University Debates, Myself and László Molnárfi

Saoirse Éireann Ní Bhaoighealláin

Has the left failed the working class? We recently saw László Molnárfi debate in the Phil in Trinity College Dublin where he quoted my work “What Rosa Gets Wrong About Socialist Feminism” . The reaction to this speech like most of László’s work on the left was quite mixed receiving harsh criticism and a lot of praise from people who also feel the mainstream left in Ireland is and has been failing working class people for years. Seeing as the speech made reference to my own work I felt I should make my thoughts on it known. 

Molnárfi’s criticism of People Before Profit and Solidarity have resonated with many people for good reason, across the left a frustration with the parties are at an all time high. Red Network’s recent split from the party has in my opinion represented the final abandonment of working class activists from PBP. That’s not to say everyone in People Before Profit is middle class but Red Network held the most solid working class line within PBP and without it the party's ideology will continue to stray further into petite bourgeois ideology.

The recent rent hikes vote only showed the mockery of the “Keep Left” conference back in November which had Labour and Green representatives who went on to vote in favour of hiking rents. In the European elections in 2024 People Before Profit pressured Bríd Smith into running for MEP resulting in us losing Clare Daly as MEP. This has shown that People Before Profit prioritize seats over all else which is the very core of the problem within the party.

This is why even critics of Molnárfi agree with his criticisms of PBP/Solidarity. Of course it's no surprise this was my favourite part of the speech as it was also mostly quoting my own work. Now of course the criticism.

After the speech was publicised People Before Profit echoed Red Networks critique of Molnárfi has never set foot in the working class estates he wishes to represent. As someone from a working class town which heavily relies on at-risk jobs from a factory as well as agriculture and the trades, I am particularly aware and in agreement of this critique. As I discussed in “Suggestions on Organizing from a Rural Activist Perspective” on Aontacht I believe that engaging in mass organisations particularly in order to work alongside the working class is the most important task of socialist organizing.

Molnárfi would do well to engage in a bit of door knocking work with the Community Action Tenants Union in order to strengthen his skills in engaging with the actual working class. Actually doing the unglamorous work would only serve to strengthen his argumentation and I fear he prioritizes doing the spotlight work in a way that lends itself well to student activism but utterly fails in the working class estates.

On the speech itself it opens discussing the march down O’Connell St in April 2025 which Molnárfi frames as the 10,000 people marching under the leadership of far right figures as “members of the working class” this framework is in my opinion flawed and points to Molnárfi’s misunderstanding of the working class. I believe Molnárfi often views the working class as the people who make up what Marx would refer to as the “lumpenproletariat” 

The lumpenproletariat are in Marx’s view the “lowest stratum of the proletariat” in plain language the people most oppressed by capitalism are often stuck in chronic addiction, unemployment, criminal behaviour and adversary to progressive ideas. The far right has been repeatedly exposed for their connections to drug dealing which they use to mobilise this section of people struggling most under capitalism into attacking immigrants as the cause of their problems.

Of those 10,000 people the class distinction between them was indeed greater than what you would see in the left, sections of the upper classes who wish to turn worker against worker, sections of the lower middle class who fear becoming worse off, sections of the working class who have been pitted against their fellows and a large base of this “lumpenproletariat”. The lumpenproletariat make up the majority of those who rioted in citywest and burned down buildings for being rumoured spots for IPAS centres.

László Molnárfi is right about how People Before Profit has strayed away from the working classes losing the base that they had built during the water charges protests this was due to a trend hoping tendency which prioritized the hot topic of the day over remaining consistently within the working class neighbourhoods instead of continuing to build up their bases after the water charges protests they moved on to the referendums and then international solidarity. 

People Before Profit have softened their tone on the European Union in order to appeal to people uneducated on the EU but who found themselves opposed to Brexit not on economic arguments but because it was being led by the far right in Britain. People Before Profit have voted down legislation which would’ve given working class communities a say on whether an IPAS centre would be suitable in their communities and People Before Profit refuse to be concretely republican despite the colonial nature of partition trying to gain support from the loyalist communities without challenging them on the national question. All of which allows the right to dominate the conversation on these topics but the suggestion that the far right is working class suggests collaboration over competition on these issues and that is where Molnárfi strays from the correct analysis.

This is not a fight against People Before Profit this is a fight to build up a new republican left which can gain the support of the working class by challenging the state, the far right and British, American and European imperialism and shrive not for seats in Dáil Éireann and Stormont but to bring about a 32 county democratic socialist republic!