{"id":22900,"date":"2022-12-26T15:55:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T15:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=22900"},"modified":"2023-09-04T15:38:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:38:55","slug":"the-language-struggle-and-the-challenge-to-the-uk-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2022\/12\/26\/the-language-struggle-and-the-challenge-to-the-uk-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The language struggle and the challenge to the UK state"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article by Allan Armstrong looks at the significance of the struggles around the issue of language in Ireland, Wales and England and how they provide a challenge to the UK state. An edited version of this was given as a talk to the Critical Labour Studies Colloqium, held in Aonach Mhacha, Armagh on 19.2.23<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE LANGUAGE STRUGGLE AND <\/strong>THE CHALLENGE TO THE UK STATE<\/strong><\/p>\n

a) Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

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On Monday December 5th<\/sup>, the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act was passed at Westminster.[1]<\/a> \u00a0On Thursday, December 8th<\/sup>, the consultation period for the SNP government\u2019s proposed Gaelic and Scots Languages Bill[2]<\/a> ended, clearing the way for legislation in the new year. The politics underlying these developments are convoluted but relate to the struggle over the future of the UK, not only in Northern Ireland and Scotland but in Wales and England too.<\/p>\n

b) The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act – Tory reactionary unionists forced to make liberal unionist concessions<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Tories\u2019 backing at Westminster for the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act hardly reflects any commitment to either the Irish or the Ulster Scots (Ullans).\u00a0 Instead, facing pressure, they have fallen back on a longer, liberal unionist inspired tradition which gives recognition to minority languages in an attempt to uphold the Union in the face of potential political challenges – first Welsh (1993 and 1998 at Westminster)[3]<\/a>, then Gaelic (2005 at Holyrood with unionist support)[4]<\/a> ) and now Irish and Ulster Scots (at Westminster, but opposed by the DUP, representing the Unionist\/Loyalist bloc at Stormont).<\/p>\n

Some hardcore Tory reactionary unionists still supported the DUP in their opposition to the Bill. \u00a0But the otherwise reactionary unionist-dominated, Tory government sees this Act\u2019s language concessions as a way to get the constitutional nationalists (Sinn Fein and SDLP) and the liberal unionists (Alliance Party of Northern Ireland) on board to restore the Northern Ireland Executive and Northern Irish Assembly (Stormont mark 2).<\/p>\n

Unionists in Great Britain have long wanted to maintain Northern Ireland\u2019s semi-detached constitutional status, under which its sectarian and fractious politics are kept well clear of Westminster and British media attention.\u00a0 If the DUP continues to boycott Stormont, then perhaps some other carefully selected laws will be imposed by Westminster, to undermine their continued intransigence. \u00a0But the DUP will also be offered the carrot of further government backing to weaken the special position of the EU in Northern Ireland, following Boris Johnson\u2019s insincere backing for the EU Protocol.<\/p>\n

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An Dream Dearg demonstration in Belfast on May 20th 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Dream Dearg (ADD) is the principal organisation promoting the Irish language, and has mounted large demonstrations. \u00a0The first of these, held on May 20th<\/sup>, 2017,[5]<\/a> was organised in Belfast to protest against Sinn Fein\u2019s prioritising the maintenance of its position in the Northern Ireland Executive over the promotion of the Irish language. \u00a0And this year, on May 21st<\/sup>, ADD organised another large demonstration in Belfast[6]<\/a> . ADD has active links to Northern Ireland\u2019s communities of resistance, which had their origins in the Jaitacht[7]<\/a> and the Shaws Road Gaeltacht in West Belfast,[8]<\/a>during the \u2018Troubles\u2019.\u00a0 The UK government and Stormont, including the constitutional nationalists, all want to marginalise these. \u00a0However, ADD, whilst quite understandably celebrating the passing of the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act, is less likely to fall in behind any liberal unionist or constitutional nationalist limitations.<\/p>\n

