Revolutionary Political Action
In 2008 and 2009, I and another comrade of the International Republican Socialist Network joined a small collective of activists called Reflections Without Borders. The collective was composed of long-time activists, whose backgrounds involved work with organisations engaged in armed struggle. These included the FSLN of Nicaragua, the FMLN of El Salvador, the M19 of Columbia, the MIR of Chile, and the Irish Republican Socialist Movement. The central focus of the collective was to seek to restore working class people to the leadership of the revolutionary movement in the United States, primarily through the creation of a programme of revolutionary political action. Insofar as this focus arose out of the participants’ desire to articulate and illustrate the nature of revolutionary political activity outside of the experience of armed struggle with which they worked previously, its efforts provide some useful examples for the comrades of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, now struggling to come to terms with what revolutionary activity outside of engagement in the armed struggle looks like. With that in mind, the following explores some of the ideas developed by that collective. Some may have immediate application to Ireland or elsewhere, though many will simply serve as examples, the adaptation of which to local circumstances and contradictions may yield useful action.
There is no Parliamentary Road to Socialism
While it is true that there can ultimately be no military road to socialism, in that social revolutions require the mass participation of the rising class in overturning capitalism and initiating the construction of a workers’ republic, it is equally true that there is no parliamentary road to socialism. In part, the recognition of this reality arises from the conclusion, known to Marxists since at least the experience of the Paris Commune in 1871, that the machinery of capitalist government cannot be seized by the working class and used to construct and administer a socialist society.
The State always has a specific class character—that of the ruling class—and the institutions that are developed to govern within capitalism are designed with the specific needs and interests of the capitalist class. Because all social classes have interests inherent in their relationship to the means of production, these interests are unique and mutual opposed to those of other classes within society. The capitalist ruling class, being a minority component of the society it dominates, necessarily creates safeguards against the will of the majority. This is done through a multitude of structural aspects of the State, such as the common reliance on a bicameral legislative system, with one house having longer terms (including, in Britain, the life-long terms of hereditary peers). It is also achieved through the creation of an independent judiciary, lacking the democratic features that make up the other sections of government and through the creation of a large government bureaucracy and large police, military, and intelligence entities, allowed to function without public oversight and largely independent of the legislature’s involvement. Moreover, the interests of the capitalist class are enshrined in the constitutional underpinning of the State and nation as a whole. The right to private property is not only constitutionally guaranteed; it effectively trumps all other rights that might be granted.
Underlying all of the safeguards incorporated by the capitalist class into the design of the State which they called into being in the interests of their dominance as the ruling class, is the reality that what is called “parliamentary democracy” is a design that removes the majority of society from the ability to take control of their day-to-day lives, instead funneling action into the election of representatives, over whose actions the electorate will ultimately have little control. The German Social-Democratic Party had a programme committed to opposing imperialist war when, in 1914, it members elected to the German parliament voted in support of financing the First World War. That programme, developed democratically at party congresses had no ability to ensure that parliamentary members would vote in line with the positions it defined, any more than those who voted for Obama because of their opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could make the US President act on the wishes their votes had represented. Capitalist “democracy” is not designed to ensure that the will of the majority be put into action; it is designed to ensure that the interests of the majority can never serve to challenge the fundamental needs of the ruling class. In the US this is true to such an extent that, despite their being no constitutional basis for it, that nation has long maintained a rigid dependence of a two-party system; so that when Bernie Saunders was elected to the Congress as an independent socialist, he was forced to join the Democratic Party Caucus because, without joining in either that or the caucus of the Republican Party, he would be unable to participate in any parliamentary committees, unable to propose any legislation, and would for all practical purposes be unable to function as a member of the US Congress.
I will not belabor the issue of parliamentary participation here, as another comrade of the IRSN with greater experience in the electoral arena will be writing an essay on the subject in the near future, but the point being made is that the assumption of many that turning from armed struggle to political activism chiefly involves participation in the electoral process and parliamentary action could not be further than the truth. While there is a role for participation in parliamentary elections and parliament itself, as well as other elected bodies of government, it cannot be viewed as central to the tasks of republican socialist revolutionaries. The working class does not need elected representatives in a capitalist parliament; it needs new governing bodies specifically designed to function in the unique interests of the working class. I and others like me would argue the bodies of government that reflect the specific needs and interests of the working class are workers’ councils, which have arisen spontaneously throughout the last century whenever the working class has been thrust into revolutionary conflict with the capitalist State, but this too is a discussion that can be laid aside for another time. What I wish to focus on here, are what political activities exist outside of the spheres of armed struggle and parliamentary activity, where revolutionary activists can usefully invest their time and effort in pursuit of their objective of overturning the system of capitalism and replacing it with socialism.
The Fundamental Components of Working Class Life
While there are times when it is appropriate to engage in philosophic discourse regarding the nature of man, reality, and human society, the point, as Marx made clear long ago, is to change the society in which we live. As Marxists we recognize that ideology ultimately arises from the material basis of life and the members of the working class—often allowed far less opportunity to devote its attentions to consideration of art, philosophy, and esthetics—have basic interests that exist in relation to the overall system of production in the society in which they lives, from which effective political action can be developed. By this I mean that such concerns as housing, food, health care, work, personal safety and social organization, education, the rearing of children, and immigrants rights (especially for members of the working class who have had to relocate due to social or economic concerns) are immediate concerns of all working people and therefore provide opportunities for activism that can directly engage working people in laying claim to their right to determine their own lives and seek a society that functions in their interests.
