13. Against Sectarianism! For Class Unity!

There is an old story that after the battle of the Boyne, the boatman who was ferrying King William across the river Boyne asked him who had won the battle, to which the King replied: “It matters not to you, because you will still be the boatman.”

In his lifetime, Connolly always fought for the unity of the working class above all national and religious lines. By concentrating on class issues, he succeeded in uniting the Catholic and Protestant workers in the struggle against their common enemy – the employing class. That is the only way to get out of the present mess. The only way to solve what remains of Ireland’s national problem is as a by-product of the revolutionary struggle for socialism. That was true in Connolly’s day. He had the vision and understanding to see this a hundred years ago. Today it is a hundred times more evident. There can be no reunification of Ireland while the working class remains divided along sectarian lines. Connolly’s application of the ideas of Marxism to Ireland a century ago and the history of Ireland led him to the understand the leading role of the working class in the coming revolution, to understand the inability of the bourgeoisie to play any progressive role, and the socialist tasks of the revolution, completing the national democratic tasks in passing, as well as the need for the revolution to spread beyond our own borders.

The policies pursued by the middle-class Republican leaders over the past decades have utterly failed in their goals. On the other hand, the methods they used have played havoc with the unity of the working class. True, the division between Catholics and Protestants has existed for a long time, encouraged by the deliberate actions of British imperialists, who early recognised that the splitting of the population of Northern Ireland on religious lines represented the surest means of strengthening their grip on Ireland. But this gulf has now been turned into a yawning abysm of bitterness and mutual mistrust. This means that the prospect of Irish unification is further off today than at any time in history. The only way in which we can begin to repair the damage is by fighting on a class programme, one that can unite the workers of both communities in struggle against their common enemy – the employing class.

The Role of Religion

Religion has played a most negative role in Irish history. It has enabled the ruling class and imperialism to divide and fatally weaken the working class and the oppressed masses. Of course, men and women ought to be free to believe in any religion – or in none – without being molested by the state or suffering social or economic discrimination. Socialists will fight against discrimination in all its forms.

It is self-evident to anyone with the slightest knowledge of history, that the Roman Catholic Church has never been a true friend of the national liberation struggle of the Irish people. It was a Pope who first handed Ireland to the English. It was another Pope who backed William of Orange against the Irish Catholics. The Catholic Church did nothing to protect the Irish language and culture when it was threatened with extinction. It opposed the United Irishmen and the Fenians and it destroyed Parnell. Above all, the Church bitterly opposed every advance of the labour movement in the early days. It denounced and persecuted Republicans, especially socialist Republicans.

The Church in the South has played a most reactionary role right up to the present. The bishops have been involved in one way or another in almost every campaign against social reform in Ireland. Of late, however, disgust towards this institution has reached such proportions that its interventions have had to be far more muted. In the referenda over gay marriage, the right to divorce, and the right to abortion, where the clergy did speak up they only served to harden the mood against themselves.

Since the 1990s a string of revelations have brought into the cold light of day the horrific abuses of this institution, from the sexual abuse of children by clergymen and subsequent cover-ups, to the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries. In these prisons, so-called ‘fallen women’ – women who bore children out of wedlock – were enslaved by the Church. Stripped of their property, their dignity and even their names, these poor souls were locked up with their children and forced to carry out slave labour for the enrichment of the religious orders. Verbal, physical and sexual torture were commonplace. Countless mothers were permanently separated from children who were sold off in illegal adoptions. When babies and children died, as often they did in these hellholes, their corpses were simply dumped in mass graves. At the Tuam Mother and Baby Home, no less than 800 corpses were found dumped in septic tanks.

