“What is the Communist Party?“
The naivety and lack of political or any other awareness of the CPI General Secretary, Jimmy Corcoran, is exposed in the title of an article in the April issue of Socialist Voice. He asks a specific question, “What is the Communist Party?” but goes on to answer a completely different question – what is a communist party? Or, more accurately, what should the fundamentals of a communist party be?
In the usual emptiness of substance exhibited by ‘leaders’ who exist in their own bubble, Corcoran goes on about what allegedly separates the ordinary folk from the elite and enlightened communists – presumably the communists inside the CPI, if we refer back to the headline.
When pontificating on any subject it is well to be aware of your history and your current surroundings. Anyone and everyone knows from the outset that the CPI is a failed entity. The reasons why that is the case are many and often complex, but it clearly is the case.
Just because your party is built on a sound foundation of Marxism-Leninism it does not necessarily follow that the alleged communists running the party behave in an ethical fashion in observing or working towards the principles espoused. Clearly, as we have exposed in detail in the past, the leadership of the CPI and most of its membership have debased or rejected most of the principles they have the temerity to lecture the rest of us on.
It’s like countries and armies always stating that god is on their side to justify their positions as they start another war.
We know how hollow such claims are, but it is no different from the CPI boasting that Marx and Engles and Lenin and Connolly are all on its side. At least, that is what it claims. Unlike the CPI, we will not attempt to speak for the renowned figures above, but instead we will ask how the actions and inactions of the CPI fit in with their writings. In doing so, we will no longer offer the benefit of the doubt regarding the accusations we have made: the CPI, in repeatedly failing to defend, correct, repudiate, or otherwise address any of the accusation has, de facto, accepted the veracity of our claims.
What a difference a word makes
Corcoran had full control over the question he asked and the least we should expect is that he would answer his own question. Naturally, he doesn’t, instead he goes on to describe the fundamentals of a generic communist party. Divorced from reality, the headline also has the nerve to ascribe to itself the false impression that the CPI is the only communist party in Ireland, denying the existence of the Irish Communist Party – a party the CPI, with its antics, literally gave birth to.
In asking the wrong question he opens himself and his party to having others answer the question for him. Corcoran’s article neatly exposes the difference between describing a communist party as distinct from the communist party. It is another unnecessary faux pas that also escaped the notice of the editor of Socialist Voice and which between them has once again invited unintended scrutiny.
Corcoran ends his article with a challenge: “If you want to understand Marxism, ask a communist!” Of course, that is just a generalised nonsensical statement that could only come from a true believer. However, if you want to understand the CPI you need look no further than these pages.
Invoking high principles comes with a cost and with the express probability that non-adherence to the principles will get mercilessly exposed. In other words, people in glasshouses should not invite anyone to throw stones at them.
The careless language used by Corcoran in the title does exactly that and consequently, in our next post, we will ask some of the self-exalted ‘communists’ in the CPI to explain their particular take on the practical application of Marxist principles.