Recent events in Ireland have gone far to show that the old lines of political demarcation
no longer serve to express any reality in the lives of the people. The growth of unrest in
the industrial field, the bitterness of industrial conflict, the manner in which employers
of the most varying political and religious faiths combine against the workers in the
attempt to starve them into submission, and the marked increase in the fraternal feelings
with which all classes of labour regard each other all serve to indicate that there is,
preparing in our midst, the material for a new struggle on a national scale - a struggle
fierce enough, deep enough, and enduring enough to completely obliterate all the old
landmarkers carried over from past political struggles into the new conditions.
In the
great Dublin lockout of 1913-1914 the manner in which the Dublin employers, overwhelmingly
Unionist, received the enthusiastic and unscrupulous support of the entire Home Rule Press
was a fore-taste of the possibilities of the new combinations with which Labour in Ireland
will have to reckon. The semi-radical phrases with which the middle class Home Rule Press
and the politicians so often duped the public (and sometimes themselves) were seen to have
no radical feeling behind them. Sham battle-cries of a sham struggle they were hurriedly
put out of sight the moment the war cries of a real conflict rose upon the air. From this
lesson, as from the others already mentioned in this book, Labour must learn that the time
has come for a new marshalling of forces to face the future. As the old political parties
must go so must many of the old craft divisions in the ranks of labour.
We have learned the
value of sympathetic strike, and must no longer allow craft divisions to fetter our hands
and keep us from helping our brother or sister when they are attacked by the Capitalist
enemy. We must pursue the idea of its logical conclusion and work for the obliteration of
all division of the forces of Labour on the industrial field. The principle of complete
unity upon the industrial plan must be unceasingly sought after; the Industrial union
embracing all the workers in each industry must replace the multiplicity of unions which
now hamper and restrict our operations, multiply our expenses and divide our forces in the
face of the mutual enemy. With the Industrial Union as our principle of action, branches
can be formed to give expression to the need for effective supervision of the affairs of
the workshop, shipyard, dock or railway; each branch to consist of men and women now
associated in Labour upon the same technical basis as our craft unions of today.
Add to
this the concept of one Big Union embracing all and you not only have the outline of the
most effective form of combination for Industrial Warfare today, but also for Social
Administration of the Co-Operative Commonwealth of the future. A system of society in which
the workshops, factories, docks, railways, shipyards, etc shall be owned by the nation, but
administered by the industrial unions of the respective industries, organised as above
seems best calculated to secure the highest form of industrial efficiency combined with the
greatest amount of individual freedom from state despotism. Such a system would, we
believe, realise for Ireland, the most radiant hope of all her heroes and martyrs.
Concurrently with the gradual shaping of our industrial activities towards the end of
industrial union Labour must necessarily attack the political and municipal citadels of
power. Every effort should be made to extend the scope of public ownership.
As democracy
invades and captures public powers, public ownership will of necessity be transformed and
infused with a new spirit. As Democracy enters Bureaucracy will take flight. But without
the power of the Industrial Union behind it Democracy can only enter the state as the
victim enters the gullet of the serpent. Therefore political power must, for the working
classes, come straight out of the industrial battlefield as the expression of the organised
economic force of Labour; else it cannot come at all. With Labour properly organised upon
the industrial and political field each extension of the principle of public ownership
brings us nearer to the reconquest of Ireland by its people; it means the gradual
resumption of the common ownership of all Ireland by all the Irish - the realisation of
Freedom.
The Gaelic League realises that Capitalism did more in one century to destroy the
tongue of the Gael than the sword of the Saxon did in six; the apostle of self-reliance
amongst Irish men and women finds no more earnest exponents of self-reliance than those who
expound it as the creed of Labour; the earnest advocates of co-operation find the worker's
stating their ideals as a Co-operative Commonwealth; the earnest teacher of Christian
morality sees that in that Co-operative Commonwealth alone will true morality be possible,
and the feverent Patriot learns that his hopes of an Ireland re-born to National life is
better stated and can be better and more completely realised in the Labour movement for the
Reconquest of Ireland.
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