Since the formation of the Free State, the Catholic Church, which is joined at the hip with the Irish bourgeoisie, lorded it over the most vulnerable in society, extending its reach into every home in Ireland. Women above all suffered the worst of its abuses, which have continued down to the modern day. In 2012 a young Indian woman, named Savita Halappanavar, arrived in agony at University Hospital Galway. It was clear that she was suffering a miscarriage, and if an emergency abortion was not carried out immediately, Savita would die of sepsis. The young woman begged and pleaded for medical intervention, only to be told, “Ireland is a Catholic country”. The abortion was refused and Savita died. She was one of countless victims whose lives have been needlessly cut short in the name of protecting the ‘sanctity of life’. For millions of Irish women however, her death was the last straw and sparked the beginning of a mass movement to throw off the dead hand of the Church. This struggle was crowned with victory in 2018 with the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, which had restricted a woman’s right to choose.

The awakening of the Irish working class has been heralded, as inevitably it must, by inspiring movements of women and the youth to repeal the restrictive laws against divorce, abortion, and gay marriage. A revolution can scarcely be imagined without movements of the most exploited and oppressed layers of the population, and therefore above all of working-class women. Across the world, the crisis of capitalism has provoked enormous movements of women in one country after another. In Latin America, women have risen up against gender violence in the Ni una menos movement; in Poland women have mobilised en masse for reproductive rights; and in Spain there is the inspiring example of the 8 March 2018 feminist strike.

Women and youth in Ireland have been at the forefront of the struggle to remove the social restrictions that the Church imposed upon society. First in 2015 with the gay marriage referendum and then in 2018 with the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, devastating blows have been struck against the Catholic Church. The fall of this bulwark of reaction is a fact of no small significance for the future of the Irish revolution.

For the ruling class, the collapse of the Church’s authority deprives them of one of their surest props of support. Marx once said, “a party in decay, will always better succeed in getting rid of its old principles, than of its old connections.”^[1] The Irish ruling class have been forced to move with the tide. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar even hailed the repeal of the Eighth Amendment as “a quiet revolution”. Nevertheless, the capitalist class in the South remains closely tied to the Catholic Church. To this day the Church is deeply embedded in the education system as well as private healthcare. The Sisters of Bon Secours religious order, which was responsible for the atrocities at Tuam, continues to run the biggest for-profit hospital chain in Ireland. The government hands money over to private healthcare by the bucket-full.

Things are no better with Protestantism. For generations, the Orange Order has been utilised as a mechanism of the wealthy and powerful to control the Protestant masses and split the working class. The Orange Order has been an effective mechanism for perpetuating the sectarian make-up of the Northern state. Every single head of the Six Counties until 2022 has also been a senior member of the Orange Order. The poison of religious sectarianism and bigotry, the bad leftovers of the past, are the weapons whereby the ruling class perpetuates the divisions in the working class. In order to prevent Protestant workers identifying with their Catholic neighbours, the Order peddled the idea of an anti-Catholic society led, by the wealthy Protestants, that offered all Protestants a place in its ranks, and the promise of promotion and privilege. The Orange parades were designed to allow the working-class Protestant members a day in the sun to mix with their ‘betters’ and at the same time lord it over their Catholic neighbours.

But this was a lie. The Protestant working class has nothing in common with the Protestant bankers, landlords, and capitalists. Sectarianism was, and is, only a way of keeping the workers weak and divided. Radical Protestant workers were subjected to accusations of being ‘traitors’ for refusing to support Orange bigotry. Connolly understood this very well. He and Larkin succeeded in uniting the Protestant and Catholic workers in struggle under difficult conditions by concentrating on the class questions. By skilful tactics they succeeded in splitting the Protestant workers away from the bosses. That is the correct way – the only way.

It is quite possible to achieve unity in struggle between the workers of both communities. Although unemployment is traditionally higher in Republican areas, there are plenty of unemployed Loyalists. There is plenty of bad housing in their areas, and they are also concerned about low wages and pensions. On social questions also there is a lot of discontent. Divorce is frowned upon by the Protestant churches, as is abortion. The movement that led to the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in the South had the most profound impact in the North. Under the pressure of hundreds of thousands of Protestant and Catholic women, workers, and youth, the British government was forced to finally extend the right to abortion to Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church and Orange Order joined hands to oppose the move. This ought to come as no surprise. Whilst reactionary sectarians of the Orange and Green variety have always appeared to be in antagonism to one another, the reality is that they rest on each other for support. When faced with movements of the poor and oppressed masses, they will always make common cause.

