Some Of My Collection ….. April 28, 2020
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.trackback
Since the restrictions, I have been doing some Facebook Live things on my “Irish Political Ephemera” page going through bits of my collection. I have done three on posters so far (More to come) and two on pin badges (Yet to put on youtube)
Anyway here’s the 3 I did so far on posters. Might be of interest.
Suggestions welcome for other areas to cover.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Great stuff, IEL.
Just looking at the CPI 90th anniversary poster in the first video, it’s interesting they’re counting 90 years from the pre- Irish Worker League CPI and not from 1933.
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Thanks. Didn’t they originally align with Moscow, get usurped by The Revolutionary Workers League and then re align with Moscow in 1933?
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Yeah, I’m not sure if there’s much continuity between the CPI that came out of the Socialist Party of Ireland in 1921 and the later one formed in the 30s. The first one was told by the Comintern to dissolve and join the Irish Worker League in 1923. I think the CPI itself usually counts from 1933 and doesn’t make a connection (that’s the date on their website), so that’s why I thought it was curious.
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Does anyone know how many members were members of both?
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Good question. I always associated the first one with Roddy Connolly, and he was in the Labour party by the 30s, but there could well be overlap in membership.
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The connection between the CPI (1921) and that of 1933 is basically thru’ Moscow. The earlier party was a takeover by Communists and would-be Communists of the Socialist Party of Ireland. It tried to get beyond its predecessor’s propagandist role, but it never quite did so. Its leaders included Walter Carpenter (its first General Secretary), Roddy Connolly and, on and off, Sean McLoughlin, the young veteran of Easter Week. It may have had 50-60 members at its greatest extent, but it was unable to handle the situation arising from the Treaty.
When Larkin returned from America in 1923, he refused to join but set up his own propagandist ‘Irish Worker’ League. The Comintern supported this because of Jim’s prestige and the CPI folded around January 1924.
The IWL never developed into a party and members set up a Workers’ Party of Ireland in 1927. It failed to get Moscow’s imprimatur and dissolved itself. among its members were Roddy Connolly, who abandoned Communism and Sean Nolan, later longterm Chair of the CPI.
In 1928, Larkin broke with the Comintern, citing its lack of uncritical support for him, and that body began to set up Revolutionary Workers’ Groups which merged into the CPI in 1933.
No doubt a number of rank and file members of the first CP became members of the second; the leaderships were quite different.
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[…] Facebook Live things on my “Irish Political Ephemera” page going through bits of my collection. Last week I posted some videos of posters here This week some videos of my Political Pin Badge […]
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