The Left, Republicanism and Mass Migration
Word count: 4,100
Estimated reading time: 20 minutes
Summary: Ann Marita’s essay critiques the response to mass migration in Ireland’s elite, republican, and left wing corridors; the author contends that the primary beneficiary of the free movement of labour is big capital and Ireland’s landlord stratum, and thus support for mass immigration constitutes a contravention of left-wing principles and their base: the working class.
Ireland: A Nation in Decay
Graffiti stating “Ireland for the Irish” appeared on the Falls Road in Belfast after the 2023 riots in Dublin. The slogan featured as the leading story on BBC Six Counties the following evening. Local Sinn Féin MP Paul Maskey condemned the graffiti as “racist,” while People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll commented that “we need to build a movement to stamp out this hate.” Political graffiti appears in Belfast daily, some of it incredibly nefarious. What differentiated this particular incident was the reaction. What were politicians afraid of?
The discontent bubbling below the surface reflects the collapse of the social contract and reflects increasing disenchantment with the merits of parliamentary democracy. Ireland’s leaders have engaged in a game of demographic and social engineering against the wishes of the electorate. They ignored the result of the 2004 citizenship referendum and voters were forced back to the polls after rejecting the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. When non-nationals were planted in communities, native Irish residents were told they had “no veto” and their input was considered irrelevant.
This disenchantment partially explains the violence on the streets of Dublin at the end of the 2023. The Dublin that post-modern Ireland has birthed is not the envisaged paradise. But the elites will go to any length to disguise the unsightly reality lurking below the surface. The advocates of post-national Ireland assert that nationality plays no role in society. They believe that globalisation is a positive force as it distances us from what they consider to be our Catholic parochialism and all the death and destruction of the national liberation struggle. All aspects of social and political life have become subservient to the sacred Euro. As the late Irish intellectual Desmond Fennell remarked, this is the inevitable consequence of viewing the nation simply as an economic unit and the state as a dispenser of goodies.
The response of politicians across the spectrum shows the emergence of a broad liberal consensus that transcends party politics. In the aftermath of the violence in Dublin, Fianna Fail councillor Azad Talukder told Limerick City Council that he would like to see protesters “shot in the head or bring the public in and beat them until they die.” Minister of State Patrick O'Donovan said the welfare payments of rioters should be stopped. People Before Profit TD Mick Barry said that a "law and order" response to the Dublin riot "won't work," because “you cannot use water cannons to wash away a culture of toxic masculinity.”
The system is in panic as the broad liberal consensus struggles to conceal the unsightly underbelly of the supposed post-national miracle. Hazel Chu, former mayor of Dublin, argued on television that the job of journalists is not to report the truth but to encourage unity. This mantle was taken up by Irish Times chief columnist Fintan O'Toole. O’Toole argued in his column (November 28, 2023) that the Dublin riots were the product of far-right mobilisation as some of those present came from as far away as Navan. The only person from Navan who was charged in relation to rioting was a non-national, who presumably was not a member of the Irish "far-right."
Indeed, had O’Toole consulted his own newspaper two days prior, he would have found a list of those charged in relation to the disturbances which was certainly more diverse than an Irish Times newsroom given the plethora of foreign names. It is curious that a leading columnist could publish such blatant inaccuracies with impunity given the political class’s insistence on combating what they term misinformation. The same edition of the Irish Times featured a story about Ukrainian refugees nipping home for Christmas. The article also noted that the Irish state has provided accommodation for over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and international protection applicants, including 25,000 in hotel accommodation with the bill to be picked up by the taxpayer. An article on a subsequent page referred to homeless rates hitting record levels and people with disabilities unable to find accommodation.
President Michael D. Higgins stated during the same period that we must dedicate more effort to understanding “the right-wing who divide Irish society.” Yet official Ireland continues to ignore the reality on the streets. Anti-immigration protests are not the result of far-right organisation; they are mostly organic, with the nascent nationalist movement merely playing catch-up. The ordinary Irish men and women on the streets are not fascist activists. Are we truly to believe that young men and single mothers from ‘the flats’ have been radicalised by a far-right movement lurking in the shadows? It is a demeaning approach which assumes that working class people have no agency of their own. People see what is happening in their own communities and are reacting.
