Connolly Sunday, 2009

Oration by Mícheál Mac Aonghusa, National Executive Committee, CPI

10 May 2009

On the eve of his execution James Connolly indicated to his wife, Lillie Reynolds, that he found it easier to face death because he had had a “full life.” And full, indeed it was. Connolly was a life-long political activist, a trade union organiser, a campaigning journalist, an historian of remarkable scholarship, a significant contributor to Marxism and in the end, a military commander of ability . He left his mark on the socialist movements of the United States and his native Scotland and elsewhere as well as on Ireland. His writings analysed with great perception the society of his time and they remain vividly relevant 93 years after his death. We salute him as the greatest of Irish revolutionaries. We also remember his fallen comrades, those buried here who were sent to their deaths by kangaroo courts and those others who were killed in action or died from their wounds and who are buried elsewhere. We salute them all regardless of their political or military affiliations. They gave their lives in a great progressive cause. We also remember comrades of a later generation who fought for democracy in Spain in the international brigades. Only a short while ago we paraded behind the remains of Bob Doyle, the last surviving Irish brigader. Bob was brought up a stone’s throw from here, in North King Street, and fought the Blueshirts on the streets of this city before taking to the battlefield in Spain. He died in his 93rd year, an anti-fascist, internationalist and communist to the last. We salute Bob Doyle and the volunteers of all nationalities who fought alongside him.
     The Proclamation of the Republic guarantees equal rights for all, both for women and men regardless of religious or ethnic background. Pearse in The Sovereign People, published a few weeks before the rising, held with Connolly that a free Ireland must exercise its sovereignty over all the material wealth of the nation for the benefit of the people. The Democratic Programme of Dáil Éireann, adopted on the day that the 1916 Proclamation was ratified, laid down, “It shall be the first duty of the government of the Republic to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold, for the lack of food, clothing or shelter . . .”
     Faraor, níl an daonlathas a tuaradh i mbundoiciméid úd na Poblachta réabhlóidí bainte amach fós. Deirtear linn sa staid atá anois ann go gcaithfimid uile íobairtí a dhéanamh. Agus tá íobairtí á ndéanamh. Cúpla sráid uainn thall bíonn ar aithreacha agus máithreacha dul i scuaine lá i ndiaidh lae le bia a fháil dá gclann ó chumann carthanachta Bíonn daoine macánta eile ann, daoine a d’oibrigh go dian i gcónaí, nach féidir leo codladh na hoíche a fháil i ngeall ar an imní atá orthu roimh bháillí agus lucht bailithe fiach. Agus ag an am céanna tá lánúin amháin a bhíonn i mbéal an phobail, ag caoineadh go poiblí go gcaithfidh siad a héileacaptar a choinneáil ar an talamh, i ngeall ar airgead a bheith gann. Ní mar a chéile na híobairtí atá leagtha ar dhaoine! Táimid díreach tar éis teacht amach as tréimhse ina bhfuil rachmasóirí agus lucht a maoinithe tar éis na táinte a charnadh dóibh féin fad is atá an bhearna idir saibhir agus daibhir sa tír seo tar éis dul i méid go mór. Fós féin is í Éire an cúigiú tír is saibhre san Eoraip agus tá dóthain acmhainní ann leis an mbochtaineacht a dhíothú scun scan ach níl díothú na bochtaineachta ina tosaíocht ag ár máistrí polaitiúla. Séard is mian leo níos mó agus níos mó airgid a chaitheamh ar athmhaoiniú na gcearrbhach, na seansálaithe agus na ndúshaothróirí a bhfuil a oiread sin dochair déanta acu don sochaí in Éirinn.
     They tax workers while a large coterie of billionaires and multi-millionaires pay little or no tax and continue to practise their lifestyles of vulgarity and waste. And when cut-backs have to be made the first targets are schools and hospitals and local communities. And in order to get away with it they try to divide different sections of workers from each other. This must not succeed. The working people must stand together and support each other. Whether you are in the public service or in the private sector or deprived of employment do not waste your anger on any target other than the class-enemy which will destroy us all if we don’t unite and show solidarity with each other. Uncontrolled anger can destroy the justly angry but anger properly channelled can be a great weapon and a great tool. By controlling our anger and properly directing it we can make it into a powerful destructive weapon in the fight against capitalism and later, a vibrant creative tool in building socialism.
