On Saturday 26 April, a large demonstration led by the far right marched through Dublin’s North Inner City. The turnout was significant: estimates range from 5,000 to as many as 10,000. In fact, this was four or five times larger than the previous biggest far-right led mobilisation.
Let’s be clear: their appeal is growing.
On the other side of the Gardaí fence, the counter-protest organised by United Against Racism (UAR) also gathered more than counter-protests in the past. But still, we were outnumbered.
Every honest socialist, communist and trade unionist – anyone indeed understanding the dangers the far right poses to the workers’ movement – will have undoubtedly asked themselves: how is it possible that these reactionaries can outnumber us in the streets of Dublin?
This article is intended as a comradely contribution to what we believe is a necessary and urgent discussion in the wake of last weekend’s events. A discussion about our tactics in the fight against the far right.
Fascism on our streets?
The first thing to make clear is that: no, this was not a march of thousands of fascists walking down O’Connell Street. Ireland is not at threat of an imminent fascist takeover. Hyperbole on this account can only cause confusion.
Yes, at the head of the demo was a tight core of ultra-reactionaries – Nazi-sympathiser Justin Barrett, former-Sticky turned anti-immigration guru Malachy Steenson, convicted rapist and presidential-wannabe Conor McGregor etc. Many of their supporters are themselves racist bigots. And there were undoubtedly a couple of hundred actual fascists also among the protest. But it would be a mistake to claim that there were thousands of hardened racists or even fascists out on the streets.
What is striking is how the far right framed their protest. With Sinéad O’Connor’s version of Foggy Dew (the ballad commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising) playing in the background, Steenson announced this was going to be a rally to “remember those that gave their lives to create this republic,” on the “occasion of the 109th anniversary of the Easter Rising.” He described the rally as opposing “government policy on housing, healthcare, education and all these diversity policies.” He called on “anyone who believes this country is being run for the benefit of a very small minority” to join.
That is, they did not lead with racist or fascist slogans. They cloaked themselves in the revolutionary, Republican traditions of the Irish people. They tapped into real anger about the state of housing, healthcare, and inequality. And they had a fighting, anti-establishment and anti-government message: “let’s take our republic back!”
From there, yes, they pivot to blaming immigrants, with talk of “mass immigration” and “importing the Third World”, pointing to the artificial scarcity in housing, hospital beds and good jobs that are an inherent part of capitalism, and blaming this on migrants taking them from Irish people. But their initial appeal is cleverer and broader than a simple anti-immigrant one: they tap into real, legitimate working-class rage, then distort it along reactionary lines. That is how they mobilised thousands.
A scroll through social media confirm what their appeal is:
“This is a protest of the Centre Right common sense people who have had enough of being second class citizens through health, housing and cost of living”
“I haven’t heard about any fascist protest taking place tomorrow? Only a protest from people demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the government”
Even on one online left-wing forum, a user commented: “Here I was about to attend that protest until I looked it up and figure out it was an anti immigrant one. Thought it was just a commemoration of the Easter Rising as it was advertised.”
How many others attended for similar reasons – drawn by their revolutionary traditions, frustration with the government, and the illusion that this is an anti-establishment movement?
Of course, Barrett, McGregor, Steenson & co. offer no real solutions to working-class people. But the pressing question remains: who else is offering workers a real, fighting, anti-establishment alternative right now?
The counter-protest
The key to depriving the far right of oxygen is building a really revolutionary alternative, a real anti-establishment alternative, on the left, that exposes the rottenness of the ruling class and the false anti-establishment credentials of the right.
The counter-protest revealed there is all the potential for this alternative. It too was large, and our comrades noted a really radical mood among the big majority of those there.
However, we wish to bring out what we think were very significant weaknesses, weaknesses which we believe answer the question: why was the far right able to mobilise larger numbers than the left?
What was the main slogan of the counter-protest?
Until two days before the counter-protest, the only statement about why United Against Racism was mobilising read as follows: “When left unchallenged, these far-right rallies spread fear in our communities. Everyone in Dublin deserves to feel safe and welcome, no matter where they’re from.”
The problem is: this is a slogan that anyone can agree with.
Even on the day, while there were a handful of slogans opposing the government and capitalism, these were only raised by individuals or separate organisations – for example, a placard that put it very well: “the only minority destroying Ireland is the rich,” and the chants we led: “blame the bosses/landlords not the migrants”. But the slogans at the forefront of the counter-demo were kept as broad and as apolitical as possible. They did not appeal to the class anger of the working class to unite in struggle against the capitalists, landlords, and the government.
