Friday, September 25, 2009
An overlooked part of Irish history
The Troubles have produced a vast library but it is amazing that this is the first major history of an overlooked but influential movement: the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party. This history of the “Sticks” is a labour of love that took five years and draws on many interviews and official archives, so to speak.
It convincingly and readably narrates the fascinating story of a movement that journeyed over three bloody decades from the priority of forcibly removing the border and uniting Ireland to abandoning armed struggle and opposing terrorism but never decommissioning its arms.
They also moved from opposing “the Communist menace” to embracing class politics with a distinct Stalinist tinge – their bookshops held the Irish franchise for Soviet literature and the Soviet Communist Party granted WP members free health treatment in the USSR. The Irish security services believed the Sticks were “the greatest long-term danger to the security of the institutions of the State” in the early 1970s as opposed to the Provos who then favoured a free Ireland based on Christian principles. Irish establishment politicians worried about the Sticks’ organised infiltration of the trade unions, the student movement and a savvy media operation.
The authors, Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, academic and journalist respectively, write that the WP played “a large part in the death of irredentist ideology in the south” and “served as the training ground for much of the leadership of the present-day Labour Party and trade unions in the South. The revolution it struggled for, through violence and political activism, never took place; but the struggle shaped modern Ireland.”
The history is tainted by its military wing – the Official IRA (OIRA) which went from opposing the B Specials to what became known internally as Group B and whose nefarious “special activities” were justified by a “revolutionary morality.”
It is packed with anecdotes and vignettes which bring a sometimes bohemian cast of characters to life in all their camaraderie, passion and bitterness. It’s a rich and riveting resource.
I declare a personal interest. As a British political activist, I worked with WP and Democratic Left members in the 1980s and 1990s. From this, I can say that the book fails adequately to describe the WP’s influence on the British labour movement.
The Bennite upsurge in the early 1980s strengthened the Troops Out Movement which often forced an annual conference debate, aptly televised when Playtime replaced live broadcasting. In 1985, the year that Neil Kinnock turned on the entryist Trotskyist group, the Militant, the Sticks themselves entered the fray at Labour’s annual conference. Signs appeared on lampposts throughout Bournemouth announcing daily Irish Social Nights and inviting people to come for the “craic” – a new term in Britain then, which caused some consternation.
I attended these for more years than I care to remember. Typically, songs such as “the Patriot Game” would be partnered with socialist songs and support for the striking miners, plus much drinking. This activity did much to convey the complexities of Northern Ireland and undercut the claims of Sinn Fein to an exclusive franchise with the British left.
These WP events weren’t explicitly political but clearly influenced some policy-makers. It helps explain why more on the British left became neutral on the national question, which helped Labour to conclude the Belfast Agreement.
I also worked with WP members and others in a British-Irish and cross-party group called New Consensus. The authors incorrectly allege that New Consensus took British State funding but promptly gave me an unreserved apology.
Yet it is impossible to ignore the dark side of the Sticks. The gulf between public claims and private realities justified the charge of hypocrisy, as former northern leader Seamus Lynch admits here.
In the end, the Sticks had to split. It was increasingly untenable to maintain a Leninist regime, once the communist bloc had imploded, and impossible to maintain electoral credibility with a “little secret army” that everyone knew about.
WP parliamentarians led moves to reconstitute the party without vestiges of Stalinism and republicanism – “the age of heroes is dead and gone,” as party president Proinsias de Rossa put it. These “intelligent revisionists” very narrowly lost and formed the Democratic Left which finally merged with the Irish Labour Party.
The authors note that the Provos now airbrush OIRA out of history and quote an IRA lifer and writer, Anthony McIntyre who concedes that “they beat us to it – and started the peace process first.” The Belfast joke is: what’s the difference between the Provos and the Sticks? Answer: 25 years. For many the Sticks are the Marmite of Irish politics – you either love them or loathe them but their politics made a difference, north and south as well as in Britain.
The book needs more substantial analysis of the intellectual journey from Catholic nationalism to a Marxist two-nations theory. A few key speeches and articles should have been included for the reader to judge the development of political ideas for themselves. The footnotes are confusing and the index isn’t inclusive.
