Caoimhin O’Muraile ✒ with the final piece in a three part series on the person he thinks might contend for The Complete Revolutionary Socialist. 

In 1910 James Connolly returned to Ireland and moved to Belfast in 1911, living on the Falls Road opposite the City Cemetery (the IRSP/INLA colour party at their annual Easter Commemoration lower the flags at this house as a tribute to one of their political mentors). 

The ITGWU had been trying to form a branch in Belfast, hitherto unsuccessfully. It is at this point that Connolly’s experience as an organiser - gained in the US through his involvement with the IWW - came in very useful. Connolly addressed numerous recruiting meetings of dockers in Belfast resulting in Jim Larkin, the unions founder in 1909, appointing him an organiser of the union in the city. He established an office of the union at 112 Corporation Street in 1911 which was to become the Belfast hub of the ITGWU.

In 1911 an incident involving the union in a big way occurred in Wexford. This could have been described as a precursor to the events which would take place in Dublin two years later and was known as the “Wexford Lockout.” Like its better documented Dublin counterpart, the Wexford Lockout was over a non-negotiable issue, trade union membership or, more accurately, the right to join a union of a person’s own choosing. Watching these events unfold was a certain W.M. Murphy, who would go on to lead the employer’s offensive against the ITGWU in Dublin during the 1913/14 Dublin Lockout. 

Jim Larkin's brand of syndicalist trade unionism, with its motto “an injury to one is a concern to all” frightened the employers and now he had James Connolly, who was like minded, on board, the likes of Murphy were determined to stop it in its tracks. However, this was for the future. One of Wexford towns largest employers, Philip Pierce, decided to pre-empt the ITGWU and imposed a lightening lockout of his workers, the bosses equivalent of a wildcat strike.

He decided to lockout his workers for no reason; he had not received any demands from his workforce but, not wanting to wait for any possible approach from the union, he put his employees on a weeks-notice. The way Pierce looked at the matter was the ITGWU and their leader, Jim Larkin, were prone to calling wildcat strikes so he decided, even if such a strike was not under consideration by the union, to get in first. This action advanced by Pierce was to be followed by other companies in Wexford in what was to become known as the “Wexford Lockout”.

Another company in the town, Doyle and CO, of the Selskar Ironworks, followed the example of Peirce. William Doyle admitted that the men had not presented any complaint, but they had joined the ITGWU and it was necessary for employers to know with whom they were dealing in a situation like the present. A third firm took the same pre-empted action leaving all 700 men on the street and some 2,000 others affected if dependents are included. (Striking Similarities - Kevin Morley - P.50).

Larkin summoned P.T. Daly to Liberty Hall and assigned him to deal with the situation. Daly went to Wexford and in January 1912 he was imprisoned on some trumped-up charge of “Incitement to Riot”. The employers were beginning to smell victory; enter James Connolly, who was less known in Wexford than Belfast. Connolly arrived on the scene in early February, staying with an activist called Richard Corish in William Street, Wexford. James Connolly was charged with finding a settlement without losing the credibility of the union. It is at this point his break, or semi-break, with ultraleftism would pay dividends. Within two weeks Connolly had found a settlement, very much in favour of the union. There had to be a sacrifice, and that was Richard Corish who was blacklisted and would never work in Wexford again. 

The settlement was far from perfect, settlements seldom are, but it did concede many of the men’s demands. It provided for the formation of the Irish Foundry Workers Union as an associate/affiliate of the ITGWU. The foundry men, skilled and unskilled, could return to work and combine under the IFWU banner. Richard Corish, the sacrificial lamb in the agreement, was given a job as secretary to the IFWU. The settlement was considered a victory because for the first time the men, skilled and unskilled (W.M. Murphy’s biggest fear) had the right to combine together which was recognised. The bosses considered it a victory for them, on the grounds, or so they thought, that they had kept out the ITGWU. They could not see, as could Connolly - the architect of the agreement - that the IFWU was in actual fact a trojan horse full of transport union troops! William Martin Murphy could see the settlement for exactly what it was, a defeat for the employers if they could only see it. He was determined that when he had his dispute in Dublin, no such settlement would be reached! A victory celebration was held on 17th February attracting over 5,000 people to cheer James Connolly and the determination of the locked-out workers involved.

In 1912 James Connolly was instrumental in the formation of the Irish Labour Party along with Jim Larkin, Richard O’Carroll and William O’Brien and many others. This was in sharp contrast to the view of William Walker, the Belfast trade unionist and Independent Labour Party organiser, a British based organisation. Walker opposed vehemently any formation of an Irish Labour Party believing the interests of the Irish working-class were best served by the British labour movement. This was a false assessment in my view because the British labour movement, including the TUC were generally imperialist. It was for this reason the TUC had a role at the Foreign Office, generally to quash any national independence aims within the working-class of the colonies using the argument, as did Walker, the interests of the colonised workers were best served by the labour movement of the “mother country”. This, of course, could never be as the interests of Britain and British capitalism at that would always take preference over the interests of the working-class and in particular the proletariat of the colonies. Ireland was no exception to this rule which was why an Irish Labour Party was needed. Connolly argued the Irish working-class needed an independent voice in any future Irish parliament, which was perhaps why William Walker, being a unionist, opposed the concept so vehemently. Perhaps he saw the formation of such a party as the thin end of the wedge towards an Irish independent parliament?

