The Workers Party has condemned the hypocrisy of the US, GB, NATO and the EU in its reaction to the attacks by Iran on Israel.
Israel has engaged in a campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people, murdered tens of thousands of civilians including children, deliberately attacked aid convoys and most recently provocatively launched a missile attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least 11 people. While we condemn Iran’s response it is vital to make clear the context.
Israel can apparently slaughter Palestinians and blatantly attack Iranian property and kill its citizens while their supporters stay silent and facilitate these murderous activities through their supply of the weapons of war.
When Iran responds, the same forces fall over themselves to condemn it.
The Workers Party holds no brief for the theocratic regime in Iran but the stench of UK, US, EU and NATO hypocrisy is unbearable.
These developments constitute a dangerous escalation of the situation in the Middle East and pose an increasing threat of regional and indeed generalised war.
Today the Workers Party held a number of commemorations across the island – here is the text of our Easter oration 2024.
Party President Cllr Ted Tynan delivers the oration in Cork, accompanied by Cork South East candidate Rachel Hurley Roche
Comrades and Friends,
Thank you for coming here today for the Workers Party’s annual Easter commemoration.
We stand here to honour those who have gone before us in the battle to establish a democratic, secular, and socialist Ireland – a republic rooted in the revolutionary principles of liberty, equality, fraternity, the unity of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, and the determination to cherish all our children equally.
We remember today the men and women of 1916 who opposed imperialist war and sought to build a better Ireland, including those who never gave up on that struggle despite the two reactionary states that emerged on our island just over a century ago. We also remember our own comrades who lived, worked, struggled, and died for our Party and its vision of an Ireland governed by and for a united working class, with the evils and oppression of sectarianism and capitalism banished once and for all.
Their example reminds us today of our responsibilities, of the need for our unwavering dedication to transforming the Workers Party into the vanguard of the working class, into a Party capable of leading the revolutionising of Ireland’s politics, economy, and society.
And that – and nothing less than that – is our goal comrades. The revolutionary transformation of our island and of the lives of its people. We aim to put economic, political, and social power where it belongs – in the hands of the majority, the working class. Despite all the efforts made to entice us away from that vision, to settle for something less, to swap principle for popularity, we will never turn our backs on it. That is what it means to be a member and supporter of the Workers Party.
We need only look around us for the urgent need for our Party and for our politics. In the Republic, we see record homelessness, unaffordable rents never mind unaffordable mortgages, around two-thirds of young adults still living in their childhood bedrooms, and the far-right rising.
As Marxist-Leninists, and as a Party with long experience of the nature of British and Irish nationalism in Ireland, we are not shocked by the rise of a local white supremacist far right, supported by similar elements in Britain, the US, and elsewhere. Nor are we shocked by mainstream politicians from the right and the supposed left scrambling to adopt far-right talking points and to shift their politics to tail-end the far-right. Nor are we surprised at the failures of the Gardaí to deal properly with the campaign of burning potential host venues for asylum seekers.
Nevertheless, we call for the creation of a popular campaign against the far right, drawing in a wide range of elements opposed to their actions. The trade unions offer one potential vehicle for mobilising such a campaign, but so too do those political parties and politicians that claim to oppose the far right. It is time they put their money where their mouths are. We call on the government and gardaí to take a more proactive line in catching and punishing those responsible for the racist arson campaign. And we call on those on the left not to give any ground to the far right intellectually or politically. These are potentially dangerous times, and the complacency and dilly dallying must end.
Housing remains a major problem in Northern Ireland as well, not just in terms of homelessness, but also in terms of rocketing rents. We had thought that the era of the rack-renting landlord in Ireland had passed nearly a century and a half ago. Instead, it is a new golden age for landlords, including those vulture funds who the various governing coalitions have only been too happy to facilitate.
The Workers Party offers an alternative to the housing crisis. That alternative is a state-owned company that builds good quality homes and makes them available to workers and their families at reasonable rents. It means ending the transfer of hundreds of millions from public funds into the pockets of private landlords. And it means ending the speculative dynamic in the economy that has already proven so ruinous, and will continue to do so for generations.
There is a crisis in public services in both parts of Ireland. The two health services are under severe pressure, and displaying the result of decades of under-investment and of governments committed to increasing the opportunities for profit of private healthcare providers. In 2022, the British Medical Association said that if the NHS in England, Wales, and Scotland was in crisis, a new word needed to be invented to describe how bad the situation in Northern Ireland was. And it has only gotten worse since then.