It’s difficult to keep the general reader interested in the rhythms of a politico-military movement – paper sales, robbery proceeds, funeral attendances, casualties, tit-for-tat murders, the characters, splits and intrigues – but this long overdue and enjoyable history of the Sticks does.
The Lost Revolution: the story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party
Brian Hanley and Scott Millar
Penguin £20
Gary Kent @ 10:29 AM
I see that Gary has failed to note that the reason that De Rossa and his cohort left The WP was not that they were intelligent revisionists, but that they became opportinist careerists who abandoned class politics and fighting sectarianism in the north in the race for a place in government in the south, with them using Leninism and the rest as a smokescreen to hide this retreat from principled socialism.
He is also absolutely incorrect to say that The WP embraced the two nations theory.
Gary got an apology for New Consensus being misrepresented in the book. Perhaps he owes us one for the misrepresentations here.
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 11:55 AMThe real difference between the Stickies and the Provos is, that the Stickies stopped their violence first…..with those who still wanted to murder [e.g. McGuinness] joining the Provos!!
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 12:00 PM‘The real difference between the Stickies and the Provos is, that the Stickies stopped their violence first.’
Try telling that to the fellah kneecapped by the Sticks in Downpatrick last week.
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 12:32 PMAs a result of stories my Dad told me as a kid I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the Officials, as decent, non-sectarian, lefty republicans.
I am aware that this is a somewhat rose tinted view of a group who briefly engaged in some nasty acts of violence, but I would be interested to read this text.
And as for “principled socialism” - that sounds like Tony Benn and the longest suicide note in history.
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 12:51 PMThey had a long history of printing counterfeit money.
Didn’t realise they are still shooting people, perhaps General DeChastalin should have aword?
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 01:25 PMSuch allegations appear every so often. The last several times, the shootings were subsequently claimed by dissidents.
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 01:31 PMOn Brit’s political point. The suicide note was written by those who formed DL. As predicted by The WP at the time, this was a camouflage move by those at the top to disguise their real agenda. Unfortunately the damage done in terms of organisation and morale, added to the crisis of socialism, has meant that efforts to rebuild have proven very difficult.
The WP is an anti-sectarian party, on the grounds that sectarianism must be actively opposed. Just as Wolfe Tone did when he went to Rathfriland, only to be driven out by an alliance of the sectarian factions.
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 01:35 PM‘Such allegations appear every so often. The last several times, the shootings were subsequently claimed by dissidents. ‘
Official IRA involvement in the shooting was reported in the Belfast Telegraph.
As i said, perhaps someone should look at disarming the Officials.
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 01:45 PM“I see that Gary has failed to note that the reason that De Rossa and his cohort left The WP was not that they were intelligent revisionists, but that they became opportinist careerists who abandoned class politics and fighting sectarianism in the north in the race for a place in government in the south, with them using Leninism and the rest as a smokescreen to hide this retreat from principled socialism.”
trans 1: Yer-but yer-but no-but shut up! Anyway, your mum did it with an Alsatian…
trans 2: Gary didn’t reach the same conclusion as me.
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 01:48 PMI see you’ve left out the bit about the two nations Paulie, which is the misrepresentation I was talking about primarily.
Tim,
And in those other cases the media made similar allegations, and they proved to be false. So I’d take that with an equal grain of salt. Some people with an agenda telling journalists what they want them to hear most likely. And by the way, when Tom French was WP President he was asked if people knew anything about arms should they go to the police. His answer was an unambiguous yes.
The real significance of the book is that it demonstrates how a disciplined party dedicated to a clear vision of class politics has the ability to gain real improvements for people’s lives, and to influence the direction of politics on this island.
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 01:52 PMGaribaldi,
I notice that the sticky remnants in the Short Strand have just lost their base now that the Melting Pot has been sold on.I understand that the local stick activists are now looking to acquire a bus shelter from Translink to hold future meetings of the local activists (inactivists?)-Is that true, Garibaldi?
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 02:07 PMGaribaldy,
I understand that the WP did not embrace the BICO 2 nations theory. However could you tall us what exactly they did embrace in relation to the North? And what their position is now?
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 03:37 PMSo the stickie apologist and history revisionist gari haven`t got a baldy, tries vainly to spread his lies about the drug dealing OIRA workers party thugs.
Just a few questions he has continually refused to answer over on Politics i.e.
