The vanguard party does not mean that we are elitists, nor that we seek to limit our size. On the contrary, there are numerous examples of very large vanguard parties. It is about the quality of our members, not the quantity of them. Revolutionising Irish society will mean growing the Party to many times its present size, but we will not sacrifice our ideology to chase numbers. Any attempt to adopt this approach has ended in either surrender to social democracy or failure. The concept and praxis of the vanguard party is essential as we seek to rebuild, and for the achievement of our final goal. Without it, there cannot be a party of and for the working class.

Strengthening Our Ideology and Theory

A vanguard party requires ongoing ideological and theoretical work. As noted, a number of efforts have been made in recent years to improve these areas through political education and theoretical publications, though they suffered from resistance and/or neglect by those whose ultimate aim was to abandon our ideology. A priority for the Workers Party going forward is the revitalisation of ideological and theoretical work.

Our members recognise that political education, ideological training, and theoretical engagement is not something that happens once, when you join, and then is complete. Rather it is an ongoing process in which we are all engaged as new themes and issues emerge in the class struggle. One prominent example is climate change, the ideological importance of which has been growing, and will only continue to grow. We must seek to put ideological and theoretical discussion on a more concrete and regular basis.

Recent events have demonstrated how strongly attached are our members to our ideology and vision, but at the same time we should acknowledge that people who were comrades of long-standing proved to be ideologically weak, abandoning the principles the Workers Party was built upon to support those seeking to overturn them. This is a reminder of the importance of ongoing ideological and theoretical work for all members.

It is vital that ideology and theory resume a more prominent role at branch level, including time being devoted at every branch meeting for ideological and theoretical discussion, whether through theoretical material or by discussing how our analysis applies to specific situations. We already possess educational materials of relatively recent vintage on key aspects such as the vanguard party, political economy, the environment, and scientific socialism. These were approved by the-then CEC. The incoming CEC must ensure that these are updated, and that they then form the basis for education programmes for new members, and also for wider discussions among all branches and members. Similarly, it should ensure that a theoretical journal is re-established and produced regularly to help raise the level of theoretical debate within the Party. The incoming CEC should look at how best to present these materials. They do not necessarily need to appear only in the traditional manner via print, and a hybrid approach that marries printed with video and electronic material may well be preferable. Any theoretical journal might well be best appearing only electronically, though the exact method of delivery is something for those the CEC mandates as responsible to decide. There is no doubt, however, that the increased accessibility of electronic materials should be strongly considered in the implementation of our theoretical and ideological programme. Ideological and theoretical discussion are not just important for internal reasons. Rebuilding the Workers Party means getting out and talking to people about our ideas, it means being able to explain them clearly and convincingly to attract new members and voters. It will provide the springboard without which we cannot revitalise and rebuild.

Applying Our Ideology: Fundamental Party Positions

Our ideology shapes our analysis of any situation. The dialectical materialist method and the Marxist-Leninist analysis and understanding of society means that we take the following as basic fundamentals of our society: • that capitalism is an exploitative and oppressive economic system which sees the minority appropriating for themselves the wealth produced by the majority of the population • that class is the fundamental factor determining our experience of society, and that class reflects ultimately who owns the means of production • that political and social power in a capitalist system serve the interests of the rich • that the interests of the majority, even of life on the planet itself, are sacrificed to those of the rich • that this society is the product of a particular set of economic and social circumstances, circumstances which can be changed through the collective action of the majority, as represented by the vanguard party of the working class • that it is only through the working-class majority assuming ownership of the means of production and the power of the state the system of capitalist exploitation can be overturned and a new era of human history inaugurated, the era of genuine freedom Accordingly, this Ard Fheis reiterates the Workers Party’s analysis and position on a number of vital issues.

