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In the previous chapter we saw how the pan-nationalist front for national independence came apart at the end of 1921. The southern nationalist bourgeoisie, the old Unionist elite, the Catholic Church hierarchy and sections of the middle class who aspired to become capitalists supported the Treaty because it gave them what they wanted – an Irish state over which they had a substantial degree of control. (In the case of a section of the old Unionist elite, Although it was less than what they hoped for – many of them would have preferred not to have partition – it was a far better option than continued struggle with Britain. Prolonged struggle tended to undermine the old order and throw into question even new nationalist sources of authority when these were used to uphold the old order – such as republican courts and police which sided with Unionist landowners against pro-republican small farmers and agricultural labourers. Workers had mobilised around the political issue of independence and undertaken increasingly militant struggles around economic issues. While workers’ struggles around these latter issues tended to be localised and spontaneous, the widespread seizures of workplaces nevertheless by their very nature raised, in at least an embryonic form, the question of what a truly free Ireland might look like. In particular, they raised the issue of which class or classes would rule the new Ireland which was emerging during the war for independence. In June 1922 the Third International, which had maintained a great deal of interest in Ireland and which had been kept informed of events by both British and Irish revolutionaries – amongst them James Connolly’s young son, Roddy – issued a statement declaring: “After all the efforts to maintain its domination by force of arms had been frustrated by the heroic, self-sacrificing defence of the Irish people, it was obliged to come to an understanding with the Irish bourgeoisie. For the semblance of an independent Irish Free State the representatives of the Irish capitalists – Collins, Griffith and co – sacrificed the fruits of a long and successful struggle, and received in return as a Judas reward, the right to exploit the Irish workers together with the British bourgeoisie.”[1] <https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/civil-war-counter-revolution-and-the-consolidation-of-the-free-state/#_ftn1> It is my contention that this is a fundamentally correct statement of what happened in Ireland with the adoption of the Treaty and the establishment of the Free State. . . full at: https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/civil-war-counter-revolution-and-the-consolidation-of-the-free-state/ https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/civil-war-counter-revolution-and-the-consolidation-of-the-free-state/ _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
