The following article by James Connolly was sent to the Left Communist group forum on www.revleft.com [1] by a comrade in the US who has begun posting under the name Stagger Lee. We suggested that it could be published on our website and asked him to write a short introduction, and also asked him about his political ‘history'. He provided both and we found the personal history worthy of publishing as well, so it appears here in an appendix with the author's permission.
This article by the Irish socialist James Connolly (1868 - 1916) was first published in The Workers' Republic in 1899. It lays out the marxist, hence internationalist, case for proletarian liberation. In this piece, Connolly presents the slogans of national "liberation", then juxtaposes them with a short remark highlighting the shortfalls of nationalism as a path for working class liberation. He shows how romantic calls of "freedom" in the context of nationalism have no class character nor can they ever. Connolly ends with a call for unity, not as a nation, but as a class. He calls not for the liberation of the Irish bourgeoisie, but for the working class. Workers have no country, but one struggle. Connolly's words ring as true today as it did then.
James Connolly, The Workers' Republic, 1899
My interest in politics began shortly after 9/11, where I was a hardline neo-conservative who thought the United States should go around the world bringing freedom to countries that need it. A few years later, I watched an 8 hour video lecture by 2004 Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik about the U.S. Constitution, which turned me towards right wing libertarianism. I held consistent libertarian views for a good while until I found out that my sister was feeding my nephews with welfare and collecting unemployment. She was doing her best everyday to find a job, she went to school, and certainly not lazy. Libertarianism provided a veil that explained the crimes in the world without having to experience it. Libertarianism, unlike socialism, is a simple, pleasant sounding ideology that tells you what you want to hear.
When basic reality hit me that social ills were, shockingly, social and not individual failings, I was your typical American liberal. I soon found out about this Senator we have in this country called Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a "democratic socialist." Now I still regarded socialism as meaning everybody gets paid the same wage, government owns all the businesses, Stalin etc. I learned that nearly every country except the United States has a significant political party affiliated with the Socialist International. My (quick) revulsion at the weakness of American liberals to support single payer health care and other social reforms pushed me to democratic socialism.
My conversion to communism was pretty much by accident. In high school I chose to check out from the school library a biography on Leon Trotsky. The sole reason I did so was A. His facial hair B. Cool name and C. I wanted my teachers to freak out. Totally superficial reasons, but I still read it. I learned what socialism and communism actually are, a basic understanding of class society, and the rejection of reformism as a method to bring about socialism. I didn't consider myself a marxist yet because I still didn't know what it was, but I considered myself a communist. I was also an avid reader of Noam Chomsky, and he mentioned the Spanish Civil War as an example of "anarchism in action", so I decided to read up on it. The Spanish Revolution and the anarchist's story was so enthralling and inspirational, I became an anarchist. This is when I truly started reading leftist texts, by Kropotkin, Malatesta, Berkman, Goldman etc. Due to this I held typical anarchist misconceptions about what marxism is. I began reading about the debates between Bakunin and Marx, and instead of strengthening my anarchism, I tended to relate more with Marx. I chose to learn more about marxism, namely the critique of political economy, historical materialism and class theory. I then considered myself an "anarcho-marxist": someone who hailed from the anarchist tradition but held a marxian conception of society and history.
Many things happened at once that made me be attracted to Left Communism. One, I was a big supporter of Palestinian "liberation." I guess I had some sort of epiphany and realized that people have been fighting for Palestinian "liberation" for almost 50 years with absolutely no positive results. Imperialists arm the Israelis, but the Fatah party is under the auspices of imperialists as well, not to mention the outright reactionary character of Hamas.
I read the ICC's article about the state in the dictatorship of the proletariat, what it is and what it isn't. It cast aside my anarchist knee-jerk reaction against the word "state" by clearing up misconceptions and filling in blanks that I didn't consider. It made sense, and even more convincing was the analysis not based on the moralism that most critiques of the state are based on.
I read left communist literature about national liberation and it made a lot of sense to me, and put the ideas that I had floating around in my head in writing and in an organized manner.
I restarted my study about the Russian Revolution, the Bolshevik party, and Vladimir Lenin. My old rejection of the Revolution evaporated when I actually learned the facts. I realized the necessity for a vanguard party, not to lead or substitute the class, but to uphold a consistent proletarian position amongst the class. My old hatred of Lenin as a "corrupter" of socialism went away as well. There are many things he got wrong, and anybody who has any concern for socialism ought to level criticism against anyone when it is justified (something Lenin did frequently). There are also many things he was right about, and he was no doubt a true revolutionary to his dying day. Removing my biases allowed me to identify with ideas I would have irrationally rejected earlier.
I am a marxist, a communist, and an internationalist. The solution to our ills is world wide revolution. Workers don't have a country, but we do have each other. There is one struggle - the class struggle, and this struggle unites us together. Long live internationalism!
Stagger Lee 7/10
Links
[1] http://www.revleft.com
[2] https://en.internationalism.org/tag/geographical/ireland
[3] https://en.internationalism.org/tag/people/james-connolly
[4] https://en.internationalism.org/tag/recent-and-ongoing/nationalism
[5] https://en.internationalism.org/tag/recent-and-ongoing/class-consciousness