     Tuigeann cách na laethanta seo go bhfuil géarchéim sa chaipitleachas monaplachta. Tá oibrithe ag tiomsú ar fud an domhain fhorbartha lena bpoist a chosaint, le cur in aghaidh laghdú ar thuarastail agus le tosca maireachtála réasúnta a chinntiú dóibh féin agus dá gclann. Is amhlaidh i Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá agus san Astráil, sa tSualainn agus sa Ghréig agus in an-chuid tíortha eile. Mí Feabhra seo caite mháirseáil 120,000 oibrithe tríd an gcathair seo mar agóid in aghaidh na n-ionsaithe ba dhéanaí ar a gcaighdeán maireachtála. Tá institiúidí an Aontais Eorpaigh ag iarraidh an-chuid dár bhain oibrithe amach san fhichiú aois a chur ar neamhní. Tá treoir faighte ag Rialtas na hÉireann ó Bhanc Ceannais na hEorpa gan bainc a náisiúnú ach amháin ar bhonn sealadach fad is atá fiacha na n-amhantraithe á nglanadh ag cáiníocóirí, agus go n-athphríobháideofaí a leithéid de bhanc a luaithe agus a thosaíonn sé ag carnadh brabúis arís.
     That is one reason we are calling on voters in next month’s European Parliament elections to vote for candidates who oppose further EU integration with its neo-liberal and militarist agenda. This is one practical way of protesting against the attempts of our lords and masters in Brussels to abrogate the rational, informed and democratic rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the people of this state. .
     Standing here in Arbour Hill we recall than in 1916 the insurgents fought the most powerful empire in the world at the time. Connolly pointed out: “The abolition of the British Empire in Ireland is a necessary condition for the liberation of all the human factors making for the active intellectual life and political growth of democracy, as also it is a necessary condition . . . for the social enrichment of the country. We are at the parting of the ways. All the forces of oppression, political and social, have joined hands to perpetuate our subjection. Shall not all the forces aspiring to social and political freedom unite to end this subjection?” In our own time, it is clear to us that the United Kingdom itself may not last many more years. But we need to remind ourselves and others that the Belfast Agreement and the institutions deriving from it are not the end of a process, nor the end of struggle, but rather they provide a platform from which further struggle and new demands must be made.
     Ná bíodh aon amhras orainn. Is ann don impiriúlachas i gcónaí. Sa lá inniu díríonn sé ar rialú margaí níos mó ná ar choilíniú tíortha agus is minic a théann sé lámh le lámh le náisiúnachas na brataí faoi mar a thuar an Conghaileach. Ach rachaidh na himpiriúlaithe i mbun cogaíochta i gcónaí le smacht a fháil ar acmhainní, mar is léir san Iaráic agus san Afganastáin. Is mó atá á fhulaingt ag muintir an domhain de bharr an nua-liobrálachais agus na heaspa srianta ar an gcaipitleachas airgeadais. Feicimid an dochar mór atá déanta do thíortha i mbéal forbartha leis an ndomhandú, faoi mar a thugtar air. Agus feicimid freisin mar a cruthaíodh bolgóid ollmhór chreidmheasa arbh í a toradh gur fágadh saol na sluaite fiachóirí—idir dhaoine aonair, ghnóthais agus thíortha—i bpócaí líon bídeach daoine atá ar maos in airgead. Baineann na rudaí sin ar fad leis an impiriúlachas.
     But we get great hope from the people of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay who are on the march and who have proclaimed “Enough is enough!” We applaud the people of Cuba, a small island-nation which has stood its ground year in and year out, under appalling circumstances, against every attempt to bully it into submission. Now is the time for intensified support for Cuba in the campaign to break the US blockade once and for all. Also we commiserate with the Cubans in their terrible losses in the recent hurricanes and we wish them well in the mammoth rebuilding task that faces them.
     Another nation with whom we can well empathize is the Palestinian people. We know what it is like to have our country colonised and to have planters steal our land. We know something about eviction, be it enforced by battering ram or armoured bulldozer. And we are not ignorant of the deprivations inflicted by an army of occupation And we recognise the nobility of resistance.
     Here at this hallowed place we should start to rehabilitate the concept of patriotism and our duty to forward the rights of our nation. James Connolly said, “The more I am in my affection for national tradition, literature, language, and sympathies, the more firmly rooted I am in my opposition to that capitalist class which in its soulless lust for power and gold would bray the nations as in a mortar.” He also said: “To me . . . the socialist of another country is a fellow-patriot, as the capitalist of my own country is a natural enemy. I regard each nation as as the possessor of a definite contribution to the common stock of civilisation, and I regard the capitalist class as being the logical and natural enemy of the national culture which constitutes that definite contribution.”
     Agus muid taobh leis an uaigh seo déanaimid athdhearbhú ar ár ndílseacht do chúis atá Páirtíneach—ar son na n-oibrithe, Tírghrách—ar son an náisiúin, agus Idirnáisiúnach—ar son oibrithe an domhain.
     Connolly’s cause remains today, as it was in his time, Partisan, Patriotic and Internationalist.

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