Walkout At Workers’ Party Trinity EGM As Left-Deviation Win Election

The Workers’ Party branch of Trinity College Dublin was the site of a chaotic meeting yesterday as a factional battle raged between those aligned with the party-line and a left-deviation oppositional tendency. 

The meeting, held in a university lecture hall and attended by about 60 people, saw a bitterly divided fight on the issue of foreign policy. 

The left-deviation accused the Party loyalists of being pro-Putin, having contact with Kremlin agents and supporting Russian imperialism. There were also claims that party activists had visited “conferences organised by Vladimir Putin”. This was met with jeers by the party loyalists in the room. 

The left-deviation slate emerged victorious for various leadership positions, winning by 13, 12 and 7 votes respectively, indicating a 60-40% divide within the group.

A scene then erupted in which a party loyalist accused the other faction of being “pro-NATO liberals”, “Irish Times columnists” and of conducting an “anarchist ultra-leftist takeover” of the group which “supports the forced conscription of the Ukrainian working-class”. 

This was met with jeers by the left-deviation. A mass walkout ensued where party loyalists left the room. The victorious faction proceeded to burn their party membership cards after the meeting had ended, stating that “we will remain committed to true anti-imperialism. We stand against NATO, we stand against Russia, we are for the proletariat of the working world”.

“It was taken over by a committee that does not know how to follow a party line; worse, they joined a party they disagreed with vehemently. They committed entryism, twice. They broke the cardinal rule of being normal. These students who took over the committee resorted to slander; they accused those involved in Irish politics and familiar with the left space of being agents of Russian imperialism; the truth is stranger; it simply is not true, “ said James Rochford, former Chair of the group, in a statement to Aontacht Media.

“As a member of that society since I became a TCD student, I did not see a single sign of Russian influence or money, for that matter. As a member of the party, I did not see any Russian influence in the annual conference motions. Most importantly, guilt by association with other parties that nobody has heard of is cheap; do we say that those who think the Peruvians got it right are insane? This is liberalisation of politics; slander made against normal students who do care about Irish left politics by those who consider themselves righteous anti-imperialists who are American“, he added.

“TCD can no longer be radical, only performative, as it has forgotten what made the encampment work and slandering previous chairs that helped make that encampment work is an insult. Student politics as a whole, in reality, is a collaborative project; it is being friendly, personable and approachable”, he continued. 

“Worse yet, they boast of actively wrecking a political project they willingly do not understand, willingly do not understand the legacy of the Workers’ Party of Ireland and its achievements, and willingly refuse to read a book available to them as members of the society. These are faddists in the Orwellian sense; these are young adults who are dizzy with success. In burning their membership cards, they have not only shown their own colours publicly, but have also destroyed their own work because others have taken notice, “ he concluded, adding that despite an offer of mediation, they embarked on a takeover of the group.

Those who were elected declined to comment to Aontacht Media.