"For the German people are a highly civilised people, responsive to every progressive influence, and, rapidly forging weapons for their own emancipation from native tyranny, whereas the Russian Empire stretches away into the depths of Asia, and relies on an army largely recruited from amongst many millions of barbarians who have not yet felt the first softening influence of civilisation. German thought is abreast of the best in the world; German influences have shaped for good the hopes of the world, but the thought and the hopes of the best in Russia were but the other day drowned in blood by Russia’s worst.
To help Britain is to help Russia to the dominance of Europe, to help the barbarian to crush the scientist. That is the reflection of the wise revolutionist of to-day.
Meanwhile the Orange enemy of Irish freedom wisely stays at home and conserves his forces, and the Irish Nationalist is encouraged by his leaders to rush abroad and shed his blood in a quarrel not his own, the simplest elements of which he does not understand."
#barbarians
To help Britain is to help Russia to the dominance of Europe, to help the barbarian to crush the scientist. That is the reflection of the wise revolutionist of to-day.
Meanwhile the Orange enemy of Irish freedom wisely stays at home and conserves his forces, and the Irish Nationalist is encouraged by his leaders to rush abroad and shed his blood in a quarrel not his own, the simplest elements of which he does not understand."
#barbarians
"Not the most numerically important, but surely one of the most influential of the races represented in America are the Jews. Particularly is this true of the eastern states, and in the commercial and journalistic world."
"A happy new year! Ah, well! Our readers are, we hope, rebels in heart, and hence may rebel even at our own picture of the future. If that is so let us remind them that opportunities are for those who seize them, and that the coming year may be as bright as we choose to make it. We have sketched out the future as it awaits the slave who fears death more than slavery. For those who choose to advance to meet Fate determined to mould it to their purpose that future may be as bright as our picture is dark."
A Happy New Year (1916)
A Happy New Year (1916)
One correspondent in the Labour Leader informed Connolly that "many English Socialists" considered the I.S.R.P. agitation for Irish independence "a mere chauvinism", and as such calculated to "perpetuate national rivalries and race hatreds".
Connolly answered his critic in January 1898. He mildly reproved the "confusion of thought", rebutted the charge of jingoism and declared that "under a socialist system every nation will be the supreme arbiter against its will, but will have its independence guarantees and it's freedom respected by the enlightened self-interest of the social democracy of the world."
Connolly answered his critic in January 1898. He mildly reproved the "confusion of thought", rebutted the charge of jingoism and declared that "under a socialist system every nation will be the supreme arbiter against its will, but will have its independence guarantees and it's freedom respected by the enlightened self-interest of the social democracy of the world."
Then in a stronger vein he struck at the root of the matter:
"The statement that our ideals cannot be realised except by the paths of violent revolution is not so much an argument against our propaganda as an indictment of the invincible ignorance and unconquerable national egotism of the British electorate, and as such concerns the English Socialists more than Irish ones.
"The attitude of the orthodox Home Ruler is also subject to misunderstanding among English Socialists. Seeing that the Home Ruler disavows all desire for separation, our English comrades are prone to draw unfavourable comparisons between him and the Socialist republican. But the Home Ruler stops short at Home Rule, not because he is cosmopolitan or a believer in human brotherhood, but because he is so little of a Democrat that to him the British Empire is an ideal system everywhere except in Ireland, and the sole aim of his political activity is to reproduce in Ireland all the political and social manifestations which accompany capitalist supremacy in Great Britain."
This was Connolly's first passage of arms with the doctrine which attempts to justify imperialism on the specious ground that it unites nations.
(The Life and Times of James Connolly, Desmond Greaves, pg. 61)
"The statement that our ideals cannot be realised except by the paths of violent revolution is not so much an argument against our propaganda as an indictment of the invincible ignorance and unconquerable national egotism of the British electorate, and as such concerns the English Socialists more than Irish ones.
"The attitude of the orthodox Home Ruler is also subject to misunderstanding among English Socialists. Seeing that the Home Ruler disavows all desire for separation, our English comrades are prone to draw unfavourable comparisons between him and the Socialist republican. But the Home Ruler stops short at Home Rule, not because he is cosmopolitan or a believer in human brotherhood, but because he is so little of a Democrat that to him the British Empire is an ideal system everywhere except in Ireland, and the sole aim of his political activity is to reproduce in Ireland all the political and social manifestations which accompany capitalist supremacy in Great Britain."
