League for a Workers Republic
Encyclopedia
The League for a Workers' Republic (LWR) was a Trotskyist organisation in Ireland
.
, which was mainly centred on Irish emigrants to Britain and was itself the result of a previous split in the Irish Communist Group between those, such as Brendan Clifford, who leaned towards Maoism
and went on to form the Irish Communist Organisation (ICO), later the British and Irish Communist Organisation
(BICO), and those such as Peter Graham, Sean Matgamna
(John O'Mahony) and Gery Lawless who were Trotskyists. The LWR was begun by members unhappy at the low level of activity of that organisation in Ireland and the fact that the IWG leaders were based in London.
. Peter Graham (not the Scottish musician) was a young Dubliner who lived between London and Dublin in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was loosely linked to the International Marxist Group
. He had a relationship with members of Saor Éire
(a republican splinter group) in Dublin and was influential until his murder at a young age. Paddy Healy, who briefly worked in London but who was based in Dublin and later became president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland
, was a founding member. Carol Coulter, a member of the Irish Young Socialists, student activist and later writer and journalist joined soon after, along with Basil Miller, a student leader in UCD in the 1968 period. A number of younger members, some of whom had been active in the Young Socialists (a broader grouping in Ireland, which also included supporters of International Socialism and the left wing of the Irish Labour Party
), also joined.
). Slaughter won the support of this faction for Gerry Healy
and the ICFI (International Committee of the Fourth International
). They then split and together with Dave Fry and others formed the League for a Workers Vanguard
.
Gery Lawless, Tariq Ali
and others in the British International Marxist Group with an Irish connection had stayed in contact with members of the Young Socialists and one or two members of the LWR and in late 1971-early 1972 a group split to form the Revolutionary Marxist Group (Ireland)
(later Movement for a Socialist Republic), affiliated to the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. Young Socialist members Betty Purcell and Ann Speed (later a SIPTU trade union official and member of Sinn Féin) were prominent in this grouping.
on its formation in 1971. The LWR had an independent existence from 1972, publishing Workers' Republic magazine, but some supporters worked in the Irish Labour Party
. Paddy Healy had been a member of the Administrative Council (national executive) of the Labour Party until being removed. In the middle 1970s the LWR (along with three other Trotskyist groupings) participated in the Socialist Labour Party
, led by Matt Merrigan
and Noël Browne
, which split from the Irish Labour Party and lasted a few years. A few members, such as Harry Vince and John Daly, remained active in the Labour Party. LWR members were active in the giant tax marches of the late 1970s, the 1981 Hunger Strike movements (Paddy Healy ran for the Dáil (Lower house of the Irish parliament) in Dublin on an Anti H-Block
ticket) and the social movements of the early to mid 1980s, such as the referendum on divorce. The LWR also worked in Ireland in support of Eastern European oppositionists, including Solidarnosc (Daly was secretary of the Irish Polish Solidarity Committee), and trade unionists in Latin America and South Africa.
(currently a United Left Alliance
TD for Tipperary South
) continued with a looser grouping, which had discussions with Stephane Just, but this disappeared by the 1990s.
The LWR was never formally dissolved. Séamus Healy still leads a grouping, the Workers and Unemployed Action Group in the South Tipperary area, although some members have joined the Irish Labour Party (one ex-member of the Seamus Healy grouping, Phil Prendergast
, is now a Labour Party MEP). Seamus Healy lost his seat in the Dáil in the 2007 election although he won it back as part of the United Left Alliance in the 2011 general election. . Paddy Healy ran for the Senate as an independent in July 2007, on an education funding and pro-discipline in schools platform, but was not elected. Alex White was elected to the Irish Senate for the Labour Party in July 2007. White voted with the Labour Party majority who supported coalition with Fine Gael
(a party linked to the Christian Democrat grouping in Europe) prior to the 2007 election. His election to the Senate was credited to an electoral pact with Sinn Féin
, based on his record of previously opposing censorship of that party when he worked in RTE
(the Irish national broadcaster), where he was an active trade unionist. John Daly founded Fairtrade Mark Ireland, for which he now works. Carol Coulter is legal editor of the Irish Times, and she and Harry Vince appear to be politically inactive.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
Foundation
It was founded in 1968 by members of the Irish Workers' GroupIrish Workers' Group
The Irish Workers' Group was a Marxist political party in Ireland. It originated as the Irish Workers Union, which later called itself the Irish Communist Group, and contained a variety of people who all considered themselves to be Marxists...
