The Downfall of "Dev": Irish Trotskyists on the 1948 26 County Election

Submitted by dalcassian on 12 August, 2015 - 7:12

After 15 years, the Fianna Fail party of de Valera
came to an inglorious end in Eire and its famous
leader was put out of office. Several of our friends and
comrades in Dublin and Belfast have written to us
about the recent general election in Ireland and its
significance. Here we have put together extracts from
these various letters to give our readers a clearer pic-
ture of precisely what did happen.
The policy of the Revolutionary Socialist Party,
Irish Section of the Fourth International, was to lend
critical support to the candidates of the National Labor
Party. In a manifesto directed to the workers of Ire-
land, from which we give extracts below, this position
was advocated:
"On the back of the world crises of capitalism (just
emerging from its second bloody conflict in twenty
years) Fianna Fail (de Valera's party) began its head-
long dash to obscurity.
"So ends on epoch in the Inglorious history of Irish
capitalism. Fifteen years of Fianna Fall has meant to the
working class both economic and political repression.
Too well the organized workers remember the years of
the Means Test. The anti-Trade Union bill: the offences
against the State Act; the censorship of private cor-
respondence and working class literature; the persecu-
tion of republican and working class Internees; the ter-
rorist methods of the Fianna Fail 'security' police and the
host of chronicled and unehronicled acts of bribery, cor-
ruption, political gangsterism and the split engineered by
Lemass in the working class movement with the conniv-
ance of the present leadership of the National 'Labor'
Party and the Congress of 'Irish* Unions. Workers, ask
these so-called labor leaders about the secret meetings
with the Department of Industry and Commerce before
the T. U. split and the Standstill Order and the antf-TU
bill."
"Fianna Fail, Fine Geal, Clann and the National
Laborers (that couldn't serve fish and chips) all arc
seeking to protect the faith, prestige and political in-
tegrity of this ancient nation."
COALITION OF FIVE GROUPS
Among other things, the Irish party is the first of-
ficial section of the Fourth International to come out
publicly, in a manifesto directed to workers, equally
"Against support to capitalism and Stalinist totali-
tarianism," marking its break with the official policy
of defense of Russia.
Our informant further writes, in describing the de-
feat of de Valera, the end of his political rule—for the
time being, at least—that, "The General Election dem-
onstrates a shift away from de Valera, mainly by sec-
tions of professional workers and the rural and urban
middle classes. Clann na Poblacta, led by Sean Mc-
Bride, ex-Chi of-of-Staff of the Irish Republican Army
and top-flight lawyer, personifies tbis tendency. The
Clann's 'New Deal' politics and the all-inclusiveness of
its appeal, made serious inroads on the regroupment of
the Labor Party.
"However, the Labor Party did make some headway:
it doubled its quota of first preference votes and almost
doubled its parliamentary representation, in face of
the morale shattering split engineered by de Valera in
the unions. Petty-bourgeois influence is still the doijii-
nating factor in Ireland due to the n ature of the econ-
omy. This tvpe of thought has always permeated the
labor movement with the exception of the Connoll}
period.
"The outcome of the general election Man displaces
dc Valera's Fianna Fail and has placed in power a
coalition composed of five groups and 'Independents.
The line-up is as follows: the old-line Fine Geal, Labor,
petty-bourgeois Clann na Foblacta, small-farmers
Clann na Talham, National 'Labor'—who denied theii
illegitimacy at the hands of de Valera and voted
against him—and a group of independent operators
that range from political boy-scouts to full-blown im-
perialists.
"The whole character of the coalition Is shot through
with Irreconcilable class conflicts and can only last as
long as their horse-deals remain discreet and maneuver-
able. All the coalition groups are attempting to do Is to
smash the de Valera hynosls and retrench financially for
another election in the near future. The Interim program
of the coalition Is a composite of programmatic points
of the different groupings. Abolition of the recently im-
posed tax on beer, cigarettes, cinemas and greyhound
racing. Improved health service and reforms In local
government and education.
"Every party in the coalition has compromised it-
self in this attempt to discredit de Valera and to retain
the prerogative—of the Prime Minister's—of calling
another general election at the propitious moment."
HANG TOGETHER—OR SEPARATELY!
And finally, writing from Belfast in Northern Ire-
land, our correspondent Bob Armstrong summarizes the
election in the following terms:
"The election underscores the fact that Eire still re-
mains a conservative backwater amongst the nations.
Social relations have become petrified. The peasants.
despite their drab conditions, feel that their little farms
give them a stake in the system. The influence of the
church is terrific. Full employment in Britain acts as
a safety valve, drawing many of tne potentially rebel-
lious elements of the youth. Political adventurers of the
stamp of McBride hardly exist in the more important
countries. McBride is a former IRA (Irish Republican
Army) figure. He formed Clann no Poblacla out of
the disintegrating ranks of the IRA; and out 0/ a crew
of careerists who sensed the waning of de Valera's
influence he formed the leadership. Overnight he aban-
doned his program—a mish-mash of contradictory re-
formist slogans, with the end of partition as a focal
point—for the sake of a cabinet position.
"The Labor Party—which gained soma seats, reflect-
ing a modest left swing among the workers—has likewise
been sold up the river by Its leadership, greedy for the
prestige of office. The coalition Is easily explained. If
de Valera had been permitted to form a cabinet he
would have seised the first promising opportunity to go
to the poll again, and he would In all probability have
completely smashed the Clann; thus ensuring a stable
Fianna Fall regime for a farther period. Having been shut
out of office for so long, the rival politicians couldn't
bear to think of sitting in the opposition benches any
longer. Hang together, or hang separately! There you
have the whale meaning of the coalition.
"Immediately following the Eire election there was
the special meeting of the Northern Labor Party to
work'out a policy on partition. Decision: To have no
policy. Members will take a position in public according
to the dictates of their own conscience."

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