Partisan Patriotic Internationalist Number 156 February ... · Housing crisis Page 4 NHS and socialism Page 4 Democratic Programme Page 6 Brecht’s The Manifesto Page 8 War and peace

SVSocialist Voice

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Communist Party of IrelandPáirtí Cumannach na hÉireann Partisan Patriotic InternationalistNumber 156 February 2018 €1.50www.communistpartyofireland.ie

IN THIS ISSUELand value Page 2Repeal the 8th Page 3Housing crisis Page 4NHS and socialism Page 4Democratic Programme Page 6Brecht’s The Manifesto Page 8War and peace Page 10Catalunya Page 12Letter from Cuba Page 10Hollywood and the Indigenes Page 12From Burns to Liebknecht Page 14Books Page 16

“Our strategy should be not only toconfront empire but to lay siege to it,to deprive it of oxygen.”Arundhati Roy(Indian author and political activist).

Socialist Voice43 East Essex StreetDublin D02 XH96(01) 6708707Recovery

for whom?Eugene McCartan Page 2

POLITICS

Recovery forwhom?

IT IS CONSTANTLYrepeated in the pro-bossmedia that the Irish

economy is in recovery, andthat this is in full swingthroughout the EuropeanUnion. One has to ask theserious question: A recoveryfor whom, and at what price?

They repeat the mantra thatunemployment levels are comingdown. Unemployment in the 19-country euro zone is at its lowestlevel in nearly nine years, at 8.7per cent—down from 9.7 per centin 2016. This comes amid astrong economic growth rate of2½ per cent last year.

But behind this supposedlygood news lies a grimmer reality.

Fixed-term or temporarycontracts are increasingly thenorm throughout the EU since thecrash of 2008–10. This hasresulted in widespread incomeinsecurity among tens of millionsof workers, but growing profits foremployers

To paraphrase the multi-billionaire George Soros, nevermiss the opportunities presentedby a crisis to advance yourposition.

Throughout the EU, workershave experienced increasingattacks on hard-won rights andtheir terms and conditions, seeinglegislation that supposedlyprotects workers’ rights beingwatered down and in some casesremoved altogether. Employersremain reluctant to risk open-ended contracts, which furtherdown the line could be anunwelcome burden because ofseverance pay and other legalrequirements.

This is leading to what is termeda “dual labour market,” resultingin some workers getting a healthypay packet, reasonable benefitsand employment security whileothers are reduced to low wages,job insecurity, and few if anyavenues for promotion.

In January 2018 the Spanish

government announced that 2017was a record year for job creation,with 21.5 million employmentcontracts. But 19.6 million ofthese jobs were temporary.

In Italy, the largest trade unionfederation estimates that thenumber of people with temporaryor part-time jobs who are seekingpermanent full-time work grew toa record 4.5 million in the firsthalf of 2017. The numberslooking for full-time work hadmore than doubled, from756,000 in 2007 to 1.8 million inthe first half of 2017.

In Portugal unemployment was7.8 per cent in December, thelowest in eight years; but only 34per cent of employment contractssigned between 2013 and lastyear were open-ended, that is,full-time work. From 2013 to theend of 2017 nearly three millionemployment contracts weresigned, but by the end of 2017only about one million of thesejobs still exist.

Portugal’s economic recovery islargely in the tourism industry,where seasonal work iswidespread, while in the buildingindustry, contracts are valid onlyfor the duration of specificconstruction projects. This patternof employment practices isrepeated throughout the EuropeanUnion.

There is a recovery for bigbusiness: profits are up, CEOs’bonuses are up, shareholders’dividends are growing, whileworkers see their living standardunder constant downwardpressure, with our rights erodedand precarious employment asthe norm, which in turn is leadingin an insecure future.

This is not good for workers, fortheir physical or mental health. Itis not good for their families ortheir communities. Our onlypossible defence is our strength innumbers, leading to strength inorganisation if we join and areactive in our trade union.

The old slogan is come back tohaunt another generation: Weeither organise and resist or webend the knee and starve. H

page 2 Socialist Voice

Dáithí Ó hAirtrí

IDO NOT think it is correctto suggest that land isfinite but can be reused.

We have seen in Chernobylthat land will not be reusablein any human lifetime; it isuseless for habitation forthousands of years.

Likewise with dumps orincinerators: the dioxins releasedleach into water and soil and leadto illness.

Secondly, with climate changeand rising sea levels the sum totalof land, and more specificallyarable land, will be reduced. Wecannot look at it as a fixedproperty, because it will make ouranalysis outdated extremelyquickly.

Why are these class issues?Well, firstly, when we consider thetendency of the rate of profit tofall, we know that capitalists willresort to even moreenvironmentally destructive policiesin order to maintain their profits.This is why we see fracking, oilpipelines and Arctic drilling as thebig environmental issues of ourtime. Profit pressures forcecapitalists into more and moreunproductive and destructivemechanisms, compounding theamount of land that will fall into astate of unusability. It will alsomean that capitalism will nevertruly tackle climate change.

Secondly, with the collapse ofarable land it will lead to massive

displacement throughout thedeveloping world and thenecessary intensification ofimperialism in order to maintainthe imperial core’s hold over thatsubjugation.

It is important to get thesethings theoretically correct, as if weproceed from wrong assumptionswe will end up down an ideologicalcul de sac. Any analysis of Irishland use must take into accountan environmental lens and also apopulation lens.

On the land value tax in general,Karl Marx referred to such taxes as“capitalism’s last-ditch attempt” to“save capitalist domination andindeed to establish it afresh on aneven wider basis than its presentone.” Shifting the store of valuefrom labour to ownership is anideological decision that I’m notsure I agree with.

Secondly, how do we assess thevalue of the land? Is that amarket-based pricing mechanism?Surely a backward step to startincorporating market actions in oursolutions.

We need to create a tensionover land monopolies. That is notdone, in my opinion, by addingadditional costs to the ownershipof land but instead by strikingdirectly at those who arelandowners. We need land reformin the vein of what was promisedbefore the Irish Revolution. Weshould look for guidance from theFenians rather than from marketsocialists. H

Land value tax A response■ See “Understanding land value tax” by Eoghan O’Neill, SocialistVoice, January 2018, p. 10

LIBERATION

Socialist Voice page 3

Laura Duggan

JOINTLY HOSTED by theTrade Union Campaign toRepeal the 8th

Amendment (TUCR8A) andthe Coalition to Repeal theEighth, this public meetingdealt with article 40.3.3 asa work-place, class, equalityand human rights issue.

Like most trade unionmeetings, Repeal the 8th: TheRole of Trade Unions started alittle behind schedule.Organisers, speakers andaudience members were chasingafter each other to ask advice,cash in favours, and update eachother—doing all the behind-the-scenes work that kickscampaigns off and keeps themafloat.

The meeting was well attendedby trade union officials andactivists as well as by non-unionmembers.

