It is tortunate that two sucn complementary books on the Irish question have become available at the same time. They deserve to be widely read, and will prove their worth over the years in clarifying te brodiers bosea in Enis area Tor MarxIsts.
Mike Farrell's book is the first detailed political history of Northern Ireland. It is not surprising that it took a Marxist to write it, because for many years bourgeois historians wrote 'finished' after the 1922 Treaty Settlement, ignoring the recurrent signals from Northern reiano taar me wish brooem was far from solved.
The book is particularly important for its material on the 1918-21 pogroms its description of the 1932 Outdoor Relief struggle in which Protestant and Catholic workers found a short-lived unity, and its tracing of the frustrations of middle-class nationalist politics. None of these subjects had been adequately dealt with oreviousiy.
ment and every page gives evidence of I have to confess that I was somewhat ne book. in snort. is a maor acmeve detailed and meticulous research. However, Protestant ror the last to months, brush imperialism has been constructing new blocks of individual cells to accommodate the future political hostages and des troy the solidarity of the compounds.
Such arrangements will deprive the individual prisoners of any defence against disappointed, as I had expected the book to be much more analytical. Mike says that he wants the facts in the book to speak for themselves, but a more analvtica aporoacn would aid readers uncuain ted with Irish history to digest more easily the vast chunks of fact.
Part of the problem, of course, is the necessary limitations of any study of vortern reiano. ror instance, Mike records the fact that the support for IRA campaigns amongst the population of the Free State was emotional and sporadic - but why was this?
To a large extent, the failure of the Republicans to build up effective support In e boutn nas cetermineo tne course ot Ine strucole in me worn in recent vears. and vet Marxists nave oroducer no convincing explanation for this fact. Mike's book is a major contribution to the discussion on the Irish problem, but to develop turner tnat discussion will have to take into account the British and Free State dimensions.
Geoff Bell's book is a less weighty, but no less interesting, study of one aspect of the problem in Northerr Ireland. In a deftly woven tapestry of Ine politics. nistory and culture or ine Northern Ireland Protestants, he gives us an insight into their view of the world Again I am probably obtuse in wanting more, but it seems to me to be particularly important to expand on the definition he gives of the Protestant workers as constituting a labour aristocracy'. I agree with this description, although i clearly does not apply to all Protestant workers. But it is useful preciselv in that it gives us a poin or comparison with orner croups of allies. The only crime of which th political hostages are guilty is of having consistently tought against be oppress ion of the capitalist class.
Workers in Britain must remember that the time will come, and soon, when they too will be looking for recognitior for political prisoners of their very own political history.
The classical labour aristocracy in Britain was that section of the working class which originated in domestic proauction, and une worksnoo trades, and whose consciousness was deeply marked ov tne incividualism or uneir broductiot methods and the laissez-faire tradition of their wage bargaining. To maintain their wage levels they instituted a strict demarcation between themselves and Jess sKHied worKers.
The early craft trade unions came out or unis reactionary section or ear industrial society. But the Orange work ers in betast contorm most cosey Te a transitional form or tne labour aristoc racy which developed in the early stages of large-scale production. Significantly one of the best examples of this is the ship-building industry, the sector of industry in Belfast in which Protestant orivilege nas been most stronery en trenched.
By the Tirst decade or tnis century. however, the divisions between the labou aristocracy ana tne unskined workers i ontain occan to oreak down nev bren down alike in areas like Clydeside, where the working class maintained religious sectarian divisions, and in areas where sectarianism had been entirely forgotten. How does a comparison with mis ex perience cast light on the problem of the working class in Northern Ireland? It would have been interesting to have Geoff's ideas.
I am sorry if I seem to be carping about these fine books, but possibly the fact that they stimulate such questions is a tribute to their achievement.