British and Irish Communist Organisation

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The British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) was a small and independent-minded communist organisation based in London, Belfast and Dublin. Its leader was Brendan Clifford. The group produced a great number of pamphlets, and a regular publication, The Communist.

1 Origins
2 Northern Ireland crisis
3 Other activities
4 Later developments
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Origins

Communist Comment, ICO publication, from 1970

The group was formed following a split in the Irish Communist Group in 1965. This body consisted largely of Irish people living in London, and were opposed to the official Communist organisations intended for Irish people. 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.^[1]

The ICO undertook an investigation into the development of Maoism, and concluded that it was not a suitable model for an anti-revisionist group. Mao had supported Khrushchev's "revisionism".^[2].

One founder-member, Dennis Dennehy, was Secretary of the Dublin Housing Action Committee, which organised a highly successful protest in the early 1960s.

They republished works by Stalin and by James Connolly, accusing the official Connolly Association of seriously misrepresenting his views.

[edit] Northern Ireland crisis

In the initial stages of the conflict in Northern Ireland, the ICO (as it then was) took part in the defence of Catholic areas from Protestant attacks.^{[citation needed]} 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 a nation in their own right, ^[3] ^[4] and that Irish Catholics could not determine the whole of the island of Ireland as a country. This lead to them to consider that the Ulster Workers Council Strike^[5] 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 left^[6] ^[7] and the nickname "The Peking Branch of the Orange Order". A small group disagreed with the party's policies, and split to form the Communist Organisation in the British Isles.

There had earlier been limited contacts with small elements within loyalist paramilitaries seen by the B&ICO as leftist,^[8] for instance, in the Ulster Defence Association. The B&ICO believed Ulster nationalism also included some "fascist" elements,^[9] but that these were never dominant.

The B&ICO's immediate line was to advocated a separate Trades Union Congress for Northern Ireland. 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.

[edit] Other activities

The group began co-operating with the Socialist Party of Ireland, with which it shared support for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and in particular Stalin. In 1972, some members of the B&ICO left to join the SPI's successor, the Democratic Socialist Party.

In the February 1974 UK 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.^[10] The group initially saw Thatcherism as a result of Labour's errors, but never supported privatisation or 'free market' ideas.

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.

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.^[11]

Their actions at that time still cause some bitterness.^[12]

[edit] Later developments

The B&ICO was never officially disbanded, but came to work solely through organisations such as Athol Books, the Aubane Historical Society or the Ernest Bevin Society. In the 1990s they decided that the Irish nationalism that they had originally opposed had collapsed and that it was necessary to oppose the new Globalist forces that now dominated the Irish Republic.

Mark Langhammer, the ex-Newtownabbey Labour Party councillor for Newtownabbey is affiliated with this tradition.