The Politics of James Connolly
Kieran Allen
The Politics of James Connolly
Pluto Press, London, 2016. 206pp., ÂŁ14.99 pb
ISBN 9780745304731
Reviewed by Derek Wall
Review
James Connolly, who was born in Edinburgh in 1868 and died at the hands of a British army firing squad in 1916, is unrivalled as a revolutionary figure in both Ireland and Scotland. He is an iconic figure, like Che. A working-class Marxist who led an uprising that, while defeated, lit the flames of the Irish War of Independence. Kieran Allen, a committed Irish Marxist and a Sociologist based at University College, Dublin, has provided a concise, clear and readable account of Connollyâs politics.
The Easter Uprising of 1916 was led by James Connolly, whose small Irish Citizens Army, a well drilled Marxist militia, joined with members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The plan was to seize Dublin, which would act as signal for the Irish population to rise and expel the British forces out of Ireland. Connolly, it is said, assumed that the British forces would be reluctant to bombard the centre of Dublin because of the damage this would cause to the property of the rich and powerful. The uprising was soon defeated; it failed to inspire support from the Irish population, the British Army rushed in troops and the Navy commenced with a brutal bombardment. After six days Connolly and other leaders of the uprising surrendered. There followed the execution of key leaders, including Connolly, who was so badly injured he had to be tied to a chair to face the firing squad. Revulsion at these executions led to resentment and the successful War of Irish Independence from 1919 to 1921 is widely seen as a result.
The Easter Uprising proclaimed the creation of an Irish Republic. Connolly was an advocate of a socialist republic, and the legacy of his mixture of Marxism, critical Celtic enthusiasm and republicanism have endured to this day. Indeed, while he was alive the socialist organisations he was associated with were tiny, and Irish republicanism was largely hostile to the left. He can be said to have produce a specifically Irish socialist republican tradition. The entire Irish left reference his name and ideals, typically Sinn Fein, the political party associated with the Provisional Irish Republican Army, now the third largest party in the Irish Republic and the second largest in the North, give him prominent place.
Connolly, with his short moustache is a literal icon, to be seen on flags, stickers, posters and the like. I have, for example, a Connolly key ring. His legacy is more than as a symbol of Irish independence. He became a socialist as a young man in Scotland and threw himself into political organising. He was involved with a string of early socialist organisations and spent time in the USA as a professional organiser for de Leonâs Socialist Labour Party. His family were of Irish descent and on moving from the USA to Ireland he became a trade union organiser as well as founding several Irish socialist political parties. He helped write for, and edited, a number of socialist newspapers. His literary output was considerable and included the monumental Labour in Irish History. Not only was he a working class leader but he was of working class origin; his father was a night soil man who literally collected the shit in the slums of Edinburgh. Connollyâs formal education was modest in the extreme but his intellectual achievements vast.
Kieran Allen provides the biographical detail for Connolly and places his work and thought within the context of Irish independence struggles and developing Marxist thought at the time of the First World War. I have a few criticisms of the book, but Kieran does a service to those who wish to learn more about Connolly. With the current rise in interest and activism on the left in both Ireland and beyond, it is very good to see this book back in print, Connolly, I would argue, remains relevant todayâŚ.
Continued:- https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviewofbooks/reviews/2017/2864
