Poster for Mansion House meeting referenced in below article, February 1918.
The following article appeared in the 23 February 1918 edition of Irish Opinion: The Voice of Labour. Written in the immediate aftermath of a phenomenal meeting at Dublin’s Mansion House, when thousands thronged the venue and surrounding streets to herald the Russian revolution, Thomas Johnson of the Labour Party offers some vision of what may happen “if the Bolsheviks came to Ireland.”
Johnson, born in Liverpool to Irish parents in May 1872, served as leader of the Labour Party for ten years, beginning in 1917. He was elected in 1922 to the Dáil as TD for Dublin County in an election which saw a surprising Labour vote, with 17 of the 18 candidates put forward by the party elected, and 21.3% of the overall vote secured.
In may was, Johnson is remembered as a reformist political figure and not a revolutionary; he himself asked in 1925 “shall the aim be honestly to remove poverty…or are we to agitate and organise with the object of waging the ‘Class War’ more relentlessly, and use ‘the unemployed’ and ‘the poverty of the workers’ as propagandist cries to justify our actions…I do not think this view of the mission of the labour movement has any promise of ultimate usefulness in Ireland.”
Here though, we see a Johnson who is looking on at the events in Russia with great hope and optimism in their immediate aftermath. Notice the references to the “Irish Republican army”, to the “Dublin housing problem” which could be resolved through socialist change, and to the need for political education and the study of Russian tactics.
My thanks to Dr. Brian Hanley for providing me with a copy of the article, which I have transcribed.
IF THE BOLSHEVIKS CAME TO IRELAND.
The great gathering of Dublin citizens at the Mansion House to acclaim the social revolution in Russia was a sign to all parties in Ireland that the people in demanding independence are not going to be satisfied with a mere political change, no matter how drastic. What they need, and are quickly coming to recognise, is a change of social and economic relations. It is not only to British authority that this is a warning: it is a call to the conservative forces of all political parties to rally to the defence of the existing social order. All those people whose prosperity is dependent upon the institutions of rent, interest or profit or who can be persuaded that the national well being can only be built upon a basis of capitalism – “the most foreign thing in Ireland” – will be told that their own and their country’s future is endangered if any countenance is given to the doctrine that Labour is king.
Labour also must take warning. We acclaim the Russian revolution, and our hearts respond to the call of the Russian people to join with the workers throughout war stricken Europe in dethroning Imperialism and Capitalism in our respective countries. But, as we asked at the meeting in the Mansion House, are we prepared to take action if opportunity offers? Is Labour organised sufficiently? Are our trade unions and our trades councils, our co-operative societies and our Labour parties properly supported and in close enough relations to become the centres of economic life in a new society? Are our working class leaders or spokesmen devoting time and effort in reading and study to fit themselves for the duties that may be forced upon them?
The framework of the new Russia consisted of 50,000 co-operative groups in town and country, organised within the past six or seven years. The archive men and women who made the revolution had devoted years to the work of propaganda, to study mental discipline and self-sacrificing service of the people. While Ireland has produced but one Connolly, Russia has produced hundreds; men and women of great intellectual power, devoting their lives entirely to the work of organisation, education and agitation, and receiving in return no reward but persecution, imprisonment, poverty and the love of the people.
The Soviets – the councils of workmen, of peasants and of soldiers – who are now in power in Russia have their Irish equivalents in the trades councils, the agricultural societies, and – dare we say it?- the local groups of the Irish Republican army. An Irish counterpart of the Russian revolution would mean that these three sections co-operating would take control of the industrial, agricultural and social activities of the nation. Power would no longer be in the hands of the wealthy nor authority be wielded by the nominees of an Imperial Majesty. Industry would be diverted towards supplying the wants of the Irish people and agriculture towards providing food for those engaged in industry. Food and houses, clothing and education, these would be provided for all the people by the labour and service of all the people before luxuries or superfluities were allowed to any. The private profit of the private proprietor would not then determine what class of goods should be produced, whether cattle should be raised or corn grown, the needs of the people would decide.
Probably, as in Russia, the first act found to be necessary would be following the example of the capitalistic governments at the outbreak of war, to declare a moratorium (“I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word!”) suspending temporarily the repayment of debts and making illegal all interest!By this act alone, the income of the workers would be increased about 25 percent.
The land of the country would be made free of access to those who were willing to cultivate it to the best communal advantage. The Dublin housing problem would be immediately tackled,and might be made less pressing by a distribution of the congested population from the tenements over the partially occupied mansions of the suburbs!
These are a few of the things that would happen if the Bolsheviks came to Ireland. it is right that our friends who join with us in acclaiming the Bolshevik revolution should understand its implications. It means that as society is based upon labour, Labour shall rule. And that means a complete overturning from the present state wherein, though society is based upon labour, capital and property rule.
