Page:Schüller - Jim Connolly and Irish Freedom (1926).djvu/13

 THE WORKING CLASS. IT IS THE PROOF OF THE NECESSITY OF LEADERSHIP IN THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION IN IRELAND.

Connolly ardently sympathized with the hatred of the masses against the imperialist oppression of Great Britain, and with their longing for national liberty. In the narrow sense of the word he was no nationalist; on the contrary, he was active both in theory and practice as a Marxist Internationalist. He was a stranger to any feeling against England as such. He spent the greater part of his youth in England, where he was active as an agitator in the Social Democratic Federation and frequently worked in the closest harmony with the British Labor movement against capitalists both in England and Ireland. He loved to use the declaration of the "United Irelanders" from the time of the first French Revolution.

Connolly took a deep interest in the history of the Irish struggle for liberation, those 700 years of tragic history of wars, unsuccessful risings, treason, terror and famine. He raised the question as to the causes of the failure of the former movements, especially those during the past hundred and fifty years. As answer he found that the national struggle had not been linked up with the social struggle. He declares in his most important work. "Labor in Irish History" :

" As we have again and again pointed out, the Irish question is a social question, the whole age-long fight of the Irish people against their oppressors