, which was mainly centred on Irish emigrants to Britain and was itself the result of a previous split in the Irish Communist Group between those, such as Brendan Clifford, who leaned towards Maoism
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
and went on to form the Irish Communist Organisation (ICO), later the British and Irish Communist Organisation
British and Irish Communist Organisation
The British and Irish Communist Organisation was a small but highly influential group based in London, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin. Its leader was Brendan Clifford. The group produced a great number of pamphlets, and many regular publications including, The Irish Communist and Workers Weekly in...
(BICO), and those such as Peter Graham, Sean Matgamna
Sean Matgamna
Sean Matgamna, also known as John O'Mahony is a Trotskyist theorist and activist. He was a founder of Workers' Fight in 1966 and is still a prominent member of the group, now called the Alliance for Workers' Liberty.- Early political experience :He joined the Young Communist League as a teenager...
(John O'Mahony) and Gery Lawless who were Trotskyists. The LWR was begun by members unhappy at the low level of activity of that organisation in Ireland and the fact that the IWG leaders were based in London.
Leading members
Liam Daltun was a prime mover in its formation but died soon after. Sean Matgamna supported the move but quickly left to pursue interests in British politics with Workers' FightWorkers' Fight
Workers' Fight has been the name of several Trotskyist groups and publications in Britain.-Organisations:*Workers' Fight is also the name of a group in England linked to the French Lutte Ouvrière that focuses on activity in large factory workplaces, rather than trade union or community-based work...
. Peter Graham (not the Scottish musician) was a young Dubliner who lived between London and Dublin in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was loosely linked to the International Marxist Group
International Marxist Group
The International Marxist Group was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It and its youth organisation had had around 1,000 members and supporters in the late 1970s...
. He had a relationship with members of Saor Éire
Saor Éire
Saor Éire was a left-wing political organisation established in September 1931 by communist-leaning members of the Irish Republican Army, with the backing of the IRA leadership. Notable among its founders was Peadar O'Donnell, former editor of An Phoblacht and a leading left-wing figure in the...
(a republican splinter group) in Dublin and was influential until his murder at a young age. Paddy Healy, who briefly worked in London but who was based in Dublin and later became president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland
Teachers' Union of Ireland
Teachers' Union of Ireland , in Irish Aontas Múinteoirí Éireann, is a trade union representing teachers in post-primary schools and lecturers in third level Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Technology...
, was a founding member. Carol Coulter, a member of the Irish Young Socialists, student activist and later writer and journalist joined soon after, along with Basil Miller, a student leader in UCD in the 1968 period. A number of younger members, some of whom had been active in the Young Socialists (a broader grouping in Ireland, which also included supporters of International Socialism and the left wing of the Irish Labour Party
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...
), also joined.
Splits
There were later splits, centred as much on international affiliation as Irish issues. The Socialist Labour League in Britain had a number of (mainly Protestant) members in Belfast during the 1960s and was seeking a base in the Republic of Ireland. Cliff Slaughter was sent to Dublin to discuss with an LWR minority, which included Jim Monaghan (who later became a USec Reunified Fourth International supporter) and Dermot Whelan (later to rejoin the LWR and then Sinn FéinSinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
). Slaughter won the support of this faction for Gerry Healy
Gerry Healy
Thomas Gerard Healy, known as Gerry Healy , was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and, according to former prominent U.S. supporter David North, the leader of the Trotskyist movement in Great Britain between 1950 – 1985...
and the ICFI (International Committee of the Fourth International
International Committee of the Fourth International
The International Committee of the Fourth International is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site and another linked to the Workers Revolutionary Party in Britain.-Foundation:The International...
). They then split and together with Dave Fry and others formed the League for a Workers Vanguard
Workers League (Ireland)
The Workers League was a Trotskyist political party in Ireland.The group's origins lay in the League for a Workers Republic, an associate of the International Committee of the Fourth International . As that organisation began to split between the supporters of the Socialist Labour League in...
.
Gery Lawless, Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali , , is a British Pakistani military historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, public intellectual, political campaigner, activist, and commentator...
and others in the British International Marxist Group with an Irish connection had stayed in contact with members of the Young Socialists and one or two members of the LWR and in late 1971-early 1972 a group split to form the Revolutionary Marxist Group (Ireland)
Revolutionary Marxist Group (Ireland)
Revolutionary Marxist Group was a Trotskyist organization in Ireland during the 1970s.Its origins lay in the 1971 split of United Secretariat of the Fourth International supporters from the League for a Workers Republic...
