Taken from Labour Representation (1898).
This is good example of Connolly's writings that can be applied to modern Ireland. We currently have our native working class being undercut by foreign labour and markets, and this practice is supported by the very people who claim to stand for the wellbeing of the workers.
This is good example of Connolly's writings that can be applied to modern Ireland. We currently have our native working class being undercut by foreign labour and markets, and this practice is supported by the very people who claim to stand for the wellbeing of the workers.
www.marxists.org
James Connolly: Labour Representation (1898)
"The conquest of Ireland is founded upon the dispossession of her people from all right to the soil, and from all right to life except upon terms dictated by the possessing class, in field, farms, or workshop owned and possessed by that class. That is to say, that the subjection of Ireland, like all other such subjection, is based upon the economic dependence of the oppressed upon the oppressor. The army, navy, and police are but the instruments with which this class enforces its domination, and the political subjection of Ireland to England means nothing more than that the possessing class were astute enough to place the control of those instruments of domination beyond the reach of the Irish people."
#irishpeople
#irishpeople
Taken from The Re-Conquest of Ireland (1898).
The first sentence here is enough to show that Connolly believes that the Irish People are the rightful owners of Ireland. I included the rest because although it makes the Marxist argument of oppressor vs. oppressed it is a valid description of the situation at the time.
The first sentence here is enough to show that Connolly believes that the Irish People are the rightful owners of Ireland. I included the rest because although it makes the Marxist argument of oppressor vs. oppressed it is a valid description of the situation at the time.
www.marxists.org
James Connolly: The Re-Conquest of Ireland (1899)
"The truth I have so often pointed out, that the employing class are the most immediate enemies of the Irish workers, and that until we have mustered up courage, and acquired knowledge, enough to drive this home-made breed of tyrants from public life we need not delude ourselves with the hope that the gates of national emancipation will ever open to us.
... here are Irishmen... openly declaring that the prosperity of Ireland depends upon the robbery of her working class...
Thus showing that when men of their class speak of ‘loving their country’ they do not mean that they love the people, but only the soil – the inanimate earth, not the living, suffering men and women."
#country
... here are Irishmen... openly declaring that the prosperity of Ireland depends upon the robbery of her working class...
Thus showing that when men of their class speak of ‘loving their country’ they do not mean that they love the people, but only the soil – the inanimate earth, not the living, suffering men and women."
#country
"The land was once the property of the Irish clans. The clans were then the corporate embodiment of the life of the Irish nation... the right of ownership still lives on and should now be established in the modern corporate embodiment of the Irish nation – our public boards, municipalities, and independent Irish Congress, when we are men enough to win one."
#nation
#nation
"Although a body aiming primarily at economic change, at Social Revolution, yet wherever a blow is to be struck for freedom – national or social, political or economic – there you will find the Socialist Republicans, ready and willing to fight.
Our warfare against the domestic exploiter does not diminish our hatred of the foreign tyrant."
#nationalism
Our warfare against the domestic exploiter does not diminish our hatred of the foreign tyrant."
#nationalism
"We Irish are today the only working class in Europe who are not in revolt against the slavery of the capitalist system; we are the only people with whom the highest ambition in life is to get a good wage from their masters; we are the only people who have not risen intellectually to a conception of what life might be without masters; we are the only people, outside of England, who are trade unionists only in the shop, but become the veriest lackeys of our masters at the political ballot box; and we would all die for the freedom of our country, yet would continue that country in the hands of employers and landlords, who could at their will refuse us the right to live upon it."
#irishpeople #country
#irishpeople #country
Taken from Home Thrusts (1900).
- Recognises class distinctions
- Recognises national/ethnic distinctions
It's not one or the other.
- Recognises class distinctions
- Recognises national/ethnic distinctions
It's not one or the other.
www.marxists.org
James Connolly: Home Thrusts (1900)
James Connolly: Home Thrusts (3 June 1900)
"...the establishment of our social arrangements on a Socialist basis will ensure material prosperity to all men and women, and by so ensuring leave the race full freedom to seek for such expression of its faculties as is best suited to their varying characters."
Taken from Difficulties of Capitalism (16 June 1900).
In this case I believe Connolly was using the term "race" to refer to all of humanity, judging by the rest of the article not being specific to Ireland. The important take away from this is the fact that he understood that different groups/Peoples have "varying characters", and that the blank slate idea that Liberalism espouses, and our modern SJW type socialism, is incorrect.
In this case I believe Connolly was using the term "race" to refer to all of humanity, judging by the rest of the article not being specific to Ireland. The important take away from this is the fact that he understood that different groups/Peoples have "varying characters", and that the blank slate idea that Liberalism espouses, and our modern SJW type socialism, is incorrect.
www.marxists.org
James Connolly: Difficulties of Capitalism (16 June 1900)
The following quotes (broken into smaller messages for convenience) are from The Coming Generation (1900).
www.marxists.org
James Connolly: The Coming Generation (1900)
"You shout for liberty, and you surrender your children to the mercies of capitalism which will seize them as soon as they leave school, and will devote their little bones, muscles and undeveloped brains to the task of grinding out profits for a boss."
#children
#children
"Are you doing your duty? Love Ireland! Yes, if by ‘Ireland’ you mean not only the earth and the waters, but the men and the women, the boys and the girls – the people of Ireland, in fact."
#Irishpeople
#Irishpeople
"Ireland without her people is nothing to me, and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for ‘Ireland’, and can yet pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and the suffering, the shame and the degradation wrought upon the people of Ireland, aye, wrought by Irishmen upon Irishmen and women, without burning to end it, is, in my opinion, a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements which he is pleased to call ‘Ireland’."
#Irishpeople
#Irishpeople
"...the right of citizenship, the right to live in the country, and the right to enjoy those fruits of labour the country will yield to its children.
That is the reward you should render the children for their love of country; win the country for them and leave it behind you as theirs to enjoy free and unfettered – neither under the heel of foreign tyrant, nor yielding disguised tribute to native slave driver."
#children #country
That is the reward you should render the children for their love of country; win the country for them and leave it behind you as theirs to enjoy free and unfettered – neither under the heel of foreign tyrant, nor yielding disguised tribute to native slave driver."
#children #country
"You are neglecting your duty as long as you allow your City Hall to be in the power of men who as landlords derive their living from the rents they extort...
You are traitor to your duty as long as you elect to Parliament the members of a political party which... is officered, managed and financed by that same class – the landlords of our city slums."
#irishtraitor
You are traitor to your duty as long as you elect to Parliament the members of a political party which... is officered, managed and financed by that same class – the landlords of our city slums."
#irishtraitor