The meeting was chaired byAilbhe Smyth, convenor of theCoalition to Repeal the 8thAmendment, with her usualblend of humour and passion. DrFiona Bloomer and Claire Piersonopened the meeting by giving anoverview of the ground-breakingsurvey “Abortion as a WorkplaceIssue: A Trade Union SurveyNorth and South of Ireland.” Thissurvey can be found on the websites of the participating unions:Unite, Unison, Mandate, CWU,and GMB.

The survey is broken up intothree main parts: Views onabortion—broken down by gender,age, religion, profession, andregion; Abortion as a workplaceissue—a range of scenariosrelated to disclosure, advice andsupport, time off, and sicknesspay; and Qualitative responses—discussion groups and personalremarks.

Maggie Ryan, on behalf of theTUCR8A, spoke on the classaspects of access to abortionand how these link directly totrade union struggle, as well asprecarious work, low pay, and thedifficulties of obtaining leave,particularly for those precariouslyemployed or in feminisedprofessions, such as teachingand nursing. She spoke of thesecrecy surrounding women’shealth, and the fact that thisneeds to be addressed for realprogress to be made. She heldup a TUC publication, SupportingWorking Women through theMenopause, and said, to muchapplause, that she lookedforward to the day the ICTU couldproduce the same, along withone about abortion.

Emily Waszak brought a newperspective to the table.Speaking on behalf of a newcampaign group, Migrant andEthnic Minorities for ReproductiveJustice, she pointed out the needfor an intersectional approach—an approach that acknowledgesclass struggle but also how racial

and ethnic discrimination overlapwith it. She succinctly highlightedthe fact that the “right to travel”is non-existent for women indirect provision and for the manymigrants who do not have themeans to prove their identity inorder to travel.

A speaker from the BritishTrades Union Congress joined thepanel to add an internationalflavour. Philipa Harvey of theNational Union of Teachersmirrored the journey that twelvewomen from Ireland make everyday to obtain access to abortionto offer solidarity and speak onthe need to be prepared to fightto maintain access once repealis won.

The respected community andreproductive rights activistCathleen O’Neill further examinedthe 8th Amendment as a classissue and argued that it is afurther erosion of the lot ofworking-class women. Sheemphasised the ground that hadbeen lost for women andcommunity supports during therecession and stressed thatthese need to be won back.

Drawing the many threadstogether, Mags O’Brien (ICTUGlobal Solidarity Committee)closed the meeting by referringto the hypocrisy of theGovernment and the rhetoricabout Ireland’s commitment tohuman rights while women arestill denied access to essentialhealth services. H

InternationalWorkingWomen’s Day,2018 Join us on Thursday 8 Marchat 8 p.m. in the LiquorRooms, Wellington Quay,Dublin, for our celebration ofInternational WorkingWomen’s Day. On 8 March, a day

established to honour theaccomplishments, the livesand the struggles of workingwomen, we wish to mark thecourage of women—womenwho in the past struggledfearlessly against difficultconditions in domestic andindustrial labour and who inthe present continue tostruggle in an era ofincreasing hatred, division,and exploitation. In 2018 women are bravely

facing these challenges. Ourevent wishes to showcase theendurance of contemporarysocialist-feminist activism,and the continued relevanceof International WorkingWomen’s Day.Our event, “A Different

Perspective: The Lives andStruggles of WorkingWomen,” will shed light onthe activists who are leadingthe charge in resisting sexist-capitalist exploitation andoppression within ourcommunity, both in Irelandand internationally. Our hostof speakers will lead adiscussion focused onworking conditions, abortionaccess, housing, imperialism,and neo-colonialism. Throughthis discussion we willilluminate the vitality of thesocialist-feminist struggle in2018. A range of artists,musicians and poets willprovide entertainment on thenight. Join us in the celebration of

revolutionary women, pastand present!We are asking for a

donation of sanitary products(pads, tampons) on entry.These will be donated to theHomeless Period, Dublin,which shares these productswith front-line services fordistributing to women inneed. H

Repeal the 8th!The role of trade unions

commentaries on the situation inthe North, including theexpansion of abortion rights topeople living there—but only ifthey can obtain access to itthrough England, Scotland, orWales.

This has seen the “benevolent”British liberal Tories and theBritish Labour Party lauded insome quarters for deigning tobequeath abortion access to thepoor benighted Irish; but it showsthe NHS for what it is. It is animperial construction, primarilyfor the benefit of imperialcitizens. The fact that it can becaptured and dictated to by asregressive a force as the DUPshows how it poses noideological barrier to the worstrevanchist or sectarian forces—and the fact that it becomes thedomain of the British to expandor vindicate rights on their whimshows the NHS for what it is.

The concept of labouraristocracy is a well-worn one,but it fits here. The spoils ofimperialism are used to buy offthe imperial core’s working class,elevating them to a level abovewhere they would be in a marketwhere their own labour power

LABOUR & CAPITAL

HOUSING

Jimmy Doran

ANUMBER of proposedsolutions have beenput forward for the

manufactured housingcrisis. So let us analysetheir suitability and see whothey benefit: the citizensand society as a whole orlandlords and profiteers.Limited-equity affordable

housing, also known as thecost-purchase ownership model,is one whereby the tenant buys50 per cent of the home and theother 50 per cent is paid for inrent. It could be owned by a co-op, a housing association or thestate and would be available tolow-income families.

This system would make itmore affordable to the tenant orowner without affecting the profitof the builders or property pricesgenerally, which would continueto rise, putting these homes out

of the reach of more and morecitizens. It boosts corporateprofits while making it moreaffordable for tenants to ownpart of their home. They will havea mortgage debt for up to fortyyears, and will have to pay renton the other half and all theother costs of maintaining theproperty for the rest of their lives,despite never owning more thanhalf the home.

These payments leave thetenant with little or no disposableincome, even though they willhave a secure home. When theyare available only to low-earnersthis stigmatises those living inthem and ghettoises the wholearea—as all solutions that arenot universally accessible do.Developers benefit, at theexpense of citizen and state.Co-operative housing

involves non-profit houses beingbuilt and then purchased bythose who qualify, i.e. those onlow incomes who are highenough on the waiting-list to get


Ireland’s housing crisis: Solutions

SOCIALISM

Dáithí Ó hAirtrí

WITH THE mainstream of theDemocratic Party in the UnitedStates beginning to get behindBernie Sanders’ “Medicare forAll” policy, it brings a sharp focusto how this sort of policy isfinanced.

That such a policy could begaining traction in the UnitedStates, especially in its currentTrumpian political climate, showsthat there is no innate anti-chauvinist or anti-capitalistprinciple attached to a universalhealth service. Such a healthservice is required to be of acertain character, not justuniversal, in order to be anti-

capitalist.This is particularly relevant in

the realms of Irish political actionbecause of our proximity toBritain. As the DUP hold thebalance of power in the Britishparliament, Britain hasrediscovered the failed northernIrish statelet. This has led to anumber of well-meaning (andnot-so-well-meaning)

Beyond the National Health Service


or tweaks? EU drivingprivatisationHEALTH

THE CRISIS IN healthcare isEurope-wide. The pace ofmarket-driven healthcare ‘reform’has speeded up sincecapitalism’s 2008 crash as neo-liberal governments – with bothconservative and socialdemocratic labels – haveimposed the costs of saving thebanks on working people.

