"The Lost Revolution: A History of the OIRA and Workers Party"

[cactusflower]

When DL went into the Irish Labour Party, they were told that there would be no expansion into the north. They were advised to join the SDLP. A few became involved in the Labour forum thing set up a few years ago which was made up of members of both the British and Irish Labour parties, and which had hoped to be allowed to stand in elections. Gilmore slammed the door in their face. The incident is covered here by someone who had no background in The WP or DL

South Belfast Diary: Goodbye, Labour

A few were allowed to rejoin The WP I think.

I wonder how many people they drove out with their rubbish.

[cactusflower]

did DL ever set up in the north?

The document says, in summary, Marxism is crap, social democracy rules.

[Garibaldy]

The fall of the USSR created an enormous crisis on the left that still hasn't been resolved. It was followed through with a number of engineered splits that made proper discussion and analysis impossible. It's left a lot of fragmentation and disorientation that continues. The fact that the document explicitly attacks "scientific socialism" is pretty revealing.

Does anyone know who wrote it?

I suspect this is the work of several hands but it uses arguments that can be seen in work by Henry Patterson.

[cactusflower]

I suspect this is the work of several hands but it uses arguments that can be seen in work by Henry Patterson.

I think my previous post pretty well encapsulates it.

[ON THE ONE ROAD]

thanks. derrossa if i remember right was the only dl who publicly spoke out against merdger with labour, was the north a factor? probably atributing more to him than he diserves but compleate u - turn from the phamplet. shame. could have contributed something interesting.

[ON THE ONE ROAD]

The document says, in summary, Marxism is crap, social democracy rules.

yeah got that though on the last page there appeared to be a counter argument that it wasn't a ploy to create a soly 26 county party although the argument seems to be that the connection with the north benifits the south as opposed to new politics in the north and that activities in the north were restraining. just interested how strong the split in the north was. vaguely remember the cllr, but he seems to be the hight of it.

[ON THE ONE ROAD]

I presume this may be of interest to those that are reading this thread and the latter chapters of the book.
Its to do with the conference before the split.

the authers

[Garibaldy]

I think time has shown that The WP arguments were correct, and that the faction that created DL was utterly cynical and opportunist in its rhetoric and its methods, and was looking both to get into power and dump the north as soon as possible. I might be misremembering, but I think I heard one of the ways they did this was to ensure that the north financed itself, rather than the money from the Dáil and Europe being used there as well.

I suspect De Rossa's public opposition was as much about negotiating a position for himself after the merger as anything else. It was to some extent driven by those underneath him who could look forward to leadership eventually, while he had too much baggage.

[ON THE ONE ROAD]

possible about derossa. did you read the mcgiolla interview in hotpress. said up to the last moment he was surprised the direction derossa took. hard to imagine someone could become than cynical over night.but on the face of it that looks like whats happened and some road since, as a provo even iam blushing. thats interesting about financial arganements. looks like the writing was clearly on the wall. waste.

[Garibaldy]

possible about derossa. did you read the mcgiolla interview in hotpress. said up to the last moment he was surprised the direction derossa took. hard to imagine someone could become than cynical over night.but on the face of it that looks like whats happened and some road since, as a provo even iam blushing. thats interesting about financial arganements. looks like the writing was clearly on the wall. waste.

De Rossa was supposed to build on Mac Giolla's legacy, not destroy it; and he had given decades to the Party, so for him to do it was certainly more of a shock than the likes of Rabitte and Gilmore, although I think not everyone was as surprised. The loss of all those people north and south, and their energy, was a great loss, and meant that FF and its speculating cohorts went virtually unchallenged during the 1990s and after. In the north too. To be honest, I think that for quite a few people, especially in the north, going DL was a way of retiring after decades of hard work for little reward, rather than just admitting that they were tired, and wanted to take a back seat.