c) The Welsh language connection, communities of resistance and EU backing for minority languages in these island<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Cymdeithas yr Iath\/Welsh Language Society demonstration over road signs in the 1970s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ADD also looks for inspiration to Cymdeithas yr Iath\/Welsh Language Society (CyI\/WLS)[9]<\/a> with its social approach to language, seeing communities with their livelihoods as central to the maintenance of a living language.\u00a0 CyI\/WLS has been the pacemaker for minority language development within these islands. \u00a0Unlike all other Celtic languages, Welsh is no longer considered an endangered language. \u00a0 \u00a0CyI\/WLS\u2019s long campaign of direct action, with many jailed, was very much based on local communities of resistance. CyI\/WLS has been the principal force behind the significant achievements made for the Welsh language.\u00a0 Whilst Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru are respectively supportive of the Irish and Welsh languages, both ADD or CyI\/WLS remain grounded in the communities of resistance. \u00a0They are prepared to challenge any backsliding by constitutional nationalists. \u00a0And in looking to CyI\/WLS, ADD has shown a wider internationalist approach to language not seen in Sinn Fein, SDLP. Plaid Cymru or the SNP.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite the Welsh language\u2019s official status in Wales within the UK, this position can still be reversed by future British governments under the UKs anti-democratic. sovereignty of the Crown-in-Westminster constitution.\u00a0 The reactionary unionist-dominated Brexit campaign brought this possibility into sharp relief.\u00a0 UKIP, the Brexit Party, many Tories and some Labour figures (and earlier, the maverick populist George Galloway) all declared their open hostility to the Welsh language.\u00a0 Jacob Rees-Mogg went as far as to call Welsh a \u201cforeign language.\u201d [10]<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Whilst EU membership remained, its European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages provided the most effective support for the Welsh, Irish, Ullans and Gaelic languages. \u00a0Therefore, it is not surprising that Welsh-speaking Wales stood out against English-speaking Wales in rejecting Brexit. \u00a0But the reactionary unionist Brexiteers were unable to sustain their anti-Welsh language and often anti-Welsh Senedd offensive in the Senedd elections in 2021. \u00a0The leader of the winning Labour Party in Wales, Mark Drakeford, is a liberal unionist and a Welsh language speaker.\u00a0 His new Labour Welsh government remains committed to the Welsh language and to increasing the powers of the Senedd.<\/p>\n

However, there has also been growing support for Pawb Dan Un Faner Cymru\/All Under One Banner (Cymru) with its commitment to Welsh independence.\u00a0 They are also backed by Undod,[11]<\/a> the Welsh equivalent of the Radical Independence Campaign in Scotland. \u00a0\u00a0In the Welsh-speaking heartland of Gwynedd, the local council voted on 10th October, this year, by 46 to 4, to call for the abolition of the Prince of Wales.[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Thus, there is a good possibility of further developments in the communities of resistance, which have long formed the backbone of the Welsh language.<\/p>\n

In Northern Ireland, the original 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA) made provision for the Irish language by supporting Foras na Gailge (FnG)\/Irish Institute (FnG\/II), an all-Ireland body promoting the Irish language. \u00a0The GFA also promoted Ulster Scots by supporting the Ulster Scots Agency\/Boord o Ulster Scotch (USA\/BoUS).\u00a0 Furthermore, the EU recognised Irish as an official language in the \u2018South\u2019. \u00a0Most Unionists and Loyalists are opposed to any all-Ireland organisations.\u00a0 The late Lord Laird, with a pronounced, if at times eccentric, sectarian past and a history of expenses swindling and paid lobbying, was an early promoter of Ulster Scots to counter the Irish language and Irish Nationalism.\u00a0 He was a founder member of the USA\/BoUS).[13]<\/a> \u00a0In an attempt to prevent the USA\/BoUS being used for sectarian purposes, the EU also helped to create a regional Ulster Scots office in Raphoe, in east County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.\u00a0 Historically many Scots had settled here.<\/p>\n

But now that the UK has left the EU, this places the FnG\/II in a more politically exposed position than CyI\/WLS in Wales, strongly backed by the Welsh Senedd, or even B\u00f2rd na G\u00e0idhlig\/Gaelic Board (BnG\/GB) in Scotland (set up in 2005), backed by Holyrood. \u00a0FnG\/II\u2019s official status now depends on Westminster, which has only ever conceded minority language rights after pressure from below.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>d) Scotland and Ireland \u2013 Irish and Scots Gaelic, Ullans and Lallans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that the Scottish government has undertaken consultations over its proposed Gaelic and Scots Languages Bill, some attention has been focussed upon the Scots or Lallans language.\u00a0 Of all the long-standing languages spoken in these islands, Scots has received the least official recognition. \u00a0This despite Scots derived dialects being widely spoken, particularly in working class and small farmer communities.\u00a0 In some ways the status of Scots is analogous to that of the Norwegian dialects whilst Norway was still ruled by the Swedish Crown.<\/p>\n