The challenge for revolutionaries is to look past the way in which these issues are generally discussed within capitalist society and to find means of approaching them that clearly reflect the interests of the working class. Because of the mutual opposition of the interests of distinct social classes, any attempt to act on these basic concerns of all from the specific concerns and interests of the working class will naturally pose a challenge to capitalism, by challenging the manner in which these issues are addressed under capitalism. If we begin with the perspective that all people should have places in which to live, which provide adequate space, a healthy environment, facilitate social interaction, and enable participating in employment, we will immediately be confronted by the capitalist realities of the allocation of social resources, the disparities in standard of living existent—and deemed “natural”—within capitalist society, the lack of concern for social welfare by companies, which results in using environmentally harmful substances in construction, as well as the polluting of the environment within which we all live, the reality of a lack of employment security for working people, and so forth. However, when engaged in activism in relation to these aspects of life that are so completely fundamental to all, working people have little difficulty in understanding their interests and needs and are therefore able to come to a deeper understanding of how capitalism functions contrary to their interests and needs by doing so.
Housing
When the Reflections Without Borders collective was active, the US housing market collapsed leaving many struggling with mortgages worth far more than the home it had purchased and, specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, the residual fall-out from property speculation that had preceded the collapse was having a devastating impact on renters because of a wave of evictions, as landlords attempted to convert apartments to condos in order to sell them at inflated prices. Accordingly, there was a clear and pressing need for positions to be taken and action formulated in regarding to housing and it was clear that what was needed most of security against eviction, either from an apartment or from a house due to foreclosure.
Some of the actions planned at the time included organizing working class people to join in blocking sheriff’s deputies from physically removing the furnishings of those being evicted, either by blocking their access to the home or by carrying removed furnishing back into the home after they had been removed. While the law is clearly on the side of the banks and landlords who ultimately own these residences, there are many examples where those responsible for policing have been unprepared to attempt mass arrests or physically act against large numbers of community members who mobilized to block their entrance to the residence of someone being evicted. Because of this, such actions can be very effective, at least in the short-term, but even if the victories cannot be sustained, the action provides tremendous value in raising class consciousness among participants, who by showing solidarity with members of their own community in this way are brought into direct opposition with the machinery of the capitalist state and, at the same time, are able to see how their willingness to act in a collective manner, relying on the natural advantage provided by their larger numbers, can enable them to succeed, despite the authority with which the state invests its police.
Another approach developed was one that has been used in Europe very successfully in prior decades; that of “squatting” vacant buildings. On a recent visit to Strabane, I saw a number of vacant buildings plastered with stickers and graffiti calling into question why such buildings were being allowed to lie vacant when people existed within the society who had no housing. This propaganda work had been undertaken by the Republican Socialist Youth Movement and reflects the IRSM having already grasped the importance of action in this social arena. Here in San Francisco, I had advocated that a large Catholic church and associated parish buildings that had been closed for over a decade (as part of a broader cost-cutting move that closed a number of churches in the city, necessitated by the Church’s precarious finances arising from civil settlements in child abuse cases) be squatted by displaced families of working people. However, any large city provides many such opportunities. Residential buildings in San Francisco were being emptied and kept vacant by landlords seeking to thwart rent-control laws by later re-introducing apartments for rent at greatly increased prices, which would have provided other opportunities; as did many pieces of commercial real estate throughout the city. Generally speaking, working class people have shown themselves to be sympathetic to such vacant spaces being utilized for residences by those forced out of their former living spaces; since logic and common sense demonstrate that the property rights of building owners should not be allowed to deny living space to those who need it. When such activity has been undertaken in a coordinated manner, ensuring the interests of the surrounding community are maintained, many municipal governments have simply chosen to make a pretense of being unaware of the illegal occupation, unless the absentee landlord eventually presses the issue, further demonstrating the inability of the state to thwart the actions of the people when they act collectively and in an organized manner.
Work
The economic collapse that had presented opportunities for action around housing also resulted in the financial failure of a number of companies, depriving workers of their jobs and offering another opportunity for revolutionary action. The approach advocated by the Reflections Without Borders collective was to organize workers for companies going bankrupt to seek to continue operating the location they were employed at, reorganized as a workers cooperative. It was further advocated that these workers then collectively seek to be given ownership of the assets of that location by the bankruptcy courts, rather than their being liquidated by the courts. The reality is, the inventory and equipment of any such location would be liquidated for mere pennies by a bankruptcy court in such cases, but put into the hands of those who had already been engaged in the operation of the business—its workers—these could provide far greater value in efforts to maintain a means of making a living. Run as a cooperative, such an enterprise would have no need to create a profit, so long as the workers were able to generate enough funds to cover operating costs, including their own wages and were they to succeed in doing this, the workers would provide a valuable lesson to the consciousness of themselves and others about viability under the system of capitalism. Though there is no real attempt to hide the fact, most workers fail to recognize that that the functioning of businesses as private property necessitates a higher threshold of income, simply because it is necessary for the business to support the livelihood of one or more individuals who are not, in anyway, actually engaged in the operation of that enterprise. Were this more widely recognized, arguments for the privatization of various public sector enterprises would immediately collapse, since functioning on the basis of creating profits, which go to the support of individuals not actively engaged in the operation of the entity, always increases the cost of any undertaking. The myth of savings through privatization is rooted in the reality of reduced earnings by workers and reduction in service by the entity in question. The logic is clear to most working people that those who perform the work are more entitled to gain in income from their efforts than are those who do nothing to accomplish the actual functioning of the enterprise.
In addition to seeking to encourage displaced workers into continuing to run their workplaces for themselves, the collective intervened with a group of working class, largely immigrant parents they were involved with, through work at a childcare center. The approach taken with these parents also involved encouraging them to work together in cooperative efforts aimed to provide income when waged work was difficult to obtain. To this end, some of these working people joined together to find work in the house cleaning, child care, and catering fields, which provided them with a means of support to get through a particularly difficult period. Because some of these workers were immigrants without work visas, this form of organizing was especially valuable, and also included other forms of job-sharing, that could provide mutual benefit to those involved.
