A Call For Unity?

Over the last few weeks, the Marxist left has seen political tendencies – both new and established – take up the banner of “unity”. The statements released by both the newly founded Marxist Republican Network (a project of the online publication “Horizon”) and RISE’s Paul Murphy TD both come from deep within the halls of People Before Profit.

They both tout their commitment to the concept of an independent working class movement, a vision that we consistently fought for in our own time as a faction within that party and will continue to strive for in an independent capacity.

Both statements called for the reorganization of the Marxist left as a force capable of reviving an independent working class movement. The basis of this reorganization, both publications have stated, should be on the basis of a broad programme and that this movement must form within People Before Profit.

The concept of ‘programmatic unity’ over ideological unity is viewed as a means of moving forward from the era of countless sects splitting off over varied interpretations of the Spanish Civil War or whatever other historical interest is taken up at a given moment.

The statements represent a positive step in so far as both factions emphasized the need for engagement in mass organising as a central tenet of developing revolutionary working class leadership. However, there remain significant deficiencies in these efforts towards a mass socialist movement, which our intervention here hopes to highlight.

RISE, the transitional programme, and revolutionary consciousness.

RISE comes from a Trotskyist milieu and split away from the Socialist Party. They have made a consistent point of advocating for the adoption of a ‘transitional programme’ which will merge the working class need for everyday reforms with the long term ambition of socialism.

A belief in this “transitional programme” guided the faction’s strategy during debates on left government, with RISE arguing that there was strategic value in rallying around a left government so long as that government was prepared to ‘rupture with capitalism’.

The transitional programme finds its way into Paul Murphy’s recent article. Of course, RISE isn’t foolish enough to believe that Sinn Féin, as the likely majority party in any left government, would be sincere in any commitment to socialist transformation, if they’d make any in the first place. Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats are now ruling out any future left coalition.

However, the RISE faction argues that by maintaining criticism of Sinn Féin’s shortcomings in enacting an ambitious programme for government, People Before Profit would be able to mobilize “people power” to win the demands of their transitional programme and win the allegiance of the working class, who will have found their true leader in the course of struggle for these reforms.

The programme of a parliamentary left government, now miraculously enacted against the will of Sinn Féin, would go on to form the basis of the construction of actual workers’ power and socialism.

This strategy contains other serious tactical errors that, if allowed to persist, could lead to the demoralization of the working class, the return of the establishment parties and the growth of the far-right. RISE correctly identifies the fact that this outcome is a possibility should Sinn Fein simply walk away from (or more likely water down) its left-wing commitments.

Obviously, a working class party would be left in a very difficult position attempting to mount working class resistance to a government that it has sponsored, a government that it actively participates in. The idea that this strategy of sceptical participation in a falsely “left” government could reap any positive rewards for the working class is engendered by a false notion of how revolutionary consciousness is developed.

RISE’s advocacy for a ‘left government prepared to rupture with capitalism’ relies on the idea that, in the struggle for reforms, the working class automatically sees in the Marxists the only true advocates of their interests and treats them as their political representatives.

The issue with this strategy, and the broader policy of ‘transitional demands’ as typically articulated by the Trotskyist groupings, is that it hopes to sidestep the political demands of socialism. Class power needs to be organised around a party that is explicit about the way forward in order to solidify a genuine break with capitalism.

As a prospective left government in Ireland would have to contain a majority of non-worker parties, there is obviously no way to seriously pose the question of real working class political power without scuppering all hopes for a quick route to a governing coalition.

The transitional programme model therefore either poses workers power in a purely economic sense (mass nationalizations, social housing, and worker management of firms within the framework of a capitalist state) or in an abstract manner that doesn’t connect to the present conditions of organization.

Overall this amounts to the question of workers’ political power being removed from electoral material for any prospective ‘left government'.

We broke from People Before Profit on the question of left government, and our upholding of a minimum/maximum programme. A minimum maximum programme is one that starts with the demands of today, the minimum demands, while being honest about the need for a rebellion to place workers in the driving seat of a planned economy.

We emphasize the fact that the emancipation of the working class must be done with the conscious participation of the working class. We workers cannot be tricked into power and there is no programme we can write that is clever enough to sidestep the question of class power.

In fact, time and time again history has shown the fact that posturing as “radical reformists” only gets us replaced by “reasonable reformists” as happened in Greece during the Syriza wave, or overthrown by reactionaries as happened in Chile in the time of Allende, and countless other examples.

