CYM Splits and Lazlo Axed: Has Ireland’s Post-Left Moment Flatlined Already?

The political firing squads have been working overtime over the past week, with news of a split inside the Stalinist Connolly Youth Movement (CYM) alongside the departure of László Molnárfi from the socialist media project Aontacht Media. But the question is, what is the broader significance for an emergent Irish post-left moment.

Firstly, the tankies over at CYM.

Once something of a lodestar in the 2010s for mentally sane remnants of the Irish left uneasy with dragqueen story hour and infinity IPAS centres, CYM announced via social media that it was dissolving its Belfast branch (and by extension the organisation itself), attributing the decision to the northern members’ republican inclinations.

Observers may recall CYM from the tenure of Slavic import Alex Homits, whose energy kept the group marginally relevant as a ginger group to SF. Likely numbering well under 60 activists before the split, 

CYM’s disaffected northern members claimed on social media their expulsion stemmed from their “socialist republican” orientation apparently at odds with the line from headquarters.

Not the first time the left has stubbed its toe on the national question ( cc Seán O’Casey and Seán Garland) the implicit issue many anti-republican Marxists have is that subordinating the socialism to nationalism summons sectarian and paramilitary demons that end up costing the Marxist cause as well as alienating potential Protestant comrades.

As if one split in a minor left-wing grouping were not enough, Aontacht Media also confirmed it had parted ways with former TCDSU president (and occasional Burkean op-ed writer) László Molnár, citing “questionable political choices,” read between the lines perceived association with the far right, this journal potentially included.

https://twitter.com/Aontacht_Media/status/2045397477692444852/photo/2

Something of an ideological sandbox for the post-covid and intellectually curious left, Aontacht Media had carved out a niche as a left-sovereignist alternative to both right-wing populism advancing a form of republican socialism with a more grounded, material focus ie less trannies.

Molnár, however, raised eyebrows with his appearance at recent haulier protests, an unusual move at a time when much of the Irish left remains broadly aligned with kulaking the sector entirely. 

Even before the rupture at Aontacht, more senior left-academics had noticed the Hungarian student’s wayward ideological journey into Molotov Ribbentrop territory.

In all likelihood, both Molnár (assuming he remains in Ireland) and the remnants of CYM will drift into the broader left-republican milieu arguably the default destination for post-left currents in the country. Patriotism in this instance is the last refuge of the socialist scoundrel with the green flag granting the post-left on our shores a relatively secure ideological shore.

In an Irish context, where the legacy of a dominant liberal consensus is beginning to fray, a post-left reconfiguration carries implications well beyond electoral politics. The wider significance for Ireland here lies in the gradual and painful formation of a post-left political space capable of articulating alternatives to an entrenched orthodoxy. Hence why these groups matter.

There’s a clear recognition of dysfunction in the existing left, among smarter actors but not yet the tools (organisational, theoretical, or strategic) to transcend it.  

If developed with intellectual depth and institutional grounding, the post-left space has the potential to reshape not only policy outcomes, but the very terms on which political debate is conducted in the years ahead. 

Let’s wait and see but for now the firing squads, Discord debating rooms and BlueSky spats continue at pace.