Left Archive: Irish Socialist No. 229, May 1982, Communist Party of Ireland

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Many thanks to the person who forwarded this to the Archive.

This edition of Irish Socialist from the CPI joins a number of others in the Archive. The cover asks‚ ‘Where Goes the Left?‚’ and notes:

The decision of the serious Left deputies, Tony Gregory, Joe Sherlock, Paddy Gallagher and Proinsias de Rossa, to vote for a Fianna Fáil government in preference to a Fine Gael one is very much to be welcomed. It shows a degree of political maturity that Labour, unfortunately, is yet to display.

Yet Labour is clearly in transition. The Administrative Council decision to oppose active coalition offers the chance for Labour to develop a totally independent strategy for socialism, even if, at the moment it is in an effective state of passive coalition.

There’s an interesting analysis of how Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil differ, with the latter being described as‚’the party of finance and commerce‚’ and the former‚ ‘representing the interests of the manufacturing sector‚’. This elides with the CPI approach to the EEC, where Fine Gael is characterised ‚’as having interests in close association with and subordination to foreign interests as in regards to the EEC‚’.

It also contrasts the two parties in relation to ‚’the national question‚’.

This means while rejecting sectarianism and the silly militarism of the Provisionals, the Left must give the lead in opposing imperialism.

There is much else both in that piece and elsewhere in the document – including pieces on CIE disputes, the Prior Plan in Northern Ireland, an editorial on the 25th anniversary of the Common Market and under the heading ‘when will they ever learn’ a critique of the Provisional IRA. And a brief mention of Clondalkin Paper Mills.