The British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) was a small group based in London, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin. Its leader was Brendan Clifford. The group produced a number of pamphlets and regular publications, including The Irish Communist and Workers Weekly in Belfast. Τhe group currently expresses itself through Athol Books with its premier publication being the Irish Political Review. The group also continues to publish Church & State, Irish Foreign Affairs, Labour Affairs and Problems.
History Origins as Irish diaspora Maoist group
Brendan Clifford was an Irish emigrant from the Sliabh Luachra area of County Cork who had migrated to London and become involved in left-wing politics there.Clifford often mentions his Sliabh Luachra upbringing in his writings, for instance, see the autobiographical introduction to "The Dubliner:The Life, Times and Works of James Clarence Mangan" (Athol Books,1988) and the entry in "A North Cork Anthology" (Athol Books,1993). Clifford and some of his followers had been in Michael McCreery's Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity and later they joined the Irish Communist Group.See David Widgery, The Left in Britain (1976) p. 489The Method of Marxism and A Reply to Comrade Clifford (1966) A critical article on the ICG and Clifford by Ted Grant.
This body consisted largely of Irish people who were living in London and were opposed to the Soviet-aligned communist organisations intended for Irish people. Following a 1965 split, the Maoist wing named itself the Irish Communist Organisation, which later became the British and Irish Communist Organisation. The broadly Trotskyist wing, led by Gerry Lawless, became the Irish Workers' Group.Sean Matgamna, , introduction to re-issue of What we are and What We Must Become, Alliance for Workers' Liberty Website
The ICO undertook an investigation into the development of Maoism, and concluded that it was not a suitable model for an anti-revisionist group. The Chinese Communist Party had supported some aspects of Nikita Khrushchev's "revisionism", and then been dishonest about its past positions.The Communist Party of China and the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU , B&ICO, on the Communist Party Alliance Website.
One founder-member, Dennis Dennehy, was Secretary of the Dublin Housing Action Committee, which organised a highly successful protest movement in the early 1960s.
In 1968, the ICO issued a press release which defended the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.Irish Times, 23 August 1968, p. 6
Dawning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland In the initial stages of the conflict in Northern Ireland, the ICO (as it then was) took part along with the IRA in the defence of Catholic areas from Protestant attacks. It was critical of both the IRA leadership and of the people who later created the Provisional IRA. The ICO line was the two nations theory – that the Ulster Protestants were or had the potential to become a nation in their own right,"Labour in Northern Ireland" , originally published in the Irish Times, from the Daily Moiders Website, 19 October 2004; Phil Ferguson, "BICO", on the Marxism Mailing List, 7 November 2000 and that Irish Catholics could not determine the whole of the island of Ireland as a country. Their seminal publication on the question was The Economics of Partition which ran to many editions. Another important ICO publication was Connolly and Partition, described by the ICO magazine the Irish Communist as offering a "Stalinist analysis" of Connolly's ideas.Jack Lane, "Socialism and Nationalism", The Irish Communist, July 1971, (pg.1) Following the adoption of this pro-Unionist position, the ICO withdrew and destroyed their earlier pro-Republican pamphlets. A number of members were opposed to this new direction (including Jim Lane) and resigned to form the Cork Workers' Club."The BICO Influence on Irish thought", The Kerryman, 21 June 1974.Jim Lane is unrelated to the B&ICO/AHS member Jack Lane."This trend towards a "Two-Nations" theory caused a split in the Cork branch of the ICO and the emergence in January 1971 of the Cork Workers' Club." "Left in Focus" by Fred Heatley, Fortnight Magazine, 11 April 1975, (p. 14).
The B&ICO argued that it was the Southern government's refusal to accept the Ulster Protestants' right of self-determination that was the cause of the "Troubles": "The cause of this strife is not Unionism nor the Unionists. Responsibility for it lies at the door of the Southern ruling class which on the basis of "One Historic Nation" has pursued a reactionary policy of national oppression for the last fifty years.""Communists support "Two-Nations Concept"", The Irish Times, June 1971. (p. 9)
The Two Nations theory led B&ICO to consider that the Ulster Workers Council StrikeBrian Cahill, "Irish Stalinists", on the Marxism Mailing List, 7 November 2000 was based on a reasonable demand – the rejection of a Council of Ireland until the Republic of Ireland dropped its constitutional claim to be the only legitimate government of the whole island. As is documented in the republished strike bulletin, there was no actual connection between them and the Ulster Workers Council. Their position naturally led to heavy criticism from the leftPeter Hunt, "The 'Marxism' of the British & Irish Communist Organisation", from Peter Hunt, Northern Ireland: For Workers' Unity (1974), Socialist Party of Ireland; Peter Taaffe, Two Nations?, Militant Irish Monthly (1972), reprinted in ibid.; Brian Trench, "The Two Nations Fallacy" , International Socialism 1:51, April 1972, pp. 23–29. and the nickname "The Peking Branch of the Orange Order".
The B&ICO's immediate line was to advocate a separate Trades Union Congress for Northern Ireland, and a front group, the "Workers’ Association for the Democratic Settlement of the National Conflict in Ireland" (usually abbreviated to the Workers' Association or WA) was formed to campaign for this and other aims.What's Wrong with Ulster Trade Unionism? Workers' Association pamphlet, 1974. See also Have the Trade Unions Failed the North? Andrew Boyd, Mercier Press,1984 (p. 91) and Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA by Ian S. Wood,(pp. 57–8).