Little effort has been made to understand what is happening. The government, media and civil society have successfully expunged critical voices in the public sphere. They interpret alternative opinions through a culture war prism, ignoring the new social and political forces which have emerged in response to the government’s own policies. Reactions to social conditions that have been deteriorating for years are dismissed as a form of false consciousness and any sort of political organisation outside of the broad consensus is treated as illegitimate.
The Left’s Reaction
It is interesting, then, that the official narrative of the state is echoed by most of the left and by republicans - parties and groups that describe themselves as anti-establishment yet appear unwilling to step beyond the boundaries of the broad liberal consensus. Nonetheless, cracks are beginning to appear in the façade of the system.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) issued a policy document on mass migration at the beginning of last year. The document overall is quite weak, yet argues that:
“the numbers entering Ireland, like many other political and economic policies, affects the well-being of the Irish people. An obvious example of this is that increased numbers can mean increased demand on resources which are scarce.”
The IRSP recognizes that immigration is negatively impacting the housing market and the government’s strategy is solely based on maximizing profits.
Despite its history of chronic dysfunction, the IRSP maintains a base in some working class districts in Belfast, Derry and Strabane. The party has clashed with Northern Property, an estate agent based on the Falls Road in west Belfast. Areas such as Beechmount in the mid-Falls area have quickly emerged as one of the main centres for housing non-nationals in west Belfast and rents have risen approximately 25 percent over the last year. Areas such as the Falls provide shelter for non-nationals forced out of Loyalist areas and local estate agents are cashing in. This has placed significant strain on the housing market.
As such, the IRSP recognises resources such as housing are not infinite:
“The numbers entering Ireland, like many other political and economic policies, affects the well-being of the Irish people. An obvious example of this is that increased numbers can mean increased demand on resources which are scarce.”
The IRSP position is particularly interesting given that the party was involved in efforts to prevent the Irish Freedom Party organising in Belfast. The IRSP has noted that they will continue to “oppose fascism” – which essentially means that they will attempt to silence others who have arrived at the same position that they have.
While the IRSP document is important, it reiterates the standard left-wing rhetoric of working class unity. Drawing upon James Connolly’s 1911 debate with William Walker, the IRSP has long argued that working class unity in the north is a pipe dream. In a 1975 article entitled Loyalism and the Connolly Approach, IRSP founder Seamus Costello criticized the left-wing’s “economist” approach ignored partition as the primary contradiction in society. Costello held that working class unity could not be forged while the left and republicans ignored these contradictions. Yet the left today remains oblivious to the fact that the national question in Ireland will eventually telescope into a multitude of national questions forged by the dreadnought of post-modern diversity. Few socialist republicans would be willing to concede this point. They appear oblivious to the fact that this will make republican goals a great deal harder to attain.
The IRSP’s position is confused and inconsistent, yet it nevertheless points to a recognition of the discontent among the working class communities in which the IRSP has a base. The IRSP document is undeveloped but the party is far ahead of the rest of the left in that it recognizes:
“Currently individuals and institutions such as large businesses and corporations, banks and landlords, called capitalists, decide on who enters Ireland and resides here. This is because these capitalists own and control the resources and wealth of Ireland- whoever controls the wealth and resources of a nation will control its political and economic decisions, including on immigration. Capitalists make such decisions based on their own interests, wishing to make as much profit as possible, and this causes many of the problems arising from policies involving the movement of people. Even for those who see no problem at present with immigration- the process of immigration remains open to abuse in its current form.”
The left has tended to argue that immigration occurs in a bubble without any subjective pull factors. As such, they completely ignore the relationship between mass migration and capital. The IRSP document notes:
“They want them here to use them for profit, but they want division between foreign and native workers. Capitalists have the option then too to choose the ethnic, cultural and religious makeup of who comes into the country, and how many, and how quickly they bring them to the country, they can do this in such a fashion that achieving unity between workers of different backgrounds is very difficult.”
