An interesting article from ‘Seamus Collins’–likely a pseudonym, but whose?–on the Irish revolutionary movement at a time of reaction. In 1926, De Valera’s wing of the Republican movement had dropped abstention, recognizing the state they lost to in the Civil War, and formed Fianna Fail. A greatly reduced and isolated Sinn Fein and I.R.A. carried on as the ride of revolution receded definitively. The once hugely powerful Labor movement, that made a general strike against conscription, was a only shadow of its former self. The Communist movement was represented by the small Irish Workers League, then still led by James Larkin, with many former members, including Connolly’s son Roddy, constituting themselves as the rival Worker’s Party of Ireland and sought Comintern support. Collins, a partisan of the Irish Workers League in these disputes, gives their take on what were tough years for the left in Ireland.

‘The Situation in Ireland’ by Seamus Collins from Communist International. Vol. 5 No. 3. February 1, 1928.

The International Importance of Ireland

BEFORE we try to analyse the present situation in Ireland and the Irish revolutionary forces of today, it is necessary to say a few words on the importance of Ireland internationally and especially on the importance of Ireland within the so-called British Commonwealth.

From 700 years of struggle against British imperialism in Ireland, we know that always, when Great Britain was involved in war, Ireland’s sympathy was with the enemies of Great Britain and also that the enemies of Great Britain always tried to utilise Ireland against England. Besides this we know that revolutions in other countries always find a great response in Ireland. It is said of the Irish struggle for national freedom that each generation of the Irish people has seen one armed insurrection against British imperialism. All these insurrections in some way have been connected with or inspired by simultaneous risings abroad.

Another fact of international importance is that British misrule and suppression in Ireland through centuries has forced millions and millions of Irishmen to emigrate from their native land. All over the British Commonwealth and in the U.S.A. you will find the Irish race scattered. In Great Britain there are four million inhabitants of Irish birth or of Irish extraction, in the U.S.A. 20 millions, as well as a great number in Australia and Canada. In English towns (as, for instance, Liverpool and Manchester), the number of Irish people amounts to a considerable percentage of the total population. The largest Irish daily newspaper is published in the U.S.A. The Irish national associations in the U.S.A. and in Australia are the main financial resources for the fight of the Irish Republican Parties against British imperialism.

In this connection it may be worth while to mention the difference in the international position of Ireland today and during the last world war. During the world war the Republican forces proclaimed neutrality but were anxious to get help from Germany and the U.S.A. against Great Britain. During the last few months an interesting discussion has taken place between the Republican newspaper “The Nation” and the official organ of the Labour Party “The Irishman” on the war problem. The “Nation” declares that in case of a war between Great Britain and the U.S.A. Ireland should not fight against the U.S.A. The leader of the Labour Party, Mr. Johnson, on the other hand, declares that it would be impossible for Ireland to maintain neutrality, because Ireland, through Article 7 of the Irish Free State Constitution, is obliged to participate in war on the side of Great Britain. The U.S.A. at all events realises the tremendous importance, politically and strategically, of Ireland, and it is the only country which up to this date has placed a diplomatic ambassador in the Irish Free State. A war between Great Britain and the U.S.A. will certainly be the signal of a tremendous revival of the Republican movement in Ireland.

It is not sure that a war between Great Britain and the Soviet Union will have the same effect. First of all we must remember that one of the greatest enemies of Bolshevism, the Roman Catholic Church, completely controls not only the bourgeoisie, but also the souls of the workers and poor peasants. Besides this, we have to admit that the revolutionary working class movement is in a very weak state. Ireland is perhaps the only European country where not a single Communist book or pamphlet has been published since the revolution in 1917.

