Rand School Graduate Leads Belfast Socialist Forces
Cooper, John G.
Rand School Graduate Leads Belfast Socialist Forces By John G. Cooper Editor's Note.—Many people «>'* unaware of the fact that there an two Irelands. The Free State ovei which l>e Valera rules...
...Trade Union branches and organi...
...It is difficult to imagine a more non-Marxian manner of thinking...
...He signed a resolution on this subject ut Detroit that is in complete contradiction with what he has written in the Wecker...
...Editor's Corner Review of and Comment on Events Here and Abroad, Critical and Otherwise The Kantorovitch Pamphlet DEFORE us lies a pamphlet by Comrade Kantorovitch on the "Socialist Party at the Crossroads...
...It would be true to say that this is a solid, substantial vote in every constituency in Northern Ireland, and all it needs is further organization to achieve its full expression...
...Jul) is the maddest month of the year, starting July 1st...
...zations are eligible for affiliation and it is estimated that the affiliated strength in Belfast is about 20,000...
...To fight day by day and inch by inch for the interests of the working class on the industrial field and in legislative bodies is to win reforms for the workers...
...Hut from about 1923, the excitement has cooled off considerably...
...He comments: "According to Oneal, one mutt admit that capitalist democracy is genuine anil therefore an instrument to be utilized, (and no Socialist with the exception of the old guard ever admitted it was genuine) or bogus, and not to be utilized because it is bogus...
...When the Free State wan constituted, the Ulster ("Orange") section, mainly Protestant, teas taken out and constituted as Northern Ireland, with 13 mem'hers of Parliament in Loudon, and a local parliament and other local institutions...
...There are now two representatives in the North of Ireknd Parliament elected from Belfast...
...I had wondered for some time it' the Irish Socialists were wise to Roosevelt's New Deal but after meeting with them I discovered that they were onto il and had sized it up correctly...
...The aforesaid gentlemen with their contending a r m i e s did grievous battle for twelve days ending July 12th in the year 1(!88...
...The Free State ovei which l>e Valera rules does not include six of the nine counties o) Ulster, with a population of a million and a quarter, separated from the main part of Ireland b\j religious and historic antagonismils...
...In my article, I quoted Comrade Kantorovitch himself who had written that the "militants" in taking the view they did of democracy make themselves "unconscious and unwilling helpers of the capitalist chins in the lotto's fight against democracy...
...He quotes from my article in The New Leader of June 23, where I say, "Why tell the working class that this democracy is 'bogus' and then recommend a bogus instrument for their purpose...
...King Billy was supposed 10 have won that battle, being the v i c t o r, Since that t i m e t he Orange Irish have wildly celebrated, to the discomfort and much sone-throwing by the Irishtti4, and it seems that every successive celebration has been hotter than the previous one...
...Kantorovitch does not define it and thus leaves it up in the air...
...when a general election took place and in which Midgeley contested West Belfast for the Parliament at London a revival took place in Socialist and Labor affairs...
...This struggle is not inconsistent with the struggle for the complete abolition of capitalikm itself...
...1 quoted the Kantorovitch of 19112 against the Kantorovitch of HK14...
...Kantorovitch quotes one sentence and omits the other and completely reverses the plain meaniuy of two sentences contained ill one paragraph...
...I am not able to check these quotations but if such data are In order a few items against his present side are also in order...
...I heard it discussed on the streets, in stores, street cars and other places, and the general opinion, as far as I could gather, was favorable to the strikers...
...Reform and Revolution DUT what is meant by "reformism...
...Midgeley was elected by 5,000 to 3.800 for the Tory...
...When it emerged in the city convention in 102!*, the "old guard" fought it and defeated it by the adoption of a resolution against seeking allies in "progressive" groups and against vague suggestions of changing the party name in order to get such support...
...to celebrate a victory by King William 111 over a gentleman In the name of King James II to determine which set of exploiters would continue to n>l> the workers in [In laud nf the Sha'nvrock and good whisky...
...I have been fighting for a high type oi Socialist ethics on all sides in this party discussion, and this is certainly not what Socialists want...
...There is the New England "militant" who urged subsidies by the Federal Government for the capitalist class...
...The two Kantorovitch'* also appear in the matter of Russia...
...He doc* not set an example himself In this document and his distortion of what I wrote is deplorable to say the least...
...Branch Kight was the sub-division of the party in the lower Bronx prior to 1913.] I spent a very delightful afternoon with him...
...He is the leading spirit in the Northern Ireland and Socialist and Labor movement, is secretary of the Bakers' Union, a good speaker and a fine propagandist with both voice and pen, and gives great credit to the Rand School which equipped him so well with knowledge and inspiration to devote his life to the emancipation of the working class...
...The day by day struggle provides /experience, training, discipline and solidarity which me essential to win tho final aim...