Make no mistake: the Tories have been deliberately running down the NHS in order to make privatisation seem a more attractive option. Among the many failures of the Northern Ireland Executive parties, their shameful neglect of the NHS stands out as one of the worst. Of course, none of those parties rejects the basic economic principles of what is popularly known as neo-liberalism, so their failure to adequately defend the NHS is no surprise.
While we welcome the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive, we are under no illusions. The gestures of inclusivity and togetherness cannot mask the sectarian logic on which the major parties rely. Many of the same failed and failing policies will be continued, even If electoral self-interest means that some attempts are made to placate an angry electorate. None of the major parties has an alternative vision, economic or socially. They remain what they all are – parties serving primarily the interests of various sections of the bourgeoisie.
The swapping of one Fine Gael leader for another will likewise do nothing to address the serious challenges faced by working people. Nor is there any sign that whatever coalition government emerges from the next general election will be capable of or even interested in the bold measures necessary to address the housing crisis, the neglect of public services, and the need to create a sustainable economy based on real economic activity that serves the Irish people, and not the accounting tricks of multinationals.
The Workers Party will be flying the red flag in the forthcoming local elections in the Republic. Our candidates will include our President, Councillor Ted Tynan and Rachel Hurley Roche in Cork. These are vital elections for the Party, organisationally, politically, and ideologically. We urge all members and supporters to participate as far as they can in the election campaign. These local elections will not be without their challenges, but they offer an opportunity to cement our position. We will be offering principled class politics, unambiguously and unashamedly. They offer the chance to connect with a wider audience, to demonstrate the ongoing relevance of our political message, and to put in place a vital springboard for rebuilding the Party.
We saw a boost in membership and profile following last year’s elections in Northern Ireland, and aim to reap similar benefits from these elections.
Imperialism means war. Connolly’s involvement in 1916 was directly the result of the betrayal of proletarian internationalism by the vast majority of socialist parties in Europe when the war broke out. He hoped that the Irish Citizen Army would light a spark that would rekindle the internationalist flame. Lenin’s Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism laid out extremely clearly the nature of modern imperialism as a form of capitalism, and how imperialist competition was a driving factor of war. Looking at the world around us, at Ukraine and at the genocidal campaign in Gaza supported by the most powerful country in human history and its allies, we see again how Lenin and Connolly were right to link capitalism and war.
Neutrality has been a key principle of the Irish state, and it has allowed it at times to play a progressive role in international affairs. The determined campaign to end it by important elements within the political elite and their supporters in the press, academia, and elsewhere is something the Workers Party strongly opposes. At a time when a conflict between NATO and Russia grows ever more likely, it is repugnant to see bourgeois politicians and commentators call for the Republic to join NATO. We welcome the recent decision to intervene in the South African case against Israel. Neutrality is the best way for the Irish state to play a progressive role in world affairs. We remain committed to it.
Lenin died 100 years ago this year. Last year, our Easter speech noted out continuing commitment to the idea of a Marxist party based on Leninist principles Seán Garland laid out in 1973. This year, in the midst of imperialist war and when various reformist elements at home and abroad demonstrate their inability to grapple with the fundamental question in modern society, we note the continuing need for a vanguard party as theorised and practised by Lenin and the Bolsheviks if capitalism is ever to be defeated.
Comrade and friends,
Thank you once again for your attendance today. We leave here with a clear vision of the immense task we have set ourselves, but also our eyes fixed on the immediate priorities as well as our long-term aims. We must build the party, take advantage of the opportunities offered by the local elections, continue to work in our workplaces, communities, and trade unions, always with an eye on raising class consciousness and class politics.
Workers Party President, Cllr Ted Tynan, has demanded immediate clarification from the Irish Government on the work being undertaken by Collins Aerospace (Cork).
The company is a subsidiary of the American based Collins Aerospace which is a supplier of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment and sophisticated arms systems to warring countries, including Israel.
“At a time when the state of Israel is engaged in a genocidal war against the Palestinian people, and in the face of the Irish government’s duplicity on the issue of peace in the Middle East, I have written to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, the Industrial Development Agency and to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment”, Councillor Tynan said.
“I am seeking immediate clarification on the involvement of Collins Aerospace (Cork), and any other companies based here, in the design, manufacture and export of military equipment including dual-use technology and, in particular, highly sophisticated military guidance systems.
“The arms industry is a dangerous and deadly business that fuels conflict, repression and war and sustains regimes which abuse human rights, all in pursuit of profit. This vile industry does this with the full support of governments,” Cllr Tynan said.
“Ireland has a tradition of military neutrality which is being increasingly undermined by successive governments and the EU in an attempt to draw this country into the deadly embrace of NATO and its war machine. The people of this country deserve and demand immediate answers,” he concluded.
