Category: Marxism and the National Question

The National Question in Ireland Today: Meeting the Historic Challenge

April 5, 2024 / Ciaran Mulholland

This article was originally written for discussion at the Socialist Party Conference in March 2018, as “Notes on the National Question Today”

On May 3^rd, 2021, Northern Ireland will be 100 years old. Partition was an historic defeat for the working-class movement in Ireland and we continue to live with its consequences today.

The workers movement could have prevented partition, and today the workers movement remains the only force in society which can overcome division and point the way to a better future for all.

In order to meet this historic challenge, it is essential that the ideas of Marxism reach the widest possible audience and that we build a politically strong a mass Marxist party in Ireland.

Reaching wide layers of workers, both Catholic and Protestant by background, will only be possible if we apply the ideas of Marxism to the burning issues of the moment. This is particularly the case with regards to the difficult issues which divide working class people along sectarian lines. What can come across as abstract appeals for working class unity, or as correct but vague generalisations, are not enough.

Instead, we must both seek to fully analyse and understand the consciousness and mood of different sections of the working class and engage in detail with each issue around which division crystallises.

The IRA’s Long War

March 23, 2024 / Ciaran Mulholland

A Review of “The Provisional IRA: from insurrection to parliament”, author Tommy McKearney. Published by Pluto Press, 2011

Review first published by Socialist Party, 2013

Tommy McKearney’s “The Provisional IRA, From Insurrection to Parliament” is a serious attempts to explain the genesis of the Provisional IRA and its subsequent trajectory over four decades. The author is not a bystander or commentator from afar but was a key Irish Republican Army activist in the 1970s and a participant in the 1980 hunger-strike. Since that time he has emerged as an articulate critic of the mainstream republican movement. Recently he spoke at the Socialist Party’s Socialism 2012 event in Belfast.

A View from the North Feb 17th 2024: A State Afraid to Take a Census: Lessons from Lebanon

February 17, 2024 / Ciaran Mulholland

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald stated that a united Ireland is “within touching distance” in the days before the restoration of power sharing. Her comment was widely reported, not just in local media, but also outside Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein frequently suggest that there is a momentum towards a united Ireland, with references to their hope to be in government on both sides of the border soon and to the impact of Brexit. What they hint at, but are reluctant to state openly, is where the momentum really comes from: demographic change. The population of the North is very slowly changing, with a higher proportion of Catholics and a lower proportion of Protestants.

The idea that demographic change provides a solution is entirely wrong. It would be a mistake to assume that the imperfect peace that now reigns in Northern Ireland will continue indefinitely. That the “peace process” could unravel is clear both from an analysis of the situation in the North but also from an analysis of other places.

July 1974 anniversaries of the coup and invasion– the crimes of fascism and nationalism in Cyprus

February 9, 2024 / Ciaran Mulholland

By Athina Kariata. First published by Internationalist Standpoint, July 20th, 2023.

Fifty years ago, events on the island of Cyprus were watched around the world. On July 15^th, 1974, a right-wing Greek-nationalist coup was launched. Five days later the Turkish army invaded the island. After a period of intense bloodshed, the island was partitioned. Half a century on there is a “frozen conflict”, with no resolution in sight. Activists in Ireland can learn from studying other places where “unresolved national questions” dominate politics. There are clear parallels between the complex issues in Cyprus and the situation in Ireland but also major differences. We republish here an article written by a comrade in Cyprus and first published in July 2023, which explains the events of July 1974. Further articles will be published over the coming months.

Socialism or Barbarism: What Future now for Israel and Palestine

November 5, 2023 / Ciaran Mulholland

First published on Internationalist Standpoint Website, November 5th 2023

“Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.” Rosa Luxemburg, “The Junius Pamphlet” (also known as “The Crisis in German Social Democracy”), 1915.

On October 7^th, 2500 Hamas fighters streamed across gaps in the fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel and headed in the direction of military installations, kibbutz, villages, and small towns. Within hours, over 1400 Israelis had been killed. How many of the dead were soldiers in uniform and how many civilians is unclear. Claim and counterclaim have swirled in the media and on social media. It is alleged that whole families were wiped out, that gruesome methods were used to kill babies and children, and that women were raped. The Israeli state has reasons to exaggerate events, and Hamas reasons to diminish, but whatever the exact numbers,it’s beyond doubt that there was deliberate targeting of civilians, and that some were killed by extremely brutal methods. Also, beyond doubt is that of the over 240people taken back to Gaza as captives most are non-combatants.

