***In Honor Of James Connelly On The
100th Anniversary Of The Easter Uprising-Commandant- Irish Citizens
Army- A Critical Appreciation Of Easter, 1916
A word on the Easter Uprising.
In the old Irish working-class
neighborhoods where I grew up the aborted Easter Uprising of 1916 was spoken of
in mythical hushed reverent tones as the key symbol of the modern Irish
liberation struggle from bloody England. The event itself provoked such
memories of heroic “boyos” (and “girlos”
not acknowledged) fighting to the end against great odds that a careful
analysis of what could, and could not be, learned from the mistakes made at the
time entered my head. That was then though in the glare of boyhood
infatuations. Now is the time for a more sober assessment.
The easy part of analyzing the Irish
Easter Uprising of 1916 is first and foremost the knowledge, in retrospect,
that it was not widely supported by people in Ireland, especially by the
“shawlies” in Dublin and the cities who received their sons’ military pay from
the Imperial British Army for service in the bloody trenches of Europe which
sustained them throughout the war. That factor and the relative ease with which
the uprising had been militarily defeated by the British forces send in main
force to crush it lead easily to the conclusion that the adventure was doomed
to failure. Still easier is to criticize the timing and the strategy and
tactics of the planned action and of the various actors, particularly in the
leadership’s underestimating the British Empire’s frenzy to crush any
opposition to its main task of victory in World War I. (Although, I think that frenzy
on Mother England’s part would be a point in the uprising’s favor under the
theory that England’s [or fill in the blank of your favorite later national
liberation struggle] woes were Ireland’s [or fill in the blank ditto on the
your favorite oppressed peoples struggle] opportunities.
The hard part is to draw any
positive lessons of that national liberation struggle experience for the
future. If nothing else remember this though, and unfortunately the Irish
national liberation fighters (and other national liberation fighters later,
including later Irish revolutionaries) failed to take this into account in
their military calculations, the British (or fill in the blank) were savagely committed
to defeating the uprising including burning that colonial country to the ground
if need be in order to maintain control. In the final analysis, it was not part
of their metropolitan homeland, so the hell with it. Needless to say, cowardly British
Labor’s position was almost a carbon copy of His Imperial Majesty’s. Labor
Party leader Arthur Henderson could barely contain himself when informed that
James Connolly had been executed. That should, even today, make every British
militant blush with shame. Unfortunately, the demand for British militants and
others today is the same as then if somewhat attenuated- All British Troops
Out of Ireland.
In various readings on national
liberation struggles I have come across a theory that the Easter Uprising was
the first socialist revolution in Europe, predating the Bolshevik Revolution by
over a year. Unfortunately, there is little truth to that idea. Of the
Uprising’s leaders only James Connolly was devoted to the socialist cause.
Moreover, while the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army were
prototypical models for urban- led national liberation forces such
organizations, as we have witnessed in later history, are not inherently
socialistic. The dominant mood among the leadership was in favor of political
independence and/or fighting for a return to a separate traditional Irish
cultural hegemony. (“Let poets rule the land”).
As outlined in the famous
Proclamation of the Republic posted on the General Post Office in Dublin,
Easter Monday, 1916 the goal of the leadership appeared to be something on the
order of a society like those fought for in the European Revolutions of 1848, a
left bourgeois republic. A formation on the order of the Paris Commune of 1871 where
the working class momentarily took power or the Soviet Commune of 1917 which
lasted for a longer period did not figure in the political calculations at that
time. As noted above, James Connolly clearly was skeptical of his erstwhile
comrades on the subject of the nature of the future state and apparently was
prepared for an ensuing class struggle following the establishment of a
republic.