Although Connolly and Larkin were primarily syndicalists – a system which did not require a party at all and forged no alliances with political parties the feeling being such a party would inevitably try to substitute itself for the class, a very good argument even today, the formation of an Irish Labour Party was not necessarily a contradiction. Having a political voice, given that no revolutionary situation existed, therefore syndicalism as a means of overthrowing capitalism at that moment was not viable, having a political voice was an important second string to the bow. In any future event of a working-class upsurge and overthrow of the status quo then that party should subordinate itself to the proletariat and working-class interests. All theory and given in 1912 a revolutionary situation did not exist and Home Rule was the popular position of the people in Ireland and with Home Rule would have come a Home Rule Parliament in which labour needed to be represented. On 28th May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary the Irish Labour Party was born.

August 1913 saw the outbreak of the Dublin Lockout orchestrated by the employer, William Martin Murphy. Murphy was determined none of his employees would join the ITGWU or be a member of any so-called affiliate, and there would be no repeat of the settlement brokered by Connolly in Wexford. Murphy demanded his workers sign a slip of paper promising never to join the ITGWU or face dismissal if they did and those who were members therefore had to denounce the ITGWU and leave forthwith. On 15th August 1913 W.M. Murphy, owner of the Dublin United Tramways Company and the Irish Independent newspaper, sacked forty men and boys in the papers despatch and delivery office. 

Murphy was determined to provoke the ITGWU and the leadership, Larkin and Connolly into a fight. They had little option but to take up the challenge. On 26th August, the first day of the Dublin Horse Show, Murphy’s trams came to a halt. At twenty to ten in the morning striking drivers and conductors pinned the red hand badge of the ITGWU to their lapels as they walked off the job. Murphy knew he would provoke a reaction to the sackings at his newspaper offices, and he was acutely aware the better off sections of the public would be up in arms because they would not be able to get to the horse show. Murphy would publish, through the Irish Independent a tirade of anti-transport union propaganda. The Irish Times, usually a rival paper, would show class solidarity with Mr Murphy by also printing terrible devil incarnate tales about the union. Murphy brought in scab labour and they, along with Murphy himself, were protected by the forces of so-called law and order. William Martin Murphy then set about in effect unionising the employers. He resurrected the Employers Federation – forerunner of today’s IBEC – which combined had 400 member employers. He was in effect using the very tactics he was trying to stop the ITGWU adopting, secondary action!

On Saturday 30th August Connolly and William Partridge were arrested at Liberty Hall, Dublin, and taken by the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) before the police magistrate, Mr E.G. Swifte, a friend of Murphy and fellow shareholder of Murphy’s Dublin United Tramways Company. They were charged with incitement to cause a breach of the peace at a previous meeting. Partridge agreed to be bound over, perhaps taking the view he would be of little use to the men in gaol, while James Connolly refused to be bound over. Connolly in effect refusing to recognise the court then informed Swifte; “I do not even recognise the King, except when I am compelled to do so” to which the magistrate replied to Connolly; ‘he was talking treason’ and gave him three months imprisonment. ’This, the magistrate thought, would give Connolly time to reflect on his folly!’ (Striking Similarities - Kevin Morley - 2017 - P67).

On 1st September the TUC held its conference in Manchester, England, and on the agenda were the events taking place in Dublin. The congress pledged support for the striking tramway men but equally refused to mobilise the workers in Britain, refusing to escalate the strike throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The TUC did organise food parcels without which the families of striking and locked out workers would have starved. What was needed, along with these rations, was secondary strike action which the TUC refused to sanction. Individual groups of workers took industrial action, railwaymen in Manchester, Dockers in Liverpool and the MFGB (Miners) organised weekly collections in hard cash for the beleaguered Dublin workers. In Dublin, the DUTC were raising their ante as were other employers like Jacob’s Biscuits. The biscuit company told their tradesmen there was no work due to the actions of the ITGWU and at the same time the DUTC locked out 250 engineering workers at its Inchicore works. On the 15th September and against TUC instructions ten thousand railwaymen in the English West Midlands took industrial action along with three thousand workers on Merseyside. Despite this encouraging secondary action by workers in Britain, James Connolly, despite being a revolutionary syndicalist, knew the odds were stacked against the workers. Again, showing his break with unconditional ultra-leftism on 21st September he told the press; ‘we are willing – anxious in fact – to have a conciliation board’ (Morley P.74). He could see the TUC were not going to call out workers across the UK or, for that matter, Ireland in support of the Dublin proletariat. The employers had the support of the police and army and in view of these circumstances perhaps a conciliation board was the best prospect. Connolly did this while he was deputising for the imprisoned Jim Larkin, Connolly himself now out of prison. This willingness by Connolly, despite his syndicalist views, to accept some kind of arbitration, even ask for it, could be perceived by the public as showing goodwill while at the same time demonising the employers if they refused. This was the thinking behind this strategy, as a by-product of getting a negotiated settlement. Had the balance of class forces been in favour of the Dublin workers – a general strike in support looming either official or otherwise – then Connolly could, and no doubt would, have taken a harder line more in common with ultra-leftism. The idea had the support of the Lord Mayor, Lorcan Sherlock who was in the process of setting up the arbitration board when the employers, on Murphy’s instruction, rejected the proposal. William Martin Murphy wanted all out victory and the humiliation of the starving workers and their union. He forced the strike at a time, the Dublin Horse Show, of his choosing to create maximum disruption with transport. He then blamed the ITGWU for the lack of transport to the show. He chose the terms of the lockout/strike, something non-negotiable  - the right of workers to join a union of their choice and recognition of that union - not pay as a settlement which could have been reached on this issue, something Murphy did not want. The employers formally rejected the proposal from Connolly on 22nd September and the British Army began strike breaking duties. This incident should show to anybody looking at the dispute through objective lenses which side were on the offensive, and whose side the authorities were on!

