112 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
112 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
********** The Easter rising of 1916 **********
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from Workers Solidarity No 33?
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[1991?]
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THIS YEAR marks the 75th anniversary of the Easter
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Rising. There will be all sorts of commemorations
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throughout the country, organised by forces ranging from
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Fianna F‡il to Sinn FŽin. We will hear a lot of talk about
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the "spirit of 1916", what does it mean today?
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The rising was heroic. Some would even say stupid. It had little
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popular support. Most Irish people at the time believed that Irish men
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should be off fighting the Germans. It was widely thought that in
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return Home Rule would become a reality. The leaders of the rising
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were not too worried about this. They believed that the blood sacrifice
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was all that was needed to inspire future generations.
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NATIONALISTS
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The rising itself was led by middle class nationalists. Their one and only
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objective was the liberation of the country from British rule. This has
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not yet been achieved. Indeed all the major parties, including the
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Workers Party, have given up on this. The Anglo-Irish Agreement was
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only the most recent attempt to come to terms with partition. For all
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the waffle about being the true inheritors of the Rising, not one
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government of the Free State has implemented the limited demands of
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the rebels.
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The Proclamation declared the following "The Republic guarantees
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religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities for all its
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citizens and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the
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whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation
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equally."
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EQUALITY
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Here we see a general liberal desire for equality. But far from equality,
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all we see around us in the Irish Republic is inequality. Workers are
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thrown on the dole and expected to live on a pittance while the bosses
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make enormous profits and eat in outrageously expensive restaurants.
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There are plush new private hospitals while workers get second rate
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health care. Women are denied the right to participate fully in society.
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Their role as wives and childminders is enshrined in the Constitution.
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Far from cherishing all the children of the nation equally, working class
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children are denied the right to attend third level education yet their
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parents fork out a fortune in taxes to subsidise the children of the rich.
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NOT SOCIALIST
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Not that the leaders of the Rising were socialist or anything like it.
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Their only concern was to get the British out. The new Ireland was
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clearly going to be capitalist. The Proclamation calls on all Irish people
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to unite, saying that all previous differences which "have divided a
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minority from the majority" were "carefully fostered by an alien
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government". So the only problem was British domination.
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It obviously was a problem but this perspective totally overlooks the
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fact that only three years previously the Irish bosses led by William
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Martin Murphy had locked out and starved thousands of Irish
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workers. Were the workers now to forget all this and unite with their
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enemies?
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JAMES CONNOLLY
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The presence of Connolly did not give the Rising a socialist tinge.
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Connolly had clearly decided that socialism should be put in cold
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storage. He believed that the World War was a great opportunity to
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strike at Britain. Also the defeat in the 1913 Lockout had left the
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working class demoralised. Rather than get stuck in and rebuild union
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organisation and militancy, Connolly chose to go with the nationalists.
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He was not fighting for socialism when he went into the G.P.O.
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The executions following the Rising (rather than the Rising itself) and
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the British attempt to introduce conscription set the country alight.
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British rule was totally undermined by 1919. The War of
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Independence and the First D‡il not only showed that the majority of
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the people opposed the British, but also highlighted what Sinn FŽin
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was fighting for.
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IRISH "SOVIETS"
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In many parts of the country land was seized and "Soviets" were
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established in many workplaces. These workers wanted more than a
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united capitalist Ireland. They wanted the whole set-up changed.
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They wanted real control over their lives. But this did not fit into the
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policy of uniting all the Irish people. Sinn FŽin land courts were
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established and the land was handed back to its former owners. The
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Countess Markiewicz, one of the heroines of the rising, warned against
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the "dangers of social revolution".
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Today Sinn FŽin claim, louder than anybody, to be the inheritors of
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1916. Without a doubt they are. They carry on the tradition of armed
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struggle and the blood sacrifice. Despite all the left wing posturing
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they are still nationalists whose aim is to unite all the Irish people
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against the British. As in 1916 there are not just "Irish people". There
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are Irish workers and Irish bosses, and they have nothing in common.
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A WORKERS REPUBLIC
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The task remains to free the country from British domination. For
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Anarchists this can only be done by taking up the struggle as part of
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the fight for a Workers Republic. Workers' control and the smashing of
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capitalism is our aim. Anything less is not worth fighting for. The real
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heros and heroines of Irish history are the workers who fought for this.
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The state will not hold commemorations for them. That might only
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encourage workers today.
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Eddie Conlon
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