Soviet Ireland: The Road Not Taken
By Cian Prendiville
There is a common, simplistic narrative of the Irish revolutionary period which runs something like this: the ‘Irish people’ fought for independence, Britain conceded twenty-six counties and then the independence movement split between pragmatists who accepted this deal and more idealistic nationalists who sought to continue the war so comely maidens could dance at cross-roads in all thirty-two counties. The Irish state was forged by nationalist revolutionaries, some more and some less flexible in terms of how to relate to British imperialism, but all agreed on the divine right of capitalism to rule. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be - a choice between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
The Leaving Cert syllabus reflects this narrative, summing up this period simply as: ‘The pursuit of sovereignty and the impact of partition’. It says the following events must be covered in class: “The Home Rule Bill 1912-1914; the impact of World War I; the 1916 Rising; the rise of the second Sinn Féin party; the 1918 election; the War of Independence; Partition; Treaty and Civil War; State building and the consolidation of democracy; from Free State to Republic Northern Ireland – the Unionist Party in power, The impact of World War II, North and South, Anglo-Irish relations.” Several general strikes, the Monaghan Soviet of February 1919, Limerick Soviet of April 1919, Waterford Soviet of 1920, Galway Soviet of 1922 and other major strikes do not appear.
““the Irish Free State was the product of a failed social revolution which British imperialism and the Irish capitalist class put down with brutal force””
The key personalities to be taught include de Valera, Collins and Griffith. Connolly and the other socialist leaders, such as Seán Dowling are not considered “key”. The concepts of sovereignty, partition and protectionism must be covered, but not so the ‘workers' republic’ which inspired the labour and trade union movement of the time as an alternative to not just imperial rule but capitalism itself.
This narrative is as deep and engrained as it is untrue and unhelpful in actually understanding the two states created in this period and the political landscape that followed. Far from being the result of a successful but conservative revolution, the Irish Free State was the product of a failed social revolution which British imperialism and the Irish capitalist class put down with brutal force, poisonous sectarianism and concessions to independence implemented from above to prevent revolution from below. Whatever about the motivations and actions of the individual politicians at the time, the Irish ruling class came to power not as courageous fighters for the oppressed but as a new lid being put back on the pot to prevent the mass movement of working people from boiling over. It was precisely the carnival of reaction of which Connolly warned.
But there was an alternative - a road not taken, the Workers Republic.
The road of a Workers’ Republic
“If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts will be in vain. England will still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.”
James Connolly, Socialism and Nationalism, 1897
For the masses of workers, farmers and poor people in Ireland, the struggle against British rule was enmeshed with the struggle against landlordism, slum housing, and poverty pay and conditions. No doubt, some middle or upper-class intellectuals were driven by lofty ideals of sovereignty for sovereignty’s sake. But the movement became truly mass only when it was linked to the economic and social questions, going back to the Land League’s struggle against evictions and for fair rent in the 19th century. This was also true during the ‘revolutionary period’, with people being inspired to fight, and put their lives on the line, in the hopes of a better future for themselves and their loved ones.
Inherent in this, however, was a conflict between those who sought solely a ‘political revolution’ which would change the political regime, but leave the economic system intact and those who sought both a political and a ‘social revolution’ which would also transform the economic system. The more conservative, ‘bourgeois nationalist’ leaders occasionally used economic and social conditions to mobilise workers and farmers to their cause, but this was primarily window dressing which was easily abandoned to focus on the ‘key’ aim of sovereignty. “The rich always betray the poor” as Henry Joy McCracken, one of the leaders of the 1798 revolt said.
In his pamphlet, Labour in Irish History, the great Marxist James Connolly analysed how the incipient Irish capitalist class repeatedly baulked from a full-on confrontation with Britain, and argued that only the working class could be relied upon to lead the movement. As Paul Murphy argued in ‘Permanent Revolution: A Rupture with Second International Marxism’ in Issue 7 of Rupture, Connolly’s argument echoed Lenin and the Bolsheviks’ important insight in Russia that the capitalist class there would not lead the fight against the Tsar because they feared revolution more than they disliked autocracy.
It is tough to conclusively surmise one consistent view of Connolly as his ideas and methods changed, and much of his writing was agitational rather than analytical. However, at his most radical and profound, Connolly outlined a vision of a ‘Workers Republic’, which would not only overthrow British imperial rule politically but also end the domination of the capitalist class economically. In doing this, Connolly echoed elements of Trotsky’s theory of Permanent Revolution, though arguably without the same clarity or consistency. For more on this debate see Sami’s El-Sayed’s article on Permanent Revolution in issue 6 of Rupture and Paul Murphy’s response cited above.
