With this in mind, a new political education programme was mandated in 2010, and drawn up and approved by the Ard Comhairle/CEC, though its implementation proved haphazard. Among the topics covered were the development of the workers party and the concept of the vanguard party, scientific socialism, the economy, and socialism and the environment. Real but insufficient progress was made. The 2010 clár also touched on our understanding of our place in the republican tradition, and noted the role ideology played in protecting the Party from “the twin dangers of sectarianism and surrender”.

The 2014 Clár’s statement on our Ideological Position confirmed our understanding of what we meant by socialism: “We also affirm the Party‘s commitment to a radical, revolutionary theory of politics, and recognise that such theory is found in the MarxistLeninist critique of capitalism and theory of socialism.” This was a clear affirmation of our ongoing commitment to the vision outlined half a century ago by Garland, but the clár also recognised the need to use Marxism-Leninism as a living tool for analysis to shape our activity in the here and now.

Subsequently, a theoretical journal, ThinkLeft, was created by the Ard Comhairle to further develop ideological debate within the Party, and internal efforts at education were stepped up, but again proved haphazard.

The sections on ideology in both 2010 and 2014 were, it is important to note, passed unanimously. Despite this fact, the reality is that some of the problems that emerged within the Party in the years that followed were at least partly in reaction to the ideological and organisational clarity introduced at those conferences. While the ideological statements were reiterations of long-held principles made clear by the Party leadership across decades in speeches, resolutions and publications like Desi O’Hagan’s The Concept of Republicanism (1998), they became the focus of resentment among a small number of people who associated them with organisational principles that they believed threatened to undermine their positions within the Party.

To justify what was in several prominent cases problems stemming from personal resentment, ego, and ambition, they promoted alternative understandings of our ideology that directly went against positions taken not just in 2010 or 2014 but as far back as the 1960s and 1970s, seeking to obscure the actual positions held by the Party with an imagined history easily proved false. Those retreating into nationalism ultimately coalesced with a group of opportunists who claimed to have accepted Marxism-Leninism, and who initially sought to adopt positions and symbols associated with it in the hope of winning influence. Having failed to secure dominance by these means, they instead opted to embrace nationalist rhetoric and forge an alliance internally with those looking backward to an imagined past, and to chase recruits from among nationalists possessed of a self-image as leftists. Central to this process was the attempt to change the nature of the Party, to abandon Leninism and become a catchall left party such as SYRIZA, swapping class politics for what in reality was class collaboration.

Now, in 2023, we, the majority that rejected the machinations of these disparate groups united only by hostility to Leninism, reassert without any room for doubt our adherence to the vision on which the Workers Party was built. Time has demonstrated what we said to be true. The anti-Leninist faction, which rapidly repeated the slurs against the Party issued by all those opposed to its strategy since the 1960s, retreats ever further into nationalism, while their boasts that following their path would produce an instant boom in members and influence have proven empty. It is essential that we continue the work that motivated the crucial Ard Fheiseanna of 2010 and 2014. It is essential that this Ard Fheis continues to build along clear ideological and organisational principles.

Understanding Our Society Our understanding of society, of class power, of the economy, politics, and how social change has come and can come springs from the dialectical materialist method that lies at the heart of Marxism. One of the greatest achievements of Marx and Engels was their recognition that material conditions shaped human society, and that it was conflict between classes that provided the ultimate driving force for social change.

The simple and clear presentation of this analysis, allied to the ruthless exposure of the failings of rival approaches to socialism, gave the Communist Manifesto its unique status, and changed the world by establishing an ideology that spoke to millions of the oppressed across the globe. Many others, including Connolly, developed these insights, applying them to their own times and places. The most significant of these was of course Lenin, whose theoretical achievements included a clear-sighted account of the nature of imperialism, of the need for a vanguard party, of the false promises of opportunism, and of the centrality of political and not merely economic struggle to advance the cause of socialism.

The works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and the other great socialist theorists are, however, not doctrinal articles of faith but rather a guide to action. At the very core of the dialectical materialist method is the understanding that the world is in a constant state of change, with various forces bringing new conditions and circumstances into being that must be analysed, understood, reckoned with, and adapted to. Understanding this fact, and its implications, was key to the transformation into the Workers Party. A hardheaded analysis of the world as it was both motivated and enabled that transition, which was rooted in the application of Marxist-Leninist theory and praxis. A fearlessness about change marked the Party out. We need these attributes now as we address the tasks facing us.

That the world constantly changes, that Ireland has undergone great transitions in recent decades, that the dissolution of the socialist states after the counter-revolution ushered in a dark time for socialism that has not yet ended does not mean – as some of those seeking to deflect us from our chosen path have argued both in Ireland and internationally – that we must abandon our ideology and vision. Far from it. It is those who have abandoned our principles who have been left rudderless, with no possibility of a programme to effect serious change. It is only the dialectical materialist method that can enable us to properly understand developments in the world around us, to properly analyse conditions at home and abroad, and to draw up the approaches, policies, strategies, and tactics necessary to ensure that we can become the Party we aspire to be. The dialectal materialist method reminds us that change is not merely possible but inevitable. We should therefore be confident that opportunities will present themselves, and focus on ensuring that we are in a position to take advantage of them to deliver the type of change necessary to complete human emancipation and rescue our planet from the catastrophic climate change which is underway. There are no short cuts – only the hard work of producing an analysis capable of guiding the hard work we must also do in workplaces and communities to build class-consciousness and the Workers Party.