There is no grassroots campaigning organisation equivalent to ADD or CyI\/WLS for the Scots language (and that goes for Ulster Scots too). \u00a0However there have been socially committed Scots language activists going back to Billy Kay and today they include for example Victoria McNulty, Len Pennie and Rab Wilson.\u00a0 And popularly supported writers and performing artists such as the late Edwin Morgan, Liz Lochhead, Elaine C. Smith, the Proclaimers and Alan Bissett make extensive use of Scots or Scots derived dialects, as does the internationally recognised author, James Kelman.<\/p>\n

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RMT union banner using Scots language<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some money has been set aside by Holyrood for the promotion of a Scots language dictionary and for the use Scots in the school curriculum. \u00a0However, the main body promoting Lallans, the Scots Language Centre\/Centre for the Scots Leid (SLC\/CfrSL)[14]<\/a> does not enjoy the official recognition given to the Welsh, Irish, Gaelic or even the Ullans promoting language bodies. \u00a0But this could change if a new Gaelic and Scots Languages Act is passed.<\/p>\n

However, despite the absence of the constitutionally entrenched sectarianism underpinning the Stormont mark 2 political order in Northern Ireland, there have been attempts in Scotland both to undermine the Gaelic and Lallans languages and to promote divisions between them.\u00a0 And such attempts to belittle minority language provision in Scotland have not been confined to Unionists as Stuart Campbell, of Wings over Scotland,[15]<\/a> Scotland\u2019s equivalent of England\u2019s Katy Hopkins, has shown.<\/p>\n

Sadly, in Ireland, some Republicans and Socialists replicate this division mongering. \u00a0They display \u00a0the mirror attitude towards Ullans that many Unionists and Loyalists have towards the Irish language \u2013 claiming it is only spoken by a few and promoted by Unionists and Loyalists for anti-Irish purposes.\u00a0 However, there are Ulster Scots speakers and supporters who do not see the promotion of this language in sectarian terms.<\/p>\n

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Indeed, Ullans has historically heavily influenced the speech of Catholics and Irish Nationalists in a swathe of Ulster from east Donegal through large parts of Counties Londonderry, Antrim and Down (north). Indeed, mirroring Linda Ervine\u2019s commitment to the Irish language, there has been a \u00a0Catholic presenter on the weekly Ulster Scots programme, A Kurst O\u2019 Wurds<\/em>[[16]<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>Some support for Ullans has more in common with those in Scotland and England, who champion rural and urban working class speech, and resent upper and middle class disparagement of their speech as \u2018slang\u2019 or \u2018bad English\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>Within Northern Ireland, Unionists elevated the Ulster landlords\u2019 and business leaders\u2019 spoken English and of course the Queen’s English. \u00a0At<\/span>\u00a0times, they were prepared to patronise the \u2018lower orders\u2019 and their speech.\u00a0 Those Ulster Scots advocates who oppose this have already cooperated with Irish language speakers in organising joint events, especially for traditional music.\u00a0 The interpenetration of Irish and Ulster-Scots musical traditions is particularly strong.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Furthermore, going back to the political highpoint of Irish cross-community cooperation, uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, in the late 1790s, many of its United Irish advocates, particularly Ulster-Scots-speaking weavers and their poets, were to the forefront of this struggle.\u00a0 The mainly secular Presbyterian (Dissenter) Belfast leadership of the United Irishmen (and there were prominent women too, both Presbyterians and Catholics in their ranks) also promoted the Irish language and traditional Irish music.\u00a0 Their journal, the Northern Star, <\/em>published an Irish language miscellany, Bolg an tSolair <\/em>in 1795 and used the Irish slogan, Eireann go brach <\/em>\u2013 \u2018Ireland Forever\u2019.[17]<\/a>\u00a0 One of their members, Henry Joy, organised the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792.[18]<\/a><\/p>\n

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And the Scots poet, Robert Burns, who wrote much of his poetry in Lallans, was also sympathetic to the Gaelic language and music.[19]<\/a>\u00a0 He had strong connections with Ulster, and some of its United Irish supporting weaver poets and with Henry Joy, who visited him in Dumfries.[20]<\/a>\u00a0 Interest in Burns transcends a narrow cultural milieu and is international.\u00a0 Burns has recently been enjoying something of a revival in Belfast.<\/p>\n

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Turas at the Skainos Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Linda Ervine and \u00a0the Turas Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And more remarkable is the case of \u201cLinda Ervine, one side of her family \u00a0entrenched in a sectarian political agenda, most recently {in} the\u2026 UVF, another part of her family tradition\u2026 had a deep commitment to secular labour movement politics, through the Communist Party.\u201d[21]<\/a> \u00a0She has become a prominent Irish language rights activist in East Belfast.\u00a0 She is closely involved with the Skainos Centre located in Lower Newtonards Road in East Belfast, a heartland of Loyalist sectarianism.\u00a0 The Skainos Centre is surrounded by many displays of Loyalist murals and paramilitary flags.\u00a0 This makes the existence and success of this non-sectarian, indeed anti-sectarian centre, also supported by the local Methodist Church of Ireland, significant.\u00a0 It houses the Turas Irish Language Programme.[22]<\/a><\/p>\n