Public health services withtheir massive property holdings,substantial staff numbers andmassive cost streams are atempting target for cuts andprivatisation.

Even the pro-EU EuropeanTrade Union Institute (ETUI)pointed out that “…EUinstitutions are calling for majorhealthcare reforms as a meansof consolidating publicexpenditure.”

Countries under the cosh – likeGreece – or others “in receipt offinancial assistance” get nochoice but to implement these‘reforms’ and are obliged to doas they are told in theirrespective Memorandums ofUnderstanding (MoU).

As the ETUI says: “Othermember states too have beenencouraged to undertake reformsto their national healthcaresystems.

While initially theencouragement was issued in theform of ‘recommendations’,these have, under the mostrecent changes in Europeaneconomic governance, becomeincreasingly tantamount to‘instructions’.”

Decisions of the EuropeanCourt of Justice and theEuropean Commission mean thatservices delivered by nationalhealth systems are nowconsidered to be economicactivities, and EU rules on theinternal market (free movementof goods, persons, capital andservices), public procurementand state aid, increasingly applyto healthcare services.

A 2011 European Commissiondirective on cross-border healthcare, drawing on internal marketrules, presented this as anexpansion of ‘choice’ forpatients. H

one. The buyer gets a cheaper,more affordable home, but theystill have the mortgage debt totake a massive proportion oftheir income for forty years.

The state subsidises coststhrough the land provision andnot taking building profits, whichenables the owner to buy thehome. In the future they or theirchildren can sell the property fora massive profit, taking all thefinancial benefits that weresubsidised by the state and theoriginal non-profit building cost.The individual and the bank gain,at the state’s expense.Social housing involves the

state giving qualifying purchasersa grant towards the cost ofbuying a home; it may alsoprovide a low-interest mortgage.Once again little disposableincome is left after mortgagepayments. Developers get thebenefit of the subsidy, as it goesdirectly to them in the cost ofthe home, which is privatelyowned and will eventually be sold

on at a profit. The owner, thebank and the developer profit, atthe state’s expense.Universally accessible

publicly built and ownedhousing for a rent relative toincome is a right for all citizensto avail of. The citizen benefitsthrough affordable rent, whichfrees extra money to provide forall the other needs of the family,thus boosting the local economy.It also removes the stress andburden that mortgage debt wouldput in their lives.

The state benefits, as thisends the housing crisis whenevery citizen will have a homeavailable, and also benefits withthe huge social dividend that aproperly housed population willgive in the form of improvedhealth, education, productivity,and social well-being.

With a plentiful supply ofhousing, prices will stabilise; sothe boom-and-bust propertybubbles will be a thing of thepast, along with homelessness,

and private rentedaccommodation, as therackrenting landlords will not beable to compete with differentialrents. The homes will be a stateasset in perpetuity—when onefamily are finished with themthey will be passed on toanother—and will pay forthemselves over time.

The workers in the state-ownedbuilding company will havedecent, well-paid, permanentjobs, stabilising the buildingindustry, at the expense ofspeculators, banks, profiteers,and bogus employers, for thecommon good.The choice is simple. Will we

have universal public housing,which benefits the whole ofsociety, and a permanentsolution to the housing crisis,or do we take the othertemporary “solutions,” whichsubsidise corporate profits orat best temporarily ease theburden of mortgage payments,till debt do us part. H

relative to capital was the onlydeterminant of remuneration. Butyet it is defended. The British leftis now in a purely defensivestruggle, to hold on to the NHSand protect it againstprivatisation; to see payincreases for junior doctors andnurses.

In the much-vaunted post-warconsensus the Labour Party’swelfare state was built, but thestate was essentially bankruptfollowing the Second World War.To pay for the swelling socialcosts, it saw Britain intensify itscolonial interests throughoutSouth-East Asia as well asgrowing ever closer to the UnitedStates, which was its mainfinancier at the time.

That “special relationship,”which persists to this day, sawthe murder of Greek communistsin 1945 and the invasion anddestruction of countless countriessince—first in the name of ColdWar and now in the name offighting terrorism.

The link between the NHS andimperialism is clear when weremember that prescriptioncharges were introduced withinthe NHS after the intensification

of the costs of the Korean War.That also prompted Britain todemand a loan of £750 millionfrom the colonies—which theyhad no choice but to accept—tokeep the British exchequer afloat.

Even today, as the NHS issystemically underfinanced toforce its privatisation, it isBritain’s position as an imperialistaggressor that keeps its economyafloat, and its health system paidfor.

As communists, surely weshould be struggling for betterthan a more progressiveredistribution of imperialism’sspoils. Even the so-calledrevolutionary left in Britain doesnot grapple with the continuinglink between the NHS and theimperialist nature of the Britishstate. But how could it beotherwise? The British state isfundamentally imperialist, andthe institutional offshoots of thatstate are therefore required to beimperialist in character, in orderto maintain that order.

Rather than looking on theNHS as a model to be followed—or, even more pressingly, viewingit as something to be extendedsouth in the event of a 32-county

worker’s republic—we need ahealth service that isfundamentally anti-capitalist, thatstruggles against thecontradictions inherent in capital,and that operates to raise up ourclass, in conflict with the rulingclass.

But such a thing wouldnecessarily come into conflictwith the power of thepharmaceutical industry, thehegemony of the psychiatricindustry’s incarceration policies,and the entire capitalist-medicalcomplex. Medicine and“wellness” has never been morebranded.

We can look to Cuba forexamples of a good community-based health system; but, with adifferent population profile andlow population density, we needto think to ourselves, what doesa socialist health system look likein Ireland?

Hopefully it will be one thatplaces us firmly outside Britain’sand the EU’s imperialistvampirism. H

Left LONDON February 2018 65,000 people protested againstNHS cuts and privatisation

THE FORUM willcelebrate the occasionwith a conference in

Liberty Hall, Dublin.While it is important that

seminal events are remembered,it is also necessary that we learnfrom them. There are lessonsfrom that era that are not only ofhistorical interest but haverelevance to contemporaryIreland and its relationship withthe rest of the world. Thecelebration on 19 January 2019in Liberty Hall, therefore, will gobeyond a simplecommemoration: it will alsoexplore the progress, or lack ofit, since then and askparticipants to contributetowards making a positive andprogressive impact in the days tocome.

The people who participatedon that historic occasion in1919 not only asserted the Irishpeople’s right to self-determination andindependence but also identifieda need to rectify serious socialand economic issues that had adetrimental effect on Ireland’s

working people. Moreover, theyalso created a political arenathat had the potential toimplement these tasks. That theeventual outcome did not fulfilits intention is cause for regretrather than outright dismissal.

Firstly, therefore, let us lookbriefly at the conditions underwhich working people live andlabour in today’s Ireland. Acentury after the publication ofthe Democratic Programme,which included the statementthat the Republic will “reaffirmthat all right to private propertymust be subordinated to thepublic right and welfare,” therecan be little doubt that thisobjective has been decisivelyrejected by governing institutionsin Ireland.

