisation is perfect,” a capacity to see only obstacles and difficulties, is at the bottom of the failure of the Party members to make greater successes in the work of this important united front organisation.

The situation can be summed up thus:

(a) That the country is approaching to conditions making for the development of a revolutionary crisis.

(b) That there is increasingly bitter hostility against capitalism on the part of the broad masses of the workers and poor farmers, who in spite of the sabotage of the Republican and Labour leaders are heroically fighting the fascists at every step.

(c) That the organisation of the revolutionary workers’ and peasants’ front against fascism lags far behind the organisation of the imperialist fascist front.

One of the main reasons for the backwardness of the organisation of the labouring masses against the imperialist and nationalist bourgeoisie is the failure of the Party to come forward openly as the leader and champion of the working masses in all their struggles. The Party is being seriously influenced by the retreat, sabotage and hesitation of the reformists and Republican petty bourgeoisie.

The first result of this is that, despite the mass ferment and increasing influence of the Party among the industrial workers and Republican rank and file, the membership, both in Belfast and Dublin, registers little advance; revolutionary proletarians are outside the Party in both capitals.

The second is that the Party is completely illegal in all provincial centres and in conditions of semi-illegality in Dublin and a large part of Belfast and Derry. This spirit of “illegality” pervades all the work of the Party: in the unemployed movements in Belfast and Dublin, in the united front organisations (Dublin), and colours the whole character of the Party’s mass work.

While opposing resolutely any tendency to “Left” sectarianism, the C.C. calls to the Party for a determined struggle against all Right opportunist tendencies and practices, which now represent the main danger to the Party’s growth and development of the revolutionary mass struggle against fascism. The C.C. calls for a really powerful effort from the entire Party for the winning of new revolutionary workers to the Party from the ranks of the trade unions and out of the workshops.

The C.C. lays down to the Belfast and Dublin organisations the immediate task of bringing forward and developing new cadres of leadership and to train a strong group of able propagandists and agitators. A totally unsatisfactory state of affairs exists in both districts, and in Dublin there is a strong opportunist antipathy to this vital form of mass work. The C.C. calls for the enlistment of every Party member as a canvasser for the “Workers’ Voice” and the sale on a mass scale of the literature of the Party and Communist International.

The C.C. calls for the greatest vigilance on the part of the Party for the carrying out of the decisions of the C.C., the highest organ of the Party in the country, and similarly with the decisions of all organs of the Party. Here the C.C. directs every leading comrade and every organ of the Party to take steps to raise the Party consciousness of all members, and secure the support of the entire Party for the enforcement of the strictest Party discipline.

The Thirteenth Plenum of the C.I. characterised the world situation as entering on a period of revolutions and wars. Ireland is bound up with the crisis of the capitalist world; revolution and counter-revolution are growing. The C.P. of Ireland must, in the time now given it, build its membership and influence over the broad masses and show itself worthy of the proud name of Communist and a section of the great Communist International.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. Inprecorr is an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1934/v14n24-apr-20-1934-Inprecor-op.pdf