1688 a glorious revolution? - our history 3 (new series)

1688—A Glorious Revolution? by Shirley Clark

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Britain’s Road to Socialism The new edition of Britain’s Road to Socialism, the Communist Party’s programme, adopted in July 2011; presents and analysis of capitalism and imperialism in its current form; answers the questions of how a revolutionary transformation might be bought about in 21st Century Britain; and what a socialist and communist society in Britain might look like. The BRS was first published in 1951 after nearly six years of discussion and debate across the CP, labour movement and working class. Over its 8 editions it has sold more than a million copies in Britain and helped to shape and develop the struggle of the working class for more than half a century. Other previous editions of the BRS have been published in 1952, 1958, 1968, 1977, 1989 and 2000 as well as multiple substantially revised versions.

Our History No. 3 1

1688—A Glorious Revolution?

Introduction 2

1688—A Glorious Revolution? by Shirley Clark

CONTENTS

page

What should happen in Ireland? 15

Tourism is okay but there are some tourists in Chesterfield we could well do without 6

Firstly did the events of 1688 deserve to be called a revolution? 8

What is the Orange Order? 12

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HISTORY Pamphlet No. 3 New Series £1.50

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Commemorate the event? 10

Glorious? 9

But where is the Irish connection? And why is it so important today? 11 Links with Fascism 13

“The Glorious Revolution? and the Irish connection “ the 1988 edition 5

2 Communist Party History Group


Introduction Chesterfield is a town of many parts. During much of the 20th century it was a special place for trades unionist and socialists, renowned for the commitment of its population to progressive causes. It must have been a mite alarming when, in 1988, it suddenly became a place that received a great deal of attention from the Orange Order in Northern Ireland. It was the tricentenary of the so-called Glorious Revolution, in which Chesterfield had been briefly the centre of a major part of the jigsaw of historical

events that involved the much-mentioned “King Billy” of the Protestant culture (see plaque above commemorating a meeting in a local pub that led to regime change). Chesterfield swarmed with unwanted tourists, spouting their intolerant bile against Catholics simply because they were Catholics. At the time local Communists reacted by publishing a pamphlet querying the connection, which we now reproduce as an archival document in our `Our History’ series. As they insisted, the event around 1688 can only be understood in the context of an analysis of the English Civil War, four decades before. A true English Revolution, even if it was, effectively, the beginning of capitalist state power. Radical movements had pointed the way on the long road to democracy and reform. Over the next decades, attempts by the new elite to roll back the gains of the masses came ever stronger until, when James II became king in 1688, he was pretty soon replaced by William III and Mary II in a coup d’état that firmed up the constitutional monarchy. The thin connection that involves Chesterfield is that the initial planning meeting that began this plot took place in a local pub. It was the relative proximity of Chatsworth that made for the location. That the core outline of Parliament’s mainstream political parties (ConDems mainly) today reflects some of the politics of this time is perhaps less odd than the way in which the role of “King Billy” has been elevated to iconic status by the Protestant movement today. Whilst much of the controversy about whose world view would dominate seems now to be all about religion, this was really just the means to convey ideas. King James’ political philosophy was not so far away from that of Charles I, as a

Our History No. 3 3


follower of `the divine right of kings’. It was Frederick Engels who first put a Marxist view of 1688, in his `Socialism, Utopian and Scientific’, written in 1880. He wrote that, after the intense civil wars that held a truly revolutionary quality, “there necessarily followed the inevitable reaction which, in its turn, went beyond the point where it might have maintained itself. After a series of oscillations, the new centre of gravity was at last attained and became a new starting-point. The grand period of English history, known to respectability under the name of "the Great Rebellion" (i.e. the events from 1640), and the struggles succeeding it, were brought to a close by the comparatively puny