Support to workers who were not being paid as a result of the State of California’s budget crisis was another thing the collective involved itself in, organizing and joining in pickets of the State Building and gaining media attention to the plight of these working people. In addition, as this coincided with State government employees standards of living also coming under attack, in the form of unpaid furlough days and demands for the loss of paid holidays and other benefits, the collective also worked to build a coalition between State workers and the workers from non-profit organizations dependent on State financing to provide support to one-another in their struggles against the common enemy, in this case, the State government. A more general opportunity can be identified as action in support of protesting or striking workers, whether this include participating out of solidarity in their picket lines, joining in efforts to keep scabs out of the workplace, and otherwise bringing pressure on companies to reach fair settlements with workers. The topic of work within the unions themselves requires a separate essay, as it is an important arena for action, but for the purposes of this essay, it will suffice to say that revolutionaries can always find opportunities for political action within their unions or in efforts to organize a union in the workplace. However, it is also important to engage in activities to support the efforts of other workers whose unions are engaged in strikes, subjected to lockouts, or persecuted by the state for militant union activities.
Immigration
Immigrant workers, especially the undocumented, are often utilized as a means of securing cheap labor and thereby of holding down wages of workers in general. As a result of this, workers can often be easily misled into opposing immigration and ultimately into racist attitudes that are fostered when any group is scape-goated for social problems. This is true in relation to workers from Latin America in the US, just as it is true of Eastern European and African refugee workers in Ireland today. The ruling class benefits from these divisions within the ranks of the working class and therefore often pursues policies that encourage them. For example, in the US there have been recent waves of anti-immigrant legislation and the construction of a vast fence along the country’s border with Mexico, but there has been virtually no action taken against employers of undocumented workers, whose actions provide the primary impetus for such immigration and a steady stream of special category work visas are provided for foreign workers in various high-tech fields, despite ample evidence that there is a large pool of US workers with skills in those fields unable to find employment.
One of the innovations of the Reflections Without Borders collective, most of whose members were themselves immigrants from Latin America, was to draw attention to the role of US imperialism and US corporations in creating the conditions in the home nations of many of these immigrants that create the need for so many to emigrate to the US. This is an important contribution to the consciousness of many US workers, to recognize that were it not for the role of US companies and the US government in maintaining conditions in many Latin American nations that perpetuate low wages, horrible standards of living, and political repression that then force workers of those nations to leave their homeland and seek a living in the US. Most of these immigrants retain a love for their home country and would not have chosen to leave it had they not been compelled to do so either by dire economic circumstances or repression by their own government or right-wing forces within their homeland. Accordingly, action taken to support efforts by the workers of Latin America to improve their own standards of living contribute to ensuring reduced numbers of immigrants from those nations into the US. In addition, Reflections Without Borders was prepared to also point fingers at the governments of these Latin American nations that allow the exploitation of their citizens by US companies to continue; acting not in the interests of their own nation, but in the interests of international imperialism, which they serve.
While challenging both US imperialism for creating conditions in Latin America, and elsewhere, that promote immigration into the US, as well as the comprador policies of the lackeys of US imperialism within many Latin American governments, the collective also sought to educate immigrant workers regarding their role in lowering the general standard of living for workers in the US and to gain their solidarity for striking US workers, rather than allow themselves to be used as scab labour. In doing this, the collective was appealing to the common interests of natives and immigrants as workers and aiding in the increase in class consciousness of both. Noteworthy examples of successes in this arena include the organisation of a day labourers’ union in San Francisco and organising efforts by the Irish Workers’ Union among immigrant workers—following the excellent example of James Connolly’s own work for the International Workers of the World.
While the efforts noted above chiefly to the form of participation in demonstrations and other propaganda efforts; in the arena of more direct action, the collective sought to organize immigrant communities to directly stand up to agents of the state involved in efforts to deport immigrant workers. As with the opposition to tenant evictions discussed above, these efforts were chiefly to organize workers within immigrant communities to physically block efforts of immigration agents, when they attempted to seize undocumented workers for the purpose of deportation. Other efforts of this kind that could be taken in Ireland would include providing support to the defense of immigrant workers against attacks by racists, including actions taken by some of the loyalist death squads in the six counties of Ireland under British occupation. The reactionary attitudes so deeply rooted within the loyalist community by the reality of Ireland’s partition provide real opportunities to forge alliances with communities of immigrant workers there by workers from the nationalist community. In the process of doing so, the resulting increase in support for Irish unity within these newest communities of working class people in Ireland should not be overlooked.
Policing
As with so many issues, there are two distinct aspects of this issue that can be addressed through political action by republican socialist revolutionaries. The first are efforts to combat abuses by state policing bodies, such as the RUC/PSNI or the Garda. These may take the form of picket lines at police stations and other organised demonstrations, as well as community forums to discuss policing concerns, but they can also include the example set by the Black Panther Party in the US decades ago. The Black Panther Party engaged in direct action to stop police from brutalizing members of their community, even arming themselves in order to ensure that their actions being taken to uphold citizens rights against police abuses could not be thwarted by rouge police relying on the State’s monopoly on the use of armed force to gain the advantage. While demonization of the Panthers by the capitalist media caused some working people to see the Panthers as those transgressing the law, in reality, they were taking necessary steps to ensure that the legal rights of those in the African community of the US were not being violated. For those not misled by the media smear campaign, this had a profound impact on the consciousness of many within that community, which was the reason why the US government launched the vicious Cointelpro campaign against the Black Panther Party.
The other aspect of work in the arena of policing arises in the arena of ensuring the safety and security of working class communities, especially those like the nationalist communities of the six counties or the African and Latino communities of the US, where the police are chiefly experienced as a force of occupation and repression. This is an arena already well known to Irish republicans and republican socialists, whose paramilitaries have long been turned to by the community to provide protection against various anti-social elements. The problem with the use of paramilitary volunteers for this kind of activity, beyond exposing them to risk of State repression and diversion from pursuit of the national liberation struggle, is that it does little to instill a sense of empowerment to working class people within those communities. In order to achieve that objective, it is necessary to go beyond reliance on paramilitary volunteers and develop alternatives within the community itself. Excellent strides were made towards this in the 1990s when the INLA sought to bring small arms into the six counties in order to provide the means to communities to organise such efforts themselves (which was, sadly, thwarted when the two Americans transporting the weapons from Le Harve were arrested), as well as by the policy document written by Paul Little for the Ard Comhairle of the IRSP on community policing at the end of the same decade. This document should be re-examined for contemporary application and efforts renewed to put policing directly into the hands of these working class nationalist communities. Doing so provides the direct experience of reclaiming control over ones day-to-day living circumstances, which is so important to working people’s development of class consciousness.