The employers were now arming the scabs and it was only a matter of time before somebody was shot dead by these gun totting blacklegs. This happened to a young girl, Alice Brady, a member of Delia Larkin's – Jim Larkin’s sister – Irish Women Workers Union. Alice was shot in the wrist by a trigger-happy scab called Patrick Traynor, who fired shots into a crowd possibly through fear. Alice’s wound developed complications resulting in her death. Traynor was arrested, charged first with murder which was reduced to manslaughter – in case murder left a stigma over the employer’s cause – which was in turn reduced to “causing a girl’s death as a result of a revolver shot”, no more mention of murder or manslaughter. The police spoke for the accused and the jury consisting of property owners found no bill against Traynor. Patrick Traynor walked free!

At Alice Brady’s funeral on 4th January 1914, she had succumbed to tetanus on New Year’s Day, attended in large numbers including the trade unions, James Connolly delivered the oration: ‘Every scab and every employer of scab labour in Dublin is morally responsible for the death of the young girl we have just buried.’ There was no outpouring of grief from the employers who provided many scabs (though in this instance not Traynor, he procured his own weapon) with guns to shoot irresponsibly which in this case resulted in the death of a young girl. The courts and jurors showed whose side they were on by their verdict. Then, as now, the state and their army and police are not neutral in class disputes, industrial conflicts, they are firmly on the side of the employers!

On 21st January 1914 the TUC Parliamentary Committee informed the leadership of the strike that no more material aid would be forthcoming from Britain. The TUC could not speak for other socialist organisations whose help, though important, was negligible without that of the TUC. On 31st January the United Building Labourers Union returned to work on the employer’s terms, signing the paper not to join or, if applicable, leave the ITGWU. For those of us who witnessed the return to work of Britain’s Coal Miners after the 1984/85 strike this must have been a bitter pill to swallow. The 1913/14 Dublin Lockout involved thirty-seven trade unions representing upwards of 25,000 workers, a large number relative to the times. The Employers Federation, hitherto almost redundant, was given an influx of life by Murphy consisting of 400 employers. It survives today as the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC). The last food ship to arrive in Dublin port was the SS Hare on 19th January, the following day huge crowds gathered at Liberty Hall for food tickets.

William Martin Murphy had tried and failed to obliterate the ITGWU, though it must be said the workers returned on his terms. The union’s membership increased after the lockout to a higher number of members than that of 1913.

In August 1914 the First World War began and Connolly had a banner draped over the balcony at the ITGWU headquarters, and HQ of the Irish Citizen Army reading, We Serve Neither King nor Kaiser, But Ireland. Connolly, with many other socialists opposed what he called ‘this cursed war’ with a vengeance. The war split the hitherto united Second International into two factions, those who opposed the war and those who, albeit reluctantly, supported their native bourgeoisie and monarchs in going to war. Connolly along with V.I. Lenin – though the two never met – were in the camp opposing the bloodshed. Alas James Connolly did not live long enough the witness the Russian Revolution of 1917, if he had Irish history may have been different.

James Connolly is perhaps best remembered for his role during the 1916 Easter Rising. Connolly, after Jim Larkin departed for the USA, assumed the leadership of the ITGWU and the Irish Citizen Army (formed in November 1913 as a workers defence force). He had not been on the first Army Council formed earlier in 1914, not because he was not interested, he certainly was, but he felt his energies in the aftermath of the lockout may be better spent elsewhere. Connolly had ideas about using the ICA as a revolutionary force and was planning some kind of insurrection using the armed wing of the proletariat alone. When the secret organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, heard of this they panicked. The IRB were in the process of planning a rising of their own and felt Connolly and the ICA may hinder their operations. The story goes, and that is all it is, a story, that the revolutionary IRB kidnapped Connolly to advise him of their plans and not to go ahead with his own. The truth was, according to Frank Robins of the Irish Citizen Army in his book Under the Starry Plough ‘the fact that he freely became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from the date of the meeting is a clear indication that the story of his kidnapping was a myth’ (P.73/74). 

It is true enough that a meeting took place but by mutual agreement, and James Connolly was co-opted onto the revolutionary leadership of the IRB. There are those who, wrongly in my view, accuse James Connolly of betraying his socialist principles by throwing his lot in with the petty bourgeoisie represented by Padraig Pearce, Thomas Clarke, Thomas McDonagh, Joe Plunket, Sean McDermott and Eamon Ceannt, and taking part in the Easter Rising. He not only took part but commanded the combined allied Irish forces of the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers in Dublin. These two groups, though ideologically poles apart were allies for the duration of the rising. As if to emphasise his distrust of the Irish Volunteers, Connolly issued this order to the ICA prior to the rising:

In the event of victory hold on to your rifles, as those with who we are fighting may stop before our goal is reached. We are out for economic as well as political liberty.