The Workers’ Party noted in a statement that while they oppose the “politics of hate,” inward migration is having an adverse impact on the housing market, a fact flatly denied by the rest of the left. The Workers’ Party said:
“The ability of the state to provide for those of us already living in Ireland must be considered when assessing the capacity to accommodate migrants. Should there be any shortfall, it will be working people who are left to suffer the consequences.”
The policy shifts by both the IRSP and the Workers’ Party have caused some ruptures on the left yet it demonstrates that a section of the left is making incremental steps towards understanding the changing nature of Irish capitalism. Both parties have their ear to the ground in many areas of the country and given their militant pasts the left will be reluctant to browbeat these organisations as they can do to those on the right.
The left view the question of migration in moralistic terms - we should help people arriving here because they are vulnerable and destitute. This position is buttressed by an avoidance of the economic realities of mass migration. Why have the capitalist class opened the floodgates? The left won’t tell us. The question as to why elites are encouraging a low-wage, precarious economy staffed by non-nationals is quite simply ignored. The left would have us believe that poor migrants have magically teleported to our shores in a bubble. As such, there has been a reversal of roles in that a large section of the left now finds itself on the side of big capital. They have willingly become subsumed within the broad liberal consensus.
When locals in Clonmel protested against the allocation of local houses to Ukranians, People Before Profit condemned local residents and after a confrontation with a member of the public, PBP TD Paul Murphy called on the government to “tackle misinformation.”
A survey of People Before Profit statements related to immigration reveals very little criticism of government policies. People Before Profit’s tendency to describe the “far-right” as “divisive” puts the cart before the horse - it reverses cause and effect. Across Ireland, people are struggling to afford rent or to find suitable accommodation, while state resources are directed towards housing non-nationals. The government has dismantled any semblance of a social contract and this is the root cause of the discontent now sweeping the country. PBP argues instead that the present discontent is but the latest stratagem employed by nefarious figures whose desire it is to “whip up division and fear.” According to PBP there are no material conditions which may be driving anti-immigration sentiment, just hordes of people who have been duped by the “far-right.”
Another approach has been adopted by the Belfast based Lasair Dhearg group. The group’s leading light, Pádraic Mac Coitir, has argued that there is “plenty of room” for millions of non-nationals in Ireland. Mac Coitir has established himself as one of the main ‘anti-fascist’ activists in Belfast, with Lasair Dhearg ‘confronting’ “right-wing activists” on a number of occasions. The positions offered by left republicans such as Lasair Dhearg are essentially performative politics for likes on social media. They are incredibly reluctant to discuss the changing nature of Irish capitalism and its social consequences.
Much of the discourse on the left is dominated by low-level social media bullying. There is a lack of any serious debate and an unwillingness to engage with ideas. This is evident in Lasair Dhearg’s December 2024 policy document on immigration. Like PBP, the document refers to division, stoking hate and misinformation. Left republicans are drawing upon the ideological repertoire of the liberal system they claim to oppose. There are no references in the document to the cultural and social problems of immigration - it is simply a problem of resources. What of Irish nationality?
The document further states:
“Multiple groups in Ireland are doing the dirty bidding of the political elite. These groups are helping keep the landlord class in power as they seek to further divide working class people in this country. When we follow the money, we see these groups and agitators are backed by the political elite, Unionists and MI5. These groups and agitators claim to be patriots yet act completely contrary to the interests of our country and our people.”
The left republican approach has been to dismiss discussions on immigration as the work of Loyalists. This approach is comforting to groups such as Lasair Dhearg, yet such discussions are also taking place within Catholic communities in the north. The group avoids any meaningful discussion on the economic reasons for mass migration, instead attributing it to war, climate change and similar factors. In truth, the western capitalist class is attempting to sustain a faltering economic system by importing cheap labour, a process described as “human quantitative easing” by leading business publications such as the Financial Times. The left can safely ignore this reality by solely focusing on the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment.