The dogma of free-marketcapitalism is ruthlesslyimplemented, with little care forits effect on working people.There is a housing andhomelessness crisis, with theneo-liberal Irish state, in spite ofan obvious emergency, insistingon the provision of housesthrough the private sector,

NATION


Somethingto celebrateNext January the Peadar O’DonnellSocialist Republican Forum will markthe centenary of the first Dáil Éireannand the publication of one of modernIreland’s landmark documents, theDemocratic Programme. Tommy McKearney reports


notwithstanding the abjectfailure of this policy. Lengthyhospital waiting-lists, and thespectacle of patients parked forhours on trolleys, is a nationaldisgrace. Exacerbatingdifficulties within the healthservice is the absence ofadequate provision of homehelp for the elderly.

Nevertheless, this statepersists with the detrimentalpractice of maintaining a parallelprivate and public healthservice.

Typifying the Irish state’s neo-liberal ethos is the fall-out fromthe Carillion fiasco.¹ Sodetermined was the Dublingovernment to assist theprivileged elite that this recklessBritish company was awardedresponsibility for the design,building, financing andmaintenance of six new schoolsaround the country. This so-called public-services companypowerfully illustrates the drivetowards the privatisation ofpublic services that has beenrelentlessly pursued over thepast decades.

‘The people whoparticipated on thathistoric occasion in 1919not only asserted the Irishpeople’s right to self-determination andindependence but alsoidentified a need to rectifyserious social andeconomic issues that hada detrimental effect onIreland’s working people’

Whereas once the capitaliststate provided a protectivestructure whereby an elite wouldprofit from manufacturing andfinance, this has now become asituation where the state alsoensures that a favoured fewbenefit by being paidhandsomely to manage publicservices. In the process,standards are frequentlylowered, trade unions are oftenexpelled, and ultimately, ifprivatised, the managementfails, as Carillion and othershave done, with the taxpayingpublic picking up the bill.

Illustrating the sheermendacity of this regime wasthe astonishing spectacle lastyear of an Irish governmentrefusing to accept €13 billion intaxes owed by the enormouslywealthy Apple Corporation.

In the light of all this it isreasonable to ask whether asovereign Irish republic asasserted in the Mansion Houseninety-nine years ago exists inany real sense in Ireland today.In the first place, a raft ofrestrictions is imposed on the

popular will as a consequence ofmembership of the EuropeanUnion. This can only get worse ifproposals for closer integration,coupled with the strengtheningof the euro zone, areimplemented.

Moreover, it is likely that thiswill come about, since the Davosposter-boy Emmanuel Macron isproposing this very package andhas recently been receivingbacking form the supineleadership of Germany’s SocialDemocratic Party.

More worrying still is theflagrant violation by the UnitedStates of what is left of Ireland’sneutrality. This was emphasisedlast month at Shannon Airport,where the vice-president of theUnited States, Mike Pence,posed for photographs as heshook hands with Americansoldiers in combat fatigues.These soldiers, bound forKuwait, are clearly not tourists,and their presence in ShannonAirport makes the Irishgovernment party to their militarycampaign.

As Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD(Sinn Féin) said, “these imagesare a stark reminder that thecivilian Shannon Airport hasvirtually become a forward basefor the US army to carry outmilitary operations andexercises.”

Let us not be complacenteither, because this situation hasa resonance beyond nationalpride. The Bulletin of the AtomicScientists has moved its symbolicDoomsday Clock to two minutesbefore midnight,² thanks largelyto the “unpredictability” ofDonald Trump.

Compromising neutrality,therefore, poses a risk thatIreland could be dragged almostunwittingly into an imperial war.

To address the problemsarising from a diminishedsovereignty coupled with thedestructiveness of neo-liberalism,it is worth reflecting finally on acentral concept promoted by thefirst Dáil. This was the extensionand empowerment of democracy.Those who gathered in theMansion House on that Januaryday could have taken their seatsin the British Parliament but,while forming a significant bloc inthe House of Commons, wouldnevertheless have remained asimpotent as the Irish Party hadbeen fifty years before. Just as

then, there is now a need tofacilitate a more participatoryform of democracy, one that isnot at present available.

The Peadar O’Donnell SocialistRepublican Forum is not callingfor anything as dramatic as thecreation of an alternativeparliament. What it seeks to do,among other things, is to drawattention to the limitationsimposed by a reliance on theexisting parliamentary process,where, in the words of Lenin,“capital exercises its influenceon the state power.” Thepowerful and inspiring campaignagainst the water tax taught usthat single-issue campaigns areeffective but can be limited.Without the continuous popularpressure of a mass movementthe ruling class make strategicconcessions that can be erodedin time.

The Forum plans thereafter touse its celebration of the firstDáil in 2019 to explore andadvocate the establishment of awider forum, aimed atencouraging political discourseand promoting the creation anddirection of a bottom-up massmovement.

Doing this, however, requiresthe building of a regularlyconvened assembly or arenadesigned with the intention ofidentifying and promoting acomprehensive programmecapable of transforming Irishsociety. What the assemblywould be named, how it wouldbe made up or where it might beconvened are matters fordemocratic agreement and arenot a prerogative reserved by thePeadar O’Donnell Forum.

What the forum does insistupon, though, is that a hundredyears after the first Dáil the Irishworking class must be allowed torealise the promise and potentialof that assembly’s DemocraticProgramme. H

1 Paul Mason, “Ink it onto yourknuckles: Carillion is howneoliberalism lives andbreathes,” Novamedia, 15January 2018.2 “Doomsday Clock moved tojust two minutes to‘apocalypse’,” BBC News, 25January 2018(www.bbc.com/news/world-42823734).

The name iscommunismIn February 1848, 170 yearsago, writes Jenny Farrell,Marx and Engels publishedthe Manifesto of theCommunist Party, commonlycalled the CommunistManifesto, the birthcertificate of scientificcommunism. A hundredyears later Bertolt Brecht,the German communistpoet, attempted aversification of it. Here are extracts, translatedinto English by Jack Mitchell.

The Manifesto Wars ruin the world and a spectre is haunting the ruins.Not born in war, seen around in peace too, for some time now.Nightmare to rulers but friend to the children that live in the townships.Shaking its head as it peers into half-filled plates in poor kitchens.Standing in wait then for those that are weary at pit-head and yard-gate.Visiting friends in the prisons, passing in without pass-card.Seen even in offices, heard in the lecture-halls, personallySometimes mounting giant tanks and flying in death-dealing bombers.Speaking in various tongues, in all tongues. Keeping silent in many.Guest of honour in ghettos and slums, the terror of palacesSome here to stay, and for ever: its name in Communism.

