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Horizon aims to be a space for Irish Marxists to engage in open debate, critically examine our ideas, and collectively advance the struggle for socialism.
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The response from the left has been mixed. Despite every party/org from the left agreeing to support these protests as they contain “genuine concerns”, there is also a cohort who don’t agree with these protests. I myself fall into the latter category. This shouldn’t come as a shock. I am a Marxist and I believe in the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The most common of the arguments I’ve seen for supporting this protest is that these are “ordinary workers”. To hear so many Marxists completely misunderstand Marx’s best known point is worrying. Marx defined the proletariat as a class that does not own its means of production. The modern Irish farmer at this protest owns their means of production, they own their land, they own their machines and some of them are even business owners.
For argument’s sake, let’s push the goalposts and say this is the working class. Again, Marx did not say everything the working class did was right. Marx said the working class can be reactionary. This is a text book reactionary protest, there is no actual goal that will benefit the working class. It’s the job of the revolutionary proletariat to push the reactionaries in the same direction, but once again, this can only happen if both sides are proletariat, which they are not in this case and there is no point in arguing for a fantasy.
This mischaracterising of what the proletariat is and also what we as Marxists should support is worrying, and I believe it is an infection of trying to be like the left of America who believe Bernie Sanders was some revolutionary Marxist who found unity with the democrats (you can sub in the DSA in for Sanders also). Marxists should be advocating for a united front with fellow Marxists who are revolutionary and reject the politics of reactionaries. We cannot fall into the habit of supporting protests just because they’re protests. No collaboration with FF/FG and other capitalist parties, while also rejecting reactionist thought is the goal of the Irish Marxist. No so-called “left unity” we want a united front of revolutionaries.
“Our demands most moderate are: We only want the earth!”
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