- League for a Workers Republic
The League for a Workers Republic (LWR) was a
Trotskyist organisation inIreland .Foundation
It was founded in
1968 by members of theIrish Workers Group , which was mainly centred on Irish emigrants to Britain and was itself the result of a previous split in theIrish Communist Group between those, such asBrendan Clifford , who leaned towardsMaoism and went on to form the Irish Communist Organisation (ICO), later theBritish and Irish Communist Organisation (BICO), and those such as Peter Graham,Sean Matgamna (John O'Mahony) andGery Lawless who wereTrotskyists . The LWR was begun by members unhappy at the low level of activity of that organisation in Ireland and the fact that the IWG leaders were based in London.Leading members
Liam Daltun was a prime mover in its formation but died soon after. Sean Matgamna supported the move but quickly left to pursue interests in British politics withWorkers' Fight . Peter Graham (not the Scottish musician), was a young Dubliner who lived between London and Dublin in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was loosely linked to theInternational Marxist Group . He had a relationship with members ofSaor Eire (a republican splinter group) in Dublin and was influential until his murder at a young age.Paddy Healy , who briefly worked in London but who was based in Dublin and later became president of theTeachers' Union of Ireland , was a founding member.Carol Coulter , a member of the Irish Young Socialists, student activist and later writer and journalist joined soon after, along withBasil Miller , a student leader in UCD in the 1968 period. A number of younger members, some of whom had been active in the Young Socialists (a broader grouping in Ireland, which also included supporters ofInternational Socialism and the left wing of theIrish Labour Party ), also joined.Splits
There were later splits, centred as much on international affiliation as Irish issues. The
Socialist Labour League in Britain had a number of (mainly Protestant) members in Belfast during the 1960s and was seeking a base in the Irish Republic. Cliff Slaughter was sent to Dublin to discuss with an LWR minority, which included Jim Monaghan (who later became a USecReunified Fourth International supporter) and Dermot Whelan (later to rejoin the LWR and thenSinn Fein . Slaughter won the support of this faction forGerry Healy and the ICFI (International Committee of the Fourth International ). They then split and together with Dave Fry (who later died from MS) and others formed theLeague for a Workers Vanguard .Gery Lawless,
Tariq Ali and others in the British International Marxist Group with an Irish connection had stayed in contact with members of the Young Socialists and one or two members of the LWR and in late 1971-early 1972 a group split to form theRevolutionary Marxist Group (Ireland) (laterMovement for a Socialist Republic ), affiliated to theUnited Secretariat of the Fourth International . Young Socialist membersBetty Purcell andAnn Speed (later a SIPTU trade union official and member of Sinn Féin) [ [http://www.lasc.ie/news/SIPTUreport.html "Bin Tax prisoner romps home while Coke boycott stays"] Indymedia Ireland, 20 November 2003] were prominent in this grouping.International affiliation
Those left oriented to the
Organising Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International , joining it in 1972, just after it had split withGerry Healy and theInternational Committee of the Fourth International . Members of the LWR had joined theSocialist Labour Alliance on its formation in1971 . Then the LWR had an independent existence from 1972, publishing "Worker's Republic " magazine, but some supporters worked in the Irish Labour Party. Paddy Healy had been a member of the Administrative Council (national executive) of the Labour Party until being removed. In the middle 1970s the LWR (along with three other Trotskyist groupings) participated in the Socialist Labour Party which, led byMatt Merrigan [" [http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/ThirdAnnualRpt.pdf/Files/ThirdAnnualRpt.pdf Third Annual Report of the Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention for the Year 2004 - 2005] ", p. 43, at the Irish Department of Justice website] andNoel Browne split from the Irish Labour Party and lasted a few years. A few members, such asHarry Vince andJohn Daly , remained active in the Labour Party. LWR members were active in the giant tax marches of the late 1970s, the 1981 Hunger Strike movements (Paddy Healy ran for theDáil (the Irish parliament) in Dublin on an H-Block ticket) and the social movements of the early to mid 1980s, such as the referendum on divorce. The LWR also worked in Ireland in support ofSolidarnosc and trade unionists in Latin America and South Africa.Dissolution
The LWR further divided after Carol Coulter and Paddy Healy broke with
Pierre Lambert in 1987. Carol Coulter, Harry Vince, John Daly and Alex White had moved away from Trotskyism and joined with others from a non-Trotskyist background to publish "The Irish Reporter " journal from 1990 to 2001. Paddy Healy [http://www.paddyhealy.com/statement.html Election Statement] , Election to Seanad Éireann 2007] and his brotherSeamus Healy (later an independent TD (member of theDáil ) [ [http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2006/08/01/ "We’ll have any United Left, as long as it’s ours!"] , The Cedar Lounge Revolution website, 1 August 2006; [http://solidaritymagazine.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_archive.html "Ireland – Campaign for an Independent Left"] , "Solidarity", No. 15, November 2005] continued with a looser grouping, which had discussions withStephane Just , but this appears to have disappeared by the 1990s.The LWR was never formally dissolved. Seamus Healy still leads a grouping in the South Tipperary area, although some members have defected to the Irish Labour Party (one ex-member of the Seamas Healy grouping,
Phil Prendergast , is now a Labour Party senator). [ [http://www.labour.ie/philprendergast Senator Phil Prendergast] , Irish Labour Party website] Seamus Healy lost his seat in the Dáil in the 2007 election [ [http://www.tipperarystar.ie/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=3552&ArticleID=2918867 "I'll be back - Healy"] , Tipperary Star] and appears to be no longer a Trotskyist. Paddy Healy ran for the Senate as an independent in July 2007, on an education funding and pro-discipline in schools platform, but was not elected. Alex White was elected to the Irish Senate for the Labour Party in July 2007. [ [http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?p=765650&sid=00499da5bb23e7ea0f2f06bb4101f7f1 "Alex White tops the poll!"] , at the Politics.ie forum] White voted with the Labour Party majority who supported coalition withFine Gael (a party linked to theChristian Democrat grouping in Europe) prior to the 2007 election. His election to the Senate was credited to an electoral pact withSinn Féin , based on his record of previously opposing censorship of that party when he worked inRTE (the Irish national broadcaster). John Daly works with a FairTrade organisation. Carol Coulter and Harry Vince appear to be politically inactive.References
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