Internationalism’s Failings - Solidarity Must Start At Home

Domhnall O'Gaothne

Internationalism, the holy gospel of the left, has been failing us here in Ireland. No matter the critiques of policy among the various factions of the left, no one dareth question the supreme doctrine of internationalism. A contentious topic to take on, but an important one in dealing with a left that no longer threatens power in Ireland. In the light of the current fuel crisis mobilisation, and the countless other issues we have to work with, we need to pull our focus on to what gets the people moving if we are to have an impact on the power structures in this country, and their influence abroad.

The currently failing strategy in relation to internationalism not only creates a barrier to the struggling working class but allows our government to use our action to garner an image abroad as if we are on the same side. Internationalism is about solidarity not exclusivity. It is supposed to go alongside national struggle, not take over from it. It is supposed to show how broad coalitions with different interests can work together for a unifying goal. And, if you want your solidarity to mean anything, it has to mean the removal of our ruling parties who will at most make a side comment, provided it doesn't get in the way of kissing Trump's toes. Their rule must be threatened if you want your solidarity to mean anything.

A glance abroad, look at how the French protest on May Day. Yearly riots consistently over workers' rights and policies of the government. Next month, expect many Palestinian flags on the streets of Lyon and Paris, but also expect confrontation with the police over matters affecting the working class in France. At near every other anti-government protest abroad, Palestinian flags are a frequent feature, but there is an understanding that the only way to make real change is to overturn or upset the status quo in their own country. What has taken over in Ireland is the liberal Saturday walkabouts in Dublin for Palestine. Our unions and political parties take years to organise a single march on housing. Meanwhile, between regular national demonstrations and impromptu actions, there is  a near daily action somewhere on Palestine, Iran or Ukraine. People have become so obsessed with the international issues that we are forgetting our own struggles. This reeks of the activism of the comfortable classes. Wanting to give themselves a pat on the back for doing their part whilst blinding themselves to those struggling around them. Stepping over homeless people so that they can rush their banner to the front. There is rarely confrontation in these actions, and instead there are appeals to FFG and our ruling elite. Appeals to the morality of our subservient rulers who clearly have none.

One case study that shows the shift to an overemphasis on internationalism is the brilliant activism of the Revolutionary Housing League who were willing to get themselves arrested and repeatedly made a show of the Gardaí via over the top evictions. The owner of James Connolly House claimed in court that RHL was evicted to "house Ukrainians" though that building has remained empty ever since. A flagrant abuse of the court system. A "For Sale" sign currently hangs in its yard. But rather than continuing to build that campaign, they traded getting arrested over housing, for getting arrested on the steps of the Belgian embassy with Anti Imperialist Action. I dare not critique the bravery of people willing to get arrested, but the pivot to these issues, while important and popular in left wing circles, are not winning the working class, it is losing it. There have been similar arrests at Shannon and elsewhere of activists. There have been people forcibly removed from conferences and occupations of buildings all for the Palestinian cause. But where are the arrests for occupation of the vulture funds, law firms and housing bodies? Surely our own issues deserve at least some of the share of civil disobedience. We need to remember that change starts at home. This has even allowed Gavin Pepper to step in as a voice against the vultures. Mass movements that enact meaningful change do not base themselves on conflicts thousands of miles away. Some might hark back to the Dunnes Stores strike 40 years ago as if that was not an outlier, and as if packing trolleys of Israeli goods at Lidl is more than just a nuisance for local underpaid staff. The unions have failed to mobilise their workforce in airports and elsewhere over handling Israeli goods, but worse still is their inability to mobilise for the issues their members face daily in Irish society. The online world has people glued to their screens thinking they are changing history thousands of miles away. They think that enough engagement online means they are making a difference but it is not. Ireland has managed to achieve near nothing for the people of Palestine, sad as that is to admit. And it will remain so until FFG are dethroned and a message is sent to all who dare to fill their seat.