1)Are you saying the drug dealing scum of the OIRA/Group B protectors of the Workers Party, don`t exist?
2)Are you saying the OIRA/Group B doesn`t control and run a number of “social clubs” in West Belfast, where drugs are openly sold?
3)Are you saying that the OIRA/Group B/Workers Party is fully armed, still involved in all manner of gangsterism, especially the sale of drugs, bank robberies and exhorting local business`s?
4)Are you still saying that Workers Party members weren`t jailed in London for selling counterfeit $100 notes?
drugsPosted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 03:42 PMshould have read
“3)Are you saying that the OIRA/Group B/Workers Party is not fully armed, isn`t still involved in all manner of gangsterism, especially the sale of drugs, bank robberies and exhorting local business`s?
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 03:44 PMIts fun to see Garibaldy get so caught up in his own Workers party propaganda!
Does he really believe that we are stupid, blind and dump concerning the official IRA.
They haven`t gone away you know!
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 03:48 PM“Some people with an agenda telling journalists what they want them to hear most likely. And by the way, when Tom French was WP President he was asked if people knew anything about arms should they go to the police. His answer was an unambiguous yes.”
The same year a Workers Party member was caught red handed with guns in Twinbrook!!
Strange and wasn`t he the one who signed your, sorry John Lowry`s election papers!!!!
Yeah, its all lies and innuendo and the fault of all those republican descendent’s!!!
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 03:52 PMThey shot down Joe McCann, Joe McCann
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 04:29 PMThey had a long history of working with British Intelligence and Loyalists to have fellow Republicans murdered.
For instance they were permitted by the British to keep their weapons for this purpose, weapons they they still have, by the way.
One example of their sleeziness was regular meetings with Loyalists in a Drinking Club on the Shankill to finger fellow Nationalists.
I wonder if this gets an outing in the book?
Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 06:36 PMSuper-dollars.Economic crash.
oh!If one was a dreamer.Posted by on Sep 25, 2009 @ 08:54 PMThe officials devised the tax-exemption certificate scam which was a major pay day to the ‘supposedly’ on ceasefire, unarmed & politics only based paramilitaries.
They also hampered the redevelopment of many working class Belfast areas with their extortion, theft and victimisation of contractors.
Their working class, socialist politics took a backstage when their was so much money to be stolen and extorted from decent hard working builders.
Posted by on Sep 26, 2009 @ 09:40 AMThey morphed into neo-unionists with very little (if any) differences between them and the UUP or the DUP regarding the north. People like De Rossa and other trash like him have spent a career in hating nationalism and promoting unionism and loyalism.
Posted by on Sep 26, 2009 @ 10:01 AMThe book deals with many of these aspects of the Official IRA, including their later links with Brit security forces. However it also tells the story of those who fought to defend their areas in August 69 and who battled the Brits on the Falls in July 1970. That is people like Joe McCann, Billy McMillen, Jim Sullivan and Jim Hargey, the Official IRA.
Posted by on Sep 26, 2009 @ 10:19 AM‘That is people like Joe McCann, Billy McMillen, Jim Sullivan and Jim Hargey, the Official IRA.’
There were a few principled people in the Officials who briefly tok the armed struggle to the Brits.
How the organisation evolved is an insult to their memory-racketeering, tax exemption cerificates, collusion with loyalists,informing to the British. Today’s politically and morally bankrupt remnants of the Sticks are truly the dregs of our society.
Posted by on Sep 26, 2009 @ 10:43 AMI don’t know whether to laugh or cry when obvious Provo supporters start screaming blue murder about an organization defrauding the British tax system when they can right off as mistakes children being blown to smithereens in their struggle to get Marty into Stormount. Co-operation with the security forces, what about being run internally by the security forces and having innocent volunteers tortured to death by your internal security unit while struggling to get Gerry to Westminster. Laugh or cry take your pick…
Posted by on Sep 26, 2009 @ 11:48 AMso anyone who attacks the official IRA criminals, is now a provie!!!!!
By the way the family of Joe McCann stopped the sticks abusing his name by involving him with some form of legacy of the workers party!!!
The sticks now refer to McCann as a Trotskyist?
Posted by on Sep 26, 2009 @ 12:36 PM
