Trotsky on Ireland

[p024] southern Ireland, compared with any advanced country, cannot provide the basis for any advance in the economy. The heritage of British im- perialism, involving genera- tions of literally wholesale destruction of people and of productive forces, ruled out any possibility of a capitalist solution. And yet the Irish capitalists face a working class whose historical traditions of struggle link up with the international offensive now being mounted by the working class. Secondly, the international strength of the working class, at the centre of a profound international crisis of capital- ism, compels the Irish, like all other capitalists, to seek to in- crease the rate of exploitation and cripple the trade unions, in order to compete inter- nationally in more competitive conditions—but this must be done in the teeth of a rising tide of working-class struggle! In other words, we have the same basic ingredients for revolutionary struggle, though with all sorts of historical fac- tors which aggravate the situa- tion still further, as we find in Britain, as reformism proves its bankruptcy and its re- actionary nature under the Labour government One reason why the nation- alist demagogy of the Southern capitalist politicians has been wearing thin in recent years is that they have begun to look for a way out of their economic problems by moving, first through closer relations (Free Trade Agreements, etc.) with the North and with Britain, into the European Common Market. In any case, of course, the Common Market represents a forlorn attempt by the Euro- pean capitalists to overcome the contradictions between modern production and the nation-state. If that contradiction be- comes stifling for the advanced countries, what a_ hopeless situation exists for the bour- geoisie of a backward country like Ireland. Since 1958, the Irish bour- geoisie has encouraged an in- flow of foreign investment, and until 1965, as part of the last stages of the world capitalist boom, this brought a reduction of unemployment and the wor- kers were able to increase real wages. For Ireland, however, this could not be enough. In every country, the ex- pectations and strength of the working class built up during these years has _ intensified capitalism’s crisis, and in Ireland that coincides with historical problems. More people left the land (even with agriculture doing moderately well) between 1958 and 1965 than the number of new jobs provided by the in- dustrial expansion. If this was the situation during boom, what are the prospects for workers and small farmers in a recession? Already the downturn in the economy in 1965 had a great radicalizing effect on the wor- kers, strengthened by the boom, and the recent wave of strikes flows from that period. Every section of capitalist opinion in the Irish Republic, including the government through official reports, is hit- ting out at the working class as ‘responsible’ for the grow- ing crisis and advocating wage- freezing. This is the purpose of the proposed Criminal Jus- tice Bill. This wages question in Ire- land is political dynamite, just as it is throughout Europe. The Irish bourgeoisie has no chance of ‘getting into Europe’ in time to rejuvenate itself, even if that were possible. Since the 1967 Free Trade Agreement with Britain, Eire’s balance of payments and trade have rapidly deteriorated. The editorial of the Dublin news- paper ‘Irish Independent’ puts clearly the dilemma of the capitalists: ‘Imports have exceeded ex- ports by more than £20 mil- lion in each month of this year——a very considerable worsening since 1968. ‘It does not seem that a trade deficit of the present size can be tolerated for very much longer. The deficit will be given added impetus by the income increases which are beginning to work their way through the economy. Consumer buying and imports will both be stimu- lated considerably. The econ- omy is not in a position to withstand this added pressure which looks like developing.’ (‘Irish Independent’, September 8, 1969.) The fact is that 70 per cent of the exports of Eire are to the United Kingdom. Like the capitalists of Britain, those of Ireland know very well that entry into the Common Mar- ket is not just to get some dream of ‘economic integra- tion’ and expansion, but to strengthen them against the working class. In the North, the future for the embattled Catholic wor- kers is in unity with the Protestant majority of workers against their employers, against the Unionist government, and imperialism which — sustains them. The developing world crisis will create such problems for the Northern industries that this unity will be posed in the very near future. In Britain, the working class is faced with a struggle for socialist policies and revolu- tionary leadership, the Labour leaders having been exposed with the ending of the boom. In their struggle against the Tories and their agents in the labour movement, the British workers will need unity with the workers of Ireland against the Unionists. They will thus need to fight for the ending of imperialist contro] in Ireland, in order to weaken their own enemy. These struggles will make the Irish workers in England, Scotland and Wales a strong force in the British working class. In the South of Ireland, the working class is being forced to recognize the _ illusory nature of the ‘national in- dependence’ maintained under bourgeois leadership. It is brought into battle against a government of capi- talists who openly turn to their bourgeois allies in West- minster and the City of London for common policies against the working class. That same government tolerates the Brit- ish presence in the North for the same reasons. Never was it more clear that the liberation of Ireland is only to be achieved by the Fourth International, Summer 1970

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