We all make mistakes
We all make mistakes. While most mistakes are avoidable the real issue is: what is done subsequently to undo or mitigate a mistake? Indeed, what is done subsequently will determine several factors but particularly, was it a mistake in the first place? The subsequent response will also reveal the strength and character – or otherwise – of the erring party or individual.
Members have been expelled without recourse to any form of appeal in clear breaches of the Party Constitution. Members have been bullied out of the Party. Members have been subjected to show trials – ‘investigations’ with no terms of reference, sometimes without the member even knowing that a trial had taken place.In many of these incidences, the Party was invited to approach issues in a manner compliant with its Constitution, to amend or correct ‘judgements’, to engage with aggrieved members or to respond to allegations or complaints.
Some mistakes are difficult to undo or mitigate and offended parties may also make it difficult to find a way to resolve issues. On the other hand, some offended parties just want a correction or an agreed remedy.
Last Autumn, a reader of our site pointed out to us that our website is hosted by Wix.com and that Wix.com is an Israeli entity. Of course, we were horrified at this fact and also that we could have made such a basic error. After all, it is not difficult to determine the background of most entities.
Yet, people who would not buy an orange without checking where it originated went on to buy an Israeli product of much more significance. Such a mistake was entirely avoidable and should not have happened.
Our response, while causing us significant inconvenience and a drain on our time and expertise was to find another host. This is the last posting that will appear through Wix.com and a new site will be launched next month.
Naturally, we are embarrassed that we made such a mistake and worse, that we also contributed to the Israeli economy.
Over the past 12 months, Guerrilla Communists has pointed out a great number of ‘mistakes’ accumulated by the Communist Party of Ireland. The specifics are contained in the articles in this site and they range from policy and organisational issues to direct attacks on numerous individual members.
It is clearly wrong to expel members in a manner that defies its own Constitution. It is clearly wrong to hold ‘investigations’ against members who are not even aware that an investigation is underway, who have no knowledge of the allegations made against them and who are subsequently denied any form of appeal. It is clearly wrong to ‘convict’ members of alleged offenses which they were not even charged with. To impose conditions on members that results in their expulsion from the Party if they do not stop doing something they have not been charged with and have never done in the first place. To expel a large block of members using entirely illegitimate methods. Which brings us back to the concept of mistakes.
Mistakes can only merit the name if the actions have been committed in error, whether through ignorance or lack of diligence. Otherwise, they are not mistakes – they are deliberate policy and practice. For as long as mistakes remain uncorrected, they have the real and enduring capacity to come back and haunt you.
A legal adage declares: “Men are presumed to intend the natural consequences of their acts.” (and please – just for once – all you delicate petals in the CPI, do not fixate on the word “men” in the above quote).
For a political entity to put itself in that position and then refuse to undo the mistakes is just reckless. It appears that retaining and enforcing ‘control’ at leadership level and maintaining their own delusional status at every other level in the Party is more important than correcting errors or genuinely seeking to advance the Party itself and its policies.
As the self-styled and self-appointed guardian of Marxism in Ireland, the onus is on the CPI to achieve and maintain the highest political, organisational and principled standards. It has undertaken those tasks in the most abysmal and vulgar ways possible.
Once again, we offer the CPI a right of reply to any and all allegations contained in these pages.