However, even Linda Ervine has been cautious over Ullans. \u00a0She promoted a stand-alone Irish Language Act instead.[23]<\/a> \u00a0One reason for this may be seen in the first word of the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act.\u00a0 The use of \u2018identity\u2019 shows the Act is still framed within the terms of the bi-sectarian set-up of the Good Friday Agreement, with its constitutional backing for Unionist\/Loyalist and Nationalist\/Republican identities.\u00a0 Linda Ervine, with her Northern Irish Protestant background, does not want Irish to be equated to one identity or community. And \u00a0even the UK state feels the need to court her. She was awarded an MBE in June 2022.<\/p>\n

Attempts to bridge ethnic thinking which links language to one community or another are to be welcomed, both with regard to the Irish and Ullans languages, and their wider historical and contemporary connections.\u00a0 It would also represent a considerable socio-political advance if the Irish and Scots Gaelic, Ullans and Lallans languages, and their supporters in Ireland and Scotland, better appreciated these links. \u00a0This means going beyond a dismissive plague on both your minority language camps, or seeing only one language as that of the \u2018truly oppressed\u2019.\u00a0 We need more meaningful solidarity to overcome the long-standing legacy of unionist division-mongering, sadly echoed by some cultural nationalists.<\/p>\n

e)The languages of other minorities in these islands<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The tawse used in Scottish schools up to 1986<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There has been another divisive argument, promoted both by class biased unionists and cultural nationalists. \u00a0This has been to dismiss the dialects and accents used by the working class and small farmers, including crofters. \u00a0Schools have long been on the front line of such attempts at suppression. \u00a0\u2018Bad\u2019 English, as well as Irish, Gaelic and Welsh, were often caned or belted out of students. \u00a0But the use of derogatory verbal dismissals continued long after the abolition of physical punishment in schools and can still be found today.\u00a0 Some cultural nationalists argue, though, that any support for Scots dialects will undermine the re-emergence of their historically \u2018pure\u2019 or the emergence of the new synthetic Scots language, first promoted by Hugh MacDiarmid.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Book Trust has argued powerfully against such thinking, particularly in its own field, that of education. \u00a0\u201cCelebrating the use of individual dialects can add richness to any classroom activities\u2026 By valuing each dialect equally, we can help our young people to respect the way other people in Scotland speak and learn about their own and other cultures and communities.\u201d. [24]<\/a> \u00a0Nor is this seen in isolated Scottish terms. \u201cIt can help those with English as a second language to feel more valued, with all languages spoken in the class being considered together\u201d.[25]<\/a><\/p>\n

Such an approach challenges both the ethnic (cultural) basis of British nationalism (promoted by Gordon Brown and Michael Gove) and the increasing attempts by the reactionary unionist government to impose a Scottish-British provincialism. \u00a0They are currently rolling back the limited democratic concessions made under Devolution and denying the right of national self-determination through the use of the anti-democratic Supreme Court.[26]<\/a><\/p>\n

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Benjamin Zephania<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Linton Kwesi Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And, as well as opening up the discussion to those promoting regional dialects in England, such an approach also opens up the possibility of links with particular communities of resistance in England, e.g. Brixton in London, Handsworth in Birmingham and St. Pauls in Bristol.\u00a0 Once again, some Scottish nationalists, as opposed to Scottish internationalists, tend to dismiss any possible links with England, seeing only an undifferentiated chauvinism.\u00a0 But the Black-led communities of resistance in England have developed their own forms of the English language, demonstrated in the works of Linton Kwesi Johnson [27]<\/a>\u00a0and Benjamin Zephaniah.[28]<\/a> \u00a0Linton Kwesi Johnson wrote Inglan is a bitch<\/em>.[29]<\/a>, rather letting unionist and imperialist Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland off the hook!\u00a0 In 2007 Benjamin Zephaniah rejected an OBE.[30]<\/a>\u00a0 (Hamish Henderson, that great Scottish internationalist, and promoter of Scots dialects and Gaelic, author of the great internationalist anthem, Freedom Come All Ye<\/em>, had also rejected an OBE in 1983.)[31]<\/a><\/p>\n