Much you’ve heard tell of it. This, however, is what its founders say.If you read history you read of the deeds of immense individuals;Their star, in its rising and falling; the march of their armies;Or of the pomp and destruction of empires. For them, for the foundersHowever, history is foremost the history of conflicts of classes.They see the peoples internally split into classes andWarring within. Patricians and knights, plebeians and slavesNobles, peasants and craftsmen, proletarians and bourgeois todayKeep in their turn the whole mighty household in motion, creatingAnd distributing the goods that are needed for living, but alsoFighting their fight to the death, the old fight, the one for dominion.. . .

Never before was unleashed such a wild surge of creationAs that which the bourgeoisie in its epoch of sway has unfoldedOne which bowed nature to man and made steam and electrical powerCleared rivers for shipping and continents ready for tillage.Never before had humanity guessed that asleep in its wombSuch liberations were lurking and powers of production like these.

This, however, was how it went: blast-furnace, weaving-loom, steam-powerRevolutionised manufacture and now the guilds and all feudalProperty turned into fetters that cramped this colossal creationAnd up rose the bourgeoisie and shattered the fetters.Free competition moulded the state form of the bourgeois class.

You see then how hurricane-like is the rise of productive forcesSmashing the time-honoured modes of producing, believed everlastingAnd with what impetuosity classes, subservient yesterdayTear up all the title deeds, ridicule hoary and reverend prerogatives.. . .

Thus, when this class, provided with new title deeds and prerogativesHad conjured up means of production in past times undreamed ofThen it became like the sorcerer who could no longer controlThe subterranean powers he had so craftily raised.Acting like dammed-up water that first feeds the crops and thenDrowns them completely, the means of production, ever expandingMultiplying thus the might of this class, expanding still furtherThreaten that class with extinction; just as the founders have shown us.. . .

POETRY



Bertolt BrechtFor millions of workers howeverWhom it commands as large armies planlessly ordered aboutHerding them into the sweatshops, now out of the sweatshops againBrusquely on to the icy streets – the truth is now dawning, they whisperAmazed to each other that the days of the world of the bourgeois are numberedSince it in its ceaseless increasing increased their misery onlySince it has grown too narrow to compass the wealth it created.

Now however those weapons wielded with deadly effectTo shatter the feudal world are turned on the bourgeoisie.Yes it too has brought forth a class that will bear those death-dealingWeapons against it, for all through the centuries, bound in its serviceGrew with the bourgeoisie also the proletariat of the modernWorkers, living by labour and finding work only so long as theyWork in the bourgeois interest, increasing his capital interests.Just as the capitalist sells his commodities, likewise the workerSells his commodity, namely his labour-power, being subjectedTherefore to competition and all the ups and downs of the market.Appendage merely to the machine he sells his simple knackCosting no more than the cost of his keep and whatever little he needs toReproduce and bring up his kind, that most useful of speciesSince labour-power’s price, like the price of all other commoditiesDepends on its cost of production. Out of the tiny workshop of oldHandicraft grew the great factory ordering army-wiseWork and the workers, slaves of the bourgeois state but alsoSlaves of a certain bourgeois, his overseers and the machine.. . .

Therefore the one class capable of defeating the bourgeoisieAnd shattering the fetter its state has meanwhile becomeIs, in our time, the working class. It is this by its size and condition.All that once guaranteed life in the older society now isRubbed out, done away with, in the life of the proletariat.Propertyless, head and provider no longer to wife and childrenHard to distinguish by nation or native place now, for the selfsameSubjection at the selfsame machine marks him from Essen to CantonMorals and religion confront the proletarian as fata morganasMirroring to him, far off unattainable, edens in deserts.. . .

His is the movement of the immense majority, and his dominion isDomination no more but the subjection of all domination.There oppression alone is oppressed for the proletariat mustAs society’s undermost stratum, in rising, completely demolishThe social set-up entire with all its uppermost strata.It can shake off its subjection only in shaking off allSubjection from all people.

For the full text of Brecht’s poem in English see the translation by Darko R. Suvin,accessible at http://sdonline.org/31/on-brechts-the-manifesto-comments-for-readers-in-english1/

Cover of the first edition, written in German, publishedin London in 1848. It reads: “Manifesto of theCommunist Party | Published February 1848 |Proletarians of all Lands, Unite! | London | Printed inthe offices of the Workers’ Educational Association | ByJ. E. Burghard | 46, Liverpool Street, Bishopsgate.”


WAR AND PEACE

Resolution of theConference on US ForeignMilitary Bases,held at LearningCommons TownHall, University ofBaltimore,Maryland, 12–14January 2018

WHEREAS the UnitedStates has been in astate of perpetual

war and has been using itsunrivalled military might inevery corner of the world tosubdue, dominate andexploit sovereign nations forthe benefit of its rich andpowerful elite andcorporations in violation ofinternational law; and

WHEREAS it is widelyrecognized that the Pentagonitself, its 1,000 bases worldwide,its endless wars, its enormoususe of fossil fuels, toxicsubstances and massive pollutionaround its bases has made theUS military machine the world’sbiggest institutional consumer ofpetroleum products, the world’sworst polluter of greenhouse gasemission, and this huge militarywaste footprint from US bases is

sickening both people and theearth; and

WHEREAS the US military andwar budget almost equals that ofthe rest of the world combined,reaching $700 billion in thePentagon alone, not countingnuclear weapons, so-calledHomeland Security, mercenariesemployed by the StateDepartment, debt for past wars,and many other expenses totallingwell over $1 trillion; and

WHEREAS, while the UnitedStates ranks first by far in militaryspending, it ranks 7th in literacy,20th in education, 25th ininfrastructure quality, 37th inquality of health care, 31st in lifeexpectancy, and 56th in infantmortality; and

WHEREAS the bipartisanmilitaristic foreign policy andspending has enriched the coffers

of the war industry, causing ever-higher levels of economicinequality, racial, ethnic andgender discrimination andoppression, poverty, hunger andhomelessness; and

WHEREAS the globalmilitarization and racism of USwar policy has greatly increasedthe militarization of the police,attacks on civil liberties and thegrowth of White Supremacy athome; and

WHEREAS since 2001 theUnited States has used its militaryforce for invading and bombing innumerous countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria,Yemen, Somalia, Sudan,Pakistan—eventually costing theAmerican taxpayers $4 trillion inAfghanistan and Iraq alone, and isnow threatening to attack Iranand North Korea; and

National Day of Action against US Wars at Home and Abroad

Even more US bombs dropped onAfghanistan (with help from Ireland)AT THE end of last year the US Air Force had dropped about threetimes as many bombs on Afghanistan as in 2016. New statistics showthat by the end of October there had already been 3,554 “firedweapons.” Over the past year they had registered 1,337 munitionsdrops.

The number of US air strikes on Taliban positions, which now controlabout 13 per cent of the country, or the “Islamic State” jihadist militia,has been rising dramatically for months. By mid-October military claimshad already reached about 2,400 (about 1,000 in 2016).

At the same time more and more civilian victims have beenregistered. According to the United Nations, in the first nine months of2017 the number of civilians affected by air strikes increased by 52per cent compared with 2016, with 205 killed and 261 injured. H


ANUMBER OF peaceactivists and groupshave come together to

promote an educationalproject in national andsecondary schools entitled“Fly Kites, Not Drones /Eitleoga Seachas Dróin.”