...He sends comradely greetings to the members of the Socialist Party in the United States and to the Hand School and especially to his former comrades in Branch Flight, and bids them watch Northern Ireland, as the comrades there are working hard for victory...
...Everybody it seems was talking about it...
...Some Party History LIE goes back into history to cite two comrades during ** the war who are not now on his side...
...My conception of it is precisely what we faced and defeated in the city convention of 1929...
...This was an organization which provided for representation from Sociali«t branches, and delegates from Trade Unions on the basis of a Laibor Alliance...
...also five Labor members in the Newing town council, a nearby town, four in Newtownards...
...Yon should not place your baby on my doorstep, Comrade Kantorovitch...
...In addition, the party has five Labor members in the Belfast City Council...
...We cannot consider it in detail, but Socialist integrity requires consideration of his approach to the problem...
...another Labor candidate was defeated by about 2,000 after making a splendid fight in a very up-hill district...
...Unfortunately, the work was intensified by two years of bloodshed arising from sectarian strife, from 1!)20 to 1!)22...
...Reform and social revolution arc not conflicting concepts...
...P. ('.— Lovestone document thin year...
...It should be clearly stated that the policy of the Labor Party is definitely Socialist in character...
...There are other aspects of this pamphlet that we would like to consider but space will not permit, but we observe a reference to "unethical means" in the discussion which Comrade Kantorovitch rejects...
...The two are different men and yet the same person...
...but beginning with 1921...
...Thousands of the workers who wore the Orange and the (ireen with great glee decided (and more are deciding each year) to stop fighting each other like Killkenny cats and start doing something for one another in a co-operative way...
...Beattie by 5,000 to 4,300 to the Tory...
...He cooly adds that I am guilty of "non-Marxian thinking...
...RW'XFAST, tlie mad cit\ of intolerance where the < 1 range and (ireen nieei to fight...
...I am literally amazed at his comment that "one must admit that capitalist democracy is genuine" for immediately following the passage he quotes from me I added that this democracy "is limited and not satisfactory and must ever remain so under capitalism...
...The Socialist Party and the labor unions are one at election time and cooperate in every way to elect their chosen representatives...
...Coleman whom Kantorovitch himself scored in the first number of the American Socialist Quarterly for rejecting the concept of the class struggle, and five of the signers of the 19.'!2 document who are signers of the It...
...He raises the issue of "reformism," but if he will consult the party record in New York City he will find that his side sponsored it...
...Comrade Midgeley, by the way, lived in New York City a few years before the war and was a member of the Socialist Party there, belonging to Branch Eight...
...After the war the labor movement in Belfast was reconstructed under the name of the Belfast Labor Party...
...If, however, we turn from this struggle to woo the "liberals" and the "progressives" we desert both real reform and social revolution...
...I regret to have to write thus of a comrade who is HI and who on thai Mora is entitled tt> tha sympathy of all...
...Harry Midgeley acted as secretary for several years at this time...
...fer Is Robbed...
...Morris Hillqult led the fight against these proposed changes and the writer took the same position, but that was not the end of our light with reformism...
...They have also elected members of the City Council and other officials not only in Belfast but in other parts of the six countries, representing the interests of the workers...
...On the contrary, they correlate with each other...
...The British and Irish press gave a great deal of publicity to the San Francisco strike, and as usual the Socialist press is the only one telling the truth about that conflict from the working class point of view...
...No Socialist will reject the fight for such concession and yet each one won doe* not bring Socialism...
...Like tis they are still trying to understand his destruction of cotton, hogs, etc., when millions were and still in sore need of the destroyed products...
...also some repiese ntatives on Boards of Guardians throughout the North of Ireland...
...There are the "militants" who .signed their program of l!»:i2, Blaiishard and Sinclair, who turned renegades...
...I italicized this in the original so that iio one could misunderstand or misinterpret me...
...They also keep in close touch with the Socialist and Labor Party in the Free State, who are going forward in that part of Ireland with great strides...
...Translations from the Yiddish of what he has written would bring out this glaring contrast...
...General O'Duffy and his blue shirts are slipping, as the Free State workers realize that he represents capitalism in the raw...
...The North ot Ireland Labor Party is con.-'tituted in much the same way as the British Labor Party...
...The religions antagonism ua (between "Orange" ami "Green'' hare long been counted upon to divide the Irish workers Comrade Cooper of Olean, N. Y. after a visit to Belfast, found them rapidly forgetting the hatreds their rulers have told them to cherish, and building their own party...
...The working class movement in Belfast is now made up of one Socialist local called the Northerns Ireland Socialist Party with an individual membership of about .'100, and individual branches of the Northern Ireland Labor Party...
...They think he and his advisers are .staik madmen...
...So within the past few years they have been voting the Labor (Socialist) ticket in Northern Ireland and so far have elected two comrades, Harry Midgeley and Jack Beattie, to the Northern Irish parliament, winning by comfortable majorities...
Vol. 17 • August 1934 • No. 31