Children’s Welfare
While the final two categories I have chosen to include were not areas in which the Reflections Without Borders collective actively engaged, I believe that they are worth mention here as potential arenas for direct political action by republican socialists in Ireland. All communities ultimately have an interest in ensuring the welfare of their children, insofar as these provide the next generation of that community. The Black Panther Party, again, provided an excellent example for revolutionaries everywhere in this regard through their children’s free breakfast program. In that members of revolutionaries movements must, at all times, guard against the tendency towards elitism within their ranks, engaging in the work necessary to prepare and serve breakfast to all children of the working class community, who might otherwise not have an adequate diet to prepare them for the challenges of life is a humbling experience, but also one that demonstrates the sincerity of an organisation’s commitment to the community’s welfare. I can think of no better action that could be taken to thwart the impact of media demonization that that of each and every volunteer of the Irish National Liberation Army joining in efforts to prepare and serve breakfast to the children of the community in which they live—and allow me to underline that this is not an activity that should be primarily the work of women within the community. While women INLA volunteers need not be excluded, the inclusion of men from the ranks of those volunteers will provide the best influence on altering the negative stereo-types and backward attitudes both within the ranks of the movement and of the larger community.
The same would true of efforts to ensure adequate child care within working class communities, which can serve to both keep children engaged and thereby thwart pressures on them to drift towards anti-social behavior and provide essential support to working women within the community to be able to achieve a full life for themselves; including the ability for them to participate actively in political developments within their communities. Republican socialists should remain mindful of this when organising public events, be they marches, forums, picket lines, or other activities; ensuring that children can either be effectively integrated into those undertakings or, when necessary, that care be provided to ensure the maximum extent of participation from interested working people within the community will have a positive impact on the perception of the movement by the community and on the success of these undertakings. To the extent that children can be integrated as participants, there is the added advantage of better ensuring that those children will grow into class conscious activists as adults as well. Some efforts towards this end are already in existence, such as the organisation of pipe and drum or flute bands among younger members of the community, but other opportunities should be explored. Moreover groups such as the RSYM should be encouraged to integrate politics with social events, by supporting any efforts they initiate to host such events in any way possible. Young people being provided with opportunities to enjoy themselves socially that also provide aspects that enhance class consciousness among youth of our communities contribute to efforts to thwart the development of anti-social behavior as well.
The abuse of children and other aspects of domestic violence are not restricted to the working class communities, but working class communities are not free of them either. If children are the shared responsibility of the community, because they represent the community’s future, then this can no longer be viewed as a private matter, in which political activists should not involve themselves. If some activists have had experience as volunteers that have provided them with the skills necessary to take action against enemies of the working class community, they then possess skills that could be utilized to ensure that the weakest and most vulnerable members of our working class communities are not subjected to relentless violence. I will leave my comments on that subject to that, without further elaboration, but it is an area of action that I would call upon republican socialist activists to not ignore, when seeking to devise useful actions in service to the interests of Irish working people.
Gender and Sexuality
Inclusion of these topics in this essay is chiefly motivated by the same concerns that were addressed immediately above, as well in some of the discussion concerning issues involving immigrant communities. It remains true that, just as racism and anti-immigrant prejudice is fostered by the capitalist system, so too are sexist and hetero-sexists attitudes which can manifest themselves in violent attacks against working people solely because of their gender or their sexuality. Republican socialism is not a tendency that concerns itself with only a part of the working class, but one whose task it is to struggle for the liberation of the entire working class of Ireland. As such, the equality of working class women, as well as the rights of lesbian or gay working class people to the equal enjoyment of life as anyone else, are issues that should concern all republican socialist activists. If members of the lesbian and gay community or other working class women are threatened by reactionaries for no other reason than their sexuality or their gender, this is first and foremost an attack on fellow workers and one that cannot be tolerated or ignored. It is essential that in the course of carrying out work as revolutionary political activists, republican socialists ensure that they do so in a manner that is consistent with respect for the equality of all working people and, when necessary, must be prepared to act when others would seek to infringe upon others right to be treated equally within our communities. I would hope that his point would be self-evident and require no further discussion.
Conclusion
The foregoing essay has been an attempt to translate insights developed within the context of the Reflections Without Borders collective into ideas that might be of use to republican socialist activists in Ireland, as they grapple with the issue of how to engage in revolutionary struggle outside of the confines of the armed struggle for national liberation. The alternative to participation in the armed struggle is by no means limited to involvement in parliamentary campaigns. In fact, the traditional position of the IRSM that it will participate in electoral contests only when doing so provides a tactical advantage to the movement and the struggle as a whole remains as valid today as it ever was and should remain the guiding principle of the IRSP. The working class will never gain its liberation through participation in capitalist elected bodies and, while there is a place for such participation in propaganda efforts, no revolutionary organisation can view political activism as being limited to the confines of electoral campaigns. The most important political work that republican socialist activists can engage in has nothing to do with electoral campaigns, but has to do with acting directly in efforts of working people to take command of their own lives, their working conditions, and their communities. The activities discussed here represent only a handful of the multitude of opportunities for political action available.
These political activities require a great many skills and talents and there is nothing to hold back any republican socialist activist from being actively engaged in political struggle. While some will excel in public speaking or propaganda efforts, others will show talent for the day-to-day efforts required to carry out trade union organising; still others will have a talent for artwork or music that will help in building class consciousness. Some will possess the strength and skills necessary to lead some of the more physically demanding aspects of political work, whether this be defense of picket lines, confrontations with police, dealing with anti-social or reactionary elements within our communities; while others will possess the sensitivity and tact required in dealing with children and some of those within our community who have been the most victimized. Some will have the social skills that will ensure the ability to bring others into the struggle or that can facilitate the reducing of frictions within our ranks; while others will have minds that readily create strategies and tactics. No republican socialist, who wishes to legitimately call her or himself that, can stand apart from the political activities necessary to building class consciousness among Irish workers and build the struggle to end the partition of Ireland and bring down the system of capitalism on the island of Ireland.