The concept of a Workers’ Republic strongly appealed to wide layers of the working class during the revolutionary period. The Irish Times warned of the “infection of Ireland by the anarchy of Bolshevism” and the Dáil Ministry for Home Affairs produced a report about how the “mind of the people was being diverted from the struggle for freedom by a class war.”
““Connolly outlined a vision of a ‘Workers Republic’, which would not only overthrow British imperial rule politically but also end the domination of the capitalist class economically””
Soviet cities and towns
Following the Russian revolution in 1917, there was a growing wave of revolutionary sentiment and actions right across Europe and this radicalisation was reflected in Ireland. In February 1918, around 10,000 people turned out in Dublin to hear about the Russian Revolution in February. In April, workers across the country took part in a successful general strike against conscription to fight in the First World War. A year later, workers in the Monaghan Lunatic Asylum (as it was then known) flew the red flag over their workplace and declared a soviet, as part of a struggle for better conditions, wages and a shorter working week, in what was the first of the Irish Soviets. In 1920, Waterford workers established a form of workers’ control of the city during a nationwide general strike for the release of interned republican prisoners.
While not the most advanced example of this rise of socialist sentiments, the best-remembered example of this wave of Soviets was the one in Limerick. July 1917 saw the establishment of the first Limerick branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), the radical trade union founded by Jim Larkin and later led by James Connolly, with commitments to workers’ control of production and internationalism baked into their constitution. The union grew rapidly to 3,000 members in the city, on par with Sinn Féin. The ITGWU organised workers that other unions had ignored: the lower-paid, unskilled, precarious and women workers. Other unions in the city were very wary of this new union, refusing to count their female members when calculating delegates to the Limerick Trades Council.
On May Day, 1918, a reported 10,000-strong crowd gathered in the Market’s Field stadium and passed a motion of solidarity with the Russian revolution. Soon after, Seán Dowling, a close ally of Connolly, came to the midwest as an ITGWU organiser. Dowling was a Marxist and organised the workers in the Cleeves factory and other factories in the city. When the British military imposed martial law in Limerick following a massive funeral for IRA member Bobby Byrne in April 1919, it was the Cleeves ITGWU workers who were the first to strike. The ITGWU, and Dowling in particular, pushed for a city-wide general strike that quickly grew into an experiment in workers’ control of the city before being betrayed by a coalition of national union officials, Sinn Féin officials and the local Chamber of Commerce (see box).
“The Limerick Soviet”
The story of the general strike in Limerick in April 1919 is a fascinating microcosm of the events of this period. The background to the strike was the death of republican and trade unionist Robert Byrne and a British soldier during a failed attempt to release Byrne from British custody. His funeral became a major rallying point, with thousands lining the streets in what was seen as a challenge to British authority. In retaliation, Limerick was declared a ‘Special Military Area’ and checkpoints were set up coming in and out of the city centre. This meant workers in factories outside the city centre would be required to get permits from the army in order to get to and from work.
On the Friday, after martial law was announced, ITGWU organiser and Marxist Sean Dowling argued that the trade unions should take over City Hall, in what appears to be the first hint at plans for a soviet. Discussion of this proposal was postponed, but the ITGWU continued to push for action, with Cleeves workers agreeing to strike on the Saturday and successfully lobbying the Trades Council meeting on Sunday to call a general strike.
The strike saw the whole city come to a standstill. The only things open on the first day were the printers making posters for the strike, and the Trade Union headquarters where the trade union leaders, now termed the ‘Limerick Soviet’, met.
An indefinite general strike does more than just terrify the bosses and the state, it poses the question of power - who runs society? Clearly, the bosses and the British military weren’t able to run things, they couldn’t even get a telegraph worker willing to send out their reports.
Instead, the workers began to run things themselves, through the ‘Soviet’ and special sub-committees they set up. A food sub-committee ordered grain in the docks to be unloaded, and the bakeries to make bread. Shops were reopened with prices and opening times set by the Soviet.
This demonstrated a truth Marx had explained long before: workers don’t need bosses. They need us. In fact, workers can run society more efficiently and humanely.
