OUR MANIFESTO
The Manifesto of the Celtic Worker's League
I Preamble
The story of man is that of class struggle: freeman against slave, patrician against plebian, lord against serf, guild-master against journeyman. This struggle has haunted man since his birth, and never has he been freed from this vicious cycle. At its root is the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat—the oppressors and the oppressed. The oppressors have wrought their metal chains and have clasped them onto the wrists of the oppressed—our wakened workers.
At the same time, the lands of the Celts—Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany—find themselves under foreign occupation and under the control of tyrannical despots who seek to rob them of their heritage and character. For millennia the Celtic nations have been abused and harassed, forced to do the bidding of their English and French masters. Thus, world has conspired to keep the Celts separated so that they remain weak, and subject to foreign rule.
As such, the Celtic Workers League finds itself bestowed with the responsibility to unite the Celtic nations, and the Celtic workers under a single banner of strength and solidarity. For ours is the battle of the oppressed against the oppressor, the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. Ours is the battle of every freeborn Irishman who fought in the Easter Raising and the Irish War of Independence. The Celtic Workers League stands with every Celt who has fought for national self-determination, and every worker who has been abused by the capitalist system.
II The Praxis of the Celtic Workers League
It is important that we act, as a party, as a vanguard for the proletariat in the Celtic nations. However, we shouldn't forget to associate ourselves with other proletarian movements toward self-liberation. As such, we should work with the labor movements and attempt to develop formal and informal ties with the members of it.
To the end of the liberation of the proletariat and Celtic people, we should maintain a multi-pronged tactic. This party will promote liberation in the government, our associations with other proletarian movements will help create a revolutionary sentiment among the proletariat, and we shall prepare the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of the Celts (the Celtic Partisans) for any necessary action they may need to take, but maintain them as a last resort. It is unwise to fight against the bourgeoisie state unless we have broad support among the proletariat and electoral battles have failed despite that. There is no Soviet Union to help protect us from the UK or any foreign capitalist state and experience has taught us that capitalist states will invade a new socialist state that has achieved victory through revolution to maintain the bourgeoisie rule in that state. However, no tactic should be off the table.
In addition, the Celtic Partisans and the Celtic Pioneers, our youth movement, should engage in community outreach. Feeding the hungry, finding places for the homeless to stay, and supporting labor unions are just as important as anything else they can do.
III The Will of the Celtic Nations
First and foremost, English occupation of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man, French occupation of Brittany, and the Bourgeoisie rule over Ireland itself are unjust and must be opposed. In their place, a Federated pan-Celtic Socialist Republic should be put in place allowing for local autonomy as well as political and economic unity. In addition, we should help to foster and maintain the local cultures and histories of the respective Celtic nations including the promotion of the various Celtic languages spoken in the Celtic nations through teaching them in school and using them for local governments. However, thanks to British colonial rule, we will continue to reluctantly use English as our lingua franca so as not to alienate ourselves from local populations who have had the foreign language imposed upon them through imperial rule.
As staunch opponents of the UK's imperial rule, we oppose the monarchy in all forms, and especially the rule of the monarchy over the Celtic nations. We are republicans to the core.
White supremacy, the patriarchy, heteronormativity, cisnormativity, and other such systems of oppression are bourgeoisie affections which divide and hurt the proletariat and are a result of English and French imperial rule and are foreign to the Celtic people. All of them must be fought, both in the now and after the creation of the Federated pan-Celtic Socialist Republic. As such, we fully support actions meant to fight them, including gay marriage, free and legal sexual reassignment surgery, promotion of equality of earnings between men and women, free and legal abortions and birth control, and other means to fight them as long as they do not hurt other oppressed groups in the process.
On the issue of immigration, we are open and encourage immigration to and from the pan-Celtic Republic. National rivalries are artificial and are a tool used by the capitalist bourgeois to distract the proletariat from the true enemy. Only by shedding these artificial differences and by embracing the fraternity of the workers can we truly find peace and unity. As such, though we hold that we should be separate socialist states, we do not ignore the struggles of the English and French proletariat and fight alongside them in solidarity.
We oppose the restrictions on guns that exist in the current bourgeoisie, imperialist state which rules over the Celtic people. They serve only to disarm the working class and the Celtic people and prevent us from fighting back against our oppression. We must be able to fight against injustice wherever it may lie by any means necessary and restrictions such as that make that impossible in many cases. An armed and organized working class and Celtic people is necessary for our liberation.
IV The Economics of the Celtic Socialist Republic
Economically, we should adhere to Edvard Kardelj's theory of associated labor. Under this theory, the right to decision-making and share in profits should be based upon investment of labor. People in a company who work more and harder have a larger share in decision-making and profits and people who work less have a lesser share. This could be achieved either by nationalising industries then slowly transferring control from the state to the workers or by the immediate seizure of businesses for the workers. With some, we could have a sort of public ownership, worker management, such as healthcare and other essentials, for which it is free to get and the workers get paid through taxes. What is certain is that depending on the circumstances, we will exercise a flexible policy that is open to adjustment. However, our official policy will be one of gradual nationasation.
In the short term, though, this is unlikely to happen, so we should agitate for higher taxes on the wealthy, more comprehensive welfare, and increased regulation upon the capitalist class, especially to favor unions and to improve conditions in the workplace. We should not have a set tax rate we're shooting for, though, and, instead, always push for higher than any bourgeoisie party on the wealthy and on capitalist businesses and lower than any bourgeoisie party on the proletariat.
V Celtic Foreign Policy
When it comes to foreign policy, we should remain pragmatic, for the most part, but solidarity with liberation movements around the world should be maintained. This means that we should officially support the PKK, the Zapatistas, and Pakistan, for example. We should maintain support for free trade and open borders. People should be able to move as freely as money. Free flow of money without allowing a free flow of workers hurts the proletariat by empowering the capitalist class while a free flow of money empowers the proletariat. However, free trade, when done right, can still be beneficial to the proletariat and trading with whoever is willing is what kept Yugoslavia strong through the Cold War.
This means that we don't oppose the EU on principle, but, as it exists, it acts as bourgeoisie, psuedo-fascist class colaboration and paternalism, so it is broken. As such, we support the overhaul of the EU into a system of proletarian cooperation or the creation of a new European body of cooperation built upon socialist principles rather than upon the principles of class colaboration and bourgeoisie liberal democracy.
On the question of Irish unification, we are in favor of Ireland’s national-self-determination, which seeks to rid itself of British influence. However, to protect it from bourgeoisie elements, we would prefer the current ruling party to be replaced with a socialist government federated with the rest of the Celtic Nations under one Federal Republic.
Militarily we should maintain neutrality, though we shouldn't keep ourselves above sending aid to liberation movements in solidarity. But wars are a means to divide the proletariat and promote imperialism. Should the Motherland be threatened, the Central Committee can implement a mandatory draft, but only if all members of the Central Committee agree to it.
We should maintain good relations with other socialist states, where they still exist. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. However, Cuba and Venezuela have been able to maintain a socialist state, despite the struggles of doing so in a capitalist world.
Although we stand in suspicion of the bourgeoisie and capitalist states that surround us, we will not hesitate to form military and trade alliances with other nations. After all, a socialist state can still benefit economically through trade with other nations. Furthermore, such alliances would decrease the possibility of a foreign coalition to form against us, and would give other workers around the world the incentive to improve their working conditions and to eventually revolt.