The working class loses in this situation and demoralization only sets our movement back as we try to pick up the pieces. Instead of attempting to find shortcuts into socialism through “transitional demands” and coalitions with pro-business parties, we need to embark on a strategy of patient revolutionary education through serious mass organising. This does not mean backing down from the fight for immediate economic and political reforms.

Marxist Republican Network; longing for a mass party

In the Marxist Republican Network’s programme, there are many positive demands that were previously demands of the Red Network during our own time within People Before Profit. We called for the democratic accountability of elected representatives and the party leadership.

We were the first to call for a break with the ‘left government’ strategy and the last AGM before we left saw us argue strongly for the introduction of a minimum/maximum programme. The question of realizability for these aims within People Before Profit, and how far this would go in the formation of a mass socialist movement, is left open.

As these questions inform our strategy of independent organizing efforts, we should offer our perspective on them. Marxist Republican Network, in its search for a mass workers party, is adamant that People Before Profit is perfectly capable of transforming itself into one – if it adopts a revolutionary programme and commits itself to mass organising.

These are major ifs, though, and there are significant roadblocks to enacting these kinds of changes in People Before Profit. We should know, we fought for similar changes for years!

However, the atmosphere that the Socialist Workers Network – the dominant faction of People Before Profit – has created for minority factions has been anything but welcoming. When we published our views openly, criticising the party for its past turn away from workers and its current reformist tactics, they banned steering group minority members from publishing work about the party!

There are clear limits to how far a faction is able to speak against the party, which is clearly understood by the limited amount of criticism Horizon Magazine has offered of People Before Profit’s limited internal democracy and the veiled manner in which party debates make it into their articles.

This leaves the Marxist Republican Network in a situation where they will have to place loyalty to a party committed to tailing social movements and advocating a left coalition before their task of independent worker organization, seriously hampering their ability to win over a large base for socialist views.

When an election is called they will distribute People Before Profit material, with the left government line on it. Of course, new people will continue to join the party, but as we’ve repeated over and over again the current strategy of the party has meant that the people who join have largely been students.

The Socialist Workers Network with its international connections, elected officials, and full-time staff, is more than capable of providing student activists with enough activity to win them over — even if their strategy amounts to jingling keys in front of the faces of revolutionary-minded youths.

Marxist Republican Network, as a new organization with a lack of resources, will struggle to keep up with such a comparably large party machine. In the meantime, the hopeful reformers will be stuck loyally carrying out the same incorrect tactics and advocating the same politics that have resulted in the separation of People Before Profit from the working class in many areas.

It goes without saying that even if Marxist Republican Network were successful in shifting the wider party on some of these points, its work would be far from over. They’d still be in a party that in its 20 years of existence would struggle to gather 400 active members across all of Ireland and which is gradually losing what remains of its working class base in several key areas, where they have lost TD seats and councillors.

The character of the party has so drastically shifted in its commitment to coalitionism that any advantages it once held to those hoping to create a mass organization are quickly slipping away. Now, this new faction within the party is going to attempt a task of magical proportions, the feat of transforming a small reformist student-based party into a mass revolutionary workers party.

Indeed, it’s far more likely that well before it’s able to to lay its hands on the steering wheel of the party the Socialist Workers Network would utilise its privileged position in the party in order to marginalize any genuinely revolutionary tendencies coming to rival it.

This is why, instead of banging our heads against the wall for years to come, we in the Red Network decided to get right to work and sow some seeds for a future mass organization here and now — and we welcome anyone who shares in that mission to join us.

We know are at a low point in working class struggle, when there are no major sustained strikes or working class social movements that could give energy to our movement. We are left with the serious work of preparation that will bear fruits in the years to come. But as modest as our numbers are we are determined to grow by engaging in the day to day struggles of the working class while openly connecting them to the need for a revolution.

The Marxist Republican Network and RISE seem to think their efforts are best used fighting it out within their broad faction-divided party, hoping to perfect a party that only serves to hide their ultimate goal from workers.

Meanwhile, we’re using our modest numbers and bringing our full energy to the fight in the working class estates and in the workplaces. While we wish the best for those trying to salvage what remains from a party gone astray, we’re convinced that in starting from a more solid political foundation our strategy will reap more benefits down the line.