Tribute to Comrade Des O’Hagan

 

As they reach the middle of the street, in a confined space in which they can only go back or forward, chanting as they walk, high up on a balcony the shutters are suddenly thrown open and a four piece band commences to play at top volume, Avanti Popolo, one of the most famous songs of the Italian communist movement.

As the sound reverberates around the narrow street there is chaos below. Priests running into each other, confusion and havoc prevails. As the camera pans up to the musicians one of their number is a man with a huge dark beard bearing a striking resemblance to the young Des O’Hagan. It may indeed have been him – if not in fact, then almost certainly in spirit.

Desi was a committed and lifelong Marxist. He correctly saw Marxism, not as a dry dogma for unthinking repetition in small back rooms, but as tool for analysis, a plan of action. Desi sawhow this great philosophy explained the way we lived, how it attracted exploited and oppressed people and how it offered them the hope of emancipation and set out clearly the historic role of the working class in the history of humankind.

With the death of Comrade O’Hagan the working people of this country have lost an eloquent advocate, a tireless and formidable fighter, a thinker, a doer, a revolutionary in word and deed.

Not all those who describe themselves as political thinkers accept that ideas and ideologies are of much importance. However, to Marxists the role of political ideas is fundamental. Political ideas do not emerge in a vacuum. All political ideas are moulded and shaped by the social, economic and historical circumstances in which they develop and by the political ambitions and objectives they serve. Desi O’Hagan knew that. He knew and he constantly reminded us that political ideas inspire and guide political action and that, in the words of Karl Marx, the “ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas”. (The German Ideology) He also knew that “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness”.

Desi O’Hagan’s analysis of the philosophical development of republicanism, his identification of the democratic, internationalist, secular and socialist characteristics as the authentic articulation of the republican tradition, his republican ideological critique of nationalism, his uncompromising hostility to terrorism and sectarianism, and his emphasis on the critical necessity of building a Workers’ Party – of and for the working class will be an ever-lasting testament to his life and political work. His work on “The Concept of Republicanism” remains essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand this development.

On 9^th August 1971 Brian Faulkner introduced internment and the arrests began. This had already been approved by Reginald Maudling and Edward Heath. At that time Desi was a senior lecturer in sociology in Stranmillis College. Arrested and interned Desi wrote a series of letters in what subsequently became known and have been published as Letters from Long Kesh.

If there was ever a demonstration of Desi’s skill as a writer it is here. These letters are not some dull, cold record of life in a prison camp. He created and captured an honest description of everyday life and conveyed it powerfully and effectively to an outside audience with a light touch. And this is a record not written in hindsight. It is of the moment. While the letters record the miseries, stresses and frustrations of the internees, they are thoughtful, incisive, evocative, humorous, mischievous and human – much like the man himself. The letter of 10^th February 1972, written in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday is as powerful a piece of prose as you are ever likely to read. These letters identify, without equivocation, the dangerous nature of the times and its causes, exposing what he calls the twin evils of sectarianism and repression while pointing to an alternative.

Amid the humour and the sense of mischief, the remarkable political prescience, the evocative record of the dark days, these letters demonstrate a huge depth of humanity, the capacity to confront reality without being overburdened by it and to ask objectively why such events have occurred.

These letters are a testament not only to Desi’s skill as a communicator but to his remarkable political prescience.

In the darkest days of life in Northern Ireland over the last four decades, when working people were in despair, sickened by state repression and squalid sectarian terror, whatever its hue, Des O’Hagan was there to bring hope and offer a vision of a better future. When we think of the slogans emblazoned on our banners “Peace, Work, Democracy”, “Peace, Work and Class Politics” we remember Des O’Hagan. When we recall that stark and vivid image contained in a poster produced forty years ago this year to expose and counteract the murder of workers on the basis of their perceived religious belief (Sectarianism Kills Workers) we remember Des O’Hagan. When we trace our political development to a party which stands for the modern expression of the core principles of Ireland’s revolutionary republican tradition: egalitarian, anti-sectarian, secular, socialist and internationalist we will inevitably remember the towering figures who made this possible, Tomas Mac Giolla, Cathal Goulding, Sean Garland and Desi O’Hagan. That immense achievement, in itself, will never be forgotten.