The initiative was first launchedin Britain by a number oforganisations, including theCatholic Church’s Pax Christi andthe Society of Friends (Quakers).It is now actively promoted also onthe European continent.

At the heart of this venture isthe never-ending war inAfghanistan and the true story ofAymel, an Afghan boy who neverreally knew his father because ofa drone strike.

The “Fly Kites, Not Drones”educational programme aims tohave children flying kites on 21March to mark the Afghani NewYear. In the past week schoolsthroughout Galway city and countyhave been written to with aninvitation to them to take up thescheme.

This educational project comeswith considerable resources forteachers, which are freelyavailable fromwww.flykitesnotdrones.org.

The letter sent to Galwayschools was signed by the formerindependent Connemaracouncillor Seosamh Ó Cuaig andCommandant Edward Horgan(retd) of Shannonwatch, as wellas two representatives of theGalway Alliance Against War, Dette

McLoughlin and Niall Farrell.In their letter they recognise

that 21 March gives teachers arather short time this term inwhich to carry out such a project,but the organisers had onlybecome aware of the projectbefore Christmas. Neverthelessthey believe it is a novel idea thatcould be applied in the classroomfrom national school to transitionyear and most certainly in CSPE(civic, social and politicaleducation), as it promotes peaceand a sense of commonhumanity.

Deputy Clare Daly(Independents for Change) hasalso written to schools in herSwords constituency suggestingthat they participate. H

Further information:Niall Farrell, 087 9159787.

WHEREAS the United Statesmaintains close to 1,000 foreignmilitary bases and tens ofthousands of troops in morethan 175 countries of the worldat the cost of over $150 billiona year; and

WHEREAS the bipartisanmilitarization of our foreign policyhas led to the death of an untoldnumber of civilians, terror bydrones, destruction ofinfrastructure and theenvironment, massive number ofrefugees, creating chaos andterrorism by destabilizingsovereign nations; and

WHEREAS, in addition tohundreds of thousands of civiliancasualties caused by US wars,6,831 US military personnelhave died in wars in Iraq andAfghanistan and about onemillion have been injured; and

WHEREAS there are over39,000 homeless militaryveterans, on any night morethan 1.4 million are at high riskof homelessness, of which 9 percent are female veterans, and20 military veterans or activeduty military take their own liveseach day; and

WHEREAS the developmentand enlargement of nucleararmaments has heightened thethreat of nuclear annihilation;and

WHEREAS it is vital that theworkers, unions and peace,social justice andenvironmentalist forces unite ina joint movement to promote aforeign policy independent of thepolitical and economic interestsof Wall Street, corporateAmerica and the military-industrial complex;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVEDthat the organizations endorsingthe Coalition Against US ForeignMilitary Bases, including thosepresent at the Conference onUS Foreign Military Basesconvened in Baltimore,Maryland, call upon all peace,social justice and environmentalforces in the United States tojoin hands in organizing a UnitedNational Day of Anti-War Actionin the spring of 2018 todemand:

l Ending all US wars, bombingsand drone attacks and otherforms of US aggression,including economic sanctionsand weapons sales;l Closing of all US bases onforeign soil;l Bringing all US troops home;l Using the funds of themassive military budget forhuman needs and protection ofthe environment;l Dismantling all nuclearweapons.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVEDthat the Coordinating Committeeof the Coalition Against USForeign Military Bases and theorganizations and activistspresent at this Conferencecommit ourselves to helping withthe organization of this UnitedNational Day of Anti-War Action,and we invite our internationalfriends to join us. H

Educational peaceproject proposed forschools


WORLD

RAÚL CASTRO

Seán Joseph Clancy

TRUMP’S STATEDepartment has justannounced the

initiation of a “CubanInternet Task Force”—another illegal, offensive andtypical act of interference inthe internal affairs of anation lining up to concludeits general election process.

It makes a bit of a mockery oftheir indignation at what Russiawas allegedly at during the lastcampaign there, to say the least.

If the empire’s same StateDepartment, CIA and otherhungry establishment dogsbelieve they might get to gnaw onthe bone that has so long beendenied them, because by next

April, Cuba’s government—for thefirst time in more than fivedecades—will not have a Castroat the helm, the spies theywithdrew from the embassy herefor supposedly having suffered“sonic attacks” were not doingtheir homework.

Despite the best (and worst)endeavours of the neighbouringenemy, the collapse in oil prices,which significantly affectedCuba’s access to convertiblecurrency, and a series ofdevastating and very costlyhurricanes and other regionalcomplications, Raúl Castro’sprogressive, reforming and stableten-year presidency proved verysuccessful, and he leaves asteady, socialist, stable andstronger Cuba to his successor inoffice.

People here are far more

Catalan elections: workers’ kamika SELF DETERMINATION

Tomás Mac Síomóin

AGROWINGinternational tendencythat should concern

political activists is therightward turn of working-class voters.

In the United States, workers’support determined the electionof the ultra-rightist DonaldTrump, presenting himself asfighting neo-liberalism and theglobalisation policies of the rulingDemocratic Party, seen as drivingAmerican industry overseas. InFrance, workers supported theFrench ultra-right, led by MarineLe Pen, to protest against theultra-liberal policies of theHollande (Socialist Party)government and the weakeningof French identity, seen asmenaced by the Europeanintegration promoted by thatgovernment. The famous “redbelt” of Paris switched allegiancefrom the French CommunistParty to Le Pen’s formation.

The political left has beenunable to reverse thistransnational tendency.

Similar tendencies emerged inthe recent Catalan elections,reported internationally as abattle between Catalanseparatists and unionists. The

forces involved are bestunderstood as follows: 30 percent of Catalans are separatistsand want a break with Spain,ideally in the form of anindependent Catalan republic.More than 50 per cent arehome-rulers, i.e. would supportthe Spanish connection, inside afederal Spain. Unionists are forthe status quo.

The parties that representedthese groups in the recentelections are, respectively, theseparatist neo-liberal Junts perCatalunya (Together forCatalunya) and EsquerraRepublicana de Catalunya—Republican Left of Catalunya(ERC), which in coalition formedthe outgoing government,dissolved by Spain onconstitutional grounds on itsdeclaring Catalunya anindependent republic. They weresupported by the Candidaturad’Unitat Popular—People’s UnityCandidacy (CUP), a far-leftseparatist party but one thatalways gives priority to thenational question when the chipsare down.

The opposition was formed bythe leftish middle-of-the-roadSocialist Party of Catalunya(PSC), the militantly unionist andpro-business Ciutadans(Citizens), the left-wing home-rule party En Comú Podem

Letter from Cuba

‘For the sake of all, to avoid further contagion, and to helpconsolidate the European project, the EU must step in atour hour of need’ Oriol Junqueras, Republican Left of Catalunya


focused on the finals of theNational Baseball League, anobvious drop in the number oftourists during the latter part oflast year and the first month ofthis one, and other, moremundane affairs of daily life.