The Present State of the Irish Republican Movement

It is impossible to compare Ireland with any other European country. The situation in Ireland is more like the situation in China, than in any other European country. As in China, so in Ireland you have a Northern and a Southern Government. The difference is that both the Irish Governments are tools in the hands of British imperialism. The Southern Government has been in power continuously for five years, since the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The Irish Free State consists of 26 counties, mainly agricultural: Ulster consists of 6 counties, of a more industrial character. During these five years, two of the ministers of the Free State Government have been killed and one is supposed to have died of fear. The last killing took place on the 10th of July, 1927. The Cosgrave Government of the Free State has ruled by the gun, the police-baton, and the prison, just in the same way as the former British Governments in Ireland. And all the members of the Government know that as soon as they are out of office their lives will be in immediate danger. These former Republicans answered the opposition against the Treaty in 1921 with two years of terrible civil war. The killing of the Minister of Justice, Kevin O’Higgins last year was answered by three new coercion laws with the purpose of smashing the Republican parties and the illegal Republican army and establishing an uncontrolled dictatorship, more reckless than the rule of any British Government.

There are two main reasons for the existence of this Mussolinism in Ireland. First of all, the split and confusion in the ranks of the Republicans. The right wing of the Sinn Fein Party broke away in 1926 and formed a new Party, Fianna Fail, under the leadership of Mr. De Valera. After the general elections in June, 1927, the position in the Dail was such that the Republicans and Labour might have driven the Government out of office, but they did not do so. The Republicans maintained, as they had done for the last five years, the policy of abstention from the Free State Dail as the Sinn Fein Party did from the British House of Commons, without realising that a new situation makes a new tactic unavoidable.

At the very moment when the Government threatened to drive the Republicans out of public life into illegality through the Public Safety Act the Fianna Fail deputies entered the Dail, but as the die-hards of the Sinn Fein Party did not follow their example, the Cosgrave Government was saved by the famous vote, 71 against 71, through the absence of the Lord Mayor of Sligo, Mr. Jinks, of the National League.

The next step of the Government was the rushing of the new general elections which took place in September of last year, the result of which was a majority of six for the Government.

The Irish Labour Party

The second reason for the existence of the capitalist dictatorship in the Irish Free State, is the Irish Labour Party, under the leadership of Mr. Thomas Johnson and Mr. William O’Brien. If the Government, which was formed in 1922, after the signing of the Treaty, had been left alone, its fate would have been sealed rapidly. But the leaders of the Irish Labour Party immediately recognised the constitution and the sham government and thus made it possible for the tools of British imperialism in Ireland to maintain a sort of authority as a national government. After the killing of Mr. O’Higgins, Mr. Johnson offered Mr. Cosgrave to enter into a coalition government in order to save the State against the criminal Republican forces who were supposed to be responsible for the killing. These facts only are sufficient to prove that the leaders of the Irish Labour Party belong to the most yellow elements of the Yellow International. Mr. Johnson’s offer was not accepted by the Cosgrave Government. But a few weeks later, after the entrance of the Fianna Fail deputies into the Dail, Mr. Johnson made an agreement with Fianna Fail and the Conservative National League, with the purpose of forming a Labour Government, the main task of which should be to save the State and not initiate any Labour legislation. Only the fatal absence of Mr. Jinks prevented Mr. Johnson from fulfilling this glorious task, as the Prime Minister of the Irish Free State.

The Irish Labour Party, which once stood for a socialist Irish Workers’ Republic, today has exposed itself as an opportunist, anti-national, liberal-bourgeois party. Instead of socialism and class struggle they advocate collaboration with the capitalist class, politically and industrially. The Irish working class up to this day has had no representative in the Irish Free State Parliamentary institution.

The Reorganisation of the Irish Workers’ League

A peculiar feature of Irish life is the tendency to splits and to factional fights in every movement. The people are divided into different camps geographically, in religion, and politically. No wonder that the left wing of the Iabour movement is also split.

We have the so-called “Workers’ Party of Ireland,” under the leadership of such petty bourgeois elements as Mr. McCabe, Mrs. Despard and Madame MacBride. They publish a paper of their own, the “Workers’ Republic.” From the April, 1927, issue of this paper, you will see that they reprint the resolution of the E.C.C.I. on the Irish question of the 7th of January, 1927. In this resolution, the E.C.C.I. declares that the Comintern only recognises the Irish Workers’ League as the section of the Comintern in Ireland, demands the dissolution of the Workers’ Party of Ireland and the transformation of the Irish Workers’ League from a merely propaganda organisation to a real political party.