Connolly was referring to the volunteer leadership whose long-term aims may have differed somewhat to those of the ICA. Connolly harboured hopes of the working-class, once hostilities had begun, coming out in support either through a general strike in Ireland or any other form of action, in favour of the insurrection. He saw it as perhaps another way of bringing about socialist revolution by way of the national rising.

Connolly held reservations as to the effectiveness as to the use of the rifle as a means of securing power for the working-class, however, and again strategies shift with circumstances. His statement in response to Victor Berger, who was a strong advocate of the rifle was such:

The rifle is, of course, a useful weapon under certain circumstances, but these circumstances are little likely to occur. This is an age of complicated machinery in war and industry, and confronted with machine guns, and artillery which kill at seven miles distance, rifles are not likely to be of much material value in assisting the solution of the labour question in a proletarian manner -  (James Connolly Collected Works volume 2 P.243). 

The Easter Rising obviously presented these “certain circumstances”. To Connolly’s critics I would remind them that with or without the Volunteers, Connolly had an insurrection in mind - they just provided perhaps a quicker avenue and greater numbers. The relationship between the Irish Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers could be likened, in a smaller way, to that of the Soviet Red Army and their US allies in the Second World War. They came from two opposing ideological camps but for the duration of hostilities and the defeat of fascism were allies in common cause.

The Easter Rising took place between April 24th and 29th 1916 and resulted in a British military victory. There were many reasons as to why this happened which is not in the writ of this analysis of James Connolly. It is worthy of note to mention when Pearce issued the surrender, on behalf of the Irish insurgents, the Irish Citizen Army troops would not accept or follow the order until a separate surrender order was issued by Commandant General of the ICA, James Connolly. Of all the leaders of the Rising James Connolly was the man General Maxwell was most determined to have tried and executed. He showed more attention to Connolly than any other of the sixteen executed men. Perhaps, no certainly he saw in Connolly a threat far greater than anybody else he was to have shot! He was shot, strapped to a chair on 12th May 1916.

James Connolly must go down as one of the flawless revolutionary socialists (though not infallible) of all time. Yes, he got things wrong, as did his mentor, Karl Marx. One was that the USA would become the first socialist country: he was miles out. Another was during the Easter Rising when he stated; ‘capitalism will not use artillery against capital’: he was wrong, and they did. 

Connolly’s ability to analyse a situation and address it on merit was a great attribute. His breaking with the dogmatic ultra-leftist approach served him well, not least in securing as near victory in all but name in the Wexford dispute. He showed the same ability in the Dublin Lockout when he suggested arbitration, seeing the odds were stacked against the ITGWU and it was the intransigence of the employers, and in particular W.M Murphy which prevented this. Had the balance of class forces been more favourable then a more robust, even ultra-leftist position could have been taken. He had one last laugh over Murphy: at the outset of the Rising he had the flag of the ICA and Irish labour, the Starry Plough, hoisted over Murphy’s Imperial Hotel in Dublin’s O’Connell (then Sackville) Street. The flag of labour flying over the citadel of capitalism. Could that be likened to the Soviet Union flying the Hammer and Sickle, the flag of Soviet communism, over the Reichstag, once the office of Nazism, at the end of the Second World War?

One hundred and five years after Connolly’s death many of his policies and prophecies, such as his advice to the ICA before the rising “in the event of victory hold on to your rifles” still have relevance. Seventy five percent of Ireland achieved independence, of sorts from Britain in 1921-22, but this was not the independence Connolly had in mind. Perhaps a little more pressing in today’s world than rifles and rebellion (necessary as one day they surely will be needed) is the fact that employers, particularly in the private sector do not recognise trade unions. Even though this is a constitutional right of all citizens, most employers - if this right is exercised - will not give the unions recognition. In many ways this stance is even worse than the position of W.M. Murphy during the lockout who at least pretended to “have no problems with sensible trade unionism”. Roughly translated that means unions who cannot, or will not, show any backbone and working-class leadership. His problem, so he claimed, was with “Larkinism” and the ITGWU including James Connolly. 

Today, if working-class people want their unions recognised and if they want an improvement in pay and conditions, they will be forced to do what their forefathers did, fight, and fight for what is essentially a constitutional right: the right to form associations and trade unions. Failure to do this will result in further erosions in pay and conditions, already being done behind the mask of Covid-19. The twenty-six-county government have just introduced a Bill granting sick pay up to seventy percent of a worker’s full pay by 2025. This is not out of sympathy with the workers but moreover to stop people going to work when they are sick, and spreading illness which has happened during the pandemic. Unfortunately, we have not got a James Connolly around today to give a lead, but somebody, somewhere out there ... who knows?

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist


Connolly Returns To Ireland

Caoimhin O’Muraile ✒ with the final piece in a three part series on the person he thinks might contend for The Complete Revolutionary Socialist. 

In 1910 James Connolly returned to Ireland and moved to Belfast in 1911, living on the Falls Road opposite the City Cemetery (the IRSP/INLA colour party at their annual Easter Commemoration lower the flags at this house as a tribute to one of their political mentors). 

