“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, 2025 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 a series of short essay we try to answer some of the questions.
“What is the Communist Party?” (Part 1)
In asking the wrong question Corcoran opens himself and his party to having others answer the question for him. That’s exactly what we start to do in this opening part.
“What is the Communist Party?” (Part 2)
When Jimmy Corcoran, CPI General Secretary, challenged his readers to consult a communist if they want to get an understanding of Marxism we thought it reasonable to do just that. We ask past and present leaders of the party – Eugene McCartan, Jimmy Corcoran, Jimmy Doran, Ciara Ní Mhaoilfhinn, Gearóid Ó Machail, Aaron Nolan, or anybody else representing the party to tell us all about socialism, all about social justice, all about democracy, all about equality, all about human dignity.
“What is the Communist Party?” (Part 3)
We take a close look at two long-standing leaders of the party and their positions on socialist democracy and ethics, and trade union procedures.
“What is the Communist Party?” (Part 4)
In our penultimate part of our response to the question “What is the Communist Party?” we look at the recent history and political ineptness of Corcoran and of Ciara Ní Mhaoilfhinn, the current National Chairwoman of the party.
“What is the Communist Party?” (Part 5)
In this concluding chapter we look at the phenomenon of enduring weak leadership, a permanently compliant membership, poor strategies, and the history of pernicious ‘conflict resolution’ tactics within the Communist Party of Ireland.