The following is an opinion piece from a Waterford Socialist Republican.
Poirt Lairge, 06/11/2022
On the 4th of this November, British communist author Peter Frost wrote an article for The Morning Star’s wesbite titled “White or Red, Wear Your Poppy With Pride”. The Morning Star is the official publication of the revisionist Communist Party of Britain, of which Frost is a regular contributor. This article lives among other chauvinistic scraps such as the occasional celebration of the “democratic” revolution of the New Model Army, Oliver Cromwell’s army which committed mass genocide in Ireland. The content of the article is absolutely brimming with the bootlicking “left” apologia for imperialism which the Irish Socialist Republican movement is so familiar with from various British “socialist” movements. In his article, Frost, drawing on personal family anecdotes, speaks warmly of the two main institutions which produce the imperialist bloodstained poppies which are so well-recognised here in Ireland as a symbol of cultural imperialism and the influence of the terrorist Crown Forces.
Namely, the first of these institutions is the British Legion, the producer of the red poppy that floods the 6 Irish Counties under British military occupation every year, which Frost praises for how “it set up its own poppy factory which employed disabled ex-servicemen to make them. Today they produce and sell over 45 million lapel poppies, 120,000 wreaths and one million small wooden remembrance crosses. Just like the one Ann plants to remember her dad and granddad…”. The second institution, which is of far less relevance, is the producer of the slightly less malicious but functionally identical white poppy, the irrelevant Peace Pledge Union, which Frost very happily pats on the back for producing their “plastic free, biodegradable, and recyclable” poppies in a co-operative.
The white poppy differs from the red poppy in that it supposedly commemorates all victims of war, including both civilians and the Crown Forces, rather than just the latter. This liberal and please-all view of British imperialism and conquest runs like a river through this section of British pacifist movement who have always been so silent over the British military occupation of Ireland on their doorstep in comparison to their passionate denounciations of events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Though less ardently imperialist, the Peace Pledge Union is far from the quaint group of eco-conscious anti-war co-operatives that Frost seeks to advertise them as, being soft-apologists for the terrorists of the Crown Forces under the guise of remorse for their victims. However even in England, to wear one of these poppies often draws harsh criticism and controversy, as even these re-coloured poppies are often not considered unashamedly pro-military enough.
What Frost, through all his teary eyed anecdotes and talk of “pride”, convenienty forgets to mention the support that the British Legion provides for the Crown Froces. The Royal British Legion, whose headquarters was recently paint bombed by Irish Socialist Republicans as part of the Annual Poppywatch Patrols, is an active propaganda and recruitment wing of the British military. The Legion, under the patronage of Charles Windsor, the commander-in-chief of the thugs of the Royal Parachute Regiment who carried out the Bogside Massacre in occupied Ireland, provides “Career Services” for those considering becoming hired killers for the British imperialist war machine. Also, quite inevitably, they have had their fair share of predictable connections with Loyalism, the ideology of the fascist death squads with whom it happily marches alongside in their obnoxious military parades in Ireland. It proudly provides funding and support for serving British imperialist terroists in the Occupied Six Counties. The British Legion provides financial support and backing for the terrorists and murderers of the British military who are currently occupying our country, while so many British “progressives” call on their members to donate to them and buy their symbols of oppression “with pride”.
Perhaps most frustratingly for Irish republicans, Frost sings the praises of the imperialist poppy, recalling “the single colourful wreath of orchids and other tropical blooms celebrating the fact that not all those who laid down their lives were white or British”, as though the bulk of these non-British lives thrown into the British imperialist meat grinder were not either heartless traitors who chose to become mercenaries for their oppressor, or clueless young boys picked up from Britain’s colonies on false promises or by force, such as the tens of thousands of Irishmen decieved into fighting for the British war machine in the First Wold War at the behest of John Redmond. Even today the British Crown Forces freely advertise and recruit in both the Occupied Six Counties and the Free State. Yet still, Frost romanticises this ugly aspect of British imperialists warfare with colourful, emotive writing, as though there is some kind of diverse and multicultural beauty in this annual poppy hysteria.
