"...work is the proper organisation of the working class of Ireland as a coherent whole, under one direction and in one organisation... to become sub-divisions of one great whole whose aim it should be to perfect an organisation in which the interests of all should be the interests of each...

It would enable labour to dictate terms to the employing class, to raise wages and to give greater possibilities of life and happiness to all, to shorten hours and to give the parent more time to spend in the bosom of his family, and give the working boy and girl more time to self-improvement and study. It would create a force which could at any time settle the question of supporting Irish manufacture by refusing to handle all goods whose use or sale in Ireland tended to deprive Irish men and women of a chance to earn their living in their own country, and it would tend to create in the Irish working class the spirit of self-reliance which comes from grappling with problems affecting a whole class,"

#country #irishpeople #syndicalism

"Some socialists will accuse us of being chauvinistic. We are not. But we believe that the toilers of each country should control the industries of their country and they cannot do so if these industries have their location for manufacturing purposes in another country. Therefore, after long and mature deliberation upon the matter in all its aspects we affirm it as our belief that the working class of Ireland should prevent, by united action, the conquest of the Irish market by any capitalist or merchant whose factories or workshops are not manned by members of their organisation."

#country #borders #chauvinistic

The quotes above are taken from A New Labour Policy (1910).

Taken from Importation vs. Deportation (1913).

"It is our duty to show the world that neither the friendship of the English nor their hatred can turn the Irish democracy from their resolve to win for their country her right to be a free and independent Nation enjoying a true Republican freedom.

The architects of that freedom will and must be the Irish working class. Ours is the task to prepare them. While that preparation is going forward we must take our place in every good and wise movement for the upholding of the highest ideals born of the age-long struggle of our people."

#nation #irishpeople

Taken from Irish Rebels and English Mobs (1913).

"This question of presenting Socialism so that it will appeal to the peculiar hereditary instincts and character of the people amongst whom you are operating is one of the first importance to the Socialist and Labour movement. A position, theoretically sound, may fail if expressed in terms unsuited to the apprehension of those to whom you are appealing... I have painstakingly stuck to the endeavour to translate Socialist doctrines into terms understood by the Irish, in or out of Ireland... my case was the case for workers to whom the traditions and aspirations of Irish Nationality had been of prime importance."

#irishpeople #nation

Taken from The Solidarity of Labour (1914).

Taken from Independent Labour Party of Ireland:
Ireland Upon The Dissecting Table (April 1914).

While this quote and article are talking about Ulster, the words themselves and the intent behind them, to stir the current generation to action are applicable today. The dismemberment and dissection we face may not be identical to those of Connolly's day faced, but the idea is the same. How will we be remembered by our children and future generations of the Irish people?

"I regard each nation as the possessor of a definite contribution to the common stock of civilisation, and I regard the capitalist class of each nation as being the logical and natural enemy of the national culture which constitutes that definite contribution.

Therefore, the stronger I am in my affection for national tradition, literature, language, and sympathies, the more firmly rooted I am in my opposition to that capitalist class which in its soulless lust for power and gold would bray the nations as in a mortar."

#nation

Taken from A Continental Revoultion (1914).

"Freedom, we believe, cannot flourish, or even awaken into life in the miasmatic atmosphere of wirepulling and intrigue, but as St Just said:–

Liberty is born in storm and tears as the Earth arose out of chaos, and as man comes wailing into the world.

We who have faced the storm for industrial liberty, and wept the tears for the sufferings of our own class will not shrink from either for the sake of our country.

Try us!"

#country

Taken from The National Danger (1914).

"...remember that even under the most favorable circumstances, even if by some miracle, we were able to cover the green fields of Erin with huge, ugly factories, with chimneys belching forth volumes of poisonous smoke and coating the island with a sooty desolation – even then we would quickly find that under the conditions born of the capitalist system our one hope of keeping our feet as a manufacturing nation would depend upon our ability to work longer and harder for a lower wage than the other nations of Europe, in order that our middle class may have the opportunity of selling their goods at a lower price than their competitors. This is equivalent to saying that our chance of making Ireland a manufacturing country depends upon us becoming the lowest blacklegs in Europe. Even then the efforts would be doomed to failure, for the advent of the yellow man into the competitive arena, the sudden development of the capitalist system on China and Japan, has rendered forever impossible the uprise of another industrial nation in Europe."

#globalism
#environmentalism

Taken from Erin's Hope, The End & The Means (1909).