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James Connolly, one of Ireland’s best known Marxists and revolutionaries, has left us a wealth of writings to help us navigate the struggles of today. Fiona Ferguson discusses perhaps his most important – Labour in Irish History – and argues you should read it, today. “Irish history is a lamp to
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As war fervour continues to be ramped up, Kieran Allen looks at James Connolly’s views on war: His staunch opposition to imperialism and the First World War, his belief that war was an inevitability under capitalism, and his argument that a rebellion in Ireland could lead to a wider
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This year’s anniversary of James Connolly’s execution occurs amidst a triple crisis of capitalism: a global health pandemic, an economic depression and a climate emergency. Author of the James Connolly Reader, Shaun Harkin, argues Connolly’s political ideas and socialist vision have never been so relevant. Connolly joined
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James Connolly lived in the US from 1903 to 1910. The image above is of Connolly addressing the May Day rally in Union Square, New York City in 1908. Here Rebel republishes an article by Connolly first printed in the May 1908 issue of The Harp, the newspaper of the
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Ireland in the early 20th century was a hotbed of revolutionary activity, and James Connolly was central to it. Historian Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh charts James Connolly’s unique political perspective and argues that he provides crucial lessons for the struggles of today. Referring to the veneration of Wolfe Tone by
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Let us free Ireland! Never mind such base, carnal thoughts as concern work and wages, healthy homes, or lives unclouded by poverty. Let us free Ireland! The rackrenting landlord; is he not also an Irishman, and wherefore should we hate him? Nay, let us not speak harshly of our brother
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“The Irish Catholic was despoiled by force, the Irish Protestant toiler was despoiled by fraud… The spoliation of both continues today.” So remarked James Connolly in his article on the Twelfth of July, republished here 105 years later. As this Saturday is the 12th of July, and as I am
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To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of James Connolly, Shaun Harkin (author of the James Connolly Reader) guest edits Rebel for a day. Below Shaun takes a look at the politics of this great socialist. James Connolly was an exemplary working class rebel. He had grown up in
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Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, a leading women’s equality campaigner and founder of both the Irish Women Workers’ Union and the Irish Women’s Franchise League, described Connolly as the “soundest and most thorough-going feminist of all the Irish Labour men.” Connolly welcomed the Irish women’s rebellion and thought
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The eruption of World War 1 was a cataclysmic event. Ruling elites sent millions of their citizens to certain death on the battlefields of Europe. Connolly opposed the entire war from the outset and opposed support for the British war effort in Ireland. Instead of support for imperialist slaughter he
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Connolly joined the trade union movement in Edinburgh in the late 1880’s. He was an active trade unionist in Scotland, Ireland and the United States and believed unions were the most effective means of challenging poverty and building working class solidarity. Not just that however, Connolly advocated a form
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Connolly was from his earliest days of political activism an advocate of complete independence for Ireland from the British Empire. He became a Marxist on his return from service in the British Army in Ireland. His understanding of the relationship between Irish self-determination and the struggle for socialism built