The massive Black Lives Matter protests in England, especially in Bristol in 2020, and the post-Windrush and Grenfell Towers scandals, highlight the importance of people from Black migrant backgrounds. \u00a0They have few illusions in the Union or Empire. \u00a0Furthermore, their communities of resistance retain strong links with the Caribbean, which their former slave ancestors migrated from and where many of their relations still live.\u00a0 One former colonial British West Indian state after another – Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica., Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts-Nevis – is questioning the Crown connection and pushing to be an independent Republic. This isn\u2019t just seen as a political necessity but is also linked to the socio-economic demand for compensation for the horrific British imperial slaving legacy.<\/p>\n

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Toussaint L\u2019Ouverture, leader of the world\u2019s first successful slave revolt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And this in turn takes back once more to that highpoint, in the late 1790s, of Irish cross-community cooperation, uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.\u00a0 There were divisions amongst the Irish Volunteers, with their liberal, Church of Ireland and Presbyterian members (and approved members of the Catholic Irish elite) and its more radical United Irish rank and file members committed to a more secular approach. \u00a0The Irish Volunteer, Waddell Cunningham, promoted a slave trading company. \u00a0In this he was opposed by the United Irish, Thomas McCabe, backed by William Drennan and Margaret McTier.[32]<\/a> \u00a0\u201cJames Napper Tandy condemned the French counter-revolutionary attack on Toussaint L\u2019Overture\u201d,[33]<\/a> the leader of the massive slave revolt for full emancipation. \u201cAnother United Irishman, John Swiney, named one of his sons Toussaint.\u201d[34]<\/a><\/p>\n

Robert McVeigh and Bill Rolston, two figures from the politically engaged section of the Irish intelligentsia, have shown how these events \u201canticipated many of the later tensions between a self-interested Irish nationalism and more principled anti-colonial internationalism.\u201d[35]<\/a> \u00a0Indeed, their arguments point to the contemporary relevance of such tensions in the campaigns for a united Ireland, under the current political conditions. \u00a0On one side there is the possibility of Irish reunification, maybe within the British Commonwealth, but certainly under the City of London and its Irish banking subordinates, and accepting the existing neo-liberal economic order policed by NATO. \u00a0On the other side there is the possibility of completing Ireland\u2019s democratic revolution as a united Irish Republic, fought for by an \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 coalition, extending across these islands and beyond.<\/p>\n

So far, no one has so clearly highlighted this distinction between these two traditions for national self-determination in Scotland, as shown by Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston in Ireland.\u00a0 This is because the Scottish-British component of the British ruling class was even more deeply involved in Black chattel slavery than the Anglo-Irish, the Ulster-Scots and later the Irish-British components of the British ruling class. \u00a0The Scottish-British were to the forefront of imperialist endeavours. \u00a0Union and Empire went hand-in-glove.<\/p>\n

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Lord Melville statue, St. Andrews Square, Edinburgh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And this has contemporary resonance in Scotland. \u00a0In the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests, Sir Thomas Devine OBE, Scotland\u2019s leading historian and recent convert from Labour liberal unionism to constitutional Scottish nationalism, came to the defence of Henry Dundas, Viscount, later Lord Melville, and his statue in Edinburgh\u2019s St. Andrews Square. \u00a0Dundas was the Minister of War and the Colonies who helped delay the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and heavily backed British imperial force to reinstate slavery in Saint Domingue (later Haiti), and upon the Jamaican Maroons, and the Garifuna of St. Vincent.[36]<\/a> \u00a0Devine tried to use his professional position as historian to curtail a debate initiated by another academic, Sir Geoffrey Palmer OBE. \u00a0Palmer , with his Black Jamaican background, is not a professional historian, but a Professor of Life Sciences at Edinburgh\u2019s Heriott-Watt University.[37]<\/a>\u00a0 But in in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter, Devine was also challenged by the Black Canadian professional historian, Melanie Newton, based in Toronto,[38]<\/a> (with its strong Orange imperial tradition, once called the Belfast of Canada) on the very historical grounds, which Devine tends to think he alone is fit to judge.<\/p>\n

Devine is not a reactionary unionist, though, unlike Dundas and some of his other present-day apologists. \u00a0Devine has written well about slavery\u2019s key role in financing Scotland\u2019s commercial and industrial development under the Union. \u00a0Devine\u2019s anti-slavery sentiments appear to be in the William Wilberforce liberal mould; something to be granted by the ruling class at a time that serves them best, and provided they are well compensated. \u00a0Devine\u2019s historical apologetics for Dundas in the past, indicate that, like the SNP leadership (and of course the British Labour branch office – Scottish Labour), he will not support any whole-hearted challenge from below today. \u00a0Instead, he looks to the political leaders of the existing corporate capital dominated world to implement from above, at a time of their own choosing, the changes he would like to see. \u00a0So don\u2019t expect any support from Devine for a campaign of civil disobedience to challenge the UK government\u2019s resort to the Supreme Court to deny any Scottish right of self-determination.<\/p>\n