“International Working Women’s Day symbolises the process of emancipation of working-class women. It is inseparable from class struggle and the fight against the ever-worsening conditions of inequality experienced by women, which cannot be decoupled from the capitalist system in which we live.
Their enduring exploitation and oppression continue to flow from a system of property relations based on the capitalist accumulation of wealth and the appropriation of labour.
Working-class women experience many forms of discrimination, including the gender pay gap, part-time and precarious work, employment recruitment and bias due to maternity and menopause. They receive lower wages, get worse jobs and lower pensions. In addition, women bear the brunt of the household and are more often burdened with childcare or family care. They face discrimination, sexism, violence, unequal treatment, sexual harassment in the workplace, in the family and elsewhere that often results in permanent damage and in some cases physical injury and death. At the same time, they have less opportunities to escape abusive situations because of economic conditions. The exponential growth in harassment and murder of women in their family and domestic social context is related with the capitalist exploitative system that gives rise to phenomena such as the cult of possession, the commodification of women and their bodies, and prostitution. The class profile of women subjected to violence shows very many are members of the working class who are employed or unemployed, and they are relatively poorer.
Recent years have been marked by the massive imposition of teleworking by the big employers, which has significantly worsened the situation for many working women with young families being compelled to work more without childcare being provided by the state. These unacceptable life and work conditions have a negative impact on women’s participation in trade union activity, in social and political life.
It is increasingly common for women to live in poverty, compromising their physical and mental health, facing the intensification of work, flexible working hours, poor housing, the lack of amenities such as child care, supplementary pension for mothers, etc., the absence of proper healthcare that meets women’s specific needs, as well as access to safe and free state abortion services.
The European Union and the governments of the Member States, through “market liberalisation”, deregulation of labour relationships and privatisation serve the interests of big capital and intensify the attack on the working class, seriously impacting on women.
The commercialisation of education, health, social security and care services, while reducing state responsibility, increases the burden on working-class women and women of the popular strata.
The task of the Communist and Workers’ Parties is to develop a strong class-based approach to those areas in order to lead the struggle for the equality of working-class women in every aspect of life.
Imperialism, with its sanctions, interventions and war, as witnessed by Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the imperialist war in Ukraine, have enormous implications for women, children, and families including the risk of death, injury, impoverishment, loss of livelihood, displacement, human trafficking and dangerous forced migration in search of safety to be met by the stonewall of EU mechanisms and repression agreements.
Gender inequality remains rooted in class inequality. Women do not stand apart from the class struggle. Some theories and political practices attempt to distance women’s inequality and oppression for exploitative relations of production and the class roots of women’s oppression. The core of women’s inequality remains because capital has an interest in exploiting discrimination against women to intensify capitalist exploitation.
It is the role of the communists to connect with women of a working-class and popular class background, to rally them around us in the struggle. It is only through the overthrow of the capitalist system which creates and perpetuates their oppression, the establishment of social ownership of the concentrated means of production and the construction of a socialist society where the working class is in power, that true equality, human emancipation and the genuine emancipation of women and equality between the sexes will be attained.
The Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 established important rights for women, equality under the law, the right to divorce, and the right to free and legal abortion.
On International Women’s Day 2024 we intensify the struggle for women’s emancipation, against the EU and the system of capitalist exploitation and imperialist wars.”
The Irish Constitution of 1937 (Bunreacht na hÉireann), drafted exclusively by men, was, and despite some amendment remains, profoundly nationalist, Roman Catholic and conservative. It was strongly influenced by the Catholic Church and its religious doctrines on authority, the family, marriage, private property and church–state relations. It implied that the natural situation for women lay in marriage, motherhood and the home and was used to justify discrimination against women. Article 41 also initially enshrined a prohibition on divorce.
The 1937 Constitution, in effect, institutionalised and confirmed the subjugation of women in Irish society and provided a legal and constitutional basis for continued discrimination against women which, despite various amendments, continues to this day.
On 8 March 2024, Irish citizens will be asked to vote in two referendums to change the Constitution. These referendums will not fundamentally alter the reactionary and religious character of the Constitution nor secularise the state.
The first Referendum concerns the concept of Family in the Constitution
The concept of Family: In this amendment there is one vote for two proposed changes. The Proposal involves the insertion of additional text to Article 41.1.1° and the deletion of text in Article 41.3.1°. The proposed changes are: Proposed to change Article 41.1.1° text in bold: Article 41.1.1° “The State recognises the Family, whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships, as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.”
Proposed to change Article 41.3.1° by deleting text shown with line through it: “The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.”
The purported objective of a vote for change is to ensure that different types of family units would have the same constitutional rights and protections.
