The Communist movement gives its position on the treaty which partitioned Ireland, created the ‘Free State,’ and resulted in a bloody Civil War. An election held under threat of total war by the British on June 18 saw pro-Treaty forces win, while a majority of the Republican Army rejected it, with anti-Treaty forces occupying central Dublin. The nascent Communist Party of Ireland statement below also makes clear how central the U.S.-British rivalry was to the context of Ireland’s ‘War of Independence.’

‘Communist Party of Ireland Against New Free State’ from Workers Challenge. Vol. 1 No. 5. April 22, 1922.

Instead of Taking Advantage of England’s Weakness to Smash British Government the Traitors to Irish People Formed Alliance With Their Age-Long Oppressors

In the political turmoil that called Ireland there are many contending forces, all striving for some concrete objective. The so-called Irish Free State has drawn not only a storm of protest from such representatives of petty bourgeois ideology as DeValera, but the more advanced of the working class, organized into the Communist Party of Ireland, are having their say and in uncertain terms. In a manifesto published in the United States by the James Connolly Literary Society of Boston, Mass., the Irish of America are called upon to support the [unreadable in original] the entire manifesto of the Communist Party of Ireland on the question of the Irish Free State is reprinted

The manifesto of the Communist Party of Ireland views the negotiations carried on between the British government and the representatives of the Irish Dial as diplomatic victors for Britain and a betrayal of Ireland in preparation for an imperialistic war against the United States. Says the manifesto in part:

WORKERS OF IRELAND!

No State within the British Empire is Free. Every State and every part of the British Empire is subject to the greed and rapacity of the financiers of London; is controlled by the political overlords who dance to their tune, to the puppets who act in their name. The Free State that is proposed for Ireland will benefit in no way the immense majority of the people of Ireland, in absolutely no way the Irish workers.

IT IS NOT A FREE STATE: IT IS A SLAVE STATE.

This so-called Free State will bring neither freedom nor peace. Instead, civil war and social hell will be loosed if it is accepted. THE EMPIRE IS ROCKING! It is being broken and crushed in India, destroyed in Egypt, and will soon be torn asunder by proletarian uprising in England, itself. Above all, the hostile attitude of America threatens to seal its doom. Faced with the greatest crisis in its history it foregoes its claim to rule unchallenged in Ireland, thereby effects a compromise with the weaker spirits among the Republicans, and immensely strengthens its position in the coming inevitable conflict with America.

Into this war Ireland will be drawn as a pawn fighting for England’s domination of the world. This prate is but the preparation for battle: the lull before the world hurricane. Its moral effect will, as Dr. Fogarty says, mean half a navy to England. Its material effect will mean a secure flank for England, complete possession of the most favorable naval and aerial base in Europe, the service of several thousands of bayonets hitherto thrust against her and no possibility of being “stabbed in the back.”

Ireland is to become the outpost on the Atlantic defending the Interests of British Imperialists against the attack of the American Finance Kings. The I.R.A is to become the watchdog of English capitalists! The conclusion of peace with Ireland strengthens the Empire when everything combines to damn it. This is saving the Empire as surely as ever it will be saved. This is the perpetuation of the enslavement of millions under the Union Jack.

By accepting this Treaty the Republicans fasten the shackles of slavery more firmly than ever on the workers not only of Ireland, but of Great Britain and of every part of the forced association of robbers and bandits known and universally hated as the British Empire.

On the 29th of October we wrote in our official organ, “The Workers’ Republic”: “England is getting ready for the next war, to defeat America and arrogate to herself the right to plunder whomsoever she pleases without let or hindrance. She is getting ready for the conquest of the world, and in her supremest hour of need the Republicans, failing to grasp the significance of the right-about of English policy, have come to her assistance. “England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity” seems to be in danger of being forgotten. And forgotten in the hour of “England’s difficulty”

If this shameful Treaty is ratified it will prove that the Republicans have forgotten the centuries-old cry of all Irish Rebels. Such action will show the real essence of official republicanism. The leaders have effected the compromise we predicted they would. They are endorsing the seven hundred years of English oppression and acknowledging its right to continue.

Those who have accepted this compromise have become afraid of a Republic. They fear that the people, glorifying in political freedom, may demand social freedom. They fear that an Irish Republic would be transformed into a Workers Republic. They prefer to be a dominion of the British Empire and have the help, if their own forces are insufficient or unwilling, of the bloodthirsty English Capitalist State to suppress any uprising of the Irish working class against the misery and poverty it will suffer from under an Irish Free State.

Workers of Ireland! heed not the declarations of politicians that this is a step towards the Republic, it is no such thing. It is a backward step, not a forward one. It is not towards freedom. What freedom can we expect allied to the bitterest foe of freedom in the world?

As against the British Empire we stand for an Irish Republic. As against any State that will foster or promote the interests of the British Empire we will fight for an Irish Republic. We stand and fight for an Irish Republic against the Free State. We will ally ourselves to whoever fights against the Free State and for an Irish Republic.

The Communist Party swears no allegiance to the Free State. We will not be faithful to King George. We repudiate with scorn and hatred Common Citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain as she now is. We denounce as a fraud and a mockery the British Commonwealth of Nations. The only true Commonwealth of Nations is the World Federation of Workers’ Republics. Only as a unit of such a World Federation can Ireland achieve her freedom.

The Communist Party allied to the revolutionary parties of the world alone can lead the way to an Irish Republic.

On to the Republic! Down with the British Empire!

Down with any Free State allied to the Robber Trust!

Long Live the Irish Republic! Long Live the World Federation of Workers’ Republics!

Work for a Republic! Hold your guns and fight for a Republic! Join the Communist Party of Ireland!

Workers Challenge was published weekly in New York City beginning in early 1922 by The United Toilers of America (UTA), the legal wing of the underground Communist Party which split from the Communist Party of America in late 1921. The main issues were around when and how to create a legal organization in the context of still-raging US government repression. Sometimes referred to as the Central Caucus CPA, the UTA’s constituents were mostly, though not exclusively, the Language Federations and included the Workers’ Defense Conference of New England, the Alliance of Polish Workers of America, the Ukrainian Association, the Lettish Publishing Association, the Polish Publishing Association, the Lithuanian Workers’ Association, the Woman’s Progressive Alliance. The Communist International ordered the group dissolved and to rejoin Workers Party of America, which the group rejected until its position could be heard at the full Comintern Congress. However, by the time of the Second Bridgman Convention later of August, 1922 most had. A rump organization resisted merger and continued as a tiny sect into the 1940s as the United Toilers of America. Leading figures included John J. Ballam, Harry Wicks, Charles Dirba, and George Ashkenudzie.

PDF of the full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/workerschallenge/v1n05-apr-22-1922-workers-chal.pdf