Tomás Ó Flatharta

Paul Murphy TD (People Before Profit, Dublin South-West) has written an interesting article :

Learning to Swim,;Paul Murphy; December 31 2023

It is published on the ISJ site, a British website :

“International Socialism is associated with the [British] Socialist Workers Party, but articles express the opinions of individual authors unless otherwise stated. We welcome proposals for articles and reviews for International Socialism..”

Paul Murphy is replying to a Joseph Choonara article; link here Revolutionaries and Elections

Here is Paul Murphy’s core argument :

“However, Choonara’s assessment is almost entirely negative. The lessons he draws for today are stark, for instance, downplaying any suggestion of revolutionaries participating in a hypothetical Jeremy Corbyn-led break from the British Labour Party. Instead, he emphasises the importance of simply building an independent revolutionary party.

This approach seems equivalent to someone listing all of the people who have drowned and concluding that it is best to avoid getting in the water. A cheap response would be to list all of the revolutionary groups that did not participate seriously in electoral work or broader parties over the last two decades. Many of these have not exactly prospered either.

Instead of taking that easy route, I want to rebalance Choonara’s assessment and make an argument against a retreat from broad parties and electoral work. There is an alternative: to learn to swim. Revolutionary socialists should participate in elections and broader formations with their eyes wide open to the pitfalls and dangers present, while also seeking to take advantage of the opportunities they also contain.”

Constructive and critical discussion on these important issues is very welcome