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Phil Lynott,Thin Lizzie vocalist and guitarist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Leila Abouela.Sudanese born storyteller living in Scotland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But others in the Scottish cultural field have begun to take up Black and other recent migrant authors and artists.\u00a0 This is shown in the Scottish Book Trust list, which includes for example, Lela Abouela, Safina Mazhar, Frank McChebe, Chitra Ramaswany, Tawona Sithole, Leela Soma, Surieh Tei and Sean Wai-Keung.[39]<\/a> \u00a0And, in Ireland, Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston show that, for example, Thin Lizzie\u2019s Phil Lynott was \u201cGuyanese-Irish, the singer and actress Samantha Mumba is Zambian-Irish, the footballer Paul McGrath is Nigerian-Irish, the actress Ruth Negga is Ethiopian Irish, – {and} the singer Loah Sally-Matu Garnett is Sierra Leonian-Irish.[40]<\/a><\/p>\n

The British Empire and its successor Twenty Six Counties state in Ireland, were designed as a hierarchical political order, where all but the native colonial elites, e.g. nabobs and emirs, were allowed, at best, temporary residence to meet British war and economic needs, before they were meant to return to their original homelands. \u00a0However, in defiance of these restrictions, many migrants became permanent residents, although always treated as second-class subjects.\u00a0 But their multicultural \u2018internationalism from below\u2019 traditions have become rooted in mixed personal relationships, communities and trade unions, and in new forms of cuisine, music and the English language.<\/p>\n

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Riski Sunak schooled at Winchester College, one the most elite colleges in the world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Such developments were one of the main targets of the British reactionary unionist\u2019s Brexit offensive.\u00a0 The UK state\u2019s earlier state-policed \u2018multiculturalism from above\u2019, with its anti-racist laws and state-promoted quangos, was designed, from the late 1960s onwards, to draw in and divide the growing Black- and Asian- British resistance to the state\u2019s deep-seated racism. \u00a0This racism stemmed from the UK\u2019s imperial legacy. \u00a0But this settlement is now under attack from the Right (including Labour.) \u00a0Yet, as with those earlier nabobs and emirs, it is possible today for the very rich and rich from ethnic minority backgrounds still to be fully accepted as British. \u00a0To do this, they must support the existing socio-economic system in the UK, corporate capital\u2019s global order, membership of NATO and all the wars needed to maintain this order. \u00a0The current Tory government, led by Rishi Sunak, abounds in such people. \u00a0Often their private school backgrounds also trained them to speak a different English to the majority sharing their ethnic backgrounds. \u00a0The racist British Far Right may be appalled at this, but the British ruling class is more than prepared to augment its shrinking white numbers, if newcomers sign up fully to British chauvinism.\u00a0 And, showing that class far overrides ethnic background, Priti Patel and Suella Braverman have been to the forefront of attacks on asylum seekers and other migrants.<\/p>\n

The Tory Brexiteers\u2019 Nationality and Borders Bill is designed not to end migration (despite what the Far Right hoped) but to create a new hierarchy in the labour market.\u00a0 This would include permanent British residents, with greater employment rights, yet still within an ever more precarious workforce. \u00a0Below them would be different grades of workers and students, allowed to take jobs or university courses for strictly allotted periods of time, when it is profitable for companies and higher education institutions to take them on. \u00a0And there would be a third, super-exploitable, layer of non-documented workers, subjected to constant racist abuse and imprisonable and deportable at will.<\/p>\n

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Noel Grealish, former \u2018liberal\u2019 Progressive Democrat, now independent Hard Right TD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And the rise of authoritarian national populism within the EU (and elsewhere in Europe), is likely to mean that many of the worst features of \u2018Brexit Britain\u2019 will appear in the EU member states too. \u00a0\u00a0Some of the preconditions for the promotion of a specifically ethnic Irish nationalism had already been put in place under the 2004 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Law. \u00a0This has helped to provide the basis for the development of Hard and Far Right in Ireland.\u00a0 This has been shown by the 2018 Irish presidential candidate, Peter Casey, the independent TD Noel Grealish, Aontu, the Irish Freedom Party and Renua.<\/p>\n

