International Republican Socialist Network
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  • About IRSN
  • Statements
    • Statements 2013>
      • Scottish Independence: The View from America
      • IRSN Arbroath Commemoration Statement
      • IRSN to Commemorate 100th Anniversary of the Irish Citizen Army
      • IRSN Solidarity Statement to Annual SRSM Glencoe Rally
      • Remembered Always With Honour and Pride: Gino Gallagher
      • Twenty-Six Years Since the Death of Ta Power
      • International Republican Socialism – 2013
    • Statements 2012>
      • Remembering Seamus Costello
      • Remembering John MacLean
      • African Liberation Day 2012
      • Occupy St. Patrick's Day!
    • Statements 2011>
      • Solidarity to our Sisters and Brothers in Kenya on African Liberation Day
      • IRSN Solidarity Statement to the May 8th John MacLean Rally
      • Defend Libya as it Confronts the Plots of the Imperialists
      • San Francisco St. Patrick's Day 2011 Parade Anti-Imperialist Contingent
      • Solidarity with the Working People of North African and the Arab Nation
      • IRSN Statement to the SRSM Ard Fheis
      • Commemoration of Scottish Revolutionary John MacLean
    • statements 2010>
      • On the Passing of Peace and Freedom Party activist Tom Conduit
      • Ireland and the British Left
      • San Francisco St. Patrtick's Day Parade Presence
      • Annual Book Drive for Republican Socialist Prisoners of War
      • AAWRU 30th Anniversary
      • IRSN 2010 Holiday Book Drive Success
      • IRSN Holiday Greetings
    • statements 2009>
      • Burns Night & Republican Socialist Convention Report
      • Burns Night Statement 2009
      • St. Patrick's Day Parade in San Francisco
      • Reflections on the Current Economic Crisis
      • May Day Statement
      • Whither the Irish National Liberation Army?
      • African Liberation Day Solidarity
      • Free The Cork 5
      • McIlroy for Congress
      • YOUTUBE: Candidate Mary McIlroy of the IRSN
      • Solidarity with the Libyan Revolution
      • Sponsor an IRSPoW
      • Solidarity Message for the Commemoration of the Century Anniversary
      • Solidarity with the Puerto Rican Struggle for National Liberation and Socialism
      • Update: IRSN Comrade on Peace & Freedom Ticket
      • IRSN Anti-War Action
      • IRSM Gives Up Armed Struggle
      • May Charles Made Her Transition to join the Ancestors
      • IRSN MacLean Commemoration Statement
    • statements 2008>
      • Burn’s Night Social
      • George Habash Remembered
      • Reform or Revolution? The Answer Remains Unchanged.
      • Preparing for the Iron Heel
      • Final Salute to Brendan Hughes and a Republican Socialist Martyr Remembered
      • Irish Republican Socialist Arrests
      • Statement in Support of the Interned IRSM Members
      • Cork Five RSPOWs Defended in San Francisco St. Patrick's Day Parade
      • Pacific Northwest Actions
      • THEY AREN’T “OURS,” BUT BRING THEM HOME ANYWAY
      • May Day 2008
      • IRSN Join March Demanding Open Borders in May Day Demonstrations
      • IRSN Comrade Guest Speaker at Sacramento Community College
      • IRSN Recognized for Linen Hall Library Support
      • IRSN Message to African Liberation Day Celebration in London
      • Christopher 'Crip" McWilliams Near Death
      • Reflections Without Borders - Who We Are
      • HOUSING IS RIGHT
      • Demanding Choices, Not Options
      • Release of Breton Comrades Hailed
      • Solidarity Message for Annual MacLean Rally
      • Salute Thirty-four Years of Republican Socialist Struggle
      • Long Live the PFLP After 41 Years of Struggle
      • Arrests of Alledged INLA Mambers
      • Fallen Martyrs of Irish Republican Socialist Struggle Honoured
  • Documents
    • I have come to preach revolution
    • The Ta Power Document Scandal
    • Remembering the Founding of the IRSCNA
    • Revolutionary Political Action
    • Lessons from 40 Years of War
    • PEADAR O’DONNELL: IRELAND’S NEGLECTED REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST
    • Armed Struggle and the Fight for a Scottish Workers’ Republic
    • 2008 CRISIS OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM
    • 30 YEARS WITHOUT SEAMUS COSTELLO
  • Formation of IRSN
    • Creation of the International Republican Socialist Network
    • A Tradition Winds Towards It's End
    • What Happened and Where Do We Go From Here
    • Wither the IRSCNA? Wither the IRSP?
    • New Group Formed From Split in the Irish Republican Socialist Movement
    • The Way Forward
  • Workers Republic
    • EDITORIAL2
    • The Republican Socialist Tradition and the Pursuit of Armed Struggle
    • Reclaiming Marxism for the Working Class, Historical Materialism
    • Drugs and the Revolutionary
    • Revolutionary Political Education in a time of ‘Peace’:
    • New Quebecois Left Party
    • Editorial 1
    • CYMRU: republican socialist re-groupment in wales
    • MANNIN: A Look Back On Manx Republican Socialism
    • BREIZH: Emgann Leads Breton Republican Socialist Struggle
    • ALBA: The RCN, Crown Powers and an Anti-Imperialist Agenda
    • ALBA: RCN Statement on the Split in the Scottish Socialist Party
    • PUERTO RICO: Socialism & the National Vindication of Puerto Rico
    • IRELAND: Irish republican socialism stumbles on its way
    • CATALUNYA: A rich revolutionary heritage
    • EUZKADI HERRIA: New Hope Found Amidst Recent Errors
    • News in Brief
  • Connolly Forum
    • Introduction - CF Issue 1
    • Connolly: A Biography
    • James Connolly and the IWW
    • James Connolly and Working Class Culture
    • JC: To Irish Wage Workers
    • JC: Old Wine In New Bottles
    • JC: We Only Want the Earth
    • James Connollys Contribution to International Socialism
    • Editorial CF 2
    • JC: Physical Force in Irish Politics
    • James Connolly: An Appreciation
    • JC: What Is A Free Nation?
    • Connolly’s Strategy for the Easter Rising: Should the Irish Working Class Have Stood Alone?
    • JC: What Is Our Programme?
    • The Irish Citizen Army After 1916
    • JC: We Will Rise Again
  • Contact

We Only Want the Earth

by James Connolly
in Songs of Freedom, 1907

 

Some men, faint-hearted, ever seek
Our programme to retouch,
And will insist, whene’er they speak
That we demand too much.
’Tis passing strange, yet I declare
Such statements give me mirth,
For our demands most moderate are,
We only want the earth.


“Be moderate,” the trimmers cry,
Who dread the tyrants’ thunder.
“You ask too much and people fly
From you aghast in wonder.”
’Tis passing strange, for I declare
Such statements give me mirth,
For our demands most moderate are,
We only want the earth.

Our masters all a godly crew,
Whose hearts throb for the poor,
Their sympathies assure us, too,
If our demands were fewer.
Most generous souls! But please observe,
What they enjoy from birth
Is all we ever had the nerve
To ask, that is, the earth.

The “labour fakir” full of guile,

Base doctrine ever preaches,
And whilst he bleeds the rank and file
Tame moderation teaches.
Yet, in despite, we’ll see the day
When, with sword in its girth,
Labour shall march in war array
To realize its own, the earth.

For labour long, with sighs and tears,
To its oppressors knelt.
But never yet, to aught save fears,
Did the heart of tyrant melt.
We need not kneel, our cause no dearth
Of loyal soldiers’ needs
And our victorious rallying cry
Shall be, we want the earth!



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