Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 13:04:16 +0000
Subject: Re: Marxism & Religion


Hugh Rodwell wrote:

>Subject: Re: Marxism and Religion
>
>Since you've got a breathing space, you could do worse than look at James
>Connolly's writings. As an Irish Marxist he had cause to deal in a pretty
>concrete way with Catholics who were stuck with the faith but wanted to
>fight the Brits and the bosses anyway.

While I have great admiration for Connolly's political struggle in
Scotland, the United Stages and Ireland, I think that you should be wary of
holding up some of his positions as a model for Marxists. The Second
International held a position, correct to this day, that an individual's
religious belief was their own private matter. This was to protect the
rights of religious minorities or of those with no religion.

Connolly translated this into a policy of neutrality in regard to religion.
Sure, he castigated priests when their sermons 'strayed' into what he
considered to be the political arena; but so long as priests stuck to
religion, he believed that socialists had little to say about religion or
religious institutions.

People have said over the years that he could do nothing else in a country
overwhelmingly Christian, and divided politically among different breeds of
Christianity (Catholicism and the 57 varieties of Protestantism). Contrast
his propaganda, though, with that of Rosa Luxemburg in Poland around the
same time - again a Catholic country with Catholicism having a record of
years of struggle against a Czarism with a state Orthodox church. She
correctly struggled against the religious beliefs of workers, beliefs which
poison the class struggle.

If you want quotes to back these assertions up, let me know.

An excellent analysis of Connolly's beliefs, by the way, is 'Connolly: A
Marxist Analysis' published by the Irish Workers Group. I'm not sure if it
is still available. It's a little snotty towards Connolly on the national
question (even if formally correct). This is from a group which advises
workers in the north of Ireland to vote for Sinn Fe/in! You have to bear in
mind that Connolly was writing before Lenin even had a correct position on
the nature of the Russian Revolution.

With communist greetings,

Matt Kelly.

--
=C9irigh lasadh as an splanc seo




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