Despite its severe limitations, the proposed new wording presents some improvement and is worthy in the circumstances of qualified support in a Yes Vote.
The second Referendum concerns the provision of care.
The Care Amendment: Article 41.2.1° “In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.”
Article 41.2.2° “The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”
The Constitution currently, by Article 41.2, refers to the importance to the common good of the life of women within the home and that the State should endeavour to ensure that mothers should not have to go out to work to the neglect of their “duties in the home”.
The Proposal In this amendment there is one vote for two proposed changes. The proposal involves deleting Article 41.2.1° and Article 41.2.2° and inserting a new Article 42B, as shown below:
“The State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision.”
The purpose of the proposed new clause is supposedly to recognise the importance to the common good of the care provided by family members to each other and, secondly, to suggest that the State would “strive to support” the provision of such care within families.
This proposed amendment is, in effect, a confidence trick. It purports to liberate women but, in fact, deprives them of constitutional rights to protection if they choose to stay at home and look after their children. The removal of these protections may impact adversely on protective measures and provisions such as Children’s Allowance, maternity leave and other family supports.
The proposed amendment also places the burden of care on family members and removes responsibility from the state. This responsibility for child and family care, including care of older family members, those who are sick and disabled, will fall primarily on women. Working-class women already experience many forms of discrimination including the gender pay gap, part-time and precarious work, employment recruitment and bias due to maternity and menopause. They receive lower wages, get worse jobs and lower pensions. They bear the brunt of the unpaid work, the reproductive work, especially in the household. This proposal will worsen the situation for women.
It also fits a government and EU agenda of “market liberalisation”, deregulation and privatisation which involves the commercialisation of education, health, social security and care services, while reducing state responsibility and increasing the burden on working-class women. The Irish state has a history of outsourcing the provision of education, healthcare, and social welfare to private (largely religious) organisations.
This proposal is a further attack on working-class women by transferring the responsibility for care to them while effectively removing from the state the obligations to provide care. The wording “striving to support” entails no legal obligations on the State to actually support women and carers.
This deeply anti-women and anti-working-class proposal should be rejected in a No Vote.
The Workers Party advocates a qualified YES VOTE in the first Referendum on the concept of Family and a definitive NO VOTE in the second Referendum on Care.
FIRST REFERENDUM VOTE YES SECOND REFERENDUM VOTE NO
Workers Party President, Councillor Ted Tynan, has condemned today’s slaughter by Israeli forces of at least 104 Palestinian civilians, and the further wounding of more than 750, as they queued for food aid in Gaza. He has also called for the immediate expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland.
More than 30,000 Palestinians, including over 13,000 children, have been killed since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Since the International Court of Justice direction on 26 January to stop the genocide, Israel has killed over 3,000 Palestinians as its slaughter of the innocent continues.
Conditions in Gaza are now appalling with a serious risk of famine. More than half of the population of Gaza has been driven into Rafah and is now trapped.
Israel has continued its attacks on the civilian population and now threatens a ground invasion which will have incalculable humanitarian consequences.
The genocide must end and this latest massacre cannot be ignored.
The US, UK and EU are complicit in these acts of genocide and must be held accountable. The Irish government can no longer stand idly by. It must immediately join the government of South Africa in its case against Israel before the International Court of Justice and immediately expel the Israeli Ambassador from Ireland.
The government is running out of excuses, the government of Israel and its representatives are in contempt of reason, humanitarian pleas and international law. It is time for its representatives in Ireland to be shown the door.
Workers Party President Cllr. Ted Tynan has reiterated the Party’s complete opposition to far-right attempts to whip up hysteria surrounding migration into Ireland.
He also condemned the ongoing arson campaign by racists, and has called on the Gardaí to make finding those responsible and stopping this campaign a priority.
Far right conspiracy theories
“A dangerous development has been taking place in the Republic”, the Party President said “Those motivated by far-right conspiracy theories and so-called culture war talking points about refugees, migrants, housing, public services, trans rights, education, crime and other issues have been able to gain a foothold and mobilise a worrying level of support”
“Giving ground to racism is not the way to address it. Right-wing politicians in Ireland and elsewhere easily play to the racist gallery, seeking to co-opt them to bolster their own support.” said Cllr Tynan.
“We see the consequences around us. We have also seen elsewhere the consequences of those historically or ostensibly on the left beginning to speak about “legitimate concerns” and other such coded language”.
Socialism Weakened
“The far right is emboldened, they have succeed in shifting mainstream political discourse in their favour, and support for socialism is weakened. We are witnessing the early beginnings of this process in Ireland.
