2022-02-26 12:20:47
"
With List—whose work on the National System of Political Economy I would wish to see in the hands of every Irishman—I reject that so-called political economy which neither recognises the principle of nationality nor takes into consideration the satisfaction of its interests." - Arthur Griffith
As Irish Nationalists in the year 2022, we have all seen how the current financial system has completely ravaged Éire and turned her into a soulless gay neo-colony of techno-global financial interests, whose poison began to be felt after the 2008 bank bailouts, when we were left under the boot of the Troika. The only mainstream alternative given to this system within mainstream Irish politics is claimed by those from a Marxist perspective, as seen in the Irish Far-Left with Soc Dems, People Before Profit, Sinn Féin etc who agree with the Neo-Liberal status quo of both Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael bar minor differences in certain geopolitical/economic/tax policies. There's also the presence of Tankies in IRSP/ Éirígí / Saoradh, again coming from a Marxist approach. So, what is our alternative to the Neo-Liberals, Marxists/Socialists and Tankies as nationalists?
Positions outside of this Capitalism vs Communism dichotomy have been neglected for too long despite the fact that not long ago there were other schools of thought in Ireland. One particular position which has been deliberately forgotten is that of economic nationalism and the historical school of economics, who's forefather is Fredrich List. As shown in the Griffith quote above, many Irish nationalists in the late 19th/early 20th century were influenced by him. List himself took inspiration from Alexander Hamilton, along with Irish father and son economists Mathew Carey & Henry Charles Carey. Arthur Griffith notes the important contribution to List’s ‘National System’ of:
“two Irishmen, Carey, whose ideas, incorporating with his own, formed the foundation of his doctrine of National Economy, on which modern Germany is built”
It is important to bring this to attention too as many Irish Marxists who follow Connolly and the socialist tradition like to bring up the influence William Thompson had on Marx, which Connolly wrote about in his piece 'The First Irish Socialist' where he tried to justify that socialism wasn't a pure foreign idea and thereby this acted a justification for socialist thought in Ireland. Likewise, Griffith does it here with List's economic nationalism with the Carey's who had significantly more influence on both List and US economics, than William Thompson would have had on Marx.
I will not go into List's ideas here as I want to keep this short but it is paramount that we buttress our conceptual position as nationalists as the economic question has been one in which previous generations of Irish revolutionaries have failed to get right. I have discussed Connolly's socialism plenty in this channel and I believe it has its merits but when looking at the history of the 20th century, the foremost nations of the world: Russia, China, and America were built upon List’s ideas—and if not, they were influenced by those who preceded him in the nationalist economic tradition.
The influence of List in the 20th century is brilliantly outlined in the preface to Imperium Press's edition of his magnum opus,
The National System of Political Economy, which has been written by Finglas born & breed Chieftain Francis O'Beirne. This preface uses List to revise certain narratives about the 20th century - the outcome is an interpretation of the 20th century in which nationalism is the true revolutionary form; Marxism is reduced to a mere mythology that had little substantive relevance to the material conditions and economic liberalism is re-cast as a cynical strategy employed by dominant powers. Moreover, reds use anti-fascist narratives against us; this preface demolishes such narratives as a-historical and incorrect.
1.1K viewsImperium Press, 09:20
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