Page:Schüller - Jim Connolly and Irish Freedom (1926).djvu/24



Connolly was proud to declare himself a Marxist. He makes frequent reference to Marx in his book, "Labor and Irish History," which in itself represents an attempt to apply Marxist method to Irish history. He speaks of Marx as "the greatest of modern thinkers and the first scientific Socialist."

Connolly was enabled to follow a real Marxist tactic by the fact of his profound understanding of Marxism. He pursued a real Marxist policy, between the open reformists on the one hand and the pure military revolutionaries (no rarity in Ireland), the rigid trade unionists and the sectarian pseudo-Marxist Socialists on the other.

Constitutional Fabianism earned his contempt. He was fully aware of the advantage of utilizing all legal possibilities and of the necessity of spending years in organizing, agitating for the daily struggle on behalf of partial demands. But he would countenance no infringement of the recognition that the final issue of all great political and social questions could only be decided by force, and that Ireland's liberation from the British imperialist yoke and the social emancipation of its workers was only possible through revolutionary channels. He, the organizer of industrial trade unions, fought political sectarianism at the same time. He invited his comrades of the Scottish Social Democratic FederataionFederation [sic] to drop their sectarian scruples (amongst which was the oath of allegiance to king and constitution) and to enter Parliament as a political party.

Connolly was a revolutionary to the core. McManus once wrote (1919) that Connolly was the only Socialist he had met who judged the social position or political crisis from the standpoint of its revolutionary possibili-