Not only the gun but also religion must therefore be taken out of politics. People have the right to follow their religious beliefs. But that must not mean that one religion should dominate over another. True democrats demand the most radical separation of church and state. There can be no place for religion in the schools, where it fosters and perpetuates the division between Catholics and Protestants from childhood. Education must be secular, rational, and scientific. If people want a religious education, they must organise it outside school hours and pay for it themselves. Not a penny of taxpayers’ money must be spent on religion. The money raised in taxes is the common property of all, irrespective of religious affiliation.

Sectarian Divisions

It is time to put an end to the sectarian divisions that have bedevilled the working class of the North of Ireland for so long. Chief among the aims of the proletariat is that of upholding the sacred unity of the working class. Unity between the proletarians is the most important weapon they possess in their struggle against Capital. Therefore, anything that tends to sow disunion among the workers is thoroughly reactionary and must be rejected. We stand for the unity of all workers, irrespective of race, nationality, language, or religion. In the case of the Six Counties, we stand for the class unity of Catholic and Protestant workers. Without this, no way forward is possible. Many people on both sides of the sectarian divide feel that the present situation is intolerable and must be changed. We must base ourselves on this and fight on issues that unite working people, not those that divide us.

The so-called Accord has not abolished sectarianism but made it worse. The levels of sectarian violence tend to increase, while living standards and jobs are eroded. Sectarian madmen threaten workers’ lives and make people’s lives a misery. The politicians make fine speeches but have no solution to these problems. The fate of Yugoslavia constitutes a terrible warning of where a false policy on the national problem can lead. Along this road no progress is possible. It is time to call a halt! We must strike out in a new direction – one that avoids the pitfalls of the past and opens the road to a successful struggle against capitalism and imperialism.

Recent history is not without examples of Catholic and Protestant workers linking arms in struggle. In 2019 the Harland and Wolff shipyard was threatened with closure. The birthplace of the Titanic, Harland and Wolff was once an imposing symbol of Protestant supremacy in the North. It provided tens of thousands of jobs and had a mostly Protestant workforce. For much of its history it was a no-go area for Catholics. Today the shipyard employs only a few hundred workers.

When those workers were also threatened with redundancy, they reacted with tremendous militancy, occupying the yard. The struggle of the workers was accompanied by a curious incident that is worth mentioning here for the light it sheds on how consciousness can and has changed. At one point these mostly Protestant workers organised a demonstration outside the then-empty Stormont building. However, they weren’t the only ones who had turned up to protest that day. Irish language activists were also picketing Stormont, demanding the DUP drop its sectarian opposition to the Irish language. It wasn’t long before both groups of protesters were heard enthusiastically shouting in chorus, “sábháil ár gclós!” – “save our shipyard!” in Irish.

In this microcosm is contained the key to the class struggle, the national struggle, and the struggle for basic democratic rights. Only by uniting these struggles can the working class break down the sectarian barriers that have divided it for generations. The fight for democratic rights must be connected to workers’ daily battles. The struggle of Republicans against partition must take the form of uniting workers to fight for their common class interests. This shows the way forward! The working class will fight national oppression, but it will do so under its own banner, with its own policies, and its own methods.

We will, of course, be accused of utopianism by those ‘realists’ whose ‘practical’ methods have landed us in the present mess. We are not worried about this accusation. It is not new. In his lifetime, Connolly was frequently accused of utopianism by his reactionary opponents, whose ‘realism’ was just another way of expressing their slavish acceptance of the status quo. These cowardly servants of capitalism poured scorn on Connolly just like their descendants today. We will treat them with the same well-merited contempt with which Connolly did.

In the programme of socialism there is not a single atom of utopianism. Utopia signifies something that is impossible, something which is at variance with reality, and that therefore cannot be. But in reality, it is capitalism that is at variance with reality. The present economic crisis, during which every day thousands of workers are being thrown out of work, and the big companies close down factories as if they were so many matchboxes, shows that this is so.

