James Connolly and the IWW
by T.J. Ó Conchúir
To sum up then, the failure of European socialism to avert the war is primarily due to the divorce between the industrial and political movements of labour. The socialist voter, as such, is helpless between elections. He requires to organise power to enforce the mandate of the elections and the only power he can so organise is economic power—the power to stop the wheels of commerce, to control the heart that sends the life blood pulsating through the social organism.
So Connolly eloquently stated in Revolutionary Unionism and War on the failure of the European Socialist Movement to prevent the First Imperialist World War.
Connolly is well known as an organiser for the Irish General Transport and Workers Union (IGTWU) and leader of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) of Dublin, an anti-imperialist martyr, political organiser of the ISRP, SLP, and a symbol of anti-reformism. He was described by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn as the "Irish apostle of the Soviet idea." The CPI have claimed that Connolly’s ‘ISRP was the real starting-point of the effort to develop socialist ideas and organisation in Ireland.’ Connolly’s writings on National Liberation and its relationship to Marxism, Republican Socialism and Syndicalism were so well rounded and encompassing that his programme hadn’t been updated until O Cadháin, Costello and Power came along. Yet, less is known about his time in the American-based Industrial Workers of the World.
The IWW was an innovative force in the 20th century American revolutionary Left. They were far ahead of other socialist bodies in recognizing that the diversity of the proletariat was in itself not an obstacle to organising. The common IWW organising method, even when faced with workers speaking as many as 22 different languages, was to organise them into a large, democratic committee where each group had a representative. As the Wobbly experience proves, only deliberate lack of sensitivity or understanding forms an obstacle to proletarian unity. Both Connolly and the IWW were far ahead of their English counterparts, who harassed Irish members of the IWA in Marx’s time.
The Wobblies stated objective was to unite the entire working class through the idea of Industrial Unionism to overcome, as Connolly put it, the ‘sectionalism that still rules and curses our class.’
‘Out of such an arrangement the way would be opened for a more thorough organization of the working class upon the lines of real Industrial Unionism. At present we are too much afraid of each other.’ For Connolly and the IWW, this was not mere rhetoric. Back in Britain and Ireland, Irish Socialists who advocated anti-imperialism had a rough time of it. Like Marx, Connolly had to contend with bigotry and ignorance so common even among British Socialists. Connolly’s famous clash with Walker of the ILP is a good example; the latter insisted that only Protestants could constitute Irish rebels or could lead Ireland to freedom!
In the American socialist scene it was a very different story. Although racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and xenophobia were common, the IWW of Connolly’s day overcame these obstacles and even turned them into advantages.
For example, in 1916, the IWW-led organising of agricultural workers was threatened by the bosses who promised to bring in African-American scabs from the Deep South to the break the strike at harvest time. The IWW newspaper seized on this as a great opportunity: ‘The IWW has some good Negro organizers, just itching for a chance of this kind. Thirty thousand Negroes will come and 30,000 IWWs will go back. The Red Card is cherished as much by and its objectives understood as well by a black man as a white.’
So clearly, Connolly’s ideas that he later put to good effect in Ireland were influenced by the IWW. Or more accurately, perhaps Connolly found a kindred theoretical movement that afforded him the experience to expand his own thoughts and organising style. There was relative freedom in the American syndicalist scene compared to its British counterpart. Ideologies such as Marxism, Anarchism and Democracy freely mixed to create a potent ideology of class struggle that was perfectly suited to the objective conditions of the United States. Connolly was later to forge a very similar labour struggle that was uniquely attuned to the needs and conditions of the Dublin working class.
This was no small feat, as 1915 Dublin was one of the most oppressed working class areas of the world.
James Connolly’s conception of the post-socialist globe as a world that should be comprised of “a free federation of free nations” corresponds to the IWW’s approach to organising. Each local was allowed to organise itself along its own ethno-linguistic lines. Hence there were Finnish speaking locals, English, Yiddish, etc.
The IWW fielded Chinese organizers, African-American organizers and found that the various nationalities and ethnicities could cooperate without central domination or planning. Echoes of this thinking are found in Connolly’s argument that it would be economic foundations that would unite the global proletariat, rather than political or imperialist forces, which have dug deeper divisions in the proletariat.
James Connolly displayed a remarkable understanding of other nationalities that served him well in the multi-cultural environment of the IWW. There is an episode related by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from 1907, in which she and James were invited to speak at an Italian Socialist meeting. It was early in the morning, for although they were anti-clerical, the Italian Left community had continued their practice of Sunday spaghetti dinners. She turned to Connolly and asked, ‘Who will speak in Italian?’
He smiled his rare smile and replied, “We’ll see. Someone, surely.” After we had both spoken, they took a recess and gave us coffee and cake behind the scenes, a novel but welcome experience for us. Stale water was the most we got elsewhere! Then we returned to the platform and Connolly arose. He spoke beautifully in Italian to my amazement and the delight of the audience who “viva'd” loudly.
According to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Connolly was ‘a splendid organizer’. He maintained an office at Cooper Square during his time working for the IWW. Flynn describes Connolly’s methods of training new leaders thusly: ‘At the street meetings he persuaded those who had no experience in speaking to ‘chair the meeting’ as a method of training them. Connolly had a rare skill, born of vast knowledge, in approaching the Irish workers.”
Today the IWW still claims Connolly on their website (www.iww.org) as a former organiser of their union. Connolly’s struggle, the struggle he gave his life for, continues in those who believe it is the historic mission of the working class to do away with exploitation and oppression.