events entitled by Liberal historians ‘the Glorious Revolution’”. The Inglorious Reactionary - William Henry of Orange (pictured above) – or the Netherlands – was from the most advanced capitalist nation at the time, hostile to Britain's main competitors, France and Spain. In a conspiracy with a handful of leading English politicians, William effectively invaded England with a hardly-resisted army of foreign mercenaries and James fled. However, this was followed by protracted conflict in Ireland and Scotland, ending in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, an event that would have long term ramifications. That this was fundamentally a capitalist rather than a Protestant coup d’état is underlined by the nature of William’s funding to enable the incredibly expensive venture of invading a sovereign state. Most came from a handful of wealthy merchants in Amsterdam, then the world's main financial centre. Religious consistency was entirely absent - Muslim Turks were allied to Protestant Germans - the staggeringly wealthy banker, Francisco Lopes Suasso, a Spanish-Dutch Jew, lent two million guilders and Pope Innocent XI (is the Pope Catholic?!), as an enemy of the then French king, also provided a loan to Orange Billy. The coup was decisive in shifting economic integration and military co-operation between the English and Dutch navies so strongly that the dominance in world trade slid to England, being the decisive factor in laying the basis for the British Empire.



But William’s war in Ireland had the result that Protestant thinking was almost permanently fixed to the interests of conservative and reactionary politics (and dubbed ‘Orange’). Whereas Protestants had previously been a significant force in progressive politics, the working class were now being rapidly converted into a client adjunct of the British state. This culminated in the Orange Order cementing the commemoration of 1688 as a key moment for Protestant politics. Commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne has

often been marked by confrontations. Members of the Orange Order attempt to intimidate nationalists - who naturally view 1690 as a major step in British colonisation of Ireland - by marching through their communities . Since the original pamphlet appeared, conflict in Northern Ireland has much diminished. The 1994 ceasefire was followed by multi-party peace talks, eventually leading to the Good Friday Agreement and a formal end to hostilities. A devolved power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly now has a key role. Difficult issues, such as weapons’ decommissioning and policing, have been addressed. But in 1988, sadly, most British citizens thought only of terrorist bombs when they thought of Ireland. A group of bold Chesterfield Communists stuck their necks out to challenge the Establishment’s view. This reprint commemorates that audacity. Communist Party History Group April 2012

Our History No. 3 5




TOURISM IS OKAY BUT THERE ARE SOME TOURISTS IN CHESTERFIELD WE COULD

WELL DO WITHOUT On the 300th anniversary of the so-called “Glorious

Revolution”, with its special events in Chesterfield so...

What is so important about an obscure event 300 years ago?

What is there about the “Glorious Revolution” that the Orange Order and the fascists are coming to Old Whittington to “celebrate?”

What do the Orange 0rder do in their stronghold, Northern Ireland?

Who are the Orange Order?

Most of us have only seen the public face of Orangeism on TV.

Lines of bowler-hatted men marching to the beating of drums.

When the present “troubles” began the British Government sacked the Stormont Government of Northern Ireland - and the world saw how:-

the Orangemen gerrymandered the electoral process to deny any minority influence

the Orangemen controlled employment to deny the minority

Our History No. 3 7


population a job

the Orangemen controlled housing to deny the minority population decent housing

the Orangemen had turned the volunteer police auxiliaries - the “B” Specials — into a gang of sectarian thugs. When they were disbanded, many were recruited into the “non - sectarian” UDR

Since then they have been behind the sectarian madness that keeps division and death going in Northern Ireland.

For example, we don’t hear very often about the paramilitary violence that is committed by the Unionists. We only hear about the violence of the IRA.

In fact there have been more killings by the Unionist para-militaries than by the IRA.

The links between the murders in Northern Ireland and, a one-time pub in Chesterfield are not so obscure. Our eyes have been diverted from certain aspects of our history that we as inhabitants of the United Kingdom of England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland should be only too aware of.

The name “Glorious: Revolution” suggests an event of great importance.

After all the Soviet Union celebrates their Glorious October Revolution!