Socialist Voice, the magazine of the Communist Party of Ireland, has published a number of sub-par articles on the growing “far-right threat” which demonstrate just how poorly the left understands the unfolding situation across the country. An article penned by former republican prisoner Tommy McKearney after the protests in East Wall argued that the “right-wing” aim to undermine working class unity and bizarrely finishes by quoting a Woody Guthrie song. The movement against mass migration is largely a working class mobilisation on a scale not seen for decades. Reality cannot be squared into a circular ideological hole.
The organisation Trademark, an outgrowth of the Good Friday Agreement, recently produced series of podcasts aimed at ‘understanding the far right.’ The discussion took place between Seán Byers and Stiofán Ó Nualláin. The podcast offers a window into the thinking of the Irish left. Byers and Ó Nualláin argue that the rise of the nationalist movement is a ploy by the capitalist class to divert attention from “real issues” and that the “far-right” will eventually be deployed by the ruling elite to suppress the rights of working people. This argument is, in essence, a reiteration of the policy of the Soviet Union as expressed through the Comintern during the rise of the Nazis in Germany and goes some way in explaining the myopic approach of the left regarding the unfolding crisis in Ireland. There are some inter-war figures who might help us better contextually understand the unfolding crisis in Ireland. Georgi Dimitrov is not one of them.
The left’s lack of original thinking and the denial of the unfolding reality across the country is startling. The left has been unable to adequately analyse the largest organic mobilisation of Irish working class people in decades. The left sees itself in a titanic struggle against a rising fascism, viewing itself as romantic warriors lifted straight from Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. In reality, they are moonlighting for global capital.
Yet there is hope. A recent CPI announcement suggests a policy shift. It notes:
“In The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), Engels noted that Irish migration to Manchester resulted in reduced living standards for English workers. The Irish migrants were prepared to work for less than British workers which resulted in a reduction of wages for all. They also paid higher rents for inferior accommodation, driving up rents. Irish migration benefited both the landlord and the industrial sections of the British bourgeoisie and the competition for work and housing meant that British and Irish workers blamed each other and not capitalism for their situation. At present in the 26 Counties, the unemployment rate is 4.3% (“full employment” under capitalism) and wages are rising for unionised workers. Workers can and do unite across racial lines when fighting for rights and wage increases. However, migrant labour can be found in the most insecure and low-paid sectors of the economy, areas which are difficult to unionise.”
Demographics and Irish Unity
Discussions on changing demographics driven by immigration and the arising social and political transformations are considered low-status behaviour and are thus discouraged. This is an incredibly curious position given that the position of constitutionalist nationalists in the north has always rested on the importance of demographics. This approach maintains that a united Ireland can be achieved through a border poll when demographics in the six counties tip the balance in favour of Catholics. On the other hand, we are told that changing demographics are irrelevant to political and social life in the twenty-six counties.
Politics in the south will begin to mirror politics in the north. A recent column published in the Irish News quite rightly points out that northern politics is sectarian by nature. As its core, the Good Friday Agreement was a sectarian carve-up – individuals, groups and parties exist only in terms of their ethno-religious background and resources are distributed on that basis. How can we accommodate non-nationals within this system? What happens when they demand their own ethno-religious representation?
The appointment a Kenyan refugee by name of Lilian Seenoi-Barr as mayor of Derry is a curious case. During Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Seenoi-Barr called for a rejection of the police service. Positions that were previously articulated by maligned ‘dissident republicans’ are now mainstreamed under the cloak of diversity. This offers a glimpse into the future of Irish politics in which the concept of citizenship bound to a collective national identity will be eclipsed by a transactional approach that caters to separate ethnic and religious communities. This delineation will mean that the law will also be applied on an ad hoc basis.
At a recent conference in Belfast, political scientist Brendan O'Leary outlined the importance of demographics in relation to a future border poll. He argued that “cultural Catholics” now exceed “cultural Protestants” and that there will be a non-Protestant majority by the end of this decade.
