A “Peace Process” for Capitalism in Ireland

The “peace process” in Ireland has now been underway for three years. It moves forward slowly like an old car which periodically grinds to a halt, then starts up again accompanied by much backfiring; the road it travels is constantly undermined by threats from Westminster that it will refuse to grant powers to the Stormont Government, and threats from the IRA that it will refuse to dismantle their huge arms dumps. Every so often sectarian violence is reignited; in fact the worst massacre in all the 30 years of civil war occurred soon after the start of the formal peace process. Behind the homegrown nationalists and unionists, we find the representatives of British and American imperialism waiting in the wings. The United States is home to 40 million people of Irish origin, and the way they vote, generally ably manipulated and organised at both the local and nation level, is a key feature of the electoral circus. For decades large cities such as Boston and Chicago have been under the control of the Kennedys and Daleys, major vote collectors for presidential candidates too, while the republicans, the various Reagans and Nixons, hoping to cull some of the traditionally democrat Irish vote, never fail to reveal their Irish origins at opportune moments. The Irish vote is ably manipulated in the U.K. as well (the Irish traditionally vote Labour), with issues pertaining to Northern Ireland: the cost of maintaining a large number of troops in Northern Ireland, and the payment of subsidies to what is the poorest province of the Kingdom, figuring high on the election agenda.

Not even Robinson Crusoe invests the word “Friday” with such significance as Good Friday 1998: for this was the day the British lion and the American bald-headed eagle sat down at the table with two moderate politicians; Trimble for the unionists and Hume for the nationalists. Indeed this meeting was perceived to be of such importance that Hume and Trimble would become the happy recipients of that much sought-after award, the Nobel Peace Prize; thereby joining the exclusive ranks of such noted pacifists as Begin and Kissinger. The bigger the imperialism, the more often it wins wars, the more wars that it wins, the more often it makes peace and thus the Americans have won this award 16 times, the British 11 times and the French 3 times. And what better name to give this award than NOBEL, after the inventor of dynamite. Bourgeois cynicism is limitless.

The two medal winners represent a political change in the province. Hume, of the SDLP, ironically referred to as the Semi-Detached Labour Party due to its popularity amongst suburban middle-class catholics, was able bring Sinn Fein “on board” and convert it to the shibboleth of constitutional government by pointing to the increase in the catholic vote (taking into account the higher birth rate in catholic families), to the prospect of an equitable distribution of state and council jobs, and mainly to the lack of success of 30 years of violence. Trimble instead had to take account of the situation in the unionist camp. Since its birth, Unionism had always represented the local branch of the Conservative Party, until it break away from them and then split three ways. If unionist multi-class politics was crisis ridden, and its bourgeois element could no longer call the shots because it was too weak, there was no option but to come to a deal with the old adversary, British Labourism.

For many years both sides had mixed the holy water of religious bigotry with the Devil of violence to defuse any possible proletarian upsurge, but the monster of sectarian violence had been created in the created in the process and was now proving to be an impediment to capitalist development. Meanwhile, IRA and protestant paramilitary violence had never managed to entirely eradicate proletarian expressions (even if these took on a distorted form), such as the Ulster Workers Council in the 1970s, who took up a lone position against everyone else, including the unions, in a massive and total general strike which lasted a week.

Unionism and nationalism in Ireland received their baptism of fire in response to the act of Union of 1800, which erased any remaining vestiges of independence, and attained their maturity in the 1916 Easter Rising, and the civil war in the early 1920s. Much to the chagrin of many nationalist historians, it was in fact the protestant bourgeoisie who supported the French revolution, and thus issued the call for independence at the end of the 18th Century. With the revolt crushed, Britain could reign supreme. In this context it is worth mentioning the famous Spithead rebellion, and considering it in the light of the fact that most of the main protagonists of this mass mutiny in the Solent were Irishmen pressed into naval service; a mutiny which saw the red flag being raised for the first time as the banner of the proletariat. A missed encounter with history if ever there was one.

During the civil war in the 1920s, the protestant bourgeoisie however supported the union, and being stronger than the catholic and nationalist one, due to its strong links with Britain which was still the world’s leading imperialism, it was enabled to carve out its province in the north.

The weakness of the southern bourgeoisie was due to several reasons: the civil war had badly damaged the limited industrial structure, parts of which had fallen into the hands of the workers, and what did exist was mainly connected with agriculture, devoted to brewing beer, distilling whiskey, and butter and cheese making. In the North, the bourgeoisie, with its economic base in linen weaving and shipbuilding, could dominate the one, unionist, party while the southern bourgeoisie saw theirs split into two: the pro- and anti- peace agreement parties who would go on to fight each other in a further civil war.