How many of us have ever been aware that Britain had something called a Glorious Revolution - or would have been able to say when it took place? To most English people the term is a mystery. Can we put this down to bad history teaching - Or could it be due to the lack of significance of the event?



Firstly did the events of 1688 deserve to be called a revolution?

The word “revolution” implies changing one system for another e. g from feudalism to capitalism. What happened in 1688 was nothing like this.

King James II had thought he could establish once and for all the right of a king to do what he liked - whether in raising taxes, keeping an army, or in this case, appointing Catholics to top positions. Neither the new manufacturing classes nor the old-established landowners were willing to put up with this.

William, Duke of Orange in the Netherlands, and his wife, Mary, who was James’ daughter, were invited to rule jointly - provided they stuck to a set of rules called A Bill of Rights.

Interesting and important though this might be, it certainly wasn’t a Revolution!

The invasion fleet

Our History No. 3 9


Glorious? If you were a wealthy merchant or landlord - and Protestant - you might well have thought so.

For example A.L. Morton, the historian, quotes from Marx:-

“1688 began a new era of colossal theft of state lands, with estates given away, sold at ridiculous figures, or annexed to private estates by direct seizure — all without the slightest observation of legal etiquette - an early example of privatisation.”

- Echoes of Thatcher s Britain?

William & Mary being crowned as sovereigns



Should we commemorate the event? There’s no concept of benefit to society as a whole in all this; no high ideals of “liberty, equality and fraternity” such as those expressed in the French Revolution a century later.

Perhaps we could safely acknowledge simply the 300th Anniversary of a meeting in a public house which organised the replacement of a despotic king by one with limited powers? After all it does help to put our town on the historical - and the tourist map.

The original Chesterfield pub where the ‘Glorious Revolution’ was plot-ted

Our History No. 3 11


BUT WHERE IS THE IRISH CONNECTION? AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TODAY? For a start any history of England has to include Ireland; in 1688 it had already been colonised for centuries.

King James II had already tried to win the Catholic Irish to his side. He attempted to regain the throne from William and Mary through the “back door” of Ireland. William’s army defeated him at the Battle of the Boyne and, to quote A. L. Morton himself: -

“As a condition of surrender William promised religious toleration for the Irish Catholics, a promise that was immediately broken by the passing of severe penal laws which deprived them of all civil and religious rights. The new conquest of Ireland was followed by fresh confiscations of land ... and henceforward, the country was ruled more brutally and openly than ever before as a colony...”

On top of this an organisation was created and named after William’s dukedom. The aim of this organisation was to maintain perpetual supremacy for the wealthy Protestants : this organisation was called THE ORANGE ORDER.

A visit by the Orange Order activists to Chesterfiel in 1988



WHAT IS THE ORANGE ORDER?

It is organised along the lines of Freemasonry. Its function is to ensure that Northern Ireland remains a Protestant state for Protestant people. And this despite the fact that a third of the population are not Protestants.

In particular it seeks to ensure that Protestant workers feel that their interests lie with their Protestant masters, rather than in solidarity with Catholic workers.

The British government divided Ireland in two by Partition in 1922. The six counties in the North had an inbuilt Protestant majority. They established a permanent state of emergency. Laws more like those of a colony operated against the third of the population who were Catholics. Police recruitment was made largely through the Orange Lodges which made sure they were drawn from the most bigoted section of the Protestant

population. Elections at all levels were gerry-mandered and discrimination operated in housing, employment, education etc.

The role of the Orange Order can easily be seen in the events after World War I. In the upsurge of militancy in 1919-20 the Lodges sought to transform joint action by Catholic and Protestant workers into sectarian violence. They organised a pogrom against Catholics in which 10,000 were driven from their jobs and many of their homes burnt down.