The Workers’ Party of Ireland refused to accept this decision on the ground that the Irish Workers’ League had not been in existence for the last two years. Accordingly they continued their activities as a “Communist” Party. Who are they? The Workers’ Party of Ireland is a curious little crowd of a few dozen people without any political influence, and without any following among the masses of the workers.

On the other hand, we have to admit that the Irish Workers’ League has shown regrettable lack of activity. Six months after the passing of the resolution of the E.C.C.I., almost nothing had been done in order to realise the decisions of the C.I. At the end of July, however, just at the moment when the Irish Trades Union Congress assembled in Dublin, the Irish Workers’ Teague called a mass meeting in order to discuss the question of establishing a united front of all labour forces against the new coercive Bills of the Free State Government. All trade union members and officials and all Labour deputies in the Dail were invited. The Government proclaimed the meeting but in spite of that it was held outside the Unity Hall, attended by thousands of workers. From this meeting a deputation was sent to the leader of the Fianna Fail party demanding him to call a conference of all anti-government parties and organisations in order to create a united front against the Government.

The conference suggested was called by De Valera, but, besides the Fianna Fail representatives, only the representatives of the Irish Workers’ League and the Workers’ Union of Ireland appeared, and the conference therefore was not able to start any work. De Valera, however, finally had found the opportunity which he had been longing for. He opened negotiations with the representatives of the Labour Party and the National League in order to form a parliamentary bloc against the Government. He succeeded, and the Fianna Fail deputies took the oath to the British King and entered the Dail. By this step, an end was put to five years of sterile abstention. A new stage of political development in Ireland started.

The anti-government bloc did not—as already mentioned—succeed in throwing the Government out of office, and as soon as Cosgrave had got the majority necessary for the dissolution of the Dail, the Government decided to rush the country into a new general election within three weeks, hoping that the miserable financial state of the other parties, the funds of which were exhausted through the general elections in June, would make it possible for the Government to gain a safe majority.

The First Electoral Campaign of the I.W.L.

The general election confronted the E.C. of the Irish Workers’ League with the problem of fighting the election as a political party. The task was a difficult one as the League was without local organisations, without programme, a paper, finances or headquarters. The I.W.L., however, decided to take the field. The first step in that direction was the adoption of the programme and rules on the 31st of August. The principal programme was fixed in the following terms:

Aims. The establishment of a Workers’ Republic in Ireland, based upon the public ownership of the land and industrial capital of the country.

Means. 1. The establishment of a workers’ party based upon the principles of the class struggle, embracing the industrial workers, agricultural labourers and peasants of Ireland, in association with the revolutionary workers’ parties of other countries.

2. The abolition of the parliamentary constitution of the Free State and of the Six Counties of Northern Ireland, and the substitution of a workers’ constitution for the whole of Ireland which shall safeguard the lives, liberties and properties of the working class and working farmers.

3. Repudiation of the so-called National Debt, and of all payments, annual or otherwise, to the British Government.

4. Nationalisation of all industries, banks, transport and distributive services. The coordination of all resources towards the economic reconstruction of the country. Public ownership and control of all electrification schemes. Public ownership and control of all ports and the establishment of a national mercantile marine service.

5. Nationalisation of the land for the use of the agricultural workers and poor farmers in the general interest of the nation.

6. Demobilisation of the standing army of the Free State and the Special Constabulary of the Northern Government, and the replacement thereof by a workers’ and peasants’ army based on voluntary service.

