This week has been tense for the Workers’ Party TCD. After being forced to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to re-elect its committee after the first election was deemed unconstitutional, the new committee burned their membership cards and returned to campus the next day to find over 100 books stolen from their society room, alongside posters and other amenities. Secretary James McCullen also claimed that cash from students who signed up to the party during Freshers’ Fair was also taken.
The Central Societies Committee (CSC) has since sent an email to all Workers’ Party members that they had “been made aware that items belonging to the Workers’ Party Society were taken from the society room in the Atrium (Room 8) between the evening of Monday, 2 November, and the morning of Tuesday, 3 November 2026, without the authorisation of the Society’s committee.” The email stated that individuals who return items before 4:00pm on Friday, November 6th, will be granted amnesty by the CSC, College Security, and the Junior Dean’s Office. If the items are not returned, the CSC said it would escalate the issue to An Garda Síochána.
On Wednesday, the Workers’ Party of Ireland issued a statement on Instagram condemning “the conduct of members of the Workers’ Party TCD committee, including the public burning of branch membership cards, their characterisation of the party as oppressive, their false accusations that it acts as a Russian puppet, and their support for NATO’s imperialist role in the war in Ukraine. The members in question broke several rules of the Workers’ Party TCD constitution as well as of the Central Societies Committee constitution, with some also being ineligible to stand for election.”
The ineligibility to stand for election likely refers to the fact that, at the start of the year, Secretary James McCullen was not yet a registered student at Trinity. However, the entire annual general meeting (AGM) was deemed unconstitutional because the party did not have a quorum. McCullen is now a registered student and was constitutionally elected to Secretary again yesterday. In a comment to the University Times, former Workers’ Party TCD Auditor, Elisa Zito, claimed that the newly-elected Auditor, Bryn Butler, was “not able to stand for election” because, according to the society constitution, candidates must have attended at least three events. Zito claimed that “she hasn’t”. In a comment to the University Times responding to allegations that she was not eligible to stand election, Butler said: “I’m not going to dignify this grasping at straws. [Zito] and I surely have both have greater concerns than squabbling over a university society”.
The CSC supervised the EGM on Monday, which saw 47 members at the start and 29 at the end following a walkout organised by former Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union President, László Molnárfi.
Russia was a major talking point during their EGM yesterday, where there was an apparent split. McCullen said that the Workers’ Party of Ireland endorses Russia. The Workers’ Party of Ireland has said, “Russia is ultimately fighting a war to preserve its existence in the face of NATO aggression” and called the war “Russia’s resilient opposition to NATO”. McCullen also told the University Times that during a presentation he made on imperialism at Trinity, the Workers’ Party of Ireland forced him to delete slides that used Russian imperialism as an example.
In photo evidence provided to the University Times, Workers’ Party of Ireland delegates can be seen attending the Second International Anti-Fascist Forum, held in Moscow, Russia. The event brief said, “the Special Military Operation is gaining momentum and it could deliver a military defeat as happened 80 years ago”, comparing potential Russian victory over Ukraine to the USSR defeat of Nazi Germany. The Workers’ Party of Ireland has also said it “supports NATO’s defeat in Ukraine against Russia”. The Workers’ Party of Ireland was also a signatory to the World Anti-Imperialist Platform Paris Declaration, which states “Russia has not invaded or been aggressive towards any other country”. Delegates from the Workers’ Party of Ireland and former members of the Workers’ Party TCD attended the 8th International Anti-Imperialist Conference organised by the World Anti-Imperialist Platform in Amsterdam.
Before the EGM, McCullen, former treasurer Eoin Brady, and former Public Relations Officer (PRO) Simon Lewis were all slated to be impeached by former Auditor James Rochford. The vote was not held, and all parties escalated the matter to the CSC, which then found the original election unconstitutional. Speaking to the University Times before the EGM, Brady claimed the impeachments were “a total surprise”.
Rochford also spoke to the University Times before the EGM, claiming that the impeachment was an attempt to get McCullen, Brady, and Lewis to do more work for the society. He also claimed that the Workers’ Party of Ireland rarely intervened in the activities of the society and denied the ties to Russia.
In a comment to the University Times, former Workers’ Party TCD Auditor, Elisa Zito, said, “The positions of the party have been known for years. When I left the branch in May, we were a very cohesive group and we would have at most friendly disagreements. All the issues now provoking outrage caused no friction until six months ago. With the exception of the new chair, every member of the committee served last year as well, was collaborative and friendly, and raised few objections to the party’s positions. This rift is driven purely by personal matters. I guess this points to an ever-occurring issue in student politics where most people are not yet mature enough to separate the needs of a political organisation from whatever turmoil is happening in their personal life, and become so invested in politics as an identity that they mistake pride for principles”
During the EGM, Molnárfi called the proceedings “a complete and utter joke”, calling the new Auditor, Butler, and McCullen, Brady, and Lewis “ultra left deviationists”, “propogandists”, and “NATO anarchists”. Following the walkout, during his speech before being elected PRO, Lewis called the former version of the society, “a totally nefarious society [of] imperialism and Putinism”. He also claimed that his access to the Workers’ Party TCD Instagram was removed during the impeachment meeting.
The Workers’ Party of Ireland’s statement continued, “Taken together, these actions and statements demonstrate contempt for the organisation they claim to represent. For these reasons, the Workers’ Party has suspended the Workers’ Party TCD committee pending disciplinary proceedings. The Trinity branch of the Workers’ Party is subject to the party’s rules and democratic structures. Holding office in the branch while publicly repudiating the Party is incompatible with the responsibilities owed to the organisation and its membership.”
The statement was co-posted with the former Workers’ Party TCD Instagram, which was presumed deleted this morning, prompting the new committee to make a new Instagram account.