The southern proletariat was weak too. It could make its presence felt locally running abandoned industries, it could even form militias, but, apart from a certain trade-union and military presence, it lacked any political perspective. The small Communist Party called for nationalisation of heavy industry “to the benefit of all the people”, as well as nationalisation of transport and banks, “confiscation of the large ranches and estates [to be redistributed] amongst landless farmers and agricultural labourers” and the municipalization of all public services”. Only the Party’s tenth point talks of “universal arming of workers in town and country”. All this in a country where three centuries of British imperialism had let an unrestrained capitalism have full rein in production relations. This was a second lost opportunity, as at the time of the civil war the Communist International had not yet gone down the slippery slope, weaving from one tactic to another, to opportunism.

The joint weakness of the two classes in the south can be seen in the first census after partition. In the south 678,000 worked in agriculture, producing 33% of the GDP, and only 155,000 in industry and construction, with 18% of GDP, while in the north the respective figures are agriculture 149,000 and industry and construction 131,000. The southern economy stagnated: 1926 = 100, 1930 (maximum) = 112, 1933 (minimum) = 102 and in 1939 = 124. For the UK we have 100, 111, 107, 138 respectively for the same years.

This slow growth was due to several factors: the UK would imposed tariff barriers against Irish goods while prohibition in the U.S. almost destroyed whiskey distilling and beer brewing. As Ireland was still largely linked commercially to these two markets, its bourgeoisie was a compradour one, or as the more resolute nationalists called it, of money-changers; an operation that was relatively easy as the Irish punt was at parity with the U.K. pound until it entered the euro area a few years ago. The fact that the two currencies were so tightly linked also meant that the two economies were linked closely.

The post-war period saw continuing economic stagnation. The GDP took 25 years to double, but 20 years (1972-1992) to double again. But in just 11 years (1987-1998) the GDP doubled and now annual growth rates have been 8 – 10% for a decade. This rapid improvement was partly due to entry in the EEC in 1973 (towed along behind the U.K.) which offered subsidies amounting to 5% of the GDP, but in large part was the result of massive foreign investment, attracted by a very low corporation tax of 10% and various incentives. In terms of investment from abroad, Ireland at 20.2% of GDP is second only to Sweden at 25.1%.
 

The latest industrial census (1996) shows that 40% of the manufacturing workforce is in foreign owned plants and produces 66% of manufactures. The investment has been made in high value-added orientated production (i.e. luxury and designer goods). Ireland exports 82% of the GDP (against 49% for the Netherlands and 62% for Belgium – two other dwarf states). Furthermore, perfidious Albion supplies 34% of imports and buys 24% of exports and wicked Uncle Sam is responsible for another 11% and 15% respectively.

This increase in production made the labour force in employment grow by 43% in the 1990s against a miserable 14% in the USA, the land of promise. Another index of capitalist development is found in the population statistics. The fall in population, beginning with the famine in the 1840s, bottomed out in the 1960s, turning around in the 80s and 90s. Now there is a substantial return of emigrants to Ireland. This has meant that the balance of payments, for ever in the red, except for the two war years, 1943/1944, (the difference being made up by the remittances of emigrant workers, largely in the UK), has been in the black since 1985 and the ex parte ratio: imports now stand at 4:3. To sum up: Ireland now imports capital and exports goods rather than a supply of labour.

In Northern Ireland, the bourgeoisie, linked by the Union to the UK has progressively lost ground with the closure of old industries and even new ones, such as synthetic fibres and car production. Looking at the figures: in 1999 the pro capita GDP was $22,000 in the UK and $25,000 in Ireland, but seeing that pro capita GDP in northern Ireland is just 83% of the UK average (i.e. $18,000) the ratio S. Ireland/ N. Ireland is now 100:73. This vast difference could not fail to upset old multi-class party setups. The difference is widening too: in 2000 Ireland held the 5th highest pro capita GDP in the OECD, up from 19th in 1996, while the UK stagnated.

Irish writers have made a major contribution to modern literature. We have only to think of Joyce, Beckett, Wilde and Shaw, all of whom followed the well-beaten path to exile of their fellow countrymen. For the first time “Ireland is the sow which eats its farrow”. But in the green field sites of the Emerald Isle it is not the sow which is out hunting, but the toothless lion of England, made all the more dangerous as now it can only eat humans, along with its American bald eagle ally; bald not due to old-age but cropped like a vulture so as to be evermore able to “pull the eyes from the head” and devour the liver of the promethean proletariat.

The Irish nationalists of the true Easter, the real Good Friday, of 1916, wished to see an uncrowned golden harp on a green field as the flag of the free nation. But the banner today is that of the American greenback and the UK gold sovereign.