If we look seriously at the problem of sectarianism, we will see that, although it has its roots in history, it is perpetuated by the economic crisis and the limitations of the capitalist system. As long as there are not sufficient jobs and houses for everybody, there will always be the suspicion among the people of one community that they are unemployed or homeless because the others have taken their jobs and houses. A serious struggle against sectarianism therefore presupposes a serious struggle against capitalism.

Why is there a crisis? Only because capitalism has developed the productive forces to a point that they come into conflict with the narrow limits of the profit system. The main barriers to the further development of the productive forces are: the private ownership of the means of production and the nation state. This contradiction can only be removed by the elimination of both.

Nationalism and Internationalism

Already in the pages of the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels pointed out that the socialist revolution, while national in form, is internationalist in content. Internationalism is a fundamental feature of scientific socialism.

The founders of scientific socialism argued that “the working men have no country.”^[2] They insisted that:

In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they [the Communists] point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality.^[3]

These profound words are even truer today than when they were first written.

Does this mean that we must ignore the national question, the oppression of women and other such questions? Of course not! The proletariat and its party are duty-bound to fight against all forms of oppression, including national oppression. Only in this way can we assemble and unite the forces necessary to overthrow capitalism. But in contrast to bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalists, we point out that national oppression is only one manifestation of the central oppression from which all other forms ultimately derive: the division of society into classes and the enslavement of the working class by the bourgeoisie.

The national democratic tasks, which remain unsolved to this day, can only be achieved by a struggle against the national bourgeoisie. The whole history of the national liberation struggle in the twentieth century shows the correctness of this. The achievement of formal independence on a capitalist basis has solved nothing. Over half a century after independence, countries like India and Pakistan are more dependent on imperialism than before. They are still plundered through the mechanism of the world market and debt.

We can never accept the subordination of the interests of the working class to the demands of the nationalist bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie. Indeed, the greatest misfortune of the Irish labour movement was that it accepted the idea that ‘Labour must wait’. The result is that the working class – and the entire people of Ireland – have been waiting for the best part of a hundred years for their social, economic, and national rights, which the bourgeoisie has signally failed to achieve.

The border is, of course, an abomination that must be removed. It is not, however, the task of socialists to erect new frontiers. Our aim is altogether different: our aim is to abolish all frontiers, not just the one that separates the South from the North. We stand for a socialist revolution in the North and South of Ireland, and also a socialist revolution in Britain and the rest of Europe. In fact, without this, an Irish Workers’ Republic would be only an ephemeral episode, like the Paris Commune.

British Imperialism

British imperialism is our enemy. But the working class of England, Scotland and Wales is a potential ally, whose support and solidarity we must carefully cultivate and develop. Our aim is the establishment of a thirty-two-county Irish Workers’ Republic, linked to a democratic Socialist Federation of England, Scotland and Wales, as part of the Socialist United States of Europe and a Socialist World Federation. Does that seem utopian? But the fact remains that the supposedly ‘realistic’ policies that the other side have been pursuing for the past 100 years have turned out to be the worst – and most reactionary – utopianism. They have failed utterly in their basic aims, and it is about time that this was honestly and squarely stated.

Socialism is internationalist or it is nothing. The Irish national liberation movement has always been part of the world revolutionary movement, as Connolly always insisted:

Just as ‘98 was an Irish expression of the tendencies embodied in the first French Revolution, as ‘48 throbbed in sympathy with the democratic and social upheavals on the continent of Europe and England, so Fenianism was a responsive throb in the Irish heart to those pulsations in the heart of the European working class which elsewhere produced the International Working Men’s Association.^[4]

Socialism in one country is impossible. The struggle for socialism is an international struggle because capitalism is an international system. We are not nationalists but revolutionary internationalists. During the First World War Connolly pursued a consistent internationalist policy, although that was a very difficult thing to do. Later, the Russian Revolution acted as a powerful stimulus to the Irish national liberation movement. It led to the spread of communist ideas inside the Republican movement. Finally, the Civil Rights Movement of 1968 was also a part of a general ferment throughout Europe, exemplified by the general strike in France and student demonstrations all over Europe and America.