Peter Urban
Comrade, International Republican Socialist Network
21 March 2010
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There is no Parliamentary Road to Socialism
While it is true that there can ultimately be no military road to socialism, in that social revolutions require the mass participation of the rising class in overturning capitalism and initiating the construction of a workers’ republic, it is equally true that there is no parliamentary road to socialism. In part, the recognition of this reality arises from the conclusion, known to Marxists since at least the experience of the Paris Commune in 1871, that the machinery of capitalist government cannot be seized by the working class and used to construct and administer a socialist society.
The State always has a specific class character—that of the ruling class—and the institutions that are developed to govern within capitalism are designed with the specific needs and interests of the capitalist class. Because all social classes have interests inherent in their relationship to the means of production, these interests are unique and mutual opposed to those of other classes within society. The capitalist ruling class, being a minority component of the society it dominates, necessarily creates safeguards against the will of the majority. This is done through a multitude of structural aspects of the State, such as the common reliance on a bicameral legislative system, with one house having longer terms (including, in Britain, the life-long terms of hereditary peers). It is also achieved through the creation of an independent judiciary, lacking the democratic features that make up the other sections of government and through the creation of a large government bureaucracy and large police, military, and intelligence entities, allowed to function without public oversight and largely independent of the legislature’s involvement. Moreover, the interests of the capitalist class are enshrined in the constitutional underpinning of the State and nation as a whole. The right to private property is not only constitutionally guaranteed; it effectively trumps all other rights that might be granted.
Underlying all of the safeguards incorporated by the capitalist class into the design of the State which they called into being in the interests of their dominance as the ruling class, is the reality that what is called “parliamentary democracy” is a design that removes the majority of society from the ability to take control of their day-to-day lives, instead funneling action into the election of representatives, over whose actions the electorate will ultimately have little control. The German Social-Democratic Party had a programme committed to opposing imperialist war when, in 1914, it members elected to the German parliament voted in support of financing the First World War. That programme, developed democratically at party congresses had no ability to ensure that parliamentary members would vote in line with the positions it defined, any more than those who voted for Obama because of their opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could make the US President act on the wishes their votes had represented. Capitalist “democracy” is not designed to ensure that the will of the majority be put into action; it is designed to ensure that the interests of the majority can never serve to challenge the fundamental needs of the ruling class. In the US this is true to such an extent that, despite their being no constitutional basis for it, that nation has long maintained a rigid dependence of a two-party system; so that when Bernie Saunders was elected to the Congress as an independent socialist, he was forced to join the Democratic Party Caucus because, without joining in either that or the caucus of the Republican Party, he would be unable to participate in any parliamentary committees, unable to propose any legislation, and would for all practical purposes be unable to function as a member of the US Congress.
I will not belabor the issue of parliamentary participation here, as another comrade of the IRSN with greater experience in the electoral arena will be writing an essay on the subject in the near future, but the point being made is that the assumption of many that turning from armed struggle to political activism chiefly involves participation in the electoral process and parliamentary action could not be further than the truth. While there is a role for participation in parliamentary elections and parliament itself, as well as other elected bodies of government, it cannot be viewed as central to the tasks of republican socialist revolutionaries. The working class does not need elected representatives in a capitalist parliament; it needs new governing bodies specifically designed to function in the unique interests of the working class. I and others like me would argue the bodies of government that reflect the specific needs and interests of the working class are workers’ councils, which have arisen spontaneously throughout the last century whenever the working class has been thrust into revolutionary conflict with the capitalist State, but this too is a discussion that can be laid aside for another time. What I wish to focus on here, are what political activities exist outside of the spheres of armed struggle and parliamentary activity, where revolutionary activists can usefully invest their time and effort in pursuit of their objective of overturning the system of capitalism and replacing it with socialism.
The Fundamental Components of Working Class Life
While there are times when it is appropriate to engage in philosophic discourse regarding the nature of man, reality, and human society, the point, as Marx made clear long ago, is to change the society in which we live. As Marxists we recognize that ideology ultimately arises from the material basis of life and the members of the working class—often allowed far less opportunity to devote its attentions to consideration of art, philosophy, and esthetics—have basic interests that exist in relation to the overall system of production in the society in which they lives, from which effective political action can be developed. By this I mean that such concerns as housing, food, health care, work, personal safety and social organization, education, the rearing of children, and immigrants rights (especially for members of the working class who have had to relocate due to social or economic concerns) are immediate concerns of all working people and therefore provide opportunities for activism that can directly engage working people in laying claim to their right to determine their own lives and seek a society that functions in their interests.
The challenge for revolutionaries is to look past the way in which these issues are generally discussed within capitalist society and to find means of approaching them that clearly reflect the interests of the working class. Because of the mutual opposition of the interests of distinct social classes, any attempt to act on these basic concerns of all from the specific concerns and interests of the working class will naturally pose a challenge to capitalism, by challenging the manner in which these issues are addressed under capitalism. If we begin with the perspective that all people should have places in which to live, which provide adequate space, a healthy environment, facilitate social interaction, and enable participating in employment, we will immediately be confronted by the capitalist realities of the allocation of social resources, the disparities in standard of living existent—and deemed “natural”—within capitalist society, the lack of concern for social welfare by companies, which results in using environmentally harmful substances in construction, as well as the polluting of the environment within which we all live, the reality of a lack of employment security for working people, and so forth. However, when engaged in activism in relation to these aspects of life that are so completely fundamental to all, working people have little difficulty in understanding their interests and needs and are therefore able to come to a deeper understanding of how capitalism functions contrary to their interests and needs by doing so.
