JAMES CONNOLLY - by J

JAMES CONNOLLY - By J. T. MURPHY fact that the father was a laborer . publican Party and edit its organ, count of its effect upon Lenin. “His a Marxist must write ; In 1880 Connolly's family became ex- “The Workers’ Republic." Revolt whole being cried out against it and . Edinburgh SOMEDAYthe life of James Connolly. We iles and arrived in where against the Boer war, Anti-Jubilee where Lenin called for the transfor- , his father . obtained work Empire Demonstration . shall never get a true appreciation of as a cor- writing mation of the Imperial War into the poration dustman. James became a “Labor in Irish History” . represen- Connolly’s place in Irish History and Civil War of the Classes, Connolly 1 printer’s devil Tn the office of the lo- tative of the Irish S. P. at the In- called the subject nation of Ireland revolutionary the Socialist movement cal “Evening News.” He was then ternational Social Congress, in 1900. to war upon the Empire. of Britain and America until someone, , under legal age, but his employer In at the split of the S. D. F. in 1903/ “We shall continue in season and a year . .” armed with the guiding philosophy for defeated the law . the formation of the Socialist Labor out of season to teach that 'the far- Then the sack. lucky Party of his life, has turned it upon his work “But he was in line with De Leon, later in flung battle line of England is weak- enough to find work soon afterwards the year he departed for America. est point and appraised his thoughts and ac- at the nearest its heart, that a . years in bakery later . two Back again in 1910. The organization Ireland is in that position of tactical tions accordingly. Desmond Ryan has in a mosaic tiling factory. i The of the I. T. W. U. The great in- advantage that a defeat of England brought together “a record of facts, , company of his uncle, an old Fenian, dustrial revolt of 1913. The final mar- in India, Egypt, the Balkans, or Flan- opinions, and recollections of James , kept vivid in'his memory the glamour tyrdom after Easter Week, 1916." ders, would not be so dangerous to and agony of the national struggle. Here was complacent trade un- Empire Connolly” which will be exceedingly no the British as conflict of arm- Mitchell too, he read, and much Irish working j helpful to whoever undertakes the ion leader, but a class war- ed forces in Ireland, that the time for history. Brooding, intense, silent, work, but insofar as he attempts to rior with heart aflame. What could Ireland’s battle is now, the place for outwardly inwardly aflame, a place Connolly, he enters into the cold and be the use of talking about the phi- Ireland’s Battle is Here.” spirit of adventure called him to losophy gradualism same partisan claims which lie con- new of to this man Both watchwords scenes. Leaving Edinburgh at eight- steeped in revolutionary lore and were fundamen- demns in others. ‘‘One inclines upon com- tally sound in relation to the een Connolly was in turn tramp, navvy pelled to do battle at every step. Once war the whole” he says, “to define his on Imperialism. Both with tire- and peddler, spending a roving and the goal of social revolution becomes men probable attitude as that of the offi- less energy pursued their tasks, but eventful life in different parts of Brit- his consuming aim and he has grasp- cial Irish Labor Party,” begins an there is a difference in the of tain. He was married in Perth at ed the Marxist method of readng his- means argument to justify his claim, and operation. Both agreed they the age of twenty-one. An accident tory, his evolution towards Leninism in that suddenly drops it as, “perhaps, a pro- must call into operation the sum to his father recalled him to Edin- becomes a certainty the years to- fitless conjecture.” I doubt this. The as tal of the forces they could burgh. His parent was permanently sweep us onward towards the great muster controversy and speculation have a against the imperialist, but had disabled and James Connolly took up crisis of 1914. His divergence from one a significance, which, if properly appre- highly developed party as an instru- his work as dustman in the cleansing the Kautskys in the revolutionary ciated, would do much to indicate the ment to gather the forces and main- department of the . corporation , purpose. They had revolutionary right line of approach to an under- no tain the proletarian hegemony, But many tomes of ancient and mod- purpose but turned Marxism into a the standing of Connolly. other had no such revolutionary par- ern history had he