O’Leary argued that going forward, immigration might also preclude the formation of a “cultural Catholic” majority in the north and that both nationalists and unionists will need to concentrate their efforts on convincing immigrants of the merits of their position by being “really nice” to them. Thus, non-nationals may hold the key on the constitutional status of the north by the time a border poll is called. One would expect that such a stark prediction would have caused concern among republicans and socialists. Sinn Féin and the republican left are sleepwalking into a social reality that might totally undermine of their strategy.
Republicans, drawing upon Wolfe Tone’s oft-quoted statement on uniting Protestants and Catholics under the common name of Irishmen, appear to believe that Irish identity is universal and that anyone can become Irish. The obvious contradiction arising from this train of thought remains unexplored. Given that Protestants and Catholics have not united almost 250 years on, the expectation that republicans can unite hundreds of other ethnic groups under the banner of a common Irish identity is fanciful. Given that official Ireland explicitly rejects the foundations of Irish nationhood, one must ask what exactly immigrants are expected to integrate into given that the highest ideals of post-national Ireland are selfish consumerism and individualism.
Irish history is now being revised to suit the demographics of a changing Ireland. The appropriation of Ireland’s national liberation struggle has seen the Fenians re-cast as anti-racist activists, just a few short years after efforts to “cancel” John Mitchel - whose “Ireland belongs to the Irish” slogan is now considered “far-right.” Other efforts include the recasting of James Connolly and Thomas Clarke by the Save Moore Street Campaign as “migrants.”
The Failure of the Left
The failure of the left to correctly identify what is happening in Ireland is a travesty as working class people need a voice. They have been abandoned not just by gombeen politicians, but by the movement which claims to represent them. Yet the left praise the low wage economy staffed by non-nationals - it provides them with a working class in situ. Symbolic posturing is not a basis for sound politics. Republicans and the left would like to imagine themselves as members of Connolly Column wading across the Ebro River as Christy Moore gives a rendition of Viva la Quinta Brigada in the background. The stark reality of the unfolding crisis is far more sobering. The system has trapped radical politics in the realm of culture and the algorithmically curated fantasies of social media. The abandonment of organic politics has thus served to suppress socialist critiques of capitalism.
This is a recent phenomenon. Trade unions mobilised 100,000 people in 2005 against Irish Ferries making its workers redundant and replacing them with EU contract workers. The same year saw protests against GAMA, a Turkish conglomerate which had been invited to Ireland by Trade Minister Mary Harney. GAMA had brought their own workers from Turkey and paid them below the minimum wage, the difference siphoned off to offshore accounts. The left, deceived by the whistles and bells of ultra-liberal individualism, now champions this economic system.
Every successful political movement is driven by a positive vision for the future. The main weakness of republican and left-wing parties in Ireland is that their vision mirrors policies already implemented - often disastrously - by other western nations. Why is Ireland so determined to implement policies that have clearly failed elsewhere in Europe? Ireland is rapidly changing under the weight of mass migration. Women's Aid Belfast and Lisburn is currently dealing with more than 230 female victims of human trafficking. In 2021 the figure was 47 and the charity is also dealing with cases of organ harvesting. The Village and Sandy Row areas of south Belfast are often described as strongholds for loyalist paramilitaries. Yet Loyalists have had to concede ground to foreign drug gangs. Is the Falls Road next?
There are glimmers of change on the horizon. At the Dublin launch of Lasair Dhearg’s immigration policy document, speakers from the floor talked of the “liberal left” and PBP councillor Madeleine Johansson is soon to launch a book criticizing the left’s embrace of identity politics, believing it to be a trap set by the ruling class.
The left built much of its electoral support in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, yet now it turns a blind eye to pressing social and economic concerns, confining itself to lifestyle activism. At first, objections to mass migration were easily dismissed as the views of provincial bumpkins. Today, however, protests are taking place across the country on an almost daily basis. Modern Ireland has become increasingly dysfunctional. As it stands, socialists and republicans have little to offer in terms of a way out. The nature of Irish capitalism has changed. The left and republicans need to change too.