March in Belfast



LINKS WITH FASCISM

The Orange Order is similar to movements like the extreme-right Afrikaaner “Broederbund’ in South Africa. This organisation seeks to unite whites of all social classes against a “common threat”. In South Africa the “threat” is the non-white inhabitants who make up 4/5 of the population.

Conservatives in Northern Ireland are called Unionists as most of them support union with Britain. The membership is drawn from the Protestant majority. In the past this union has brought them special privileges. They want to keep these privileges under any circumstances.

For such reasons has John Taylor, the Official Unionist member of the European Parliament, joined the fascist grouping in the European Parliament.

According to a National Front member of the London Orange Lodge,

“Since the early 1970s, fascists have been up to their necks in illegal collaboration with some of the most violent elements on the Loyalist (i.e. Unionist ) scene….”.

“…there has been mounting evidence of National Front involvement in attacks on Catholic families….”I

The National Front have made it clear that they intend to bring their


1688—A Glori- ous Revolution?

supporters to Exeter this summer where the celebrations of 1688 are much larger than those intended at Chesterfield. (Exeter is near Brixham where William first landed).

NO TRUCK WITH “NO SURRENDER!”

When the big drums of the Orangemen’s Apprentice Boys’ March start beating each year, they bring terror to Catholic families. One of the ritual shouts on the march is “NO SURRENDER”

Rather than just a remnant of an event whose significance has been exaggerated out of all proportion to the facts, this is a shout of defiance to the Catholic minority.

WE IN CHESTERFIELD MUST SAY TO THESE BIGOTS “NO SURRENDER!” OF OUR RIGHT TO KEEP OUR TOWN FREE OF THEM AND THEIR FASCIST SUPPORTERS.

In so doing we would be helping the many people in Northern Ireland, Catholic and Protestant, together with organisations like the SDLP and the Irish Communist Party, who are working for an end to the sectarian divisions and for a united Ireland



WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN IN IRELAND ?

The Stalker affair and the Gibraltar killings show evidence of RUC shoot-to-kill policies and SAS death squads.

State violence cannot solve a political problem. Britain stood condemned of torture - for using “sensory deprivation” techniques in police custody – it didn’t solve the problem. Britain

maintains the violence of the “Diplock Courts” which, without a jury, send down long gaol sentences on the evidence of unnamed accusers. - That doesn’t work.

The Unionists of Northern Ireland are vital to British Imperialism - because they keep Ireland divided - and leave both parts at the mercy of the trans-national companies

Sectarian violence must be condemned. The victims, in the main, are not the oppressors of Ireland, they are other working people. The Unionist violence is a deliberate terror campaign to prevent working-class unity developing. Thc IRA military campaign strengthens divisions among the working-class. Only a mass united working-class movement in Britain and Ireland can take on British Imperialism.

The British military and political support is vital to the Unionists, who could not rule without it.

This mutual need leads to terrible abuses of human rights. The police tactics used in the pit strike and Wapping were practised in Northern Ireland. Abuses of democracy - which would be a national scandal or bring down governments in England - are justified in Northern Ireland, or covered up, to keep the Unionists in power. This is the cause of violence in Ireland. Violence won’t be ended without removing the cause.



The key to unlocking this cycle of sectarian killing is to break that alliance

The British Government must declare its irrevocable intention to cease military, political and economic interference in Ireland by a named future date. This would force the Unionists to adjust to a reality without a bully-boy big brother to hide behind.

This must be coupled with enactment of a “Bill of Rights” for Northern Ireland to end undemocratic abuses, the ending of the Diplock Courts and the establishing of democratic controls over the RUC

These measures could provide the basis for the working people of Northern Ireland to unite across the sectarian divide in pursuit of their real interests:

ending unemployment

solving the housing crisis

giving a future for youth, to end the need to emigrate

keeping Ireland free from nuclear alliances

the struggle for democracy and socialism against the trans-national companies

Struggle on these issues could create the conditions for exposing

the real enemy of Ireland to all the people and lay the basis for a successful struggle for a united Ireland.

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