The WA had both Catholic and Protestant members, some of whom had been involved in the various civil rights and socialist groupings in the late 1960s in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Notable WA members included Eamonn O'Kane, Jeff Dudgeon, Henry Patterson, Peter Cosgrove, Paul Bew and Manus O'Riordan.O'Brien and the UK Unionists Irish Times article (subscription required) On 4 April 1972 a group of nine WA members chained themselves to radiators inside Iveagh House, the Department of External Affairs office in Dublin, calling for the removal of Articles 2 and 3 and with a banner and placards reading 'Recognise Northern Ireland' and 'National Rights for Protestants: Civil Rights for Catholics'. The nine were arrested and held overnight before bail was granted. They were convicted on 11 April of forcible entry of land.Irish Times 5 and 12 April 1972 The Workers' Association also supported the Fine Gael government's strong measures against the IRA, while condemning Conor Cruise O'Brien for not deleting Articles 2 and 3."We recognise the anti-IRA measures proposed by the Coalition Government as a necessary step towards the normalisation of Irish politics...Parts of the present Constitution legitimise IRA terror and guarantees its survival for a later date whatever law and order measures Fine Gael enforce.... Conor Cruise O'Brien and his colleagues in the Coalition are wasting the momentum of the peace marches by not holding a referendum on Articles 2 and 3." Malachi Lawless, letter to the Irish Independent on behalf of the Workers' Association,3 September 1976 (p. 10) . A similar group in the late 1970s was Socialists Against Nationalism, which included B&ICO members as well as members of the Socialist Party of Ireland (1971) and Jim Kemmy's Limerick Socialists. SAN campaigned against Articles 2 and 3 as well as the IRA.The British in Ireland: a suitable case for withdrawal? by Geoffrey Bell. Pluto Press, 1984
They also advocated that British political parties should organise in Northern Ireland. Protestants and Catholics could not easily join parties strongly identified with the other community, but all three major British parties have always included Roman Catholics and the B&ICO theorised that this could have overcome the divisions.Under Siege:Ulster Unionism and the Anglo-Irish Agreement by Arthur Aughey, Blackstaff Press, 1989 (pp. 146–167) and Explaining Northern Ireland:Broken Images by Brendan O'Leary and John McGarry, Blackwell, 1995 (pp. 138–9, 151, 287).
The B&ICO strongly opposed Ulster independence, producing a number of pamphlets against it, most notably Against Ulster Nationalism. This warned that any such movement would produce civil war, since it would be unacceptable to Ulster Catholics. Despite this, its writings have had some influence in the Ulster independence movement, including activists who identify as part of the far right.Christian Bouchet, 1994 Interview (with David Kerr), translation of interview originally published in Nouvelle Résistance, a French fascist magazine - from the Ulster Nation Archive.
Future Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble was an enthusiastic reader of B&ICO and WA material, although the B&ICO was often critical of Trimble, claiming he was sympathetic to Ulster independence.Himself Alone: David Trimble and the Ordeal of Unionism by Dean Godson, Harper Collins, 2004., pp. 29–30, 81, 91. Enoch Powell also expressed admiration for B&ICO's publications, calling them "nice, comfortable Unionist Marxists".Fortnight Magazine, Nov. 1983.
Bullock Report and opposition to Celtic nationalism in the 1970s In the February 1974 general election, Clifford proposed advocating a vote for the Conservative Party over the Labour Party, but this proposal was defeated, and instead the group produced a pamphlet mildly supportive of Tory policies, without calling for a vote for any party."The Lost Worlds of 1974" , Labour & Trade Union Review (date unknown) The group initially saw Thatcherism as a result of Labour's errors, but never supported privatisation or 'free market' ideas.
The ICO/B&ICO was strongly anti-Trotskyist, and it also opposed the Marxism of Rosa Luxemburg and Che Guevara.See the letter from Noel Kearns on behalf of B&ICO's Dublin Branch, in the Irish Times, 28 January 1972.
All through the 1970s, the B&ICO was advocating Workers' Control as the next step forward. They regarded the scheme set out in the Bullock Report as a good idea, whereas most of the left opposed it.Bullock to all that A small faction disagreed with the B&ICO leadership's stance on Workers' Control, (which it criticised as "Fabian" and "fundamentally anti-Marxist") and split to form the Communist Organisation in the British Isles.What is the Communist Organisation in the British Isles? in Proletarian, No. 1, c. 1974.
One noted and controversial writer associated with the B&ICO was Bill Warren, who wrote a book and several articles challenging the traditional Leninist view of imperialism. Alliance for Workers Liberty John Lloyd, later editor of the New Statesman, was also a B&ICO member: some observers have suggested Lloyd's sympathetic view of the Ulster Unionists comes from being influenced by B&ICO's ideas.Godson, pp. 30, 253–4. Labour party activist Nina Fishman was also a B&ICO member in the 1970s.
The B&ICO opposed Welsh nationalismIs Wales a Nation? B&ICO,1972, see also Tom Nairn The Break-Up of Britain (3rd Edition) 2003. and Scottish independence The Communist, March 1976. It also strongly supported the state of Israel, in contrast to the anti-Zionist positions of much the radical left of the time.Danny McGrain, From Peking to Aubane , Indymedia Ireland (Tuesday January 02, 2007 12:55). Retrieved 03.01.2015.