The Communist Party of Ireland calls for a sovereign, socialist, reunited Ireland. The CPI, in the tradition of Connolly, has always maintained that political independence from Britain would not in itself lead to genuine sovereignty. The history of the 26-county state bears this out. It has all the formal legal attributes which qualify it as an independent liberal bourgeois republic—i.e. a parliamentary system, an internally sovereign legal system, diplomatic relations with other states—and is represented in various international organisations, including the UN, as an independent state.
However, this formal independence masks a relationship of dependence. The Irish state is restricted in its foreign policy, and its economic policy is determined not by the needs of Irish society, but by the requirements of international capital. What is the basis of this dependence? The Irish state is dependent because it is a capitalist state. In 1921, when the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty were published, the Communist Party of Ireland stated that it was not a path to independence but the mechanism to satisfy the interests of the section of the “Nationalist” capitalist class most dependent on access to the British market, and to keep the country within the sphere of British imperialist control. Over time, the interests of the Irish capitalist class have led to the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement, membership of the EU, and the opening up of the country to US capital.
The CPI is not the only political force which wants an independent, reunited Ireland. Irish Republicanism has a long tradition of mobilising progressive forces against British imperialism. We share a common view with Republicanism in identifying British imperialism in Ireland as violent, sectarian, repressive, and fundamentally undemocratic, based as it is on the continued repression of the democratic wishes of the Irish people. Opposition to or acceptance of colonial power has been and continues to be the defining line between reform and revolution in Irish politics. However, a major weakness of Republicanism has been, and is, that it has lacked a clear understanding of class struggle as the driver of Irish politics and its centrality to radical social change. Republicanism has been based on class coalition and lacking a clear analysis of the nature of struggle under a capitalist mode of production. It also failed to grasp that separation from Britain will not necessarily be followed by a progressive reorganisation of society. As Communists, we are clear that imperialism is a function of capitalism, and we continue to analyse the class nature of struggle and bring forward a scientific and historical analysis of Irish society. We believe in the inter-connectedness of the struggles for socialism and national liberation.