Raúl Castro was also at hisbest and brightest on theinternational front, and hisstatesmanship, diplomatic skilland respectful but unflinchingadherence to Cuba’s fundamentalprinciples have earned him therespect and admiration of theworld’s most important leadersand a grudging acceptance byeven those ideologically opposedto everything he represents.

As Fidel had also done, Raúlensured that Cuba continued topunch far above the politicalweight of a poor, blockaded andrelatively tiny Caribbean island, for

reasons that go far beyond itsgeopolitical significance.

Raúl’s contribution to andfacilitation of the talks betweenthe FARC guerrillas in Colombiaand its government will also formpart of his legacy.

Unless he can do somethingbetween now and the end of hissecond term in office in a shortfew weeks’ time, his biggestregret may be that he could notcreate the requisite economicconditions for abolishing Cuba’sdivisive and socially destructivetwo-currency system.

In his speech at the closing oflast December’s session of theNational Assembly, Raúl admittedthat neither he nor anybody elsehad truly grasped how complex aproblem this was going to be.

He also acknowledged,however, that—allowing for the

distortion caused by theeconomic, commercial andfinancial blockade imposed by theUnited States—the dualityprohibited the full realisation ofthe social, political and economicobjectives adopted by theCommunist Party’s SixthCongress, which form the basisfor policy development until2030.

Any premature move to unifythe currencies would createfurther inflationary pressure andworsen what is one of Cuba’smore invisible but seriousdomestic economic problems,and something that warrantscomment in its own right onanother occasion.

Even though Raúl, who is nowwell into his eighties, will remainon as first secretary of theCommunist Party of Cuba until

2020, his departure, and that ofhis lifetime comrade in arms andcolleague, the 89-year-oldMachado Ventura, will beprofoundly felt.

Just as Fidel’s physicalpresence was palpable in theaftermath of last September’sdeadly and destructive storms,Raúl’s reassuring presence andstately stoicism will be missed byhis people.

The changing of the guard isnot expected here to result ineven a ripple of domestic politicalor social instability, andinterference by the United Statesto try to create some will onlyserve to fortify Cuba’s renownedcapacity to remain united andfirm in defence of its sovereignty,socialism, and hard-won right toself-determination. Hasta lavictoria siempre, Raúl! H

(Together We Can), and theSpanish right-wing PartidoPopular, Spain’s ruling party.

Junts (known formerly asConvergència), linked to thedefunct Christian Democrats,ruled Catalunya for the durationof many legislatures. It nowdefines itself as “revolutionary,”i.e. as seeking an independentCatalan republic, within theEuropean Union. It has alwaysgiven priority to national ratherthan social aims, imposing itsneo-liberal economic and socialdiktat on its coalition partner, acompliant ERC.

‘a strongly neo-liberal governmentand a strongly neo-liberal opposition arethe likely outcome ofthe recent Catalanelection. Theregion’s workers willpay for allowingthemselves to bebamboozled’

Incredibly corrupt by Irishstandards, Junts controlled thepublic media of the Catalanregional government, TV3, andCatalunya Radio, and distributedgenerous private mediasubventions—bribes—from publicfunds. A companion party of

Fianna Fáil in the EU Parliament,it has been paying itself throughan extensive network ofcorruption, whose astonishingreach was recently revealed on apopular independent Spanishtelevision channel, La Sexta (TheSixth) and in recent sensationalcourt proceedings.

ERC, which overtook Junts inthe recent electoral race, seemsto have put its progressive socialprogramme on hold at thebehest of its conservativecoalition partner.

The well-financed Ciutadans,founded in Barcelona in 2006,with a rumoured boost of €1million plus from the Irishmillionaire Declan Ganley,channelled anti-establishmentsentiment into support for itself.It associated its Spanish (i.e.anti-Catalan) nationalism withprogress, singing dumb about itsown extreme neo-liberalism.(Ciutadans was lauded in thebought mainstream Spanishpress; no account of the hugeresources employed to promotethe party nor, still less, of itsneo-liberal economic policiesspoiled the celebration.)

The most recent expression ofConvergència rule, thegovernment led by CarlesPuigdemont (before the Spanishgovernment pulled the plug), isexalted, curiously, by some Irish

socialists and republicans,though it pushed through labour“reforms” and deep cuts in socialspending while increasing itssupport for religious (i.e. OpusDei) Catholic schools for theprivileged, thus alienatingworkers.

Most working-class voters,descendants of waves ofmigration from rural Spain toindustrial Catalunya, are Spanish-speaking, speaking Catalan as asecond language, and are largelyloyal to Spain. Inveigled by thepro-Spanish propaganda ofCiutadans, and angry at the anti-working-class policies of thePuigdemont government, theyvoted heavily this time round forCiutadans and not for theSpanish Partido Popular, an olderworking-class enemy.

This tendency was especiallymarked in the working-classareas of Barcelona andTarragona, where most Catalanworkers are concentrated.Electoral data shows that inelectoral districts of below-average incomes an unpredicted35–40 per cent of the electoratevoted for Ciutadans. ButCiutadans achieved its highestvote (42 per cent) in Barcelona’srichest district, Pedralbes.

The dominant class alwayshas a more developed sense ofwhere its real interests lie than

other social groupings. Itspredictable support of Ciutadans,unlike that of Catalan workers,responded to its class interests.

The centrality of the Catalanindependence theme in theperiod before the electiondoomed the social theme toelectoral irrelevance. This, andthe Kamikaze-like votingbehaviour of a working class thatabandoned left-wing options onelection day, opted for the mostmilitantly neo-liberal formationavailable, thus ensuring thedecisive victory of the right.Ciutadans jumped from 25 seatsin the previous parliament to 37,becoming the most voted-forparty.

However, the Junts-ERCbipartisan machine, with 66seats, came close to the 69seats required to ensure a votingmajority in the new parliament.With the help of the CUP (4seats), and after sorting outmany serious internal difficultiesand defections, it may just beable to assemble the majoritynecessary to form a newconservative government.

Thus a strongly neo-liberalgovernment and a strongly neo-liberal opposition are the likelyoutcome of the recent Catalanelection. The region’s workers willpay for allowing themselves to bebamboozled. H

aze revenge?

Ppoetry


FILMS

Hollywood and the Indigenous peoples by Dan Taraghan


Following theAmerican CivilWar there was abrief period ofReconstructionin the formerConfederatestates before theimperialist warwas resumedagainst theIndigenouspeoples ofAmerica.

RACISM

IT WAS THEN that thecolonialists gave fullexpression to the policy

of “manifest destiny” in bothextending the borders of theUnited States and treatingthe Indigenous nations thatopposed them as sub-human.

In a series of films made byHollywood in the first three-quarters of the twentieth century,a highly biased version of the twocenturies of suppression of theIndigenous population wasproduced, justifying what hadhappened. These films are stillwidely shown today without anycomment, as though they werepure entertainment. In fact manyof them are highly sophisticatedvehicles of propaganda, worthy ofGoebbels. The films subtly give a

language to a culture of warfareand murder that continues to beused by the American armedforces in their imperialistadventures.

