James Connolly Quotes
We are a fighting race, we are told, and every Irishman is always proud to hear our politicians and journalists tell of our exploits in the fighting line – in other countries, in other climes and in other times. Yes, we are a fighting race. Whether it is under the Stars and Stripes or under the Union Jack; planting the flag of America over the walls of Santiago or helping our own oppressors to extend their hated rule over other unfortunate nations our brave Irish boys are ever to the front. When the Boer has to be robbed of his freedom, the Egyptian has to be hurled back under the heel of his taskmaster, the Zulu to be dynamited in his caves, the Matabele slaughtered beside the ruins of his smoking village or Afridi to be hunted from his desolated homestead, wheresoever, in short, the bloody standard of the oppressors of Ireland is to be found over some unusually atrocious piece of scoundrelism, look then for the sons of our Emerald Isle, and under the red coats of the hired assassin army you will find them. Yes, we are a fighting race. In Africa, India or America, wherever blood is to be spilt, there you will find Irishmen, eager and anxious for a fight, under any flag, in anybody's quarrel, in any cause – except their own
Executed by the English for his part in the Easter Uprising.
James Connolly, 1868-1916, Founder, Irish Socialist Republican Party, Military Commander of Republican Forces in Dublin, Irish Founder of the Irish Socialist Republican Party, Co-Founder Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), “The Fighting Race,” Workers’ Republic, August 13, 1898
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Executed by the English for his part in the Easter Uprising.
He was a German physician and explorer who had converted to Islam. Nonetheless, he was caught up in the Arab uprising of the Madhists, who had conquered much African territory.
British colonial economics imported raw materials to England which then exported them back to the colonies as manufactured goods. Gandhi correctly calculated that by minimizing purchase of English cloth, colonial control of India would not be as profitable. Gandhi not only called for the boycott, but called on Indians to spin their own cloth, set an example be spinning himself, and his Congress party adopted the spinning wheel as its logo and symbol which continues today. Narcotics, was at the time not only legal, but British economic interests controlled much of the world narcotics trade. Gandhi’s call for a boycott of narcotics was as much an economic tactic as it was a health measure.
The human rights abuses in the Belgian Congo were horrible. Natives who refused to work for the low wages were murdered or had their hands chopped off. The indigenous population was markedly reduced. Word of the atrocities started leaking out to Europe. It is not known whether the King really wanted any reform or just sent the instructions to cover himself. The instructions were not followed; the atrocities continued, and Leopold never took any steps to discipline his agents and minions. The Belgian Congo had the worst atrocities in the world until WWII.
At that time, Russia and Germany were autocracy, and the ruler could simply take the English money and force the soldiers to fight in a war they had not stake in nor understood.
James Connolly was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. Born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Irish parents Connolly left school for working life at the age of 11, and became involved in socialist politics in the 1880s.