The ITGWU had been trying to form a branch in Belfast, hitherto unsuccessfully. It is at this point that Connolly’s experience as an organiser - gained in the US through his involvement with the IWW - came in very useful. Connolly addressed numerous recruiting meetings of dockers in Belfast resulting in Jim Larkin, the unions founder in 1909, appointing him an organiser of the union in the city. He established an office of the union at 112 Corporation Street in 1911 which was to become the Belfast hub of the ITGWU.

In 1911 an incident involving the union in a big way occurred in Wexford. This could have been described as a precursor to the events which would take place in Dublin two years later and was known as the “Wexford Lockout.” Like its better documented Dublin counterpart, the Wexford Lockout was over a non-negotiable issue, trade union membership or, more accurately, the right to join a union of a person’s own choosing. Watching these events unfold was a certain W.M. Murphy, who would go on to lead the employer’s offensive against the ITGWU in Dublin during the 1913/14 Dublin Lockout. 

Jim Larkin's brand of syndicalist trade unionism, with its motto “an injury to one is a concern to all” frightened the employers and now he had James Connolly, who was like minded, on board, the likes of Murphy were determined to stop it in its tracks. However, this was for the future. One of Wexford towns largest employers, Philip Pierce, decided to pre-empt the ITGWU and imposed a lightening lockout of his workers, the bosses equivalent of a wildcat strike.

He decided to lockout his workers for no reason; he had not received any demands from his workforce but, not wanting to wait for any possible approach from the union, he put his employees on a weeks-notice. The way Pierce looked at the matter was the ITGWU and their leader, Jim Larkin, were prone to calling wildcat strikes so he decided, even if such a strike was not under consideration by the union, to get in first. This action advanced by Pierce was to be followed by other companies in Wexford in what was to become known as the “Wexford Lockout”.

Another company in the town, Doyle and CO, of the Selskar Ironworks, followed the example of Peirce. William Doyle admitted that the men had not presented any complaint, but they had joined the ITGWU and it was necessary for employers to know with whom they were dealing in a situation like the present. A third firm took the same pre-empted action leaving all 700 men on the street and some 2,000 others affected if dependents are included. (Striking Similarities - Kevin Morley - P.50).

Larkin summoned P.T. Daly to Liberty Hall and assigned him to deal with the situation. Daly went to Wexford and in January 1912 he was imprisoned on some trumped-up charge of “Incitement to Riot”. The employers were beginning to smell victory; enter James Connolly, who was less known in Wexford than Belfast. Connolly arrived on the scene in early February, staying with an activist called Richard Corish in William Street, Wexford. James Connolly was charged with finding a settlement without losing the credibility of the union. It is at this point his break, or semi-break, with ultraleftism would pay dividends. Within two weeks Connolly had found a settlement, very much in favour of the union. There had to be a sacrifice, and that was Richard Corish who was blacklisted and would never work in Wexford again. 

The settlement was far from perfect, settlements seldom are, but it did concede many of the men’s demands. It provided for the formation of the Irish Foundry Workers Union as an associate/affiliate of the ITGWU. The foundry men, skilled and unskilled, could return to work and combine under the IFWU banner. Richard Corish, the sacrificial lamb in the agreement, was given a job as secretary to the IFWU. The settlement was considered a victory because for the first time the men, skilled and unskilled (W.M. Murphy’s biggest fear) had the right to combine together which was recognised. The bosses considered it a victory for them, on the grounds, or so they thought, that they had kept out the ITGWU. They could not see, as could Connolly - the architect of the agreement - that the IFWU was in actual fact a trojan horse full of transport union troops! William Martin Murphy could see the settlement for exactly what it was, a defeat for the employers if they could only see it. He was determined that when he had his dispute in Dublin, no such settlement would be reached! A victory celebration was held on 17th February attracting over 5,000 people to cheer James Connolly and the determination of the locked-out workers involved.

In 1912 James Connolly was instrumental in the formation of the Irish Labour Party along with Jim Larkin, Richard O’Carroll and William O’Brien and many others. This was in sharp contrast to the view of William Walker, the Belfast trade unionist and Independent Labour Party organiser, a British based organisation. Walker opposed vehemently any formation of an Irish Labour Party believing the interests of the Irish working-class were best served by the British labour movement. This was a false assessment in my view because the British labour movement, including the TUC were generally imperialist. It was for this reason the TUC had a role at the Foreign Office, generally to quash any national independence aims within the working-class of the colonies using the argument, as did Walker, the interests of the colonised workers were best served by the labour movement of the “mother country”. This, of course, could never be as the interests of Britain and British capitalism at that would always take preference over the interests of the working-class and in particular the proletariat of the colonies. Ireland was no exception to this rule which was why an Irish Labour Party was needed. Connolly argued the Irish working-class needed an independent voice in any future Irish parliament, which was perhaps why William Walker, being a unionist, opposed the concept so vehemently. Perhaps he saw the formation of such a party as the thin end of the wedge towards an Irish independent parliament?

Although Connolly and Larkin were primarily syndicalists – a system which did not require a party at all and forged no alliances with political parties the feeling being such a party would inevitably try to substitute itself for the class, a very good argument even today, the formation of an Irish Labour Party was not necessarily a contradiction. Having a political voice, given that no revolutionary situation existed, therefore syndicalism as a means of overthrowing capitalism at that moment was not viable, having a political voice was an important second string to the bow. In any future event of a working-class upsurge and overthrow of the status quo then that party should subordinate itself to the proletariat and working-class interests. All theory and given in 1912 a revolutionary situation did not exist and Home Rule was the popular position of the people in Ireland and with Home Rule would have come a Home Rule Parliament in which labour needed to be represented. On 28th May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary the Irish Labour Party was born.