Although a nationwide solidarity strike was promised, it never arrived. Instead, the national union leaders eventually proposed evacuating Limerick, dashing the hopes of the strike spreading, resulting in the strike being called off after 11 days, and martial law being lifted shortly after.
Click here to listen to the Rupture Radio episode on the Limerick Soviet
Soviet farms and parish halls
Rural Ireland also experienced major socialist agitation from 1920 to 1922 with the ITGWU organising large numbers of farm labourers, especially in Leinster and Munster. A dispute in Lixnaw in north Kerry in 1920 involved farm labourers taking over the parish hall and being attacked by armed thugs. These rural struggles often escalated rapidly to violent confrontations. The larger farmers and landlords set up the ‘Irish Farmers Union’ with a paramilitary wing the ‘Farmers Freedom Force’ to be ‘a national bulwark against Labour, Socialism and Bolshevism’. In response to these ‘white guards’, farm labourers formed ‘red guards’ to protect themselves, taking their name from the Russian revolution.
The ITGWU was also strong in the food processing plants in rural towns, with workers declaring soviets in Knocklong, Bruree, Castleconnell in Limerick, as well as Cobh, Killarney, Ballinacourty Ballingarry, Broadford and more. The Munster Soviets in 1922 saw workers take over various plants of the Cleeves family across the region, including the Limerick City plant that was the heart of the Limerick Soviet.
Alongside workplace radicalism challenging the idea of capitalists and big farmers controlling agriculture and production, went serious community organising on the issue of housing. In May 1922, a revolt about rip-off rents and the lack of affordable housing was dubbed the ‘Galway Soviet’. Organised by the Galway Town Tenants League, it saw tens of thousands of people attend rallies, tear down the statue of Lord Dunkellin from Eyre Square and take over the council chambers to demand public housing. That same year the Limerick Workers’ Housing Association seized 27 vacant homes in Garryowen, occupying them for over nine months.
What about the ‘North’?
Throughout this period, the struggle against British imperialism and Irish capitalism was always an island-wide movement. There was no partition in the workers’ movement. The ITGWU in part developed out of the fallout from the 1907 dock strike in Belfast and went on to lead the Dublin workers in the 1913 lockout. While Belfast workers did not strike against conscription in 1918, they did take to the streets in large numbers.
In many ways, the North East was a particular hotbed of socialist and working-class organisation. In 1918, Belfast Labour stood four candidates, gaining 20% of the vote, and went on to win twelve seats in the municipal elections of 1920, becoming the second biggest party well ahead of Sinn Féin with five seats. The 1919 Engineering Strike in Belfast was probably the single biggest ‘offensive’ strike by workers. While other strikes were called in opposition to attacks by bosses, here, the whole city was run by the workers’ strike committee (dubbed a ‘Soviet’ committee by the authorities). The cross-community nature of the workers’ movement at the time is demonstrated by the fact that while the engineering workers’ strike committee was predominantly composed of Protestant workers, it was chaired by a Catholic worker. On May Day that year a reported 100,000 workers marched and passed resolutions for solidarity ‘without reservation of creed or colour’.
““The 1919 Engineering Strike in Belfast was probably the single biggest ‘offensive’ strike by workers.””
Revolution betrayed
Unfortunately, while undoubtedly, there was huge potential for a socialist revolution during this period, the opportunity was not seized. The different ‘soviets’ remained largely local, winning some concessions, but never linking up into a national attempt to form a workers’ republic.
The primary responsibility for this lies with the national leaders of the labour movement, which fell to reformist trade union officials. Their response reflected both their reformist outlook, and the conservative pressures on union officials to see their role as being ‘negotiators’ seeking compromise with the bosses and fearing actions which may put the union at risk. Rather than seeking to push the working class to lead the fight for a workers' republic, and clash with the bourgeois-nationalist Sinn Féin for the leadership of the independence movement, they were content to be left-wing supporters of the Sinn Féin-led movement, with the promise of a seat at a future negotiating table. This was symbolised in the infamous decision not to stand independent Labour candidates in the 1918 General Election, and instead to merely throw their weight behind SF, but this conception ran far deeper than one mistaken electoral strategy.
The notion that ‘Labour Must Wait’ was deep-rooted. Time and again, the working class took the leading role in the struggle for independence, and gravitated towards a workers' republic through strikes, soviets and beyond. However, rather than seeking to connect these struggles, spread them and push them to a full struggle for socialism, the union leaders held them back. Unfortunately, while there were many strong and determined revolutionary socialist activists around the country, leading many of these local struggles, they did not have any nationwide coordination or revolutionary party that could challenge the right-wing leadership of labour.