7. State monopoly of foreign trade. Formation of alliances with other workers’ republics.

On the clear national and Communist platform of this programme, three candidates were nominated: Jim Larkin in Dublin City North; John Lawlor in Dublin City South; and Jim Larkin, Jr., in Dublin County. A fortnight of exciting electoral campaign followed. The leaders of the official Labour Party were furious. On the day of the nomination of Jim Larkin, they tried to get him disqualified by the Sheriff as an undischarged bankrupt. During the campaign they tried to compromise him by publishing a poster with a copy of a forged birth attestation in order to prove that Larkin was not an Irishman but an Englishman born in Liverpool. After the elections they again tried to get him disqualified in order to prevent him from taking his seat in the Dail.

The result of the elections was better than anybody had expected. In the three constituencies, where the I.W.L. ran candidates, we got 12,500 votes, 3,500 more than the official Labour Party candidates in the same Constituencies. The parliamentary leader of the Labour Partv, Mr. Thomas Johnson, was defeated and comrade James Larkin elected with more than 7,000 votes.

February 1, 1928

The number of the Labour Party deputies dropped from 22 to 12, all their Dublin leaders being defeated. The capitalist and Republican press completely agreed in regretting the defeat of Mr. Johnson, the “respected and honoured statesman.”

The Tactic of the I.W.L.

During the election campaign the “Workers’ Republic,” the organ of the margarine Communists of the “Workers’ Party of Ireland” did not mention the nomination of the Irish Workers’ League candidates or its programme by a single word. The paper advised the workers to vote No. 1, for the Labour Party traitors and No. 2, for Fianna Fail.

The Irish Workers’ League regarded it as the most essential issue of the elections to create a united antiimperialist front and accordingly advised the workers to vote No. 1 for the candidates of the I.W.L., and No. 2, Fianna Fail, considering the fact that the Labour Party was not a national anti-imperialist party.

Unfortunately, the British Communist Party advocated another tactic. In a political statement on the Irish elections it advised the Irish workers and peasants to vote No. 1, for the I.W.L., No. 2, for Labour and No. 3, for Fianna Fail. The British comrades published this advice without consulting the I.W.L. and the result was very unfortunate.

The official Labour Party, of course, used the position of the British comrades to prove the political stupidity of the I.W.L. And also the would-be Communists of the Workers’ Party of Ireland used the opportunity to make an attack on the League. In an article in the October issue of the “Workers’ Republic” they declared:

“The policy of the Communist International in every country in the world is to advocate and put into force the united front of Labour. In every country this policy is carried out except in Ireland. The weakness and treachery of the Labour leaders are everywhere exposed, nevertheless they are supported as the nominees of the organised workers at election time. The principle of all sections of Labour against the capitalist class is practised on each and every occasion except in Ireland. There is no country in the world where the policy of the united front is more correct and necessary than in Ireland. But because James Larkin is more concerned about denouncing the Labour leaders and anyone else who disagrees with him, than about fighting the Irish capitalist imperialists, there is no attempt at putting the united front policy into effect here.”

This attack is certainly due to a mechanical transfer of the position of the British Communist Party towards the British Labour Party, to Ireland.

This difference of opinion of two sections of the C.I., however, is bound to make an unfavourable impression on the enemies of the C.I. Thus we see in the “Socialist Standard,” the organ of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, another attack on the tactics of the I.W.L. in an article under the heading “More Communist Trickery.” From this article we quote the conclusion:

“If, therefore, any unfortunate Irish worker listened to his Communist advisers, he would have been told (1) by Larkin, to vote for him and for the capitalist Republicans, (De Valera), and to help smash Johnson ; (2) by the Irish Workers’ Party to vote for Larkin, for Johnson, for the National League, for De Valera, and lastly for the Cosgrave (Government) Party; (3) by Saklatvala and company, to vote for Larkin and the Labour candidates, although Larkin’s party and the Labour Party are alleged by Larkin to be irreconcilable enemies, and although they themselves know the Irish Labour Party to be Liberal pure and simple.

“This is what they call practical policies!”

It is up to the C.I. to decide which tactic is the correct one. If the I.W.L. is wrong, we will correct our mistake, if we are right, the British comrades must openly do the same. (*The E.C.C.I. has already made a decision concerning the dispute about the tactics adopted during the Irish elections. This decision is to the effect that the conception of the Irish Workers’ League has been endorsed as the only correct tactic under the existing conditions in Ireland.—The Editor.)