Housing
When the Reflections Without Borders collective was active, the US housing market collapsed leaving many struggling with mortgages worth far more than the home it had purchased and, specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, the residual fall-out from property speculation that had preceded the collapse was having a devastating impact on renters because of a wave of evictions, as landlords attempted to convert apartments to condos in order to sell them at inflated prices. Accordingly, there was a clear and pressing need for positions to be taken and action formulated in regarding to housing and it was clear that what was needed most of security against eviction, either from an apartment or from a house due to foreclosure.
Some of the actions planned at the time included organizing working class people to join in blocking sheriff’s deputies from physically removing the furnishings of those being evicted, either by blocking their access to the home or by carrying removed furnishing back into the home after they had been removed. While the law is clearly on the side of the banks and landlords who ultimately own these residences, there are many examples where those responsible for policing have been unprepared to attempt mass arrests or physically act against large numbers of community members who mobilized to block their entrance to the residence of someone being evicted. Because of this, such actions can be very effective, at least in the short-term, but even if the victories cannot be sustained, the action provides tremendous value in raising class consciousness among participants, who by showing solidarity with members of their own community in this way are brought into direct opposition with the machinery of the capitalist state and, at the same time, are able to see how their willingness to act in a collective manner, relying on the natural advantage provided by their larger numbers, can enable them to succeed, despite the authority with which the state invests its police.
Another approach developed was one that has been used in Europe very successfully in prior decades; that of “squatting” vacant buildings. On a recent visit to Strabane, I saw a number of vacant buildings plastered with stickers and graffiti calling into question why such buildings were being allowed to lie vacant when people existed within the society who had no housing. This propaganda work had been undertaken by the Republican Socialist Youth Movement and reflects the IRSM having already grasped the importance of action in this social arena. Here in San Francisco, I had advocated that a large Catholic church and associated parish buildings that had been closed for over a decade (as part of a broader cost-cutting move that closed a number of churches in the city, necessitated by the Church’s precarious finances arising from civil settlements in child abuse cases) be squatted by displaced families of working people. However, any large city provides many such opportunities. Residential buildings in San Francisco were being emptied and kept vacant by landlords seeking to thwart rent-control laws by later re-introducing apartments for rent at greatly increased prices, which would have provided other opportunities; as did many pieces of commercial real estate throughout the city. Generally speaking, working class people have shown themselves to be sympathetic to such vacant spaces being utilized for residences by those forced out of their former living spaces; since logic and common sense demonstrate that the property rights of building owners should not be allowed to deny living space to those who need it. When such activity has been undertaken in a coordinated manner, ensuring the interests of the surrounding community are maintained, many municipal governments have simply chosen to make a pretense of being unaware of the illegal occupation, unless the absentee landlord eventually presses the issue, further demonstrating the inability of the state to thwart the actions of the people when they act collectively and in an organized manner.
Work
The economic collapse that had presented opportunities for action around housing also resulted in the financial failure of a number of companies, depriving workers of their jobs and offering another opportunity for revolutionary action. The approach advocated by the Reflections Without Borders collective was to organize workers for companies going bankrupt to seek to continue operating the location they were employed at, reorganized as a workers cooperative. It was further advocated that these workers then collectively seek to be given ownership of the assets of that location by the bankruptcy courts, rather than their being liquidated by the courts. The reality is, the inventory and equipment of any such location would be liquidated for mere pennies by a bankruptcy court in such cases, but put into the hands of those who had already been engaged in the operation of the business—its workers—these could provide far greater value in efforts to maintain a means of making a living. Run as a cooperative, such an enterprise would have no need to create a profit, so long as the workers were able to generate enough funds to cover operating costs, including their own wages and were they to succeed in doing this, the workers would provide a valuable lesson to the consciousness of themselves and others about viability under the system of capitalism. Though there is no real attempt to hide the fact, most workers fail to recognize that that the functioning of businesses as private property necessitates a higher threshold of income, simply because it is necessary for the business to support the livelihood of one or more individuals who are not, in anyway, actually engaged in the operation of that enterprise. Were this more widely recognized, arguments for the privatization of various public sector enterprises would immediately collapse, since functioning on the basis of creating profits, which go to the support of individuals not actively engaged in the operation of the entity, always increases the cost of any undertaking. The myth of savings through privatization is rooted in the reality of reduced earnings by workers and reduction in service by the entity in question. The logic is clear to most working people that those who perform the work are more entitled to gain in income from their efforts than are those who do nothing to accomplish the actual functioning of the enterprise.
In addition to seeking to encourage displaced workers into continuing to run their workplaces for themselves, the collective intervened with a group of working class, largely immigrant parents they were involved with, through work at a childcare center. The approach taken with these parents also involved encouraging them to work together in cooperative efforts aimed to provide income when waged work was difficult to obtain. To this end, some of these working people joined together to find work in the house cleaning, child care, and catering fields, which provided them with a means of support to get through a particularly difficult period. Because some of these workers were immigrants without work visas, this form of organizing was especially valuable, and also included other forms of job-sharing, that could provide mutual benefit to those involved.
Support to workers who were not being paid as a result of the State of California’s budget crisis was another thing the collective involved itself in, organizing and joining in pickets of the State Building and gaining media attention to the plight of these working people. In addition, as this coincided with State government employees standards of living also coming under attack, in the form of unpaid furlough days and demands for the loss of paid holidays and other benefits, the collective also worked to build a coalition between State workers and the workers from non-profit organizations dependent on State financing to provide support to one-another in their struggles against the common enemy, in this case, the State government. A more general opportunity can be identified as action in support of protesting or striking workers, whether this include participating out of solidarity in their picket lines, joining in efforts to keep scabs out of the workplace, and otherwise bringing pressure on companies to reach fair settlements with workers. The topic of work within the unions themselves requires a separate essay, as it is an important arena for action, but for the purposes of this essay, it will suffice to say that revolutionaries can always find opportunities for political action within their unions or in efforts to organize a union in the workplace. However, it is also important to engage in activities to support the efforts of other workers whose unions are engaged in strikes, subjected to lockouts, or persecuted by the state for militant union activities.
