Raise the profile!
23rd National Congress of the CPI, Belfast
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The National Executive Committee has been increased by one, to twenty-two members. For the first time in the more than seventy-year history of the party, a German national has been elected onto its leading body.
At the request of the German weekly Unsere Zeit and the daily Vom Letzeburger Vollek, Luxembourg’s second-largest newspaper, Eugene McCartan and Marion Baur gave an interview directly after the end of the congress. It turned out to be such a good inside look into the congress and the party’s work to come that there seems to be little more comment needed.
First question to Eugene: Can you give us a first judgement on the congress?
I think the most important and the most positive results are greater unity and greater clarity about key aspects of our politics. Given the space, I can’t but mention a few. The peace process and the Belfast Agreement, with all their problems, have been discussed, and I think we are clearer there. Both our old analysis—that paramilitary violence will deepen the sectarian divide of the working class instead of solving it—and our up-to-date judgement—that, taking into account all the problems, there is no real alternative to the Belfast Agreement—have proved to be right.
The Northern Assembly needs to get working. It will open the possibility of putting the real issues working people are concerned with on the table and holding responsible those who have been elected. This opens the prospect of class policies and more clarity about who can deliver on the issues and who can’t.
Further, this congress dealt in more detail than recent ones with problems of the trade union movement. I think we are more aware of the absolute necessity for communists to be involved in the unions. This is not just about our influence in the trade unions but about moving them back to what they were designed as: organisations of struggle for the interests of the working class, not of “social partnership.” It’s vital for the survival of our unions to get there, and if communists don’t put their weight in, who will?
Another key aspect of the debates was the need and the ability to raise our public profile, to go to the people and present them with our alternatives. We are still a small party, but we have consolidated in such a way that we can and must now go in a pro-active way. We have qualified analysis based on Marxism-Leninism. We are the only political force which has a real alternative to the all-Irish disease of capitalism: socialism. There’s no need to convince ourselves of that but an urgent need to convince the working people.
The reopening of the party headquarters and the theatre in Dublin will be an important highlight in our public work. Gigantic restoration work at the old building in the heart of Dublin will soon be finished, and the “new old” gem of a place will fit in well with the new outward-pointing energy of our party.
Marion, how does it feel to be the first German national elected onto the leading body of such a long-standing Irish party? Where do you see your major tasks in the incoming NEC?
Feels good, but as internationalists we don’t put too much emphasis on one’s origin. My tasks will be set by the party, of course, but I guess they won’t differ too much from what I have been doing before: dealing with women’s questions, working with the alliance [Socialist-Environmental Alliance] I stood for in the elections, and trying to expose the problems of the textile industry. The party is crying out for more political education, and I will have to put my weight in on this problem, especially in the North-West, where I live.
During the last couple of years the worst news on this island was more about racist-motivated crimes than about bombs. What’s the CPI going to do, and did the problem feature during congress?
Eugene: Of course it did. We will follow the suggestion by a Dublin delegate and form a commission that will deal with the problem exclusively. I think the work in the trade unions is very important. We have to intensify the production of materials in the languages of the people who come to Ireland, tell them about their rights, and encourage them to join a union. In a country that has had emigration rather than immigration for so long, this is a relatively new problem, and we have to urgently intensify our struggle against racism on all levels.
Marion: In the North we have to actively combat the lie that racism exists just on one side of the sectarian divide. It is often more obvious on the loyalist side, especially when Nazi gangs from England get involved; but of course there is racism in the nationalist areas too. It’s going to be a battle for the heads; we just have to manage to replace narrow-minded racists’ thinking with real internationalism. I think only communists can really do that, because internationalism is at the heart of their philosophy.
How do you judge the development of the communist movement throughout the world? Did you discuss this during the congress?
Eugene: We adopted a resolution called a resolution of international solidarity. In it we make clear that solidarity with the communist parties of the world is a centrepiece of our policies. Despite all the problems, we think the movement is developing positively and growing; not least the growing number of participating communist parties at the international conferences proves that. Our resources are limited, but we have tried hard to attend as many meetings as we could and contribute to them. We were at the conference alongside the DKP [German Communist Party] congress in Duisburg, at the meeting in Lisbon, at the UZ [Unsere Zeit] Festival in Dortmund, and at the outstanding conference in Athens. We know that the co-operation has to be intensified: only a real communist bloc can seriously harm our powerful enemy, who co-operates across national borders.
Marion: The co-operation also has to become more practical. A Belfast delegate suggested today organising a meeting on the EU to which we invite communist MEPs. We are the only political force on this island that doesn’t want to “doctor” the bad symptoms of the EU but rejects and exposes its nature as an imperialist construct. Bringing in, say, a Greek communist MEP would be a powerful chance to show the people that there is real opposition in other countries as well. The NEC will have to get working at this at once.