THE EASTER RI In August 1969, when the people of Derry were engaged in a four day battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a certain local Republican took to riding round the Bogside on a bicycle. When it was pointed out to him that this was rather a foolish thing to do, as the streets were littered with broken glass from exploded petrol bombs, the bicyclist waxed indignant and replied that during the Easter Rising of 1916 the Irish Citizen Army had made great use of the bicycle.
There are ways and ways of remembering 1916 - there are lessons and lessons. Maintaining the superiority of the bicycle for street fighting is not one of them, but too often Irish Republicans and British socialists remember 1916 with the same emotional romanticism of the bicyclist in Derry.
STOCK There are two stock responses. One is the hollow religiousness of the present Irish Government, which commemorates 1916 with a pomp which denies its relevance for today - for how could it be relevant when the same Government is locking up those who carry on the tradition of the fighters of The second response is that of the good socialist who toasts 1916 with an alcoholic romanticism but who, in the sobriety of the morning after, will say: 'Of course James Connolly was wrong to take part; he should have built the revolutionary party."
And so 1916 becomes an event to be stored away and brought out with a flourish once a year. Its safer that way. Fortunately 1916 JAMES CONNOLLY cannot be treated so easily. On this its 60th anniversary, British troops are still murdering Irish KeouD cans - or as ure eresa! euphemism has it, they are 'shot while trying to escape' Any judgement on 1916 must start with its historical context. The Rising took place during the First World War, in which the leaders of the accommodating Irish Parliamentary Party had handed over the lives of Irish men and women to the British war machine: when the promise that Ireland would be given self-government was linked to the good behaviour of Irish nationalists during the imperialist war. Pearse, who wrote: "Freedom being a spiritual necessity transcends all corporeal interests, and when freedom is being considered corporeal interests should not be spoken of. But there was also the Irish Citizen Army led by James Connolly, who insisted that the cause of labour was the cause of Ireland That these two elements came together in 1916 is the Rising's greatest significance, because both before and since 1916 there has been a failure to realise the essential link between the Irish national struggle and the struggle for socialism in Many mechanical Marxists have criticised Connolly's support for the Rising as "liquidationism'. Connolly himself had no illusions 31028 TOUM TIM AS01E100?. He told the men and women of the Irish Citizen Army just before they went into battle:
"In the event of victory, hold on to your rifles. Those with whom we are fighting may cease before our goal nas been reached. We are out for economic and social as well as political liberty.
Even viewed in that perspective, 1916 could be described as more of to seize state power. But again the history of 1916 should be borne in mind.
BLOW For example, the Rising suffered Cous Dow we usE Derore it took place the leader of the Irish Volunteers, Eoin MacNeill, ordered his men not to take part. So an uprising which should have broken event confined to Dublin. Nevertheless, even if MacNeill had supported the Rising its final outcome might well have been no different.
The Rising lasted just over a week, even the working class of Dublin failed to respond, and while a number of strategic buildings in Dublin were held for a few days um the British Army had little difficulty in crushing the revolt. It was only when its leaders were executed that the Irish people rose to the memory of Connolly and Pearse and began to build a mass movement which was to take up arms again three years later during the Irish War of Independence.
By any standards 1916 was a desperate action. But the whole point of Connolly's view of developments was that such desperate tactics were needed. The fact that the leaders of the Second Internanonal naa caprularca to nanonal chauvinism in their support for the War was for Connolly a tragedy which required some attempt at salYaLe EUROPE Thus he hoped that his actions "may yet set the torch to a European conflagration which will not burn out until the last throne and last capitalist bond and debenture will be shrivelled on the funeral pyre of the last war-lord'. And he was drivBELL But nolly to the desperate gamble of 1916; but despite the War of Independence, partition was eventually forced through - and ever since divided.
UNFINISHED day as it was when Connolly was utions themselves but in the fact that the death of Connolly robbed the movement of its greatest organiser and theoretician.
the relevance of 1916. Connolly's insistence was on the impossibility of creating a socialist Ireland while partition remained; a recognition unity between the two sections of the Irish working class while Ireland itself remained divided was a stages theory to socialism with to concentrate the Irish working class has remained Rising In this sense the Irish national revolution remains as unfinished toexecuted. For socialists, the tragedy of 1916 lies not so much in the execfinger to help For Irish socialists therein lies that any attempt to forge economic so many stages that socialism would But if Irish socialists cannot ignore the national question, nor can For British socialists, however, (E2 paperback). such considerations are not their