Socialism is the Alternative

The current era, inaugurated by the unbridled confidence capitalism took from the successful counter-revolutions in the former socialist states and exacerbated both by the increased tempo of imperialist military intervention and the crisis that shook capitalism in 2008, is a deeply reactionary one. No longer held in check by fear that their own populations would embrace socialism, the capitalist powers and multinational corporations set about ruthlessly remaking the world in their own image. They were aided by the near-total surrender of traditional social democracy, epitomised by the Blair years. They launched concerted and ongoing efforts to complete the deregulation and privatisation agendas so central to Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980s, and ravished the economies of the former socialist states. Not content with taking control of more and more resources, they settled scores with old enemies, often with disastrous results for civilian populations of countries targeted in one way or another. Just recently we have been reminded of the consequences in Libya, with thousands killed following the collapse of a dam left to rot in the absence of a central government. The intensification of competition among the imperialist powers has played a major role in the Ukraine war. Socialism offers the alternative to such barbarism.

This is not to say that there have not been acts of resistance, and positive signs. For example, despite all the problems they face, the Cuban people have continued heroically their struggle for socialism. In the Americas more broadly, the people, so often subjected to brutal fascist governments backed by the US, have repeatedly turned to the left in elections, evidencing a desire for a more equal society and a socialist future, and millions have been lifted out of poverty.

Mass protest movements have repeatedly sprung up to oppose rampant capitalism and its failings, such as the anti-capitalist movements of the late 1990s and Occupy in the early 2010s. However, these movements also provide a salutary lesson. Lacking the ideological framework necessary to analyse the system they opposed, and the organisational approaches needed to harness the anger and energy of the protests, they have left little legacy in ideological or organisational terms. They represent wasted opportunities, and serve as a reminder of the need for Marxist-Leninism and the vanguard party. The attacks by the Venezuelan government on the Communist Party serve as a further reminder that there is no substitute for the correct approach to theory and praxis.

Throughout this period, along with our allies internationally, the Workers Party has been clear that socialism is the alternative. In 1993, Desi O’Hagan’s The Future is Socialism brilliantly analysed the trends within capitalism and social democracy that would dominate succeeding decades, and reiterated clearly the need for the Workers Party. That has not changed in 2023. In fact, the necessity to ensure the future is socialism has become all the more urgent given the scale of environmental damage done since then, and its accelerating impact. We can no longer tolerate a world where people like Jeff Bezos makes billions through hugely exploitative labour conditions, then accelerate climate change with vanity projects to go to space.

There is no question that economic changes in Ireland have had profound social effects, and improved living standards for many. However, much of this wealth is notional, part of multinational corporation tax dodging. The wealth that has stayed in Ireland has been extremely unequally distributed. We see the consequences of this, allied to the lack of a large party offering the socialist alternative, in homelessness, a health service in crisis, unaffordable housing and extortionate rents and prices, especially in Dublin.

The real story of government policy north and south for the last fifteen years has been austerity for the people and a bonanza for the bourgeoisie. Every day brings more and more evidence of the slow collapse of key public services and the mounting problems facing the poor, and of the callous response of those with political power, in Dublin and Westminster, and among those in Northern Ireland who refuse to restore the government.

The reality is that austerity works for the rich, whether they be our native propertied class or the international giant companies that are based on our island for tax reasons, or the financial sector whose dominance has grown exponentially over the last 40 years or so.

The idea that There Is No Alternative dominates political and economic thinking on our island. Even those who present themselves as the radical alternative in Ireland embrace this – as seen, for example, in the near-total consensus to bail out the banks which will cost generations of Irish workers billions. We reject this Thatcherite mantra completely, and the policies that flow from it. We reject the idea that the only hope for economic growth in Northern Ireland is to transform it into the sort of tax haven offered by the Irish state. We reject too the idea that it is possible to fully overturn capitalism through cooperatives and collective enterprises while neglecting the fundamental question of political power.

Socialism is the alternative. And building socialism means building a party of the working class capable of achieving power, and unleashing the immense power of the people and of the state to transform our economy, society, and way of life. Nothing short of a government in the hands of the workers offers any prospect of successfully ending capitalism and its attendant poverty, inequality, oppression, violence, and division. The Workers Party has and will always fight for real improvements in the lives of working people in the here and now, but we remain unwavering in our understanding of the necessity of state power and state action, and in our commitment to transforming ourselves into a party that can implement the socialist alternative.