The Republican movement were comrades to the PLO, comrades in their own national struggle. They linked up with national struggles abroad including in the transfer of certain items the Gardaí and PSNI did not like. Now, far too many pat themselves on the back for a Saturday stroll whilst continuing to perpetuate the system that creates these foreign conflicts. This "solidarity" achieves nothing. You do not need to become a gunrunner, but people should focus their energy on power's core here in Ireland. Pleading to their better nature is redundant.

If you want to make a change abroad, we should hone in on our ruling class and more energy needs to be put on the working class who feel so neglected that some are turning to anger when they see a Palestinian flag. They are angered at the frequent marches and actions all around them led by the comfortable classes whilst they struggle for housing, education and healthcare. The left insist "we are fighting for the working class" and yet the only public actions many witness are the larger Palestine marches. The obsession with internationalism, people larping as if they're on the frontlines, neglects the issues we face here at home and it does actually neglect our working class. It hoovers up far too much political energy so that people feel they have done their bit. They have put in their political hours, their CPD has been logged. No need to mobilise the working class, there are enough boots on the street for Palestine. Another symptom is burn out. People are exhausted from redundant actions before they have even glanced at working class concerns.

Internationalism can also divide the class. What a beautiful tool for our ruling class. They can sit back and watch the left argue about how to deal with Iran. Heated arguments about whether to fly the regime flag, or the merits vs horrors of the Iranian regime, what counts as  imperialism or anti-imperialism, that make unity on local issues ever more impossible. This has been the case with Ukraine for even longer. Falling out over capitalism's wars. Elsewhere the working class argue over the merits of Trump and the US culture war creeps further in as if we are all chilling in Washington DC.

Ireland needs to reorient itself and bring the struggle back home. It is time for solidarity for the struggles abroad to go hand-in-hand with explicitly anti-government protests here, and not take the focus away from the very real struggles people here face daily.  In Czechia, massive crowds turned out to protest their government. The presence of EU flags at that protest might arouse some suspicion but the point is not what the protest was for but of the massive unity against the government that could so easily be echoed here. In Japan, South Korea and elsewhere protests aimed at the government achieve results. There is definitely enough unity against the government to grow a movement at home that does not just look for people abroad to speak of how great Irish solidarity is. We need meaningful change and that comes from directing our energy at the government, not the international issue of the day. That comes from uniting all of our struggles, not finding the minute differences to make sworn enemies out of our allies. That approach divides and loses people. The resulting impatience creates an easy recruit for the right, meanwhile FFG have never looked so comfortable.

The first rupture in FFG status quo rule in years has emerged with the fuel protests. These came not out of our leaders’ subservience to US imperialism but from the price here at the fuel pump. Similarly to the water protest, it is that the issue is the final straw rather than the issue of the utmost importance. The left should be leading anti-government protests, instead it is the right who until now had tried a couple of disorganised and fairly incoherent rallies at the Dáil. At one such march, a man held a sign that simply read "I am very angry". Me too, my friend. Our futures have been stolen. 

The left have the capacity to capture that rage, to steer it in the right direction and show how the housing crisis, the energy crisis, the cost of living crisis, healthcare crisis, the children's hospital, native industry, immigration crisis, fuel crisis and near every other struggle we face here in Ireland is not in fact caused by those abroad, but by our leaders here who bend themselves like contortionists to sell off the very idea of Ireland. What internationalism misses is the central role that our government plays, as if a couple of harshly worded statements will purge our leaders of their sins and save the day. Firstly, they will not say those sentences. Secondly, they are meaningless without the actions we know they will not take. The only meaning can come from an overthrow of the current regime here. Ask a disillusioned working class person why they dislike the left, and the culture war or obsession with conflicts abroad will eventually come up. "They don't care about our own". People need to wake up to the fact that our internationalism is being used against us and people are allowing it to, because they enjoy the moralistic grandstanding. If you want to make change abroad, it starts with getting rid of the politicians who have made blatantly clear they do not care. It is about making their lives uncomfortable. It is about building a collective movement against them around every issue where they are failing people. Bring your colours, bring your flags, but focus on the only thing that can bring about change in this country and therefore have echoes abroad. We need to uproot the civil war crony parties because without that, internationalism is just waving your flag on a Saturday and marching to an empty Dáil whilst our leaders laugh at you with their feet up at home.