British and Irish Communist Organisation
The British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) was a small group based in London, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin.
The group produced a number of pamphlets and regular publications, including The Irish Communist and Workers Weekly in Belfast.
Τhe group currently expresses itself through Athol Books with its premier publication being the Irish Political Review.
Brendan Clifford was an Irish emigrant from the Sliabh Luachra area of County Cork who had migrated to London and become involved in left-wing politics there.
[5] One founder-member, Dennis Dennehy, was Secretary of the Dublin Housing Action Committee, which organised a highly successful protest movement in the early 1960s.
[6] In the initial stages of the conflict in Northern Ireland, the ICO (as it then was) took part along with the IRA in the defence of Catholic areas from Protestant attacks.
A number of members were opposed to this new direction (including Jim Lane) and resigned to form the Cork Workers' Club.
[10][11] The B&ICO argued that it was the Southern government's refusal to accept the Ulster Protestants' right of self-determination that was the cause of the "Troubles": The Two Nations theory led B&ICO to consider that the Ulster Workers Council Strike[13] was based on a reasonable demand – the rejection of a Council of Ireland until the Republic of Ireland dropped its constitutional claim to be the only legitimate government of the whole island.
[15] The WA had both Catholic and Protestant members, some of whom had been involved in the various civil rights and socialist groupings in the late 1960s in Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Notable WA members included Eamonn O'Kane, Jeff Dudgeon, Henry Patterson, Peter Cosgrove, Paul Bew and Manus O'Riordan.
[17] The Workers' Association also supported the Fine Gael government's strong measures against the IRA, while condemning Conor Cruise O'Brien for not deleting Articles 2 and 3.
[26] A small faction disagreed with the B&ICO leadership's stance on Workers' Control, (which it criticised as "Fabian" and "fundamentally anti-Marxist") and split to form the Communist Organisation in the British Isles.
[27] One noted and controversial writer associated with the B&ICO was Bill Warren, who wrote a book and several articles challenging the traditional Leninist view of imperialism.
[30] The B&ICO opposed Welsh nationalism[31] and Scottish independence [32] It also strongly supported the state of Israel, in contrast to the anti-Zionist positions of much the radical left of the time.
[46] In tandem with these campaigns, the B&ICO also urged a hard line against the Provisional IRA; it opposed the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike.
[48] In August 1988, Clifford was involved in controversy after his publication, A Belfast Magazine, printed an article, "The Knitting Professor" that was strongly critical of Mary McAleese.
The case was eventually settled out of court in September 1990; as a result of the undisclosed settlement, A Belfast Magazine ceased publication for several years [49] The B&ICO's British branch, the Ernest Bevin Society, continued to agitate for Workers' Control throughout the 1980s.
[55] It said, "we are not at all convinced that parties based in either Dublin or London have any real or significant contribution to make to Northern Ireland politics by organising there.
