Re: upheavals in England, 1640 - 1848

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"Are Adam and I having a spat?" I ask myself.  My ever present paranoia
suggests "yes!" But this could not be. Apart from his party worship, I see
eye to eye with Adam on most issues.  I feel genuinely close to him
politically and personally in that strange cyber way.

What may be at work here is my closetted Nationalism and general
anti-Englishness.  It is true that  I have been for some time wishing I  had
the opportunity to attack English Marxists for their neglect of Ireland.
New Left Review are a case in point.  They have shamefully ignored the
struggle in Ireland and only became interested when the fag-ends of Irish
stalinism got their act together to attack Irish Republicans.  These
revisionist historians have also been sponsored by E. J. Hobsbawm.  His
recent remarks on Ireland have been blatant apologias for British
Imperialism. One day I will collect them and attempt a polemic.

Now Adam and I  are having a bit of a barney about English Marxists.  I have
been struck by how English English Marxists are.  For example the recent
obituary piece on E. P. Thompson in NLR almost made me retch.  He had of
course to be in his garden etc reeking of roses and Englishness.

More to the point Adam's remarks about the links between the Irish and the
English movements being broken owing to the anti-working class politics of
the Young Irelanders, neglects to put the blame where it squarely belongs
not with the victims but with the racist and sectarian English working class
movement.


I have of course my own quarrels with and criticisms of the various strands
of Irish nationalism, but they have been pitted against one of the most
brutal of the world's master races- the English.  that is worth recalling.


cmradely

Gary



At 09:54 AM 6/17/96 +0000, you wrote:
>
>
>Just a little comment.
>
>On the left in Britain from 1789 - 1848, it was common currency to support
>Irish independence. In the 1790's, revolutionaries in both countries looked
>to France as their model.
>
>Yet as the revolutionary movement in Britain became more working class,
although
>there was still more or less unquestioned support for Irish independence, the
>close and fraternal relationship between the two movements broke down.
>
>One of the Thompson's, I think Dorothy, explains this tension by pointing
>out that the source of the problems was the right wing nature of the Young
>Irishmen. They hated strikes, and working class organisation. Feagus O'Connor,
>the Irish leader of the Chartist movement in Britain, couldn't stand them.
>So there were few ORGANISATIONAL ties between the two movements between 1838
>and 1848. They were not soulmates, as the two movements in the 1790's had been.
>
>Adam.
>
>
>
>Adam Rose
>SWP
>Manchester
>UK
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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>
>



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