We should have been the ones raising a fighting message that first attacks the government, the ruling class and imperialism, and then attacks the far right as wolves in sheep’s clothing, pretending to oppose the establishment but actually pitting members of our class against one another, weakening our ability to fight that ruling class. Only in this way can we politically isolate the far right.
After all, 1916 is our proud tradition – not theirs. The republic Connolly fought for was our republic, i.e. a socialist republic. It was the ruling class and middle-class nationalists that betrayed that revolutionary struggle. These are the same people that are now turning life into a nightmare for workers and youth in Ireland. It is our proud tradition to fight against the whole lot of them!
The message of the counter-protest should not just have been “everyone has the right to feel safe” but for revolution, for the Workers’ Republic of Connolly, for the revival of the revolutionary traditions of the Irish working class, and the need to fight the ruling class and the far right with class struggle.
That could have had a broader appeal and would be the first step towards channelling that class anger that the right are currently hijacking. After all, whilst it is true that the emboldened right wing threatens and abuses, and make many feel unsafe, the nice, smiling, liberal ruling class of Ireland has made millions – migrant or native born – feel unsafe through its policies, which leave tens of thousands on the street in the freezing cold, thousands on waiting lists, and thousands more one pay cheque away from real hunger.
Our main message to those on the far-right protests is: you are being misled. You think your leaders are anti-establishment but they are not.
It is a mistake to think that lowering the political content of the counter-protest to the lowest common denominator broadens its appeal. On the contrary, this can only serve to strengthen the far right, who in that political vacuum can present themselves as the only force opposing the establishment and offering a fighting alternative.
Why is it that we have abandoned our revolutionary message and left it to the Steensons of this world to parade around with a counterfeit version of it?
Broad front
Unfortunately, we believe this was not just a slip, but a conscious choice stemming from a political mistake made by People Before Profit (who, in the main, are the political force behind UAR).
Though we commend the tireless efforts made by the comrades in PBP to organise the counter-demonstration, we believe that the ‘broad front’ approach of their party is misplaced.
In an effort to be palatable to all so-called ‘progressive’ forces in Dublin, they ended up diluting the counter-protest main message to the point that even the Greens and Labour could subscribe to it.
And, in fact, there were a dozen or so Labour and Green party members on our side – something which we know was celebrated as a success by some of the organisers.
Having a clearer, more militant, class struggle approach would surely make it impossible for a few dozen members of these treacherous, pro-austerity parties to attend. But their absence would be more than compensated by the greater appeal the counter-protest would have had among more radical layers of our class – in fact, their absence would have added to this appeal!
These are parties that helped implement austerity and prop up Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil! What are we doing rubbing shoulders with such ‘progressives’? How can we celebrate managing to coax them to attend? We only give easy ammunition to the far right.
While the latter raise anti-government and (apparently) anti-establishment slogans, they can then point at us and say, “Ah! You see, they have establishment parties on their side. We are the only, true anti-establishment force, not the left.” It is unanswerable, we did have establishment parties on our side and a sharper class-struggle approach would have excluded them.
As for Sinn Féin – which rose in electoral terms by seeming to be anti-establishment itself, but which has seen its anti-establishment credentials tarnished – if instead of watering down our message to accommodate them, we had raised an unapologetically anti-capitalist banner, it would have posed before them plainly: which side are you on?
Revolutionary message
There was clearly a thirst for militant politics in the ranks of the counter-demonstration. The majority of those attending were fresh, unorganised layers of workers and youth ready to fight against the far right – and capitalism.
Though the Revolutionary Communists of Ireland had a contingent counting only a dozen or so, we were able to lead chants against the bosses, the landlords, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and even on the need for revolution. On this, we were invariably joined by large numbers of those counter-protestors gathered around us. Indeed, despite being outnumbered, the energy and the mood in the counter-demonstration was electric.
A revolutionary message is what is needed. If we clearly distinguish ourselves from the establishment – and fight for bold working-class demands – we can drive a wedge between those confused layers of workers attending the far-right protests and those anti-worker reactionaries at their head.
The far right is already deeply divided and consumed by internal conflict. What is needed is a militant, organised, revolutionary struggle against the capitalist system, in the course of which the false anti-establishment colours of the far right will be stripped bare.
