MARX & ENGELS ON IRELAND, Lawrence & Wishart. £1.50 p.
It is pleasant to be able to congratulate the C.P.G.B. for something more than its republication of the late Mr. Jackson's masterpiece on Irish feudalism. During the past year, its [illegible] greater relevance than his. Indeed they are books of absolute importance for any socialist student of Irish history: [illegible] collection of Marx & Engels' writings [illegible] the Irish question. A purist might remark that this rush of publications is prompted by the topical situation: that indeed the second one should have been published long ago; but he would be merely nit-picking. The books are well worth the waiting. Mr. Greaves' book will be reviewed elsewhere. Of the Marx & Engels collection, it must be said firstly, that every Irish Socialist with pretensions to Marxism must read it. If he can't afford the price, he should borrow it from the library. Here there is much that has been published before but given a new and revealing context, some that has been published, but only in limited circulation and a lot, particularly on the period of the dominance of the Irish Parliamentary Party, that has not been published previously, in English. As a bonus, there are the famous letters of "J. Williams" (Jenny Marx) that played such a major role in the release of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa and of his fellow Fenian prisoners.
Through this work, the Dialectical Materialist method is used to its best effect. It is clear that had Ireland's home-grown Marxists had this work to hand, several long and time-destroying polemics would have been avoided; would have been seen to be pointless. Thus on the long argument as to the causes of Irish economic backwardness (native weakness or colonial oppression), Friedrich Engels cuts the Gordian knot:
"... A country whose coal deposits are eroded, placed near a larger country rich in coal is condemned by nature to remain for a long time the farming country for the larger country when the latter is industrialised. That sentence pronounced millions of years ago, was carried out in this century. We shall [illegible] later, moreover, how the English assisted nature by crushing almost every seed of Irish industry as soon as it appeared" "History of Ireland," p.174.
To the claims of certain Marxians who have, during the past decade, been stressing the internationally reactionary role of the Irish national struggle to 1778 [illegible]: "L'Irlande la Vendee de l'Angleterre (La Vendee was a centre of agrarian and clerical reaction in revolutionary France — Reviewer) Ireland was Catholic, Protestant England Republican, therefore Ireland-English Vendee. There is, however this little difference that the French [illegible] the people, the English Commonwealth intended, in Ireland, to take the land from the people.
"The whole Protestant reformation... apart from its dogmatical squabbles and quibbles was a vast plan for a confiscation of land. First the land was taken from the Church, then the Catholics, in countries where Protestantism was in power, were declared rebels and their land confiscated.
"Now in Ireland the case was peculiar. ...
"The whole agrarian history of Ireland is a series of confiscations of Irish land [illegible] under the charm of the Celtic society, turned more Irish than the aborigines. Then a new confiscation and new colonisation took place, and so in infinitum, thus Marx wrote:—
"In the 17th century, the whole of Ireland, except the newly Scotchified North, was ripe for a fresh confiscation. So much so, that when the British (Puritan) Parliament accorded to Charles I, an army for the reduction of Ireland, it resolved that the money for this armament should be raised [illegible] acres to be [illegible] who advanced the money should also appoint the officers of that army. The land was to be divided amongst those adventurers: so that 1,000 acres should be given them, if in Ulster for £200 advanced, in Connaught for £300, in Munster for £450, in Leinster for £600. And if the people rose against the beneficent plan they are Vendeens!" Letter to Jenny Longuet, 24th February 1881. pp.327-328.
It is true as Lenin remarked that Marx & Engels came to support the Irish people's struggle for national liberation, [illegible] as much in the interests of the British as of the Irish workers. But it is also true that Engels held out little hope for this bourgeois struggle without the aid of the English workers, thus Marx wrote: "The question now is, what shall we advise the English workers? In my opinion they must make the Repeal of the Union (in short, the affair of 1783, only democratised and adapted to the conditions of the time) an article of their pronunziamento. This is the only legal and therefore only possible form [illegible] in the Programme of an [illegible] 30th November, 1867. p.148 (Emphases in the [original]). "But since the English working class undoubtedly throws the decisive weight into the [scale] of social emancipation generally, the lever has to be applied here" — Letter to Ludwig Kugelmann, 29th November, 1869, p.281.
And Engels: "When the Fenian (Irish republican) Rebellion of 1867 had been quelled and the military leaders of the Fenians had either gradually been caught or driven to America, [illegible] of the Fenian conspiracy soon lost all importance. Violent insurrection had no prospect of success for many years, at least until such time as England would again be involved in serious difficulties abroad. Hence a legal movement remained the only possibility... [illegible]. "On Ireland I shall only say the following: the people are much too clever not to know that a revolt would spell their ruin; it could have a chance only in the event of a war between England and America" —Letter to Edward Bernstein, 12th March, 1881, p.329.