“It is a fantasy to imagine that by co-opting far-right talking points, those who support them can be won to the left.” Cllr Tynan explained
“What actually happens, and what we can see happening around us, is that in the pursuit of this illusionary goal, the poison of reactionary nationalism spreads into the workers’ movement and among socialists to their cost. Division is spread among the working class, class consciousness is weakened, and far-right forces are presented with an opportunity to grow”, he said
Migrants not at fault
“The victims of wars, imperialist interventions and reactionary regimes have the right to seek a safer life. The problems of homelessness, unaffordable rents and homes, public services in crisis and poverty are not the fault of migrants. They are the inevitable consequence of the capitalist system. The solution can only be found in a struggle to overthrow the system that creates wars, poverty and refugees. Socialists cannot allow themselves to be diverted from these facts”.
“Socialism is based upon a simple principle – workers of the world, unite. Failing to uphold this basic principle is a flight from socialism, a betrayal of it. The politics of the Workers Party were built upon the principles of internationalism, opposing the damaging consequences of nationalism and capitalism for workers’ lives and material interests, and our politics have always foregrounded the unity of all workers”.
Solidarity
The Workers Party expresses its solidarity with migrant workers, their families and refugees. We continue to do so, uncompromisingly and wholeheartedly,” Cllr Tynan concluded
If, amid all the media circus, midnight protestors, leaks claims and counter claims, the DUP do make an imminent return to Stormont, what will it actually mean for working people and their families?
Forgetting the rose-tinted glasses, let alone the orange and green ones, and all the hype about Northern Ireland Plc getting back to business, stability, certainty and the promises of pay settlements – the reality and the political future, particularly for working people, remains as grim as it’s ever been.
Others shape their worlds around tribal politics, community division and blatant sectarian trade-offs, all set against the backdrop of a ‘free-market’ economy which turns everything into commodities, profit and personal gain with the resultant hardship, misery and lost opportunities that implies for the vast majority of this and future generations.
The Workers Party sees and understands things differently. Very differently. Our scrutiny ofwhat is happening, why, and its implications is always based on a class analysis of the consequences for working people, the political forces lined up against them and how to secure advances while remaining focussed on the longer-term transformation of society.
If, as seems likely, there is a restoration of the Assembly and the formation of a new Executive then we are in for a prolonged period of sectarian triumphalism, tribalism, heightened community division, a lot of noise but very little social, political or economic progress. But for the Executive parties that’s never been what it’s about.
They can be relied upon to return to their tried, trusted and well-rehearsed routines of blaming ‘others’ for blocking progress, while building up their support base through fear, suspicion and community division: paying less than lip service to the needs of working people and their families. We know this because the track record is there for all to see.
Health, education, child care, transport, jobs, social policy, social care and the cost of living were all in turmoil before the Assembly was collapsed.
Sinn Fein and the DUP have failed to deliver on the expectations evident at the time of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement – not by mis-management, but by design.Between them they have carved out and consolidated two sectarian power blocs.
How else can the deliberate side-lining of integrated education and integrated housing be explained? Why is it that we have more walls dividing the community today than we had twenty-five years ago? Why have cultural identity, tribal symbols and community background been given precedence over jobs, health and social progress?
The answer to all those questions is‘because that’s how you build and maintain a sectarian power base’, and that is the strategy that both parties will continue to pursue when a new Executive is formed.
The challenge for socialists, trade unionists and other progressive forces in our society is to call out, confront and overcome the corrupt and corrupting politics of these parties and to present a credible, class-based socialist alternative for workers, their families and their futures.
The United Nations International Court of Justice has delivered an interim ruling in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.
But what does that mean and how will it impact on Israel’s relentless assault on the people of Gaza?
One of the rulings delivered by the Court was that, “...the State of Israel in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention…“
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor has warned that a ceasefire in Gaza is essential for Israel to comply with the measures demanded by the International Court of Justice.
The 100th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Lenin occurs today
Lenin was the moving figure and leader of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia in 1917, an extraordinary and dynamic event which changed the course of history.
The socialist society which the workers of Russia, under the leadership of Lenin, as the founder of Soviet power secured, created a social order which abolished exploitation and , for the first time realised workers’ power.
The creation of the first workers’ state and the process of socialist transformation was a beacon of hope for the workers of the world.
Lenin left the international communist movement an inexhaustible source of revolutionary thought and action. He developed and enriched the theory of Marxism. He became a symbol of social progress, workers’ power, working-class revolution and socialism.
100 years on from Lenin’s death, it remains the case that his example, ideology, and practice remain central to the mission to liberate humanity, end exploitation and oppression, abolish the capitalist system and build that better socialist future.
Workers Party of Ireland 