The result was that Sinn Féin led the independence struggle, confining it to a political and a military campaign, not a social revolution, weakening the potential of the movement and protecting capitalism.
Injecting the sectarian poison
However, as these workers' struggles were left isolated and then defeated, the forces of reaction gained the upper hand. Sectarianism was used to divide the working class. Catholic workers and so-called ‘rotten Prods’ were driven out of key workplaces by sectarian pogroms and bosses' retaliation for the strikes. With the dream of a Workers’ Republic fading as union leaders instead hitched their wagon to Sinn Féin, the capitalist nationalism they represented was much less able to inspire and energise working-class Protestants, especially those who felt their jobs were tied to British industries.
British Imperialism at this time was fighting a losing battle, but conceding independence would undermine their interests at home and abroad. Aside from just a national revolution, the threat of an escalation to the goal of a Workers Republic which would inspire similar movements in Britain and throughout the empire was also a serious one. They sought for a way to divide the opposition they faced, and minimise their losses. Partitioning the country solved part of this by creating a sectarian statelet that would maintain key British interests in Ireland, and act as a bulwark against the revolutionary movement. It also cut across an insurgent labour movement, by utilising sectarianism and preferential treatment to divide and rule Catholic and Protestant workers. They subsequently cut a deal with nationalists in the rest of the island with the Anglo-Irish Treaty ensuring their interests were largely protected and stifling the emergent threat of a more radical, socialist labour movement.
The fall-out from the Treaty also split Sinn Féin and led to the civil war. Many socialist activists fought courageously on the anti-Treaty side, pushing for a socialist vision in the hope of inspiring a new uprising. Leading IRA figure Liam Mellows, in his ‘Notes from Mountjoy’ produced shortly before his execution, tied the Anti-Treaty cause to a radical programme of social change. Nonetheless, the reality was the socialist movement was already sidelined by this stage, and the revolutionary opportunity had passed.
The defeat of the worker's movement was not some passive theoretical process; it involved brutal repression. The pogroms in Belfast are just one example; many strikes were repressed with violence or the threat of violence throughout the island. In a sign of things to come, the Bruree Soviet, which emblazoned ‘we make bread not profits’ on the mills, ended in part because of a threat from Minister for Labour Countess Markievicz to use IRA soldiers against the workers.
A brutal and bloody carnival of reaction
In 1914 Connolly warned against some of the possible compromises with British imperialism being discussed by bourgeois nationalists such as Redmond, including the possibility of partition. He famously warned it would lead to a ‘carnival of reaction both North and South’ which ‘would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish Labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements whilst it endured’. Sadly this prediction was correct.
As other articles in this issue detail, partition created two poverty-ridden and sectarian states. In the North, a so-called ‘Orange State’ was created, a repressive straight jacket for northern Irish Catholics in which the poison of sectarianism was deeply rooted. In the south, a conservative, backwards capitalist class ended up thrust into power and immediately conducted what, in reality, was a brutal counter-revolution. In an attempt to prop up their weak rule, they signed much of the country over to the Catholic church and set about trying to break the power of the working class. However, let us remember - this was not inevitable. There was an alternative; the working class had both the will and the power to challenge Sinn Féin’s leadership of the independence movement, and instead fight for a workers’ republic. Such a vision could have much more effectively inspired and mobilised the full power of workers, farmers and all the oppressed, and not only defeated British imperialism but overturned capitalism itself. A Soviet Ireland could have been a further inspiration to the socialist uprisings taking place at this time across Europe, as well as the growing socialist movement in Britain and changed the course of the twentieth century.
It was a missed opportunity - and one we must not repeat again.
Article originally published in Issue 9 of Rupture Magazine. Subscribe or purchase previous issues here.
Notes
The Leaving Cert History Syllabus referenced is available here: https://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/da556505-f5fb-4921-869f-e0983fd80e50/SCSEC20_History_syllabus_eng.pdf
Revolution in Ireland, Popular Militancy 1917 - 1923 by Conor Kostick
Limerick Soviet 1919, The Revolt of the Bottom Dog by Dominic Haugh
Forgotten Revolution, The Limerick Soviet 1919 by Liam Cahill
Divide & Rule, Labour & the Partition of Ireland by Peter Hadden