"Many Fenians have doubtless now returned and restored the old armed organization. They form an important element in the movement and force the Liberals to more decisive action. But, apart from that, they cannot do anything but scare John Bull. Though he grows noticeably weaker on the outskirts of his Empire, he can still easily suppress any rebellion so close to home. In the first place, in Ireland there are 14,000 men of the "Constabulary", gendarmes, who are armed with rifles and bayonets and have undergone military training. Besides there are about 30,000 regulars, who can easily be reinforced with an equal number of regulars and English militia. In addition, the Navy. And John Bull is known for his matchless brutality in suppressing rebellions. Without war or the threat of war from without, an Irish rebellion has not the slightest chance, and only two [illegible] United States. France is out of the question.
"However, if there should be danger of war with America, England would grant the Irish open-handedly everything they asked for— only not complete independence, which is not at all desirable owing to the geographical position.
"Therefore all that is left to Ireland is the constitutional way of gradually conquering one position after the other"... Letter to Bernstein, 26th June, 1882, pp.335-336. Emphases in the original.
This analysis was based on the concrete situation of the last century, however. In particular, there was an outstanding weakness in Ireland's position vis-a-vis Britain. This was the fact mentioned by Engels above, of British power in the world.
Marx analysed this situation deeply and agreed:— "England cannot be treated simply as a country along with other countries. She must be treated as the metropolis of capital" "Confidential Communication"— p.161, Emphasis in the original.
This was not the case even twenty years after Engels' death. The national struggle between 1916 and 1921 did not win all the gains possible, but this was probably because of petty bourgeois leadership rather than Britain's strength. And certainly that country's power to-day, when it had to sue for entry into the EEC, is even farther than previously from its power 100 years ago, when Marx was writing.
[The editors] stated that Marx & Engels' "precis and notes on Irish history and economy are given in part only, since substantial sections of these preliminary [studies] are still in process of deciphering. However, this book comprises their most pertinent statements on the subject at hand and presents a comprehensive picture of their views." All this may be true, but the treatment of the collection by its Stalinite compilers leads one to doubt it.
The editorial distortions differ between those of the Russians (Golman) and the emigrant Irishman (Greaves). The first (in the introduction) proclaims the revolutionary nature of his subject's views on Ireland. The second (in the Foreword), while not denying this, emphasises, in his brief mention of what Marx actually wrote, the continuing relevance of the latter's specific economic view of Ireland in the 1860s. Thus (as will be shown) he castrates Marx's general political view considerably.
In fact, Marx and Engels were writing before capitalism had entered its highest stage: imperialism. As it began to so enter, a change began to take place in "the special mode of capital accumulation discerned by Marx over a hundred years ago" that, according to Mr. Greaves "is by no means defunct to-day" (Foreword, p.15.) Engels described it thus: [illegible] no matter how badly the [illegible] the American farmer can compete with it—at least not while he is expected to pay rent. Look at the year 1879, when this was first felt. The crop was bad in all Western Europe, it was a failure in England. Yet, thanks to American corn, prices remained about stationary. For the first time the British farmers had a bad crop and low prices of wheat at the same time. Then the farmers began to stir, the landlords felt alarmed. Next year, with a better crop, prices went lower still. The price of corn by now determined by the cost of production in America, plus the cost of transport. And this will be the case more and more every year in proportion as new prairie land is put under the plough. The agricultural army required for that operation—we find them ourselves in Europe by sending over [illegible]. "Now, formerly there was this consolation [illegible] and the landlord, that if [illegible] did not pay meat would. The land was turned into grass and, [illegible] was pleasant again. But now that resource is cut off too, American meat and American cattle are sent over in ever-increasing quantities. "It is a peculiar effect of this American competition that it renders not only large landed property, but also small landed property useless, by rendering both unprofitable... "... Before this thing is exhausted it will have lived long enough to kill all the landlords of Europe, great and small, at least twice over". "American Food and the Land Question" pp.316-317.
Marx noted the first stage of the result of this thus: "It is a very fine trick of Gladstone—only the 'stupid party' does not understand it—to offer at a moment when landed property in Ireland (as in England) will be depreciated by the import of corn and cattle from the U.S.—to offer them at that very moment the public Exchequer where they can sell that property at a price it does no longer possess!" Letter to Jenny Longuet, 29th April, 1881, p.331.
The ending of landlordism was not even half finished at Engels' death. Nonetheless, it meant eventually a change in the outlook of the Irish worker from that which he described in the New Yorker Volkszeitung interview:— "A purely socialist movement cannot be expected in Ireland for a considerable time. People there want first of all to become peasants owning a plot of land..." New Yorker Volkszeitung, 20th September 1888, p.343. Emphasis in the [original].
Where Capitalism, rather than landlordism, is ruining the peasantry, the worker has little incentive to join its ranks. A loophole to avoid Socialism is blocked.
[illegible] significance of [illegible] Marx and Engels' [illegible] of the facts to recommend him. [illegible] instead [illegible] on the method used by the two great theorists, Messrs. Golman and Greaves are not necessarily being stupid. For, if Ireland cannot be liberated by armed struggle, then the fighting in Northern Ireland is pointless and the [illegible] is the only possible answer to the problem. If Socialism is not yet possible in Ireland, the two (or more) stage theory is of abiding relevance.
But despite the editing, this book is still vital reading.
D.R. O'Connor Lysaght