25th Anniversary of Good Friday Agreement: No Peace and No Prosperity

April 11, 2023 / Ciaran Mulholland

First published on Internationalist Standpoint Website, April 11th 2023

The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) was signed on April 10^th, 1998. Its 25^th anniversary has been marked by the visits of US President Joe Biden and Bill and Hilary Clinton to Ireland, and a series of commemorative events. The GFA is trumpeted as a triumph of diplomacy and statecraft, and the Northern Ireland “peace process” is held up as an example for conflict resolution all over the world.

The reality is different. The governmental institutions created by the GFA have functioned for little more than 50% of the years since. The sectarian political parties (which represent the interests of one community only), still praised for their role in bringing 30 years of death and destruction to an end, confront each other daily in an endless cycle. For the working-class communities there is no real peace, and the promised prosperity never came. Military strategist Clausewitz once said that “war is politics by other means”. In Ireland the peace process amounts to a continuation of “the Troubles” by other means.

Rioting in Protestant areas of Belfast in opposition to Protocol, Spring 2021

“Windsor Framework” Will not Solve Fundamental Problems

April 4, 2023 / Ciaran Mulholland

First published Internationalist Standpoint Website, April 4th, 2023

On February 27^th the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) Government published a draft agreement designed to solve the impasse which led to the collapse of devolved government in Northern Ireland in February 2022. The Framework has now been passed by an overwhelming majority the UK Parliament and has been endorsed by all EU member states.

The Framework has the support of the nationalist parties (Sinn Fein and Social Democratic and Labour Party) which win the majority of votes in the Catholic community in Northern Ireland. The British Labour Party declared it would support the Framework before it was even published. The Irish government is fully behind the deal. US President Biden and ex-President Clinton are to visit Northern Ireland next week to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in April and their visit is clearly designed to bolster support for the Framework and ensure a return of the local devolved Assembly.

The spotlight is now on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the main unionist party, which is favour of Northern Ireland remaining in UK and win votes in the Protestant community. The DUP voted against the Framework in Parliament. Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has outlined five “areas of concerns” that it wants to see addressed, suggesting that further talks and concessions from the EU could resolve the issues. Other key figures in the party have taken a harder position and reject the Framework entirely, arguing that it is even worse than the original Protocol. There is no immediate prospect of the local Assembly returning. Understanding the context of this latest crisis in the long-running “peace process” is essential if the worker’s movement is to point a way forward.

Political Crisis in Northern Ireland: Workers Movement must take Independent Stance

October 27, 2022 / Ciaran Mulholland

First published Internationalist Standpoint, October 27^th 2022

In the weeks before his resignation as Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought forward legislation designed to overturn aspects of the “Northern Ireland Protocol”-the clause in the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement which allows for Northern Ireland to remain tied into the EU single market and customs union with the rest of the UK outside. Leading EU politicians reacted with anger, declaring that the legislation is “a breach of international law” and threatens the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (the agreement which brought to an end the most intense years of violence known as “The Troubles”).

A Race Against Time: Agreeing an Independent Programme for the Workers Movement on the Partition of Ireland

January 31, 2022 / Ciaran Mulholland

First published Internationalist Standpoint website, January 31st 2022

Internationalist Standpoint have re-published several articles which address the question of a “border poll” in Ireland, either directly or indirectly [read the collection of articles here]. This is to be welcomed. Debate and discussion for the purpose of clarification and agreement around programme are essential in the development of the workers movement. A full debate requires careful analysis, in-depth thinking, a willingness to examine the most difficult issues, and an application of the method of Marxism. A superficial approach will be of no assistance to the workers movement over the next difficult years. The articles re-published here are of uneven quality: not all the authors engage with the realities of the situation, and as result draw incorrect conclusions and put forward programmatic demands that are problematic, even dangerous. It is not possible in one short article to fully critique the ideas expressed to date, or to explore all the relevant issues: this article is an introduction to a series of articles which will be published on this site in the coming weeks.