August 1913 saw the outbreak of the Dublin Lockout orchestrated by the employer, William Martin Murphy. Murphy was determined none of his employees would join the ITGWU or be a member of any so-called affiliate, and there would be no repeat of the settlement brokered by Connolly in Wexford. Murphy demanded his workers sign a slip of paper promising never to join the ITGWU or face dismissal if they did and those who were members therefore had to denounce the ITGWU and leave forthwith. On 15th August 1913 W.M. Murphy, owner of the Dublin United Tramways Company and the Irish Independent newspaper, sacked forty men and boys in the papers despatch and delivery office. 

Murphy was determined to provoke the ITGWU and the leadership, Larkin and Connolly into a fight. They had little option but to take up the challenge. On 26th August, the first day of the Dublin Horse Show, Murphy’s trams came to a halt. At twenty to ten in the morning striking drivers and conductors pinned the red hand badge of the ITGWU to their lapels as they walked off the job. Murphy knew he would provoke a reaction to the sackings at his newspaper offices, and he was acutely aware the better off sections of the public would be up in arms because they would not be able to get to the horse show. Murphy would publish, through the Irish Independent a tirade of anti-transport union propaganda. The Irish Times, usually a rival paper, would show class solidarity with Mr Murphy by also printing terrible devil incarnate tales about the union. Murphy brought in scab labour and they, along with Murphy himself, were protected by the forces of so-called law and order. William Martin Murphy then set about in effect unionising the employers. He resurrected the Employers Federation – forerunner of today’s IBEC – which combined had 400 member employers. He was in effect using the very tactics he was trying to stop the ITGWU adopting, secondary action!

On Saturday 30th August Connolly and William Partridge were arrested at Liberty Hall, Dublin, and taken by the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) before the police magistrate, Mr E.G. Swifte, a friend of Murphy and fellow shareholder of Murphy’s Dublin United Tramways Company. They were charged with incitement to cause a breach of the peace at a previous meeting. Partridge agreed to be bound over, perhaps taking the view he would be of little use to the men in gaol, while James Connolly refused to be bound over. Connolly in effect refusing to recognise the court then informed Swifte; “I do not even recognise the King, except when I am compelled to do so” to which the magistrate replied to Connolly; ‘he was talking treason’ and gave him three months imprisonment. ’This, the magistrate thought, would give Connolly time to reflect on his folly!’ (Striking Similarities - Kevin Morley - 2017 - P67).

On 1st September the TUC held its conference in Manchester, England, and on the agenda were the events taking place in Dublin. The congress pledged support for the striking tramway men but equally refused to mobilise the workers in Britain, refusing to escalate the strike throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The TUC did organise food parcels without which the families of striking and locked out workers would have starved. What was needed, along with these rations, was secondary strike action which the TUC refused to sanction. Individual groups of workers took industrial action, railwaymen in Manchester, Dockers in Liverpool and the MFGB (Miners) organised weekly collections in hard cash for the beleaguered Dublin workers. In Dublin, the DUTC were raising their ante as were other employers like Jacob’s Biscuits. The biscuit company told their tradesmen there was no work due to the actions of the ITGWU and at the same time the DUTC locked out 250 engineering workers at its Inchicore works. On the 15th September and against TUC instructions ten thousand railwaymen in the English West Midlands took industrial action along with three thousand workers on Merseyside. Despite this encouraging secondary action by workers in Britain, James Connolly, despite being a revolutionary syndicalist, knew the odds were stacked against the workers. Again, showing his break with unconditional ultra-leftism on 21st September he told the press; ‘we are willing – anxious in fact – to have a conciliation board’ (Morley P.74). He could see the TUC were not going to call out workers across the UK or, for that matter, Ireland in support of the Dublin proletariat. The employers had the support of the police and army and in view of these circumstances perhaps a conciliation board was the best prospect. Connolly did this while he was deputising for the imprisoned Jim Larkin, Connolly himself now out of prison. This willingness by Connolly, despite his syndicalist views, to accept some kind of arbitration, even ask for it, could be perceived by the public as showing goodwill while at the same time demonising the employers if they refused. This was the thinking behind this strategy, as a by-product of getting a negotiated settlement. Had the balance of class forces been in favour of the Dublin workers – a general strike in support looming either official or otherwise – then Connolly could, and no doubt would, have taken a harder line more in common with ultra-leftism. The idea had the support of the Lord Mayor, Lorcan Sherlock who was in the process of setting up the arbitration board when the employers, on Murphy’s instruction, rejected the proposal. William Martin Murphy wanted all out victory and the humiliation of the starving workers and their union. He forced the strike at a time, the Dublin Horse Show, of his choosing to create maximum disruption with transport. He then blamed the ITGWU for the lack of transport to the show. He chose the terms of the lockout/strike, something non-negotiable  - the right of workers to join a union of their choice and recognition of that union - not pay as a settlement which could have been reached on this issue, something Murphy did not want. The employers formally rejected the proposal from Connolly on 22nd September and the British Army began strike breaking duties. This incident should show to anybody looking at the dispute through objective lenses which side were on the offensive, and whose side the authorities were on!