This was Connolly's first passage of arms with the doctrine which attempts to justify imperialism on the specious ground that it unites nations.
(The Life and Times of James Connolly, Desmond Greaves, pg. 61)
Maud Gonne visited Mayo in January and busied herself urging relief till it became clear that the Government would do nothing. She returned to Dublin and saw Connolly, who told her of reports he had received from Kerry. They were both oppressed by the precedent of 1847 and resolved that the fatal error of that year must not be repeated... Together they drafted a manifesto...entitled The Rights of Life and the Rights of Property. It includes extracts from the writings of Pope Clement I, Gregory the Great, Cardinal Manning and St. Thomas Aquinas.
"Fellow-countrymen," it ran, "at the present juncture, when the shadow of famine is already blighting the lives of so many amongst us, we desire to offer a few words of calm advice."
"Fellow-countrymen," it ran, "at the present juncture, when the shadow of famine is already blighting the lives of so many amongst us, we desire to offer a few words of calm advice."
"In 1847, our people died by thousands of starvation, though every ship leaving an Irish port was laden with food in abundance. The Irish people might have seized that food, cattle, corn and all manner of provisions before it reached the seaports, have prevented famine and saved their country from ruin, but did not do so, believing such action to be sinful, and dreading to peril their souls to save their bodies. In this belief we know now they were entirely mistaken. The very highest authorities in the doctrine of the church agree that no human law can stand between starving people and their right to food, including their right to take that food whenever they find it, openly or secretly, with or without the owner's permission."
[...]
For Connolly, Kerry was but one more illustration of the depth of betrayal of the parliamentary leaders... The poison of constitutionalism had been injected just at a time when the countryside could have been fanned into revolt.
(Pages 65-66)
[...]
For Connolly, Kerry was but one more illustration of the depth of betrayal of the parliamentary leaders... The poison of constitutionalism had been injected just at a time when the countryside could have been fanned into revolt.
(Pages 65-66)
'... the I.S.R.P. [in Salford]... must not compete with either the I.L.P. or S.D.F. In order to prevent this, it would be confined exclusively to those of Irish birth or descent '
"Connolly was one of the most convincing speakers I ever heard in my life, a man with great passion for the cause of the labouring classes, and probably a greater passion for the cause of Ireland".
"Connolly was one of the most convincing speakers I ever heard in my life, a man with great passion for the cause of the labouring classes, and probably a greater passion for the cause of Ireland".
"The population of Ireland is only 4,000,000 and, as there is an annual emigration of 40,000, it is becoming quite a serious question as to how long the Irish nation will exist at this rate of deportation."
"...the emigrant sacrifices his future for his present for the sake of a few extra dollars."
(The Life and Times of James Connolly, pg. 100)
"...the emigrant sacrifices his future for his present for the sake of a few extra dollars."
(The Life and Times of James Connolly, pg. 100)
"Fellow-workers – the employers are determined to starve you into submission, and if you resist, to club you, jail you, and kill you. We defy them! If they think they can carry on their industries without you, we will, in the words of the Ulster Orangeman, “Take steps to prevent it.”
It is your duty to find the ways and means. Be men now, or be for ever slaves."
It is your duty to find the ways and means. Be men now, or be for ever slaves."
“These men have sold you. Sold you? No, by God, given you away. Whether my speech is pro-German or pro-Irish, I don’t know. As an Irish worker I owe a duty to our class; counting no allegiance to the Empire; I’d be glad to see it back in the bottomless pit. The Irish workers hold themselves ready to bargain with whoever can make a bargain. England has been fighting Germany. If it were not for the Russians, French and Japanese, the British would not have made a mouthful for the Germans. The Germans are in Boulogne, where Napoleon projected an invasion of Britain. To Ireland is only a twelve hours’ run. If you are itching for a rifle, itching to fight, have a country of your own; better to fight for our own country than for the robber empire. If ever you shoulder a rifle, let it be for Ireland. Conscription or no conscription, they will never get me or mine. You have been told you are not strong, that you have no rifles. Revolutions do not start with rifles; start first and get your rifles after. Our curse is our belief in our weakness. We are not weak, we are strong. Make up your mind to strike before your opportunity goes.”
#revolution
#revolution