If this were a work of fiction, the character of John Binns would, along with other radicals, jump on the Jackson bandwagon when it made its first appearance in 1822, and be rewarded by a government post through which he dispensed public works jobs to working-class Irish while upholding the slave system and helping to subjugate the free black people of the North.
-- How the Irish Became White, p. 70

Ignatiev's book is a positive contribution to white labor history which serves MIM in a timely way as we expand our work in Europe. Our readers will recall that J. Sakai has already explained in Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat why Andrew Jackson's name is synonymous with anti- First Nation pogroms and racial hatred. Ignatiev is not as clear theoretically as Sakai or H.W. Edwards, author of Labor Aristocracy: Mass Base for Social Democracy. How the Irish Became White reveals some confusion surrounding race, nationality, bourgeois democracy and the state; but these concepts are not really central to Ignatiev's book. MIM recognizes this work as an important contribution because Ignatiev did much of the research we would have wanted to do on the question of Irish integration into the white nation.

Ignatiev fills in the picture on how the Irish in Amerika maneuvered their way up out of the proletariat and in to the labor aristocracy. Some early Irish- Amerikan organizing was progressive. Later organizing was characterized by anti- Black chauvinism and opportunism.

Early Oppressed-Nation Consciousness Yields Split With White Chauvinism

Daniel O'Connell founded the Catholic Association, which Ignatiev says was the first mass political party. O'Connell toured making speeches against slavery, saying he didn't want any support for Irish nationalism that was not against slavery. Despite wavering on this commitment at one time, O'Connell remained fairly true to that idea until he died. Furthermore, 60,000 Irish in Ireland signed a statement opposing slavery in 1841.(p. 6) Thus while fighting for their own parliamentary government independent of England's, many Irish saw themselves as allied with other oppressed peoples.

O'Connell's dividing line, that Irish nationalism must be anti-slavery,(p. 24) was a high standard. As a result of this, organizations stopped their contributions to the Irish nationalist cause. One explained that "'as we must choose between Ireland and South Carolina, we say South Carolina forever!'"(p. 26) Lacking confidence in the possibilities of change outside the existing national institutions, many argued that Irish- Amerikans had to be more careful and couldn't afford to be seen as opposing U.S. government institutions with the wishes of foreign countries. Those making such reformist, assimilationist statements of strategy were outdone in the streets where Irish-American mobs attacked Blacks, as in Philadelphia in 1842.(p. 23) The mob "heroes" later became important politicians.

Slavery Question Reveals Assimilationist Treachery

After O'Connell died, a new generation of pro-U.S. leaders reflected what was going on in the United Snakes, instead of what was going on in Ireland. One such leader, John Mitchell, led a revolt in Ireland in 1848, only to fail and go to the United Snakes where he supported slavery and had a son die on the Confederate side of the Civil War. Irish nationalist organizations in the South and Midwestern United Snakes thought it wise to side with the slave owners and obtain their support for the Irish cause against England. Later, after the Civil War in a crucial moment of history, a congressperson put in power by Irish supporters ended the progressive phase of Reconstruction.(p. 173-4)

Irish-Amerikans made a deal with the Democratic Party to oppose Black people's rights in exchange for jobs and a pro-immigration policy.(p. 76) The labor unions were important institutions for the Irish: "From 1850 to 1859 the total was 2,700,000. Of these, the Irish formed the largest group, 41.4 percent of the total immigration. If the unions of the 1830s headed largely by native- born and British Protestants, functioned at that time as schools for teaching the Irish the meaning of whiteness, the unions later were to become to a considerable extent Irish institutions."(p. 116) Sadly, the major Euro-Amerikan labor unions famous for their assistance to the CIA in the Third World also created much of the chauvinist image of all oppressed nation people as strikebreakers.(p. 119)

It is true that the Irish arrived in North America by the millions at a time when the Irish themselves were starving in famine. A good portion died on the trip over to North America and another portion shortly after arriving. It has been pointed out that the Irish felt the whip to conform immediately in order to feed themselves. When the Irish first arrived many white Amerikans believed the Irish to be lower than Blacks, because they were more poorly dressed and were starving.

This historical reality of the predominantly lower- middle class Irish who made it to North America reinforces the thesis of the difficulty of maintaining a proletariat where there is a larger mass of workers influencing them towards assimilation. It is difficult for a pocket of exploited workers to maintain its identity and uniqueness as a class. When the Irish arrived they were indeed proletarian, but as they looked around they saw adequate examples of why they should conform to the white ethnicity. Ignatiev's book demonstrates that they also found adequate opportunity to assimilate.

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