Immigration
Immigrant workers, especially the undocumented, are often utilized as a means of securing cheap labor and thereby of holding down wages of workers in general. As a result of this, workers can often be easily misled into opposing immigration and ultimately into racist attitudes that are fostered when any group is scape-goated for social problems. This is true in relation to workers from Latin America in the US, just as it is true of Eastern European and African refugee workers in Ireland today. The ruling class benefits from these divisions within the ranks of the working class and therefore often pursues policies that encourage them. For example, in the US there have been recent waves of anti-immigrant legislation and the construction of a vast fence along the country’s border with Mexico, but there has been virtually no action taken against employers of undocumented workers, whose actions provide the primary impetus for such immigration and a steady stream of special category work visas are provided for foreign workers in various high-tech fields, despite ample evidence that there is a large pool of US workers with skills in those fields unable to find employment.
One of the innovations of the Reflections Without Borders collective, most of whose members were themselves immigrants from Latin America, was to draw attention to the role of US imperialism and US corporations in creating the conditions in the home nations of many of these immigrants that create the need for so many to emigrate to the US. This is an important contribution to the consciousness of many US workers, to recognize that were it not for the role of US companies and the US government in maintaining conditions in many Latin American nations that perpetuate low wages, horrible standards of living, and political repression that then force workers of those nations to leave their homeland and seek a living in the US. Most of these immigrants retain a love for their home country and would not have chosen to leave it had they not been compelled to do so either by dire economic circumstances or repression by their own government or right-wing forces within their homeland. Accordingly, action taken to support efforts by the workers of Latin America to improve their own standards of living contribute to ensuring reduced numbers of immigrants from those nations into the US. In addition, Reflections Without Borders was prepared to also point fingers at the governments of these Latin American nations that allow the exploitation of their citizens by US companies to continue; acting not in the interests of their own nation, but in the interests of international imperialism, which they serve.
While challenging both US imperialism for creating conditions in Latin America, and elsewhere, that promote immigration into the US, as well as the comprador policies of the lackeys of US imperialism within many Latin American governments, the collective also sought to educate immigrant workers regarding their role in lowering the general standard of living for workers in the US and to gain their solidarity for striking US workers, rather than allow themselves to be used as scab labour. In doing this, the collective was appealing to the common interests of natives and immigrants as workers and aiding in the increase in class consciousness of both. Noteworthy examples of successes in this arena include the organisation of a day labourers’ union in San Francisco and organising efforts by the Irish Workers’ Union among immigrant workers—following the excellent example of James Connolly’s own work for the International Workers of the World.
While the efforts noted above chiefly to the form of participation in demonstrations and other propaganda efforts; in the arena of more direct action, the collective sought to organize immigrant communities to directly stand up to agents of the state involved in efforts to deport immigrant workers. As with the opposition to tenant evictions discussed above, these efforts were chiefly to organize workers within immigrant communities to physically block efforts of immigration agents, when they attempted to seize undocumented workers for the purpose of deportation. Other efforts of this kind that could be taken in Ireland would include providing support to the defense of immigrant workers against attacks by racists, including actions taken by some of the loyalist death squads in the six counties of Ireland under British occupation. The reactionary attitudes so deeply rooted within the loyalist community by the reality of Ireland’s partition provide real opportunities to forge alliances with communities of immigrant workers there by workers from the nationalist community. In the process of doing so, the resulting increase in support for Irish unity within these newest communities of working class people in Ireland should not be overlooked.
Policing
As with so many issues, there are two distinct aspects of this issue that can be addressed through political action by republican socialist revolutionaries. The first are efforts to combat abuses by state policing bodies, such as the RUC/PSNI or the Garda. These may take the form of picket lines at police stations and other organised demonstrations, as well as community forums to discuss policing concerns, but they can also include the example set by the Black Panther Party in the US decades ago. The Black Panther Party engaged in direct action to stop police from brutalizing members of their community, even arming themselves in order to ensure that their actions being taken to uphold citizens rights against police abuses could not be thwarted by rouge police relying on the State’s monopoly on the use of armed force to gain the advantage. While demonization of the Panthers by the capitalist media caused some working people to see the Panthers as those transgressing the law, in reality, they were taking necessary steps to ensure that the legal rights of those in the African community of the US were not being violated. For those not misled by the media smear campaign, this had a profound impact on the consciousness of many within that community, which was the reason why the US government launched the vicious Cointelpro campaign against the Black Panther Party.
The other aspect of work in the arena of policing arises in the arena of ensuring the safety and security of working class communities, especially those like the nationalist communities of the six counties or the African and Latino communities of the US, where the police are chiefly experienced as a force of occupation and repression. This is an arena already well known to Irish republicans and republican socialists, whose paramilitaries have long been turned to by the community to provide protection against various anti-social elements. The problem with the use of paramilitary volunteers for this kind of activity, beyond exposing them to risk of State repression and diversion from pursuit of the national liberation struggle, is that it does little to instill a sense of empowerment to working class people within those communities. In order to achieve that objective, it is necessary to go beyond reliance on paramilitary volunteers and develop alternatives within the community itself. Excellent strides were made towards this in the 1990s when the INLA sought to bring small arms into the six counties in order to provide the means to communities to organise such efforts themselves (which was, sadly, thwarted when the two Americans transporting the weapons from Le Harve were arrested), as well as by the policy document written by Paul Little for the Ard Comhairle of the IRSP on community policing at the end of the same decade. This document should be re-examined for contemporary application and efforts renewed to put policing directly into the hands of these working class nationalist communities. Doing so provides the direct experience of reclaiming control over ones day-to-day living circumstances, which is so important to working people’s development of class consciousness.