The employers were now arming the scabs and it was only a matter of time before somebody was shot dead by these gun totting blacklegs. This happened to a young girl, Alice Brady, a member of Delia Larkin's – Jim Larkin’s sister – Irish Women Workers Union. Alice was shot in the wrist by a trigger-happy scab called Patrick Traynor, who fired shots into a crowd possibly through fear. Alice’s wound developed complications resulting in her death. Traynor was arrested, charged first with murder which was reduced to manslaughter – in case murder left a stigma over the employer’s cause – which was in turn reduced to “causing a girl’s death as a result of a revolver shot”, no more mention of murder or manslaughter. The police spoke for the accused and the jury consisting of property owners found no bill against Traynor. Patrick Traynor walked free!

At Alice Brady’s funeral on 4th January 1914, she had succumbed to tetanus on New Year’s Day, attended in large numbers including the trade unions, James Connolly delivered the oration: ‘Every scab and every employer of scab labour in Dublin is morally responsible for the death of the young girl we have just buried.’ There was no outpouring of grief from the employers who provided many scabs (though in this instance not Traynor, he procured his own weapon) with guns to shoot irresponsibly which in this case resulted in the death of a young girl. The courts and jurors showed whose side they were on by their verdict. Then, as now, the state and their army and police are not neutral in class disputes, industrial conflicts, they are firmly on the side of the employers!

On 21st January 1914 the TUC Parliamentary Committee informed the leadership of the strike that no more material aid would be forthcoming from Britain. The TUC could not speak for other socialist organisations whose help, though important, was negligible without that of the TUC. On 31st January the United Building Labourers Union returned to work on the employer’s terms, signing the paper not to join or, if applicable, leave the ITGWU. For those of us who witnessed the return to work of Britain’s Coal Miners after the 1984/85 strike this must have been a bitter pill to swallow. The 1913/14 Dublin Lockout involved thirty-seven trade unions representing upwards of 25,000 workers, a large number relative to the times. The Employers Federation, hitherto almost redundant, was given an influx of life by Murphy consisting of 400 employers. It survives today as the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC). The last food ship to arrive in Dublin port was the SS Hare on 19th January, the following day huge crowds gathered at Liberty Hall for food tickets.

William Martin Murphy had tried and failed to obliterate the ITGWU, though it must be said the workers returned on his terms. The union’s membership increased after the lockout to a higher number of members than that of 1913.

In August 1914 the First World War began and Connolly had a banner draped over the balcony at the ITGWU headquarters, and HQ of the Irish Citizen Army reading, We Serve Neither King nor Kaiser, But Ireland. Connolly, with many other socialists opposed what he called ‘this cursed war’ with a vengeance. The war split the hitherto united Second International into two factions, those who opposed the war and those who, albeit reluctantly, supported their native bourgeoisie and monarchs in going to war. Connolly along with V.I. Lenin – though the two never met – were in the camp opposing the bloodshed. Alas James Connolly did not live long enough the witness the Russian Revolution of 1917, if he had Irish history may have been different.

James Connolly is perhaps best remembered for his role during the 1916 Easter Rising. Connolly, after Jim Larkin departed for the USA, assumed the leadership of the ITGWU and the Irish Citizen Army (formed in November 1913 as a workers defence force). He had not been on the first Army Council formed earlier in 1914, not because he was not interested, he certainly was, but he felt his energies in the aftermath of the lockout may be better spent elsewhere. Connolly had ideas about using the ICA as a revolutionary force and was planning some kind of insurrection using the armed wing of the proletariat alone. When the secret organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, heard of this they panicked. The IRB were in the process of planning a rising of their own and felt Connolly and the ICA may hinder their operations. The story goes, and that is all it is, a story, that the revolutionary IRB kidnapped Connolly to advise him of their plans and not to go ahead with his own. The truth was, according to Frank Robins of the Irish Citizen Army in his book Under the Starry Plough ‘the fact that he freely became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from the date of the meeting is a clear indication that the story of his kidnapping was a myth’ (P.73/74). 

It is true enough that a meeting took place but by mutual agreement, and James Connolly was co-opted onto the revolutionary leadership of the IRB. There are those who, wrongly in my view, accuse James Connolly of betraying his socialist principles by throwing his lot in with the petty bourgeoisie represented by Padraig Pearce, Thomas Clarke, Thomas McDonagh, Joe Plunket, Sean McDermott and Eamon Ceannt, and taking part in the Easter Rising. He not only took part but commanded the combined allied Irish forces of the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers in Dublin. These two groups, though ideologically poles apart were allies for the duration of the rising. As if to emphasise his distrust of the Irish Volunteers, Connolly issued this order to the ICA prior to the rising:

In the event of victory hold on to your rifles, as those with who we are fighting may stop before our goal is reached. We are out for economic as well as political liberty.

Connolly was referring to the volunteer leadership whose long-term aims may have differed somewhat to those of the ICA. Connolly harboured hopes of the working-class, once hostilities had begun, coming out in support either through a general strike in Ireland or any other form of action, in favour of the insurrection. He saw it as perhaps another way of bringing about socialist revolution by way of the national rising.