Yes, the proletariat is duty bound to fight against national oppression. But it is not at all bound to follow the dictates of alien classes with other aims and interests. It is by no means bound to subordinate itself to bourgeois and petty-bourgeois movements with their own aims and agenda. On the contrary, the proletariat is duty bound to uphold its class independence, to pursue only those aims which will further the struggle for its own emancipation, and to refuse to support any others.

Forward to Connolly!

James Connolly once talked about “a chapter of great opportunities lost, of popular confidence betrayed”.^[5] These words accurately describe the history of Ireland over the past 100 years. Ireland today is once again at a crossroads. The world is much changed since the days of the Civil Rights Movement and Bloody Sunday. On the face of it the situation might seem hopeless. In the Nationalist areas of the North, there is a war-weariness amongst the people. British troops have been in their communities since August 1969. An entire generation has been lost, burnt out, demoralised, and killed. Yet, like the phoenix that rises from the ashes, the working class will always recover from even the greatest defeats. This is the only hope for Ireland and the world.

For the last 100 years, the Irish bourgeois nationalists have demonstrated their complete incapacity for solving the tasks of the Irish national liberation struggle. In 1922 the bourgeois leaders signed the partition of Ireland. This problem cannot be solved on a capitalist basis. The Irish bourgeoisie have had plenty of time to show what they can do, and they have failed.

Matters are no better with the petty-bourgeois Republicans. For thirty years the Provisional IRA tried to solve the problem by a senseless campaign of bombing and shooting. These tactics have absolutely nothing in common with the methods of Connolly and the Citizens Army, which were always based on class politics and organically linked to the proletariat and the mass workers’ organisations.

The socialist revolution in the North is inextricably linked to the perspective of socialist revolution in the South – and in Britain. In other words, it can only be solved with a proletarian and internationalist policy. There is still a ray of hope in the North of Ireland. Despite everything, the fundamental organisations of the working class – the trade unions – remain united. They are probably the only real non-sectarian mass organisations that still exist. Some will object that these organisations are dominated by a crust of conservative bureaucracy. This is certainly true, but it would be a mistake to imagine that this is an insurmountable obstacle. The bureaucracy’s smothering dominance is a product of the past period of apathy and demoralisation. The unprecedented tumultuous events that are upon us will force hundreds of thousands of workers to join their unions. Local shop stewards will be told: ‘join the fight or step aside!’ Eventually this must find its reflection at the top of these organisations, starting perhaps with smaller, more radical unions. These organisations will thus be transformed from top to bottom. There is no other road. This is the base upon which we can build! That would undoubtedly be the message of James Connolly, were he alive at this time.

So, does this mean that we are proposing going back to the ideas and methods of the past? We are revolutionaries and we therefore look forward to the future with optimism and hope. Nostalgia and longing for the past have no place in our outlook or philosophy. Yet dialectics teaches us that the process of development moves in a contradictory way. Old forms seem to recur constantly in history, and long-forgotten ideas can suddenly experience a rebirth. But on closer examination, this repetition is only apparent. There is always something new, an actual development, not an endless closed circle.

Scandalously, after Connolly’s death, the labour leaders in Ireland buried most of his works, while the bourgeois Nationalists consistently played down and distorted his ideas and historical role. It is our duty to ensure that these marvellous writings get the widest possible circulation, especially among the younger generation. We believe the ideas of James Connolly were correct in all the fundamentals. That does not mean that we have to subscribe to every dot and comma. We do not have a religious attitude towards Connolly or anyone else. Today, 106 years after his death, certain details would have to be changed. But what is surprising is not how much of Connolly’s thought needs to be revised. What is astonishing is how much remains completely valid.

Today, it is necessary to cut through all the fog of historical fantasy and nationalist mystification that surrounds the events of Easter Week, and see the key role of the proletariat. What a great opportunity was missed with the death of James Connolly! But the new generation must take the lesson to heart. Connolly failed because he did not create – as Lenin created – the necessary instrument with which to change society: a revolutionary party and a revolutionary leadership!