That does not mean that revolutionary socialists could not
support such an uprising. On the contrary, Lenin, who was an admirer of
Connolly for his anti-war stance in World War I, and Trotsky stoutly defended
the uprising against those who derided the Easter rising for involving
bourgeois elements. Participation by bourgeois and petty bourgeois elements is
in the nature of a national liberation struggle. The key, which must be learned
by militants today, is who leads the national liberation struggle and on what
program. As both Lenin and Trotsky made clear later in their own experiences in
Russia revolutionary socialists have to lead other disaffected elements of
society to overthrow the existing order. There is no other way in a
heterogeneous class-divided society. Moreover, in Ireland, the anti-imperialist
nature of the action against British imperialism during wartime on the
socialist principle that the defeat of your own imperialist overlord in war as
a way to open the road to the class struggle merited support on that basis
alone. Chocky Ar La.
"James Connolly"
The man was all shot through that
came to day into the Barrack Square
And a soldier I, I am not proud to
say that we killed him there
They brought him from the prison
hospital and to see him in that chair
I swear his smile would, would far
more quickly call a man to prayer
Maybe, maybe I don't understand this
thing that makes these rebels die
Yet all men love freedom and the
spring clear in the sky
I wouldn't do this deed again for
all that I hold by
As I gazed down my rifle at his
breast but then, then a soldier I.
They say he was different, kindly
too apart from all the rest.
A lover of the poor-his wounds ill
dressed.
He faced us like a man who knew a
greater pain
Than blows or bullets ere the world
began: died he in vain
Ready, Present, and him just
smiling, Christ I felt my rifle shake
His wounds all open and around his
chair a pool of blood
And I swear his lips said,
"fire" before my rifle shot that cursed lead
And I, I was picked to kill a man
like that, James Connolly
A great crowd had gathered outside
of Kilmainham
Their heads all uncovered, they
knelt to the ground.
For inside that grim prison
Lay a great Irish soldier
His life for his country about to
lay down.
He went to his death like a true son
of Ireland
The firing party he bravely did face
Then the order rang out: Present
arms and fire
James Connolly fell into a
ready-made grave
The black flag was hoisted, the
cruel deed was over
Gone was the man who loved Ireland
so well
There was many a sad heart in Dublin
that morning
When they murdered James Connolly-.
the Irish rebel
"James Connolly"
Marchin' down O'Connell Street with
the Starry Plough on high
There goes the Citizen Army with
their fists raised in the sky
Leading them is a mighty man with a
mad rage in his eye
"My name is James Connolly - I
didn't come here to die
But to fight for the rights of the
working man
And the small farmer too
Protect the proletariat from the
bosses and their screws
So hold on to your rifles, boys, and
don't give up your dream
Of a Republic for the workin' class,
economic liberty"
Then Jem yelled out "Oh
Citizens, this system is a curse
An English boss is a monster, an
Irish one even worse
They'll never lock us out again and
here's the reason why
My name is James Connolly, I didn't
come here to die....."
And now we're in the GPO with the
bullets whizzin' by
With Pearse and Sean McDermott
biddin' each other goodbye
Up steps our citizen leader and
roars out to the sky
"My name is James Connolly, I
didn't come here to die...
Oh Lily, I don't want to die, we've
got so much to live for
And I know we're all goin' out to
get slaughtered, but I just can't take any more
Just the sight of one more child
screamin' from hunger in a Dublin slum
Or his mother slavin' 14 hours a day
for the scum
Who exploit her and take her youth
and throw it on a factory floor
Oh Lily, I just can't take any more
They've locked us out, they've
banned our unions, they even treat their animals better than us
No! It's far better to die like a
man on your feet than to live forever like some slave on your knees, Lilly
But don't let them wrap any green
flag around me
And for God's sake, don't let them
bury me in some field full of harps and shamrocks
And whatever you do, don't let them
make a martyr out of me
No! Rather raise the Starry Plough
on high, sing a song of freedom
Here's to you, Lily, the rights of
man and international revolution"
We fought them to a standstill while
the flames lit up the sky
'Til a bullet pierced our leader and
we gave up the fight
They shot him in Kilmainham jail but
they'll never stop his cry
My name is James Connolly, I didn't come here to
die...."
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