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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 19, 11 May 1940, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
May 12 is the 24th anniversary of the execution of James Connolly, foremost Irish revolutionary.
Connolly is the symbol of the 700 year struggle for Irish freedom. But he is more than just a symbol of a nationalist struggle. He is the symbol of the only force in society that can lead the struggle for national liberation of oppressed peoples. The words of Connolly, written thirty years ago, are equally true today:
“But on whom devolves the task of achieving the downfall of the ruling classes in Ireland? On the Irish people. But who are the Irish people?
“Is it the dividend-hunting capitalist with the phraseology of patriotism on his lips and the spoil wrung from sweated Irish toilers in his pockets; is it the scheming lawyer – most immoral of all classes; is it the slum landlord who denounces rackrenting in the country and practices it in the towns; is it anyone of these sections who today dominate Irish politics? Or is it not rather the Irish working class – the only secure foundation on which a free nation can be reared – the Irish working class which has borne the brunt of every political struggle, and gained by none, and which is today the only class in all Ireland which has no interest in perpetuating either the political or social forms of oppression – the British connection or the capitalist system.
“The Irish working class must emancipate itself, and in emancipating itself it must, perforce, free its country. The act of social emancipation requires the conversion of the land and the instruments of production from private property into the public or common property of the entire nation. This necessitates a social system of the most absolute democracy, and in establishing that necessary social system the working class must grapple with every form of government which could interfere With the most unfettered control by the people of Ireland of all the resources of their country.”
Connolly stood for industrial unionism. He held that the craft, unions divided the workers where above all they should be united, in their daily toil in the fields and workshops. The division must be ended by a union embracing all workers of “hand and brain” in each industry. He envisaged these industrial unions as the main instruments of social revolution, the very foundation of the future society.
Connolly was an internationalist and a revolutionary fighter against the imperialist war. During the war the headquarters of the union which he led, the Transport Workers Union – Liberty Hall in Dublin – was decorated with a huge banner that read: “We serve neither King nor Kaiser!” Connolly was bitter in his attacks against those who supported the wan – the Irish bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeois nationalists. He openly preached revolutionary defeatism. He looked upon the pending struggle not merely as an Irish affair:
“Starting thus, Ireland may yet set the torch to a European conflagration that will not burn out until the last throne and the last capitalist bond and debenture are shrivelled up on the funeral pyre of the last war lord.”
He was no pacifist. He was a partisan of the war of the working class and colonial peoples against the imperialists.
The inspiration of Connolly to the Irish labor and nationalist movement still lives. Despite the government ban, huge meetings were held commemorating the Easter Week rising of 1916 for which Connolly was executed. Meetings now taking place against conscription, and the growing cost of living, are clear indications that the strike wave for increased wages to meet the rising cost of living, are clear indications that the struggle for Irish freedom continues. James Connolly is the father of today’s struggles.
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Last updated on 3 February 2019