(later Movement for a Socialist Republic), affiliated to the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. Young Socialist members Betty Purcell and Ann Speed (later a SIPTU trade union official and member of Sinn Féin) were prominent in this grouping.
International affiliation
Those left oriented to the Organising Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International, joining it in 1972, just after it had split with Gerry Healy and the International Committee of the Fourth International. Members of the LWR had joined the Socialist Labour AllianceSocialist Labour Alliance
The Socialist Labour Alliance was a far left political alliance in Ireland, seen by some of its members as a political party in process of formation...
on its formation in 1971. The LWR had an independent existence from 1972, publishing Workers' Republic magazine, but some supporters worked in the Irish Labour Party
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...
. Paddy Healy had been a member of the Administrative Council (national executive) of the Labour Party until being removed. In the middle 1970s the LWR (along with three other Trotskyist groupings) participated in the Socialist Labour Party
Socialist Labour Party (Ireland)
The Socialist Labour Party was a minor political party in the Republic of Ireland formed under the leadership of Matt Merrigan and Noël Browne, TD in 1977. Another key figure was the radical journalist Brian Trench, now head of the Communications Department at Dublin City University along with...
, led by Matt Merrigan
Matt Merrigan
Matthew "Matt" Merrigan was an Irish socialist and trade unionist from Dublin, known for his catchphrase "Profits are wages that have not been distributed yet."...
and Noël Browne
Noel Browne
Noël Christopher Browne was an Irish politician and doctor. He holds the distinction of being one of only five Teachtaí Dála to be appointed Minister on their first day in the Dáil. His controversial Mother and Child Scheme in effect brought down the First Inter-Party Government of John A...
, which split from the Irish Labour Party and lasted a few years. A few members, such as Harry Vince and John Daly, remained active in the Labour Party. LWR members were active in the giant tax marches of the late 1970s, the 1981 Hunger Strike movements (Paddy Healy ran for the Dáil (Lower house of the Irish parliament) in Dublin on an Anti H-Block
Anti H-Block
Anti H-Block was the political label used in 1981 by supporters of the Irish republican hunger strike who were standing for election in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland...
ticket) and the social movements of the early to mid 1980s, such as the referendum on divorce. The LWR also worked in Ireland in support of Eastern European oppositionists, including Solidarnosc (Daly was secretary of the Irish Polish Solidarity Committee), and trade unionists in Latin America and South Africa.
Dissolution
The LWR further divided after Carol Coulter, Harry Vince and John Daly left in 1988, Alex White having done so some years previously. They joined with others from a non-Trotskyist background to publish The Irish Reporter journal from 1990 to 2001. Paddy Healy and his brother Séamus HealySéamus Healy
Séamus Healy is an Irish politician. He has been a Teachta Dála for Tipperary South since the general election in February 2011,having previously held the seat from 2000 to 2007....
(currently a United Left Alliance
United Left Alliance
The United Left Alliance is an electoral alliance of left-wing political parties and independent politicians in the Republic of Ireland, formed to contest the 2011 general election...
TD for Tipperary South
Tipperary South (Dáil Éireann constituency)
Tipperary South is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...
) continued with a looser grouping, which had discussions with Stephane Just, but this disappeared by the 1990s.
The LWR was never formally dissolved. Séamus Healy still leads a grouping, the Workers and Unemployed Action Group in the South Tipperary area, although some members have joined the Irish Labour Party (one ex-member of the Seamus Healy grouping, Phil Prendergast
Phil Prendergast
Phil Prendergast is an Irish Labour Party politician. She is an S&D Member of the European Parliament for the South constituency. She was a member of Seanad Éireann on the Labour Panel from 2007 to 2011....
, is now a Labour Party MEP). Seamus Healy lost his seat in the Dáil in the 2007 election although he won it back as part of the United Left Alliance in the 2011 general election. . Paddy Healy ran for the Senate as an independent in July 2007, on an education funding and pro-discipline in schools platform, but was not elected. Alex White was elected to the Irish Senate for the Labour Party in July 2007. White voted with the Labour Party majority who supported coalition with Fine Gael
Fine Gael
Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
(a party linked to the Christian Democrat grouping in Europe) prior to the 2007 election. His election to the Senate was credited to an electoral pact with Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
, based on his record of previously opposing censorship of that party when he worked in RTE
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
(the Irish national broadcaster), where he was an active trade unionist. John Daly founded Fairtrade Mark Ireland, for which he now works. Carol Coulter is legal editor of the Irish Times, and she and Harry Vince appear to be politically inactive.