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From International Socialism (1st series), No.51, pp.13-14.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
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An important development in Irish politics is the appearance of the Socialist Workers Movement, a marxist organisation based largely in the republic but with connections in the six counties. We reproduce the SWM programme from its monthly paper The Worker, which can be obtained from 30 Strandville Avenue, North Strand, Dublin 3. (80p per year) |
The SOCIALISTS WORKERS’ MOVEMENT is a revolutionary workers’ movement, whose aim is the organisation of the working class in the struggle for power and the transformation of the existing social order. All its activities, its methods and its internal organisation are subordinated to this and are designed to serve this purpose. Capitalism is a system based on production for profit, not for human need. This system is driven by the necessity to accumulate profit, which means that capitalists compete with one another, both nationally and internationally. The capitalist class is a ruling class whose ownership and control of the means of production is based on the exploitation of the working class. Thus, a small minority rules society. In Ireland, 9 per cent of the population owns 90 per cent of the wealth.
The contradictions between competing capitalists, produce war, poverty and crisis. The struggle between the classes will produce the overthrow of capitalist society. Capitalism needs the working class; the working class does not need capitalism. Present day capitalism is entering a period of stagnation and crisis; it attempts to solve its problems at the expense of working-class living standards and democratic rights.
This system is international: in the drive to expand it must extend its power over the whole world. 250 companies dominate the international economy. The search for markets and materials has led to imperialism – the brutal oppression of the peoples of two-thirds of the world and the effective strangling of those peoples’ attempts to develop their societies. International capitalism operates in Ireland through British imperialism’s military, economic and political domination of the whole country. Britain maintains a standing army in the North. British imperialism has divided the working class on sectarian lines. British investments throughout Ireland equal 50 per cent of all investment in manufacturing and commerce. The Dublin and Stormont governments are subservient to the dictates of the international system and thus to its agent, Westminster.
Imperialism dominates Ireland as a whole: it treats Ireland as a unity. The struggle to defeat imperialism, therefore, must be fought in a united way throughout the 32 counties. This, involves the overthrow of the Orange-Unionist state in the North and of the Green-Tory state in the South. Irish capitalism, Green and Orange, is wholly integrated into the world system. Because of this, the mere unification of Ireland, or the removal of British troops, cannot in themselves mean the defeat of imperialism in Ireland. There is no independent republic this side of the Workers’ Republic. Only by the uniting of the working class can power be taken from the Orange and Green ruling class minorities and victory be won over imperialism.
It is the Irish working class and small farmers who bear the load of this imperialist domination. The contrast between Ireland, a neo-colony, and the Western capitalist countries is especially glaring:
North and South:
The working class has the capacity to end exploitation and oppression. In Ireland North and South the working class is now the predominant social class numerically and in terms of potential strength. The class has achieved a new self-confidence and militancy; this needs political co-ordination. Independent working class action can create a society based on production for human need, democratically controlled by the majority. By organising at the point of production and in the localities the workers can lead a struggle to the Workers’ Republic. This would not mean merely a State takeover of the means of production, but workers’ control of all aspects of society, local and national. Such a society does not exist in any country today.
The Socialist Workers’ Movement stands for the nationalisation of banks and industry under workers’ control and without compensation. To this end we actively engage in die day-today struggles of workers and small farmers and seek to build a mass working-class party which can lead the struggle to build socialism in Ireland as part of the struggle for international socialism. A Workers’ Republic cannot survive without the aid of the British and Continental working classes and the international extension of the revolutionary fight The Socialist Workers’ Movement opposes the EEC to which the only alternative is socialism in Ireland, as part of a socialist Europe. The Socialist Workers’ Movement opposes NATO and all other international military affiances. We an independent of Washington, Moscow and Peking. We support all anti-imperialist struggles throughout the world.
The Socialist Workers’ Movement fights for:–
We support the demand:
The SOCIALIST WORKERS’ MOVEMENT is a democratic organisation open to all those who accept its principles and objectives, who work in one of the units of the movement, agree to recognise its discipline and pay dues. ‘Internationalism: to some people this is the great bug-aboo which frightens them off from socialism’ (James Connolly). The struggle for a Workers’ Republic in Ireland is inseparable from the international struggle against capitalism. The Socialist Workers’ Movement fights to build a mass party of the working class as pan of a revolutionary international of working class parties.
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Last updated on 25.10.2006