The conditions for the rise of this Hard and Far Right were also produced under the EU\u2019s own imposed bureaucratic \u2018internationalism from above\u2019. \u00a0This was policed by the EU\u2019s existing state members on behalf of their various ruling classes.\u00a0 But in opposition to this, those people, who have been the product of the countervailing \u2018multi-culturalism from below\u2019, opposed Brexit.\u00a0 This was highlighted in London\u2019s vote to Remain.\u00a0 It is this \u2018multiculturalism from below\u2019, politicised as a wider \u2018internationalism from below\u2019, that Socialists who opposed Brexit put to the forefront of their campaign.<\/p>\n

f) Conclusion <\/strong><\/p>\n

But there is also a remaining obstacle to treating the issue of language and culture seriously and that comes from sections of the Left.\u00a0 They tend to think of capitalism in economistic terms, as primarily a system of exploitation.\u00a0 This leads them to concentrate on so-called \u2018bread and butter\u2019 issues, seeing political or constitutional matters as largely the concerns of the \u2018chattering classes.\u2019 But during periods of crisis, constitutional issues tend to come to the fore, and the \u2018chattering classes\u2019 are joined by more rooted classes, including the working class. This became very apparent during the 2012-14 Scottish independence campaign.<\/p>\n

However, there is an even greater reluctance by many on the Left to address cultural matters seriously, including language. \u00a0This, despite many individual Socialists\u2019 strong commitments to say specific football teams and musical artists. But to address culture properly it is necessary to see alienation as the third prop for capitalism, after exploitation (the extraction of surplus value and unpaid labour for domestic work) and oppression (the denial of democratic rights). \u00a0Furthermore, our answer to alienation is self-determination in its widest social sense, just as our answer to exploitation is emancipation and our answer to oppression is liberation.[41]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
James Connolly \u2013 champion of the Irish language<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In relation to language, few have put it better than James Connolly. \u00a0\u201cIt is well to remember that nations \u2026 which abandon their language in favour of that of an oppressor do so, not because of altruistic motives, or because of the love of the brotherhood of man, but from a slavish and cringing spirit. \u00a0From a spirit which cannot exist side by side with the revolutionary idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such an understanding could help us to better appreciate one of the key forms that self-determination takes under capitalism \u2013 counter-cultural resistance and cultural celebration. The capitalist ruling class has developed formidable means to deal with our resistance.\u00a0 We have seen this in the decades-long capitalist counter-offensive since the last International Revolutionary Wave from 1968-75. \u00a0Their success in this regard can lead to quite long periods of lowered economic and political struggle, and apparent worker acceptance of their rule. However, such is nature of the human creative mind that the reappearance of resistance often occurs first in the cultural arena. \u00a0This resistance to alienation is harder to police, despite all ruling class efforts to do so.<\/p>\n

Counter-cultural resistance and cultural celebration are key components of any attempts to assert greater national self-determination.\u00a0 Liberal unionism, constitutional and cultural nationalism cannot maintain the language diversity needed as part of a wider culturally diverse and environmentally sustainable world. \u00a0This can best be done by uniting the exploited and oppressed on the basis of \u2018internationalism from below\u2019, to achieve self-determination in its widest social sense. \u00a0For Socialists this should begin by promoting our unity in diversity across these islands. In the meantime, we can celebrate the passing of the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act and look forward to the passing of the Gaelic and Scots Languages Bill.<\/p>\n

18.12.22<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/belfastmedia.com\/historic-day-as-irish-language-legislation-officially-becomes-law<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/consult.gov.scot\/education-reform\/gaelic-and-scots-scottish-languages-bill\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[3] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Welsh_language#Status<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[4] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.abdn.ac.uk\/sll\/disciplines\/gaelic\/the-gaelic-language-323.php<\/a><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk\/news\/northern-ireland\/thousands-join-irish-language-act-march-in-belfast-35736910.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/news\/ireland\/irish-news\/large-crowds-take-to-belfast-streets-in-support-of-irish-language-legislation-1.4885032<\/a><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=Jailtacht<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[8] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/belfastmedia.com\/pobal-bhothar-seoighe-story-of-the-shaws-road-gaeltacht-told-in-bbc-documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.dearg.ie\/en\/nuacht\/2022-12-01-welsh-language-rights<\/a><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/nation.cymru\/news\/jacob-rees-mogg-calls-welsh-a-foreign-language-and-compares-it-to-latin\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/undod.cymru\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[12] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2022\/oct\/07\/gwynedd-council-calls-for-abolition-of-title-prince-of-wales<\/a><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2018\/jul\/11\/lord-laird-obituary<\/a><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.scotslanguage.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/wingsoverscotland.com\/the-lesser-of-two-stupids\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[16]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ian Malcolm, Towards Inclusion: Protestants and the Irish Language<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>p.218, footnote 68 (Blackstaff Press Belfast, 2009)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