We would say instead, that instead of wearing poppies with “pride”, if there are any supposed anti-imperialists out there sporting this symbol, they should wear it with shame. However, we expect no such shame to enter the heads of the Communist Party of Britain. Far from the genuine best parts of the communist tradition which have always stood against imperialism and colonialism, the revisionist Communist Party of Britain and its youth wing, the Young Communist League, wear the revisionist ideology of the British chauvinist Harry Pollitt on their sleeves. Pollitt was a key figure in the degeneration of the British communist and anti-imperialist movement to the poppy-shilling state we see it in now. During the coalition government of genocidal racist Winston Churchill, Pollitt passionately argued for the CPB to endorse the new Prime Minister, struggling against his comrades to push against any criticism of Churchill. Under his leadership, the Communist Party flew the butcher’s apron and put up portraits of Churchill, the man who set the Black and Tans onto Ireland during the Tan War. One a sidenote, it was ironically the presence of certain ex-members of the Black and Tans whose war tourism caused the anti-fascist republicans of the Connolly Column to refuse to fight in the same brigade as the communist-organised British section of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.
After the Second World War, he complained endlessly about the “degeneration” of British industry, and the supposed “oppression” inflicted on the British Empire by their staunch allies, the Yankee imperialists. Pollitt, claiming that the “Anglo-American contradiction” was the most important in the world, advocated for nationalisation of British industries for the purpose of reviving the British Empire’s declining economy. Furthermore, while nominally against colonialism, Pollitt disgustingly and disgracefully argued for the “unity” of the people of the entire British Empire, parroting a rhetoric no different to that seen regarding the modern-day Windsor-led Commonwealth. He pined endlessly for a coalition government with the Labour Party through his “Progressive Majority” strategy, begging for affiliation while that party’s government under war criminal Clement Attlee murdered thousands in Malaysia, India, and Korea.
The modern Communist Party of Britain has kept Politt’s worst theories and policies. From their “left” hatred of Scottish and Welsh republicanism and independence, to their hopeless dream to rule alongside the same Labour Party which under Harold Wilson’s government launched the British military invasion of the Occupied Six Counties, Operation Banner, and Operation Desert Storm against Iraq under Tony Blair. In terms of opposition to imperialist warfare, these “communists” only ever seemed to muster their largest opposition campaign to the Vietnam War, which they more than likely took delight in, for unlike their silence during the Malay Emergency or Operation Banner, they could place the blame solely on Yankee Imperialism rather than the murderousness of their own “oppressed” Empire. Today, in their programme, “Britain’s Road to Socialism”, they make a mockery of the communist name, far from the admirable anti-imperialist groups that Socialist Republicans admire who have styled themselves as communists such as the Communist Party of the Philippines or Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Certain poppy-sporting members of the CPB and YCL in Scotland or Wales are now indistinguishable from the average unionist aside for the occasional quaint food drive or their plethora of red flags. Ironically, this policy comes out of opposition to “bourgeois nationalism” that would “weaken” Britain. Regardless of the fact that the weakening of Britain is certainly a good thing for the millions subjugated by Brit imperialism, it is ironic that the CPB/YCL would abandon the nationalism of the oppressed in the name of their apathetic “internationalism”, whilst still being so happy to indulge in the worst of English chauvinist nationalism, being open celebrators of both the imperialist poppy drives and the flag-waving of St. George’s Day. James Connolly criticised this misunderstanding of the Marxist national question, which has always been consistent in its support for the nationalism of the oppressed nations over the nationalism of the oppressor. In response to similar calls by “socialists” for the oppressed nation of Ireland when all of it was part of the United Kingdom to put aside their national differences in favor of “working class unity”, Connolly remarked:
“Besides, it is well to remember that nations which submit to conquest or races which abandon their language in favour of that of an oppressor do so, not because of the altruistic motives, or because of a love of brotherhood of man, but from a slavish and cringing spirit. From a spirit which cannot exist side by side with the revolutionary idea.”
This is a lesson the St. George’s Cross waving, poppy-wearing, pro-unionist “socialists” of the CPB/YCL would do well to remember while pining about ridiculous self-victimising theories such as that of the “Norman Yoke” or the “Anglo-American contradiction”. Then again, Socialist Republicans do not expect revisionists who, for example, manage to mistake the sweatshops of China for genuine socialism, to be able to easily obtain a sound political line without it slipping through the sieve of oppurtunism and revisionism.