Irish Workers' Group
- SeeIrish Workers' Group (1976)for the Irish Workers' Group which was a member of theLeague for a Fifth International.
TheIrish Workers' Group(IWG) was aMarxistpolitical partyinIreland.It originated as the Irish Workers Union, which later called itself the Irish Communist Group,[1]and contained a variety of people who all considered themselves to be Marxists. Some were from anIrish Republicanbackground, and some, including Gerry Lawless,[2]also became involved inSaor Éire.[1][3]
In time the group developed distinctTrotskyistandMaoistwings. The latter broke away to form the Irish Communist Organisation, which evolved into theBritish and Irish Communist Organisation.The former became the Irish Workers' Group, set up by Lawless.[2]The IWG produced a paperIrish Militantand a theoretical journalAn Solas/Workers' Republic.
By 1967 the IWG, then based inLondonamong exiled political activists, was failing and handed over their journal toSean Matgamnaand Rachel Lever who were about to launchWorkers Fight.A section with support in Ireland then formed theLeague for a Workers Republicwhich entered discussions with theSocialist Labour League,British affiliate of theInternational Committee of the Fourth International.[1][4]
Other members of the IWG later influential in the Irishfar-leftwereEamonn McCann,a leader of theSocialist Workers Party,andMichael Farrell,a leader of the now defunctPeople's Democracy.This group seems to have ceased to exist in the late 1960s.
A laterIrish Workers' Groupwas an organisation that split from the Socialist Workers Movementin 1976. It maintained links with the BritishWorkers Powergroup and theLeague for a Fifth International.[5]
References
[edit]- ^abcSeeInternational Trotskyism, 1929-1985by Robert Jackson Alexander, Duke University Press, 1991 (pg. 570).
- ^ab"In 1965 he [Lawless] set up the Irish Workers Group (IWG), the first Irish Trotskyist group since the 1940s. The IWG was small, but politically formative for a number of people who subsequently played significant roles in the Irish left – in particular, the leaders of People’s Democracy in the North. Maverick socialist whose charm won him friends in unlikely places(Obituary of Gerald Lawless).The Irish Times,28 January 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
- ^Sunday Independent,"Extreme Communists plan branch in Dublin", 9 May 1965 (pgs. 1,6).This article describes the ICG as a London-based Maoist group and states that Gerald Lawless, Angela Clifford,Brendan Clifford, Michael Murphy, Tom O'Leary, Bernard P. Canavan and Liam Eamon Daltun are ICG members.
- ^Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizationsby Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley. Continuum 2005 (pg. 232).
- ^Glossary of the Left in Ireland 1960-83
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