[17]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Brendan Clifford and Pat Muldowney, Bolg an Tsolair<\/em>, first printed by the Northern Star <\/em>in 1795 (Athol Books, 1999, Belfast)\u00a0Ian<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

p.218, footnote 68 (Blackstaff Press Belfast, 2009)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[18]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John Magee, The Heritage of the Harp<\/em>, pp. 8-13 (Linen Hall Library, 1992, Belfast)<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/electricscotland.com\/familytree\/frank\/burns_lives240.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/discoverulsterscots.com\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/2021-05\/Belfast% 26%23039%3Bs%20Bonnie%20Burns%20%281%29.pdf.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paul Stewart, Tommy McKearney, Gearoid O Machail, Patricia Campbell, and Brian Garvey, The State of Northern Ireland and the Democratic Deficit:Between Sectarianism and Neo-,Liberalism, <\/em>p. 22 (Vagabond Voices, 2018, Glasgow)<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Turas<\/a><\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Turas#Advocacy<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>[24]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.scottishbooktrust.com\/uploads\/store\/mediaupload \/2703\/ file\/Using%20Scots%20Language-%20FINAL.pdf<\/a> – p.5<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[25] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.scottishbooktrust.com\/uploads\/store\/mediaupload \/2703\/ file\/Using%20Scots%20Language-%20FINAL.pdf<\/a>\u00a0– p.3<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[26] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/bellacaledonia.org.uk\/2022\/11\/26\/let-the-people-decide-3\/<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[27] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Linton_Kwesi_Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[28] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benjamin_Zephaniah<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[29] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/genius.com\/Linton-kwesi-johnson-inglan-is-a-bitch-lyrics<\/a><\/p>\n

[30]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/12\/me-i-thought-obe-me-up-yours-i-thought\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[31] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/18026475.brief-history-hamish-henderson-whose-life-need-library-recount\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[32] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston, Anois ar theact an tSamhaidh \u2013 Ireland, Colonialism and the Unfinished Revolution<\/em>, (AattrS\/ICatUR<\/em>) p. 339 (Beyond the Pale Books, 2021, Belfast)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[33]\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AattrS\/ICatUR<\/em>,\u00a0 p. 339 footnote 14<\/p>\n

[34]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ibid,<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[35]\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AattrS\/ICatUR<\/em> , p. 339<\/p>\n

[36]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.historyworkshop.org.uk\/henry-dundas-naming-empire-and-genocide\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[37] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/19866788.tom-devine-geoff-palmer-racism-row-edinburghs-links-slavery\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[38] \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.historyworkshop.org.uk\/henry-dundas-naming-empire-and-genocide\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[39] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.scottishbooktrust.com\/writing-and-authors<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[40] \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0AattrS\/ICatUR<\/em>, p. 397<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[41] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/07\/exploitation-oppression-and-alienation-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination\/<\/a> – Alienation<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

___________<\/p>\n

also see:<\/p>\n

The Irish Language Act is for everybody – Fergus O’Hare<\/a><\/p>\n

Cultural capitulation and cultural resistance in Ireland – Socialist Democracy (Ireland)<\/a><\/p>\n

Exploitation, oppression and alienation; emancipation, liberation and self-determination \u00a0– Allan Armstrong, RCN\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0– Alienation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following article by Allan Armstrong looks at the significance of the struggles around the issue of language in Ireland, Wales and England and how they provide a challenge to the UK state. An edited version of this was given as a talk to the Critical Labour Studies Colloqium, held in Aonach Mhacha, Armagh on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1861,1867,1873,1846,1874,1868,8975,1860,18,1863,1864,1878,1876,1875,1877],"tags":[230],"class_list":["post-22900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alienation-self-determination","category-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination","category-against-unionism","category-british-imperialism","category-republicanism","category-against-imperialism","category-black-liberation","category-other-social-struggles","category-political-campaigns","category-cultural-celebration","category-our-history","category-england-against-unionism","category-ireland-against-unionism","category-scotland-against-unionism","category-wales-against-unionism","tag-author-allan-armstrong"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.scot\/@rcfscotland\/109580787810114878","error":""},"views":6155,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22900"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26236,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22900\/revisions\/26236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}