To sum up then, the failure of European socialism to avert the war is primarily due to the divorce between the industrial and political movements of labour. The socialist voter, as such, is helpless between elections. He requires to organise power to enforce the mandate of the elections and the only power he can so organise is economic power—the power to stop the wheels of commerce, to control the heart that sends the life blood pulsating through the social organism.
So Connolly eloquently stated in Revolutionary Unionism and War on the failure of the European Socialist Movement to prevent the First Imperialist World War.
Connolly is well known as an organiser for the Irish General Transport and Workers Union (IGTWU) and leader of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) of Dublin, an anti-imperialist martyr, political organiser of the ISRP, SLP, and a symbol of anti-reformism. He was described by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn as the "Irish apostle of the Soviet idea." The CPI have claimed that Connolly’s ‘ISRP was the real starting-point of the effort to develop socialist ideas and organisation in Ireland.’ Connolly’s writings on National Liberation and its relationship to Marxism, Republican Socialism and Syndicalism were so well rounded and encompassing that his programme hadn’t been updated until O Cadháin, Costello and Power came along. Yet, less is known about his time in the American-based Industrial Workers of the World.
The IWW was an innovative force in the 20th century American revolutionary Left. They were far ahead of other socialist bodies in recognizing that the diversity of the proletariat was in itself not an obstacle to organising. The common IWW organising method, even when faced with workers speaking as many as 22 different languages, was to organise them into a large, democratic committee where each group had a representative. As the Wobbly experience proves, only deliberate lack of sensitivity or understanding forms an obstacle to proletarian unity. Both Connolly and the IWW were far ahead of their English counterparts, who harassed Irish members of the IWA in Marx’s time.
The Wobblies stated objective was to unite the entire working class through the idea of Industrial Unionism to overcome, as Connolly put it, the ‘sectionalism that still rules and curses our class.’
‘Out of such an arrangement the way would be opened for a more thorough organization of the working class upon the lines of real Industrial Unionism. At present we are too much afraid of each other.’ For Connolly and the IWW, this was not mere rhetoric. Back in Britain and Ireland, Irish Socialists who advocated anti-imperialism had a rough time of it. Like Marx, Connolly had to contend with bigotry and ignorance so common even among British Socialists. Connolly’s famous clash with Walker of the ILP is a good example; the latter insisted that only Protestants could constitute Irish rebels or could lead Ireland to freedom!
In the American socialist scene it was a very different story. Although racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and xenophobia were common, the IWW of Connolly’s day overcame these obstacles and even turned them into advantages.
For example, in 1916, the IWW-led organising of agricultural workers was threatened by the bosses who promised to bring in African-American scabs from the Deep South to the break the strike at harvest time. The IWW newspaper seized on this as a great opportunity: ‘The IWW has some good Negro organizers, just itching for a chance of this kind. Thirty thousand Negroes will come and 30,000 IWWs will go back. The Red Card is cherished as much by and its objectives understood as well by a black man as a white.’
So clearly, Connolly’s ideas that he later put to good effect in Ireland were influenced by the IWW. Or more accurately, perhaps Connolly found a kindred theoretical movement that afforded him the experience to expand his own thoughts and organising style. There was relative freedom in the American syndicalist scene compared to its British counterpart. Ideologies such as Marxism, Anarchism and Democracy freely mixed to create a potent ideology of class struggle that was perfectly suited to the objective conditions of the United States. Connolly was later to forge a very similar labour struggle that was uniquely attuned to the needs and conditions of the Dublin working class.
This was no small feat, as 1915 Dublin was one of the most oppressed working class areas of the world.
James Connolly’s conception of the post-socialist globe as a world that should be comprised of “a free federation of free nations” corresponds to the IWW’s approach to organising. Each local was allowed to organise itself along its own ethno-linguistic lines. Hence there were Finnish speaking locals, English, Yiddish, etc.
The IWW fielded Chinese organizers, African-American organizers and found that the various nationalities and ethnicities could cooperate without central domination or planning. Echoes of this thinking are found in Connolly’s argument that it would be economic foundations that would unite the global proletariat, rather than political or imperialist forces, which have dug deeper divisions in the proletariat.
James Connolly displayed a remarkable understanding of other nationalities that served him well in the multi-cultural environment of the IWW. There is an episode related by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from 1907, in which she and James were invited to speak at an Italian Socialist meeting. It was early in the morning, for although they were anti-clerical, the Italian Left community had continued their practice of Sunday spaghetti dinners. She turned to Connolly and asked, ‘Who will speak in Italian?’
He smiled his rare smile and replied, “We’ll see. Someone, surely.” After we had both spoken, they took a recess and gave us coffee and cake behind the scenes, a novel but welcome experience for us. Stale water was the most we got elsewhere! Then we returned to the platform and Connolly arose. He spoke beautifully in Italian to my amazement and the delight of the audience who “viva'd” loudly.
According to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Connolly was ‘a splendid organizer’. He maintained an office at Cooper Square during his time working for the IWW. Flynn describes Connolly’s methods of training new leaders thusly: ‘At the street meetings he persuaded those who had no experience in speaking to ‘chair the meeting’ as a method of training them. Connolly had a rare skill, born of vast knowledge, in approaching the Irish workers.”
Today the IWW still claims Connolly on their website (www.iww.org) as a former organiser of their union. Connolly’s struggle, the struggle he gave his life for, continues in those who believe it is the historic mission of the working class to do away with exploitation and oppression.
