Workers' Weekly, Vol. 2, No. 30
| Date: | 4th January 1975 |
|---|---|
| Organisation: | The Workers' Association |
| Publication: | Workers' Weekly |
| Issue: | Volume 2, Number 30 |
| Type: | Publication Issue |
| View: | View Document |
| Discuss: | Comments on this document |
| Subjects: |
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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution
30th March 2009
Here is Workers Weekly, a publication of the Workers Association, also of the British and Irish Communist Organisation. This dates from January 1975. As with the previous example in the Archive it is a four page typewritten production. Pedants will note that there is no consistency with the previous masthead.
This edition is exercised about the then recent Provisional IRA ceasefire and argued that:
“The Provisional IRA is now closer to defeat than at any time since they began the war against the people of Northern Ireland.”
The document is explicit in its political analysis:
Having abandoned violence at least temporarily - the Provos will be forced to attempt to pursued their objectives by political means. But the basic objective of the Provos - Irish unity - is incapable of being pursued by political mans. The realisation of Irish unity would not advance the objective material interests of any significant section of Ulster society. The only case for Irish unity that can be made is a case based on myths and legends and myths and legends will not attract many voters…[the Provisional IRA] possess neither the ability nor the guts to face reality and to participate in realistic politics in Northern Ireland. They have nothing to contribute to the working out of a new constitution for the Government of Northern Ireland as a province of the United Kingdom.
And then in a rather dubious piece of political forecasting it continues:
The working out of such a constitution will be the central issue in Ulster politics in the immediate period ahead and any political group which has nothing to contribute to this debate will quickly become irrelevant. Clearly the Provo’s have no future in Ulster politics.
Elsewhere it critiques, or rather criticises Peoples Democracy. There’s a unique take on internment and then a further critique of the SDLP and a poor piece of political prophecy which argues that:
…for Paddy Devlin [of the SDLP] to talk about two ‘traditions’ being given equal expression in the Northern Ireland state is a logical and political absurdity. They stand in totally mutually contradiction and they are not resolved by some sort of artificial creation which purports to allow the expression of both. In such a situation either one or the other will be expressed, not both.
And finally, turn to Page 4 for an attack on the ITGWU.
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By: Starkadder Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:49:22
I’ve found another review of the Coolacrease book from
the Dublin Review of Books:
http://www.drb.ie/more_details/09-03-27/getting_them_out.aspx
I liked this bit:
He (Clifford) goes on to suggest that this (BC’s NI activites) was “with a view to negotiating a compromise settlement”. He may be indulging in a little revisionism here himself. Rather than being a harbinger of the Good Friday agreement, the B&ICO campaign at the time was for recognition of two nations on the island, the defeat of the IRA, and for the territorial claim on the North in the Irish Constitution to be deleted. .
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By: Starkadder Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:00:54
As a contemporary saw them;the entry on the ICO from David Widgery’s “The Left in Britain” (1976) :
Irish Communist Organization: A proletarian Irish Maoist grouping founded by six people in November 1965 centered on Brendan Clifford, an associate of McCreery
(=> Committee to Defeat Revisionism, For Communist Unity).
Published “Irish Communist” and the North London based “The Communist”, with branches in London, (where it is known as the Communist Workers’ Organization), Bangor, Dublin, Belfast and Cork. Strict Stalinists.
In 1969 adopted a Marxist variant of
Bonar Law’s 1912 theory of Ireland as “two nations”, and campaign for the Ulster Protestants’ right of self-determination. Notorious for theoretical nitpicking and polemical virtuosity. Compulsive publishers with special emphasis on reprints from Irish History and exposing the crimes of Leon Trotsky. Expelled a founder member who ceased to support Two Nations theory in 1971, who now publishes the
“theoretical quarterly” “Communist Worker. => Communist Organization in the British Isles.
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By: WorldbyStorm Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:40:29
Six people. Theoretical nit-picking. Has anything changed? Funny thing is I can’t help but feel they’ve sort of shifted towards the CPI-MLs old ground, not entirely of course, but somewhat while the old CPI-ML people have moderated their views very slightly. Odd that. As time goes on I become more and more – well, sympathetic is the wrong word, perhaps very slightly affectionate to the CPI-ML… in a sort of a way. At least you knew exactly where you stood with them.
Which reminds me Starkadder, on your perigrinations have you come across the September 1969 United Irishman? I have a copy but it’s missing the eight inside pages including the editorial. Which isn’t great for putting up in the Archive in September…
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By: Starkadder Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:42:53
To my shame, although I’ve gone through some WA stuff, I’ve
never looked at the United Irishman stuff.
There is a really nasty attack on History Ireland magazine
and Joost Augustijn in the
current issue of the IPR-HI is described as “an academic publication
whose bias is revisionist” and Clifford doles out his usual slop about
the Evil Dublin Four Revisionist Conspiracy. He actually stops talking
about the review for a whole page and whinges about the government
not abolishing Articles 2 & 3 for a whole page. (!) Clifford doesn’t mention that Augustijn’s article notes the appointment of the
anti-revisionist Diarmaid Ferriter to UCD.
Of course for Clifford, anyone who doesn’t kiss his Sliabh
Luachra arse is a revisionist 😉 .
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By: Garibaldy Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:14:30
Sounds like the worst excesses of the editor of HI being turned against him.
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By: Vabian Wed, 06 May 2009 20:52:19
Angela Clifford is launching a book on the Arms Trial
in the Teachers’ Club this Friday, and Jack Lane,Brendan Clifford and
Dessie Fennell are also releasing new books
About Bowen and Mansergh and Western Civilization
the next day.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/91938
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/91971
Would anyone be interested in coming? (Even if
Only to ask some Paxman-like “difficult questions” 😉 ).
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By: Irish Left Archive: Northern Ireland – For Workers’ Unity: A reply to the Workers’ Association Pamphlet [BICO] “What’s wrong with Ulster Trade Unionism”, Militant, c. « The Cedar Lounge Revolution Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:52:12
[…] are some Workers Association leaflets already in the Archive. The analysis in the Militant document provides a fascinating […]
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