In the early period of silentfilms the Indigenous peoples werenot necessarily evil, but with thecoming of sound that situationsoon changed. Drums along theMohawk (1939), starring HenryFonda and Claudette Colbert anddirected by John Ford, was set in1776 and showed the earlyAmerican Revolutionists on thefrontier fighting the Mohawks andthe British. In reality they weremainly fighting the British; in thefilm the Mohawks are the mainprotagonists, under the directionof the British.

There are crucial concepts inthe film, such as the individualistfrontier people willing to bandtogether to fight for their property(land stolen from the local people)and to do so rather than waitingfor protection from thegovernment. During the SecondWorld War the Americanparachutists known as the“Screaming Eagles” cut their hairin Mohican style and even worepaint before going into battle.

Another film of significancewas Northwest Passage (1940),starring Spencer Tracy. This wasbased on Roberts’ Rangers in thepre-revolutionary wars. Roberts’“Rules of Rangering” are the basisof rules still used by Americanspecial forces for going behind“enemy lines” and destroyingeverything in sight.

However, if there is one filmthat represents the genre morethan any other it is The Searchers(1956), also directed by JohnFord and starring John Wayne. It

is based on a true story and isone of a number of films made onthe same theme, such as TwoRode Together (1961).

Cynthia Ann Parker waskidnapped at the age of nine byComanches, who had killed herfamily. She grew up among them,married, and had three children.One of her children was QuanahParker, who became a great warchief among the Comanche. Afterthe wars against the Comanchehe became a rancher, and hadGeronimo and Theodore Rooseveltas guests at his home.

In the film Cynthia is played byNatalie Wood. Wayne playsCynthia’s uncle, an original TexasRanger and later governor ofTexas. He recaptured Cynthia, but,mourning her lost children andunable to readjust to whitesociety, she died.

In the film, Wayne’s questoccupies seven years. Hisobjective is to kill all Indigenouspeople, and his niece. Hechanges his mind on the latterpoint, but we are not told whathappens to Natalie after herreturn to white society.

Wayne, of course, was an anti-communist, so it is not toodifficult to see that his racism andintolerance against the Comanchecould easily have been directedagainst communists, as wasshown in some of his films.

The raid on the Comanchevillage was typical of the culture ofall-out war against the natives, asused in Viet Nam and by theEinsatzgruppen of the SS in theSoviet Union during the SecondWorld War.

One of the first films from theApache point of view was The LastApache (1954), starring Burt

Lancaster (left) as Massai. Thiswas also based on a true story.Following Geronimo’s surrender,one of his band escaped andreturned to Arizona. No-oneknows what happened to him, buthe was never recaptured.

In the film, Massai travelsacross the United States, takesvengeance on his enemies, butends up growing corn. Al Sieber,the famous scout, tracks himdown and is surprised thatMassai, the savage Apache, hasbecome a farmer. The guns areconverted into ploughs, so all isright. Civilization has reached theIndigenous peoples.

Another film, Geronimo(1962), has an unlikely ChuckConnors in the title role. He endsup growing corn as well.Interestingly, Geronimo’s wife wasplayed by a real Indian, KamalaDevi, who was born in Mumbai.

All these films gave expressionto a vocabulary and culture basedon the wars against theIndigenous peoples and theattempts to destroy theirresistance. Terms such as “hostileterritory, Indian country, Geronimo,Apache, frontier country, goodIndians, bad Indians, circling thewagons, rangering,” are allembedded in the Americanpsyche, and are regularly used bythe military.

Hardly any of the films giveexpression to the point of view ofthe victims. Even when they do,the actors involved are usuallywhite. The recent film The LoneRanger (2013) has Tonto beingplayed by Johnny Depp with acrow on his head. At least in theoriginal television series Tonto wasplayed by Jay Silverheels, aCanadian Mohawk. H

CONNOLLY BOOKSDublin’s oldest radical bookshop is namedafter James Connolly, Ireland’s socialistpioneer and martyrThe place for�H Irish history H politics�H philosophy H feminism H Marxist classics�H trade union affairs H environmental issues H progressive literature H radical periodicals

43 East Essex Street, Dublin, between Temple Bar and Parliament Street (01) 6708707www.connollybooks.org

BOOKS


Séamas Ó Brógáin

Michael Ryan, My Life in theIRA: The Border Campaign(Dublin: Mercier Press, 2018)

MICK RYAN, amember of the IRAfrom the age of

nineteen, became one of themost active participants inthe IRA’s “bordercampaign,” launched inDecember 1956 andofficially abandoned inFebruary 1962, though itsfutility was obvious to manyfrom as early as the firstyear.

Eight participants were killed—mostly in accidental explosions—and hundreds were imprisoned orinterned, including himself.

The campaign as envisaged wasa purely military one: to defeat theBritish army and make the Britishstate abandon its presence in thenorth-east of Ireland. There wasno historical, economic, social orideological analysis of the north-east (or indeed of the country asa whole), nor would the leadershiphave had the ability to attemptone, even if they had wished to.

The IRA had no properequipment, hardly any money, notenough active members, and (asthe writer acknowledges) virtuallyno popular support; the naïveexpectation was that these wouldmaterialise as soon as the

campaign got off the ground.It is worth emphasising that,

whatever one thinks of the idea ofthis campaign, it was conductedby men who sincerely believedthat they were engaged in a warwith the colonial power and werecontinuing the revolution begun in1916. Their attacks were directedat the British army and the RUC(an armed militia), as well assome public buildings and utilities.This is in sharp contrast to theProvisional IRA and its “armedstruggle” in the 1970s and 80s,with its bombs in crowded streets,bombs placed in pubs, bombingsin England, and sectarianmurders.

After the abandoning of theborder campaign and the releaseof the prisoners and internees,Mick Ryan emerged as acommitted and energetic leaderand organiser, and he remainedan active member up to theorganisation’s final disintegrationand the creation of the Workers’Party.

The ideological vacuum in theleadership made it possible forcharlatans calling themselvesMarxists to offer themselves asexperts and consultants. MickRyan was a committed but notuncritical supporter of what islargely regarded as the shift of therepublican movement (i.e. the IRAand Sinn Féin) to the left, thoughthis shift was more apparent thanreal, thanks to the opportunism ofa weak and vain leadership(notably Cathal Goulding andSeán Garland) and themachinations of the chancers theybrought in as “experts” (notablyand notoriously Eoghan Harris).

Mick Ryan has produced a well-written, honest and compellingaccount of an extraordinary periodin modern Irish history, one aboutwhich virtually nothing is known tomost people today, with little ifanything having previously beenwritten by any of the participants.It must be considered essentialreading for anyone who wishes tounderstand this strange period inIrish history. H

Join the fight for socialismSend me information on Communist Party membership

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A story ofcommitmentand defeat

Partisan Patriotic Internationalist Number 156 February ... · Housing crisis Page 4 NHS and socialism Page 4 Democratic Programme Page 6 Brecht’s The Manifesto Page 8 War and peace

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