handled, the revo- fatalism which saw Socialism emerg- Why the rival claims for the soul ty understanding the role of the pro- lutionary phases of Irish history in ing thru the gradual transformation of Connolly? Why the quotation and letariat in predominantly agricul- . a particular. Marx, Engels . .Asso- of capitalism. What to them was a counter quotation to justify the sup- tural country. Lenin was farther a- ciation with British Socialists. Mor- paralysing blow was to Connolly the port or non-support of action? Why head than Connolly and with the Bol- . ris, Hyndman, Leslie . Then to great opportunity. Ryan’s account of still move Connolly’s own dying ex- shevik Party not only led the work- Dublin in 189 G Socialist agiator the effect of the Imperialist War clamation, “The Socialists will never as on ers as the vanguard of the mighty and to start the Irish Socialist Re- Connolly reads like Zinoviev's ac- re- understand why. I am here. Does volutionary movement of workers and not the answer lie in the fact that peasants, but crystalized and express- Connolly is among the few great fig- ed the experience that the world ures of the international working THE WORKERS’ FLAG should see and hear and read and un- class movement which belong to the derstand. Connolly had not such a transition from the epoch of imperial- Unfurl our banner to the breeze It shall challenge tyrant wrong; party. He appealed to the I. T. W. expansion epoch ist to the of social On mountain heights and distant seas; It shall make the weak, the strong; U., the citizen army. He led his re- revolution, that he felt himself sur- Where the poor are trodden down It shall clasp in brotherhood cruits to the very forefront of the rounded by reformism, narrow nation- In the country and the town; Men of every race and blood. national struggle and by these acts alism, doctrinaire Socialism, none of stamped upon pages Where the children toil all day, the of Irish his- which had been brought face to face tory the role of the proletariat of Ire- Robbed of sunshine and of play; ‘Tis the flag whose gleaming red with the task of revolution? I think But, al- Where land in its war of liberation. McManus struck the key to the situ- our sisters earn their bread Strikes the workers’ foes with dread; tho he created the impression In that he ation when he observed that Connolly work from which all joy has fled; ’Tis our flag, we workers, here; would not hesitate to turn against was “the one Socialist that he had Where our brothers give their life Rise and greet it with a cheer. some of his colleagues in the national judged every public ever met who For masters’ gain, in bloody strife. James H. Dolsen. war if they would not proceed to car- situation or political crisis with an ry out the socialist measures for eye upon revolutionary possibilities.” which he fought, I do not find any Where were the others to be found at clear defining of the role of the prole- that time? Certainly we do not find tariat or his aims as that of the dic- them in the British Isles, nor Amer- Daily tatorship of the proletariat or what ica. We are compelled to turn our An Italian a Communist part revolutionary party must take eyes factors eastwards and bring him into in the organized labor move in relation thereto. His deeds pro- By Antonio Presi. ment alignment with the smkll Bolshevik of this country today. claim the answer and one feels con- group led by Lenin. Desmond Ryan battle initiated by the Italian And when we look over this great vinced that had Connolly not been army says, “Broadly speaking, James Con- Federation for an Italian Commun- of more than 3,500,000 workers murdered by the Asquith-Henderson THE speaking nolly must be classified as a Workers’ ist daily in America is near its tri- our language, without a combination and had he lived to see Republican daily paper, any and Communist. The doc- umph. It was a hard, formidable bat- without labor insti- the Russian Revolution and the emer- trines tution, know how and methods that the Russian tle. we great was the gence of the Communist Internation- familiarized, damage done by this gang Revolution has since We were like a little group of sail- of demn al, he would have completed his writ- fighting gogues up in the regalia were his. He would certainly have ors in a terrible storm at sea. dressed of ings in full accord with the declara- at A desperate “proletarian saviors.” It is for this been one with Lenin in destruc- fight. tions of the Communist International.

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