Today, we pledge ourselves to defend the heritage of this great Marxist, fighter, and martyr of the working class. We must rescue the ideas of Connolly, which have been stolen and distorted beyond recognition by people who have nothing to do with Connolly, socialism, or the working class. We must continue the fight for Connolly’s ideas – the only ideas that can guarantee the ultimate victory. We must create the necessary revolutionary organisation, soundly based on the programme, policy and methods of Marxism.

A fighting working-class movement is needed in Ireland, in Britain, and internationally. We view the working class as the only class that can provide and ensure that the movement of the future isn’t based on failed slogans and strategies but in the direction of independent working-class liberation, using whatever means are appropriate.

In the South of Ireland, the party that today bears the name ‘Labour’, although founded by James Connolly, no longer carries so much as an atom of its founder’s legacy. Having severed its last link to the Irish working class, it has been relegated to the position of a reformist sect. Its demise is much deserved and little mourned.

Although deprived of a party of its own, the working class in the South will be impelled on the road of struggle in the coming years. Despite the fact that the current crop of trade union leaders have struggled might and main to hold back workers’ militancy, these organisations will also undergo a transformation. Eventually they will be forced to break not only their industrial truce with the ruling class, but also their political truce. The question of the formation of a genuine Labour Party will be placed on the order of the day.

But we must face facts: the forces of Marxism are too small at this time, and its cadres too few, to be able to provide a serious alternative. It will be objective conditions that will force the development of a new party of the working class. We will participate in this process. Our task however is not to substitute ourselves for this movement, but to build up the forces of genuine revolutionary Marxism so that as these events unfold, we are in a position to fertilise the workers’ movement with revolutionary Marxist ideas – the ideas of James Connolly – and to draw the best of the vanguard of our class around the banner of Marxism.

The German philosopher Hegel once wrote about an idea which, having run the whole course of its development, finally returns to the starting point. But, it does so enriched by all the wealth of content of its experience. Today, after three generations of struggle, we are in a position to appreciate just how right Connolly was. We can appreciate him much more now than was possible during his lifetime. James Connolly is the most modern of thinkers.

Having experienced in our own flesh the bitterness of defeat, having seen so many brave fighters killed and imprisoned, with no appreciable result, we can finally understand that, when the Republican movement abandoned the road of James Connolly – the road of the class struggle and the socialist revolution – it took a fatally wrong turn. All mistakes must be paid for, and the movement has paid a very heavy price for its mistakes.

Today, every honest Irish Republican will say: we owe it to the martyred dead, we owe it to ourselves, above all, we owe it to the future generations of Irish youth, to recognise our errors and firmly retrace our steps. In so doing we must finally decide to take the route mapped out by the leader of the Easter Rising: the road that unites the working class, not the one that divides it: the road of socialist revolution.

Marx pointed out the most elementary truth: that the emancipation of the working class is the task of the working class, and only the working class. The Easter Rising was a glorious harbinger of what is still to come. The job was left unfinished in 1916. The task now falls upon the shoulders of the new generation of workers and youth. Armed with the ideas of Marxism – the ideas of Connolly – the ultimate victory is guaranteed. We echo the confidence in the Irish working class and the revolutionary optimism expressed by James Connolly when he wrote in 1914:

… Ireland may yet 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 on the funeral pyre of the last warlord.^[6]

Endnotes

[1] Karl Marx, ‘The Excitement in Ireland’, 24 December 1858, Marx and Engels – Ireland and the Irish Question, p. 97.

[2] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, The Classics of Marxism, Vol. 1, Wellred Books, 2013, p. 20.

[3] Ibid., p. 75, emphasis added – AW.

[4] James Connolly, Labour in Irish History, Collected Works, Vol. 1, pp. 179-80.

[5] Ibid., p. 74.

[6] James Connolly, ‘Our Duty in This Crisis’, The Irish Worker, 8 August 1914, Collected Works, Vol. 1, p. 416.