The Relations between the British and Irish Sections of the C.I.

In this connection, a few remarks on the relations between the British Communist Party and the Irish Workers’ League are necessary. It is clear that as the fate of the Irish working class and the British working class are closely dependent on each other, it is of great importance that the relations between the British Communist Party and the Irish Workers’ League shall be harmonious. One of the first conditions is that the comrades in the British Party realise that the I.W.L. is the only section of the C.I. in Ireland, and that they definitely break off every connection with the petty bourgeois elements in the Workers’ Party of Ireland.

What happened during the election campaign? According to an agreement which was very much appreciated by the Irish Workers’ League, the British Party opened the “Workers’ Life” for our propaganda because the I.W.L. was without a paper of its own. The “Sunday Worker” did the same and also sent a correspondent to Dublin but our surprise and disappointment was profound when we opened the next issue of the “Sunday Worker”: the whole front page was filled up by interviews with two of the leaders of the Workers’ Party, Mrs. Despard and Madame MacBride. One of these ladies told the correspondent the amusing news that there was going to be a split in the Fianna Fail Party and that half of its members would join the Workers’ Party of Ireland, because they were dissatisfied with the Fianna Fail and wished for a Workers’ Republic.

Before leaving this chapter, it may be useful to mention another fact. The I.W.L. regards it as a main political task to expose the traitorous character of the official Labour Party and tell the workers and peasants what the difference is between reformist and revolutionary policy. In Belfast comrade Saklatvala of the British Party recently made a speech which makes it difficult to carry on the propaganda of exposure by the I.W.L. Comrade Saklatvala at a public meeting in Belfast declared: that

“Communists and Socialists did not differ if they were honest with one another. They were all agreed—Communists, Socialists, Labourites and the Co-operative Party.”

Things such as these are not improving the relations between the British and the Irish comrades. A change is bound to take place in the interest of the working class of the two countries and of the C.I.

The Task of the Future

The future of Ireland depends on the following questions; Shall Ireland remain as a Dominion under the British Empire; or shall the Republicans succeed by the help of the U.S.A. in securing for Ireland the position of a capitalist republic; or shall the workers and peasants succeed, with the support of the revolutionary workers, in realising the old dream of a Workers’ Republic of Ireland?

The official Labour Party will never win the majority of the workers. It is a Liberal party linked up with British imperialism and unable to complete with the national Liberal party, the Fianna Fail.

Today, Fianna Fail has the support of the majority of the workers and poor farmers, mainly because they have a clear national programme, but also because they promise work for the unemployed and release for the debt-bound poor peasants.

De Valera himself declares that he stands on the platform of James Connolly and Padraic Pearse: accordingly he should be out for a Workers’ Republic. But as a good Roman Catholic, the utmost limit of his working class policy will be the so-called co-operative commonwealth, which means maintenance of private property and co-operation between capitalists and workers. During the election campaign he also declared that the standard of living was too high in Ireland, the people had to learn to use a “simpler, cheaper food!” The starving unemployed, the unhappy inhabitants of the Dublin slums and the poor peasants in the country certainly will not appreciate the kind of Workers’ Republic which De Valera is out for.

If the Fianna Fail Party succeeds in defeating the present Government and takes over the rule of Ireland itself, they certainly will expose themselves as helpless petty bourgeois politicians incapable of leading the workers and peasants out of slavery and misery. Under these circumstances a revolutionary Workers’ Party should have tremendous opportunities and would be able to rally the working masses, who now follow the Fianna Fail and the Republican army, and organise them for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishing of national freedom of Ireland.

The ECCI published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 irregularly in German, French, Russian, and English. Restarting in 1927 until 1934. Unlike, Inprecorr, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecorr are an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/ci/vol-5/v05-n03-feb-01-1928-CI-grn-riaz.pdf