Connolly held reservations as to the effectiveness as to the use of the rifle as a means of securing power for the working-class, however, and again strategies shift with circumstances. His statement in response to Victor Berger, who was a strong advocate of the rifle was such:

The rifle is, of course, a useful weapon under certain circumstances, but these circumstances are little likely to occur. This is an age of complicated machinery in war and industry, and confronted with machine guns, and artillery which kill at seven miles distance, rifles are not likely to be of much material value in assisting the solution of the labour question in a proletarian manner -  (James Connolly Collected Works volume 2 P.243). 

The Easter Rising obviously presented these “certain circumstances”. To Connolly’s critics I would remind them that with or without the Volunteers, Connolly had an insurrection in mind - they just provided perhaps a quicker avenue and greater numbers. The relationship between the Irish Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers could be likened, in a smaller way, to that of the Soviet Red Army and their US allies in the Second World War. They came from two opposing ideological camps but for the duration of hostilities and the defeat of fascism were allies in common cause.

The Easter Rising took place between April 24th and 29th 1916 and resulted in a British military victory. There were many reasons as to why this happened which is not in the writ of this analysis of James Connolly. It is worthy of note to mention when Pearce issued the surrender, on behalf of the Irish insurgents, the Irish Citizen Army troops would not accept or follow the order until a separate surrender order was issued by Commandant General of the ICA, James Connolly. Of all the leaders of the Rising James Connolly was the man General Maxwell was most determined to have tried and executed. He showed more attention to Connolly than any other of the sixteen executed men. Perhaps, no certainly he saw in Connolly a threat far greater than anybody else he was to have shot! He was shot, strapped to a chair on 12th May 1916.

James Connolly must go down as one of the flawless revolutionary socialists (though not infallible) of all time. Yes, he got things wrong, as did his mentor, Karl Marx. One was that the USA would become the first socialist country: he was miles out. Another was during the Easter Rising when he stated; ‘capitalism will not use artillery against capital’: he was wrong, and they did. 

Connolly’s ability to analyse a situation and address it on merit was a great attribute. His breaking with the dogmatic ultra-leftist approach served him well, not least in securing as near victory in all but name in the Wexford dispute. He showed the same ability in the Dublin Lockout when he suggested arbitration, seeing the odds were stacked against the ITGWU and it was the intransigence of the employers, and in particular W.M Murphy which prevented this. Had the balance of class forces been more favourable then a more robust, even ultra-leftist position could have been taken. He had one last laugh over Murphy: at the outset of the Rising he had the flag of the ICA and Irish labour, the Starry Plough, hoisted over Murphy’s Imperial Hotel in Dublin’s O’Connell (then Sackville) Street. The flag of labour flying over the citadel of capitalism. Could that be likened to the Soviet Union flying the Hammer and Sickle, the flag of Soviet communism, over the Reichstag, once the office of Nazism, at the end of the Second World War?

One hundred and five years after Connolly’s death many of his policies and prophecies, such as his advice to the ICA before the rising “in the event of victory hold on to your rifles” still have relevance. Seventy five percent of Ireland achieved independence, of sorts from Britain in 1921-22, but this was not the independence Connolly had in mind. Perhaps a little more pressing in today’s world than rifles and rebellion (necessary as one day they surely will be needed) is the fact that employers, particularly in the private sector do not recognise trade unions. Even though this is a constitutional right of all citizens, most employers - if this right is exercised - will not give the unions recognition. In many ways this stance is even worse than the position of W.M. Murphy during the lockout who at least pretended to “have no problems with sensible trade unionism”. Roughly translated that means unions who cannot, or will not, show any backbone and working-class leadership. His problem, so he claimed, was with “Larkinism” and the ITGWU including James Connolly. 

Today, if working-class people want their unions recognised and if they want an improvement in pay and conditions, they will be forced to do what their forefathers did, fight, and fight for what is essentially a constitutional right: the right to form associations and trade unions. Failure to do this will result in further erosions in pay and conditions, already being done behind the mask of Covid-19. The twenty-six-county government have just introduced a Bill granting sick pay up to seventy percent of a worker’s full pay by 2025. This is not out of sympathy with the workers but moreover to stop people going to work when they are sick, and spreading illness which has happened during the pandemic. Unfortunately, we have not got a James Connolly around today to give a lead, but somebody, somewhere out there ... who knows?

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist


3 comments:

  1. Great concluding piece to round off the series with Kevin. The ultra left and hard nosed distinction is a topic not always addressed in these matters. I can see some red flag wavers shouting Traitor at Connolly!

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  2. That made for a riveting read and highlighted some conflicts I never much gave a mind to before.

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  3. AM

    Historically many have made this claim against Connolly, wrongly in my opinion. James Connolly never broke with socialism or/and syndicalism. One such critic was Sean O'Casey, one time Secrtetary to the Irish Citizen Army. He maintained Connolly's involvement in the Easter Rising was a betrayal of socialism which it was not. Connolly saw the rising as another avenue towards the goal of socialism, not a view shared by the leadership of the Irish Volunteers. It was for this reason Connolly made his "in the event of victory hold on to your rifles" speech to the ICA before the rising. Connolly saw the Easter Rising, if all went to plan, which alas it did not,as a means towards an end and not an end in itself.

    Perhaps some of these "red flag wavers" are waving the wrong flag? If they seriously believe Connolly a "traitor" they know nothing about the man!

    Caoimhin O'Muraile

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