The Starry Plough

“A Full Life:  James Connolly the Irish Rebel,” by Tom Keough, 2016

This graphic pamphlet gives the viewer the highlights of James Connolly’s life. Odd given that 102 years after the Easter rebellion of 1916, northern Ireland is still under the control of the English.  Ireland was one of England’s first colonies – with Wales and Scotland being absorbed earlier.  Theresa May’s Tory government is in power with the votes of a small group of these right-wing Ulster Protestants. The curse of colonialism never ends…

The surprising thing is that Connolly organized in many locations and was a member of many groups.

Graphic pamphlets are Cool

Connolly grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland very poor, and went to work at 10 years old.   He enlisted in the English army, but after being stationed in Ireland and then threatened with being sent to India, he deserted.  He joined the Scottish Socialist Federation after living on poverty wages for too long.  In 1893 he joined the Independent Labour Party and later became head of the Scottish Socialist Federation.  Then he went to work for the Irish Socialist Republican Party, combining the causes of national liberation and working class power – for a workers’ Republic.

Due to poverty, he left Ireland and shipped off to the U.S. where he joined the Socialist Labor Party.  He organized a shirt collar workers strike in Troy, New York. Connolly fought the AFL, which refused to enlist black, Chinese, Filipino and Italians in their unions.  He was sympathetic to the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which won the first minimum wage in the U.S. in Goldfield, Nevada.  Connolly moved to Newark, New Jersey to work at a Singer sewing machine factory, then to the Bronx, New York, where he worked with the IWW.  Ultimately he organized the Irish Socialist Federation with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in the U.S. and became the editor of their paper The Harp.  In The Harp he supported the rights of women, all immigrants, opposed the hostility between Protestants and Catholics and understood that religious people could have a role in a revolution.  Connolly was also aware of the colonial reach of the British Empire, having penned attacks on their control of India. 

In 1910, Connolly and his family moved back to Ireland and with Jim Larkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), modeled after the IWW.  Larkin and Connolly spoke all over Ireland as the Irish and English capitalists attacked the ITGWU.  Strikes organized by the ITGWU received aid from the English cooperative movement.  Connolly advocated sympathy strikes and strikes spread across Ireland.  On Bloody Sunday, August 31, 1913, 400 workers were injured and 2 killed by police in Dublin.  The Irish Citizen Army (ICA) was formed by the left as a response to the massacre.  In 1914 Irish labour opposed WWI and Connolly organized against the imperialist war.  The English government attempted to conscript Irishmen and opposition grew exponentially.  More armed groups were formed by labour, including a women’s brigade.  The ICA and Irish Republican Brotherhood got word that the English authorities were going to arrest the leaders of all the Irish labour and anti-war organizations.  A block was formed between nationalists and socialists for an uprising against English rule.

Barricades on the Streets of Dublin

An attempt to get guns for the insurrection from the Germans failed, as the Irish drivers drove over a cliff in the dark.  Because of the lack of weapons, the nationalists called off the rebellion and urged volunteers not to show up.  The ICA, Connolly and others went ahead on Easter Sunday, 1916.  Working out of Liberty Hall they took over a number of locations in Dublin, including the Post Office. They announced a provisional government for an Irish Republic.  Because not enough volunteers showed up, after 5 days of fighting the rebels were defeated.  Connolly was arrested and he was shot along with 15 others on May 12 at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin.

1916 was in a period of massive labour ferment all over Europe, as the war disrupted the normality of capitalist rule.  While the rising did not initially succeed, it led to independence for most of Ireland in 1921 after 5 years of continued conflict and civil war.  The pamphlet is easy to read, the art well done, and includes much more than I have related here, including original articles by Connolly from The Harp.

Other reviews related to Ireland:  Film:  “Jimmy’s Hall” and novel about Roger Casement:  “The Dream of the Celt.”

And I got it from May Day’s large selection of inexpensive pamphlets.

Note:  Stay tuned for information on Dublin's Easter Rising sites. 
And listen to this: "James Connolly" by Black 47:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wukfdjJv340

Red Frog

April 29, 2018