Children’s Welfare
While the final two categories I have chosen to include were not areas in which the Reflections Without Borders collective actively engaged, I believe that they are worth mention here as potential arenas for direct political action by republican socialists in Ireland. All communities ultimately have an interest in ensuring the welfare of their children, insofar as these provide the next generation of that community. The Black Panther Party, again, provided an excellent example for revolutionaries everywhere in this regard through their children’s free breakfast program. In that members of revolutionaries movements must, at all times, guard against the tendency towards elitism within their ranks, engaging in the work necessary to prepare and serve breakfast to all children of the working class community, who might otherwise not have an adequate diet to prepare them for the challenges of life is a humbling experience, but also one that demonstrates the sincerity of an organisation’s commitment to the community’s welfare. I can think of no better action that could be taken to thwart the impact of media demonization that that of each and every volunteer of the Irish National Liberation Army joining in efforts to prepare and serve breakfast to the children of the community in which they live—and allow me to underline that this is not an activity that should be primarily the work of women within the community. While women INLA volunteers need not be excluded, the inclusion of men from the ranks of those volunteers will provide the best influence on altering the negative stereo-types and backward attitudes both within the ranks of the movement and of the larger community.
The same would true of efforts to ensure adequate child care within working class communities, which can serve to both keep children engaged and thereby thwart pressures on them to drift towards anti-social behavior and provide essential support to working women within the community to be able to achieve a full life for themselves; including the ability for them to participate actively in political developments within their communities. Republican socialists should remain mindful of this when organising public events, be they marches, forums, picket lines, or other activities; ensuring that children can either be effectively integrated into those undertakings or, when necessary, that care be provided to ensure the maximum extent of participation from interested working people within the community will have a positive impact on the perception of the movement by the community and on the success of these undertakings. To the extent that children can be integrated as participants, there is the added advantage of better ensuring that those children will grow into class conscious activists as adults as well. Some efforts towards this end are already in existence, such as the organisation of pipe and drum or flute bands among younger members of the community, but other opportunities should be explored. Moreover groups such as the RSYM should be encouraged to integrate politics with social events, by supporting any efforts they initiate to host such events in any way possible. Young people being provided with opportunities to enjoy themselves socially that also provide aspects that enhance class consciousness among youth of our communities contribute to efforts to thwart the development of anti-social behavior as well.
The abuse of children and other aspects of domestic violence are not restricted to the working class communities, but working class communities are not free of them either. If children are the shared responsibility of the community, because they represent the community’s future, then this can no longer be viewed as a private matter, in which political activists should not involve themselves. If some activists have had experience as volunteers that have provided them with the skills necessary to take action against enemies of the working class community, they then possess skills that could be utilized to ensure that the weakest and most vulnerable members of our working class communities are not subjected to relentless violence. I will leave my comments on that subject to that, without further elaboration, but it is an area of action that I would call upon republican socialist activists to not ignore, when seeking to devise useful actions in service to the interests of Irish working people.
Gender and Sexuality
Inclusion of these topics in this essay is chiefly motivated by the same concerns that were addressed immediately above, as well in some of the discussion concerning issues involving immigrant communities. It remains true that, just as racism and anti-immigrant prejudice is fostered by the capitalist system, so too are sexist and hetero-sexists attitudes which can manifest themselves in violent attacks against working people solely because of their gender or their sexuality. Republican socialism is not a tendency that concerns itself with only a part of the working class, but one whose task it is to struggle for the liberation of the entire working class of Ireland. As such, the equality of working class women, as well as the rights of lesbian or gay working class people to the equal enjoyment of life as anyone else, are issues that should concern all republican socialist activists. If members of the lesbian and gay community or other working class women are threatened by reactionaries for no other reason than their sexuality or their gender, this is first and foremost an attack on fellow workers and one that cannot be tolerated or ignored. It is essential that in the course of carrying out work as revolutionary political activists, republican socialists ensure that they do so in a manner that is consistent with respect for the equality of all working people and, when necessary, must be prepared to act when others would seek to infringe upon others right to be treated equally within our communities. I would hope that his point would be self-evident and require no further discussion.
Conclusion
The foregoing essay has been an attempt to translate insights developed within the context of the Reflections Without Borders collective into ideas that might be of use to republican socialist activists in Ireland, as they grapple with the issue of how to engage in revolutionary struggle outside of the confines of the armed struggle for national liberation. The alternative to participation in the armed struggle is by no means limited to involvement in parliamentary campaigns. In fact, the traditional position of the IRSM that it will participate in electoral contests only when doing so provides a tactical advantage to the movement and the struggle as a whole remains as valid today as it ever was and should remain the guiding principle of the IRSP. The working class will never gain its liberation through participation in capitalist elected bodies and, while there is a place for such participation in propaganda efforts, no revolutionary organisation can view political activism as being limited to the confines of electoral campaigns. The most important political work that republican socialist activists can engage in has nothing to do with electoral campaigns, but has to do with acting directly in efforts of working people to take command of their own lives, their working conditions, and their communities. The activities discussed here represent only a handful of the multitude of opportunities for political action available.
These political activities require a great many skills and talents and there is nothing to hold back any republican socialist activist from being actively engaged in political struggle. While some will excel in public speaking or propaganda efforts, others will show talent for the day-to-day efforts required to carry out trade union organising; still others will have a talent for artwork or music that will help in building class consciousness. Some will possess the strength and skills necessary to lead some of the more physically demanding aspects of political work, whether this be defense of picket lines, confrontations with police, dealing with anti-social or reactionary elements within our communities; while others will possess the sensitivity and tact required in dealing with children and some of those within our community who have been the most victimized. Some will have the social skills that will ensure the ability to bring others into the struggle or that can facilitate the reducing of frictions within our ranks; while others will have minds that readily create strategies and tactics. No republican socialist, who wishes to legitimately call her or himself that, can stand apart from the political activities necessary to building class consciousness among Irish workers and build the struggle to end the partition of Ireland and bring down the system of capitalism on the island of Ireland.
Peter Urban
Comrade, International Republican Socialist Network
21 March 2010
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