Desi played many roles in this Party and before that over decades in the Republican Movement. Never one to shy away from hard work or menial tasks, never one to shirk taking an active role in the strategy and tactics of the time, it has however been in his role as an organiser, a bold and innovative thinker and an educator that Desi made his greatest contribution. His passion, his intensity, his humour and ready wit (not to mention his unique ability to ruthlessly expose and put down the enemies of our party and our class) in his writings, his education classes and his many outstanding and fiery speeches made him both a force to be reckoned with and an inspiration to generations of young people in the Party.

Desi, a founder member of NICRA, was among those who rejected adventurism and realised the counter-productiveness of an armed campaign, and the need to complete the transition from the Republican Movement to The Workers’ Party. He worked with his late Comrade Sean O’Cionnaith in the Peace Train campaign to defend democracy and expose nihilist and counter-revolutionary violence.

Desi grew up in a political household where the burning issues of the times were discussed. His grandfather was head of the dockers’ union. He recalls as a child playing behind the sofa, listening to arguments about the Spanish Civil War. It was also a house that stressed the value of education and critical thinking. That household reflected the progressive politics of many of those who lived in and around “Red Ton Street”. The development of anti-sectarian, socialist politics among republicans under the leadership of men like Billy McMillen was a product of this environment.

When Desi took over as education officer of the Party, he continued the work of taking what was most progressive in the republican tradition and building upon it, exposing and stripping away the relics of the past that obstructed our work, and developing, articulating and advancing our socialist direction. He had no time for sentimentalists crying into their pints, looking into the mist of the past for a vision of the future. For Desi, a sound materialist analysis of history, serious intellectual engagement, clear ideological and political work, the constant commitment to educate, agitate and organise, the need for hard graft was at the centre of his philosophy.

The main task of The Workers’ Party remains the task in which Desi has played a leading role for decades: building a party of dedicated and ideologically aware revolutionaries, and raising class consciousness among the people, especially young people. By continuing that work, we will remember him.

 

 

Des O’Hagan, in the company of his wife and comrade, Marie, dedicated his life to his political beliefs, refusing to bow to those in the ruling class who sought to oppress our politics, refusing to dilute them at the behest of opportunists or careerists, refusing to leave the political stage under the threats of Orange and Green sectarians and gunmen, or to be deflected from our principles by those who opposed the transition to a vanguard Party – a Marxist-Leninist Party fighting for the rights of the working class, combating sectarianism from wherever source it came, and dedicated to the establishment of a secular, socialist republic.

Desi learned the lessons of Tone and Connolly. He learned the lessons of Marx, and Engels and Lenin. He admired the principles of the French and the Great October Socialist Revolutions as decisive breaks with the old world order which laid the basis for the political, social and economic liberation of humankind.

Desi was a true proletarian internationalist. He understood that the struggle against capitalism was a global struggle. He travelled to the socialist countries, including being present in Cuba for the 50^th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. He attended the congresses and meetings of many international fraternal parties. He would have been pleased to read the strong letter of support from the Communist Party of Greece to the Workers’ Party supporting the Party in this week’s election. He would have been especially delighted to learn that his old friend, Sitaram Yechury, was in the last few weeks, elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and that this weekend we celebrate the 70^th Anniversary of the Great Anti-Fascist Victory in Europe.

Slán leat, Desi.  The Workers’ Party, your Party,  salutes you. An unflinching communist who devoted his life to the struggle for socialism. A working class hero. A fighter for your class. Your loss is immeasurable.

I  measc na laochra sa choimhlint ar son an tsóisialachais sa tír seo is ar fud an domhain.

 

Gerry Grainger

 

9^th May 2015