Mairin Keegan, a member of the Irish group of the Fourth International, died in hospital in Dublin on 7th January. We reprint below extructs from the funeral oration given by Rayner Lysaght.
Mairin's whole life is the story of political development from the pure idealistic form of nationalism, uncontaminated (as far as possible) by material considerations, to the position of a dedicated dialectical materialist.
She began and she always remained in the Gaelic League. Over many years though she became increasingly dissatisfied with the purely cultural and totally unpolitical outlook of this body in the 1950s. In 1962 however, she went to London and it was here that she saw for herself consciously the need for political and socialist activity if even her limited cultural aims were to be achieved. But not only this, she became more aware of the value of the socialist aims in themselves. She began to examine the various leftwing movements of the time. She rejected in turn Clann na hEireann and the Connolly Association. It was LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARY BLACK WORKERS Dear Comrades, cherwise excellent review of "If they ng." in The Red Mole Oct. 20.197 seption of coe popular in t gut radicals and revolutionaries. S.C. speaks of the "continued steady growth of revolutionary Black organisations in the U.S. who are doing political work not only in the too nut also in the fact dar the Leagar of Revola plays a sig ant sole in the Black commonity of Detroit and in certain of the essential car plants there."
This reflects a lack of knowledge of the real situation. The League did have an important impact in 1968 and early 1969, however, since then they have suffered a serious political and organizational decline. This reflects their lack of a strategy for mass struggle for Black liberation inside and outside of the plants.
They have refused to oppose consistently the Democratic party in the Black community. For instance in 1969 they gave backhanded support to a Black "law and order" candidate sheriff Austin, nominated by Black Democrats for Detroit's mayorality. This was after they attempted to get the Democrats to nominate one of their own leaders. When revolutionary socialist militants exposed this in the Black movement, the League initiated physical attacks and threats against us. Recently one of the leaders of the League, Luke Tripp, has published a pamphlet in which he praises popular fronts as a way of gaining political power.
Within the plants, their strategy has suffered from a sectarian strategy of intervention similar to that described by Chris Caldwell in his article in the Oct. 20 Red Mole on Britain's SAU. They attempted to make what could have been a powerful Black trade union movement "democratically centralist" and based on sterile incantations of Mao-tse Tung thought, rather than the issues and demands facing the Black workers and the Black community. This allowed the bureaucrats and reformists within the United Auto Workers to isolate them from the workers and to allow the employers to fire and otherwise victimize the League's militants. Their principal only when she was about to retire from the struggle that she discovered and joined the Irish Workers Group. And it was from then onwards that she began to read, to analyse and to broaden her understanding of the issues involved.
She was not simply an armchair Marxist, she allied theory to action. In May 1968 in Paris she took part in the struggle of the workers and students which has opened the new era of working class revolution. And in 1969, back in Ireland, as a member of the Dublin Citizens Committee and more importantly Saor Eire, she gave aid to the national revolution that has been developing in Northern Ireland. Unlike many both of the ultraleft and the "pure" Republican movement she did not distinguish between the socialistic struggles in Paris and the immediate nationalist struggles of the workers and the minority of the 6 counties. She saw that they were not just isolated developments; she saw that the different forms of each masked the reality of permanent revolution. She joined Saor Eire because as a group it recognised this error was to see the relationship of the Black community and workers struggles as formally divided and to view the workers struggle through economist lenses. They have rejected all Black struggles outside the plants as subsidiary at best. For instance in 1970 at a Black student conference, they told the students they should not get involved in struggles that would lead to expulsion or disrupt their studies since their only role could be to give their skills to the community after graduation. They have consistently opposed mobilizations of the Black community against the Vietnam War and for the demands of Black women. One wing of the League has now developed the viewpoint that Black nationalism as expressed by Malcolm X is completely reIn the past year they have not only shrunk in influence in the campus and community as well as the plants to a shell of their former selves, but they have suffered a number of deepgoing splits which seem to be largely based on clique rivalries as opposed to politics.
Their sad decline demonstrates the fact that success in the struggle for the liberation of African-Americans and other oppressed nationalities must be based on a strategy for mass struggle of the Black communities and workers, must oppose the Democratic and Republican parties in real struggle and must recognize the combined national and class character of the African-American struggle and the struggle for socialist revolution in the U.S.
Revolutionary Greetings Tony Thoma In Memory of STEPHEN McCARTHY who died 26 Jan 1971 But we won't give up.
McCARTHY FAMILY, FRIENDS
& SUPPORTERS reality. Her activism, political sophistication and dedication was recognised by her comrades who swiftly elected her to Saor Eire's central executive.
But she did not limit her understanding of permanent revolution to the purely national context. She saw that the only way to make Ireland socialist was in the struggle for the world wide classless, stateless society. To this end in the last year of her life she contacted Irish members of the Fourth International. and very notably the late comrade Peter Graham, and she participated with them in preparing an Irish Section of the Fourth International. Once again such was her ability in this task that on Comrade Graham's treacherous assassination by reactionary elements she was appointed as an official F. I. representative in Ireland. Her fatal illness prevented her from taking up this post however.
One more point should be made too: in just over 3 months the Fl in Ireland has suffered two serious blows. Two of its leading cadres have been eliminated. There are some philistines who feel that such blows will prove mortal. These people will be disappointed. Our losses grievous though they are, are limited compared to the losses that have been suffered by revoutionaries in the past. The slaughters of th Paris Commune, did not prevent the emergenc of world wide scientific socialism. The Republican movement in Ireland was not destroyed because of the murders of 1916 or of 1922. The murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg could not prevent the growth of German Communism, and the Trotskyist movement of the world has survived not only his death and that of his son Sedov but the murders of Trotskyists in and out of Russia. Compared to these facts we have got off lightly and if our losses were twenty times as great we would still survive.
I might conclude by wishing a long life to the FI but this would be contrary to that body's aims. It wants world revolution and the world includes Ireland as soon as possible. So I prophesy a short and successful life to the FLand to Saor Eire. Let our enemies which are those of the working class beware. We are only just beginning.
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We have tried virtually everything, so far without success....