James Connolly
Overview
James Connolly was an Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 republican
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

 and socialist leader. He was born in the Cowgate
Cowgate
The Cowgate is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about 5 minutes' walk from Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street's name is derived from the fact that cows were herded down it for Edinburgh's market days in previous centuries .The street is part of the lower...

 area of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Scotland, to Irish immigrant parents and spoke with a Scottish accent throughout his life. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but became one of the leading Marxist theorists of his day. He also took a role in Scottish and American politics
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He was executed by a British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 firing squad because of his leadership role in the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

 of 1916.
Connolly was born in an Irish slum in Edinburgh in 1868.
Quotations

Yes, friends, governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class.

Irish Worker (socialist newspaper) 29 August, 1915. Reprinted in P. Beresford Ellis (ed.), "James Connolly - Selected Writings", p. 248.

'Those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword' say the Scriptures, and it may well be that in the progress of events the working class of Ireland may be called upon to face the stern necessity of taking the sword (or rifle) against the [English capitalist] class..."

The Worker (socialist newspaper) 30 January, 1915. Reprinted in P. Beresford Ellis (ed.), "James Connolly - Selected Writings", p. 210.

Under a socialist system every nation will be the supreme arbiter of its own destinies, national and international; will be forced into no alliance against its will, but will have its independence guaranteed and its freedom respected by the enlightened self-interest of the socialist democracy of the world.

Samuel Levenson, "James Connolly" (Martin, Brian and O'Keeffe, London, 1973), p. 56.

Such a scheme .. the betrayal of the national democracy of Industrial Ulster, would mean a carnival of reaction both North and South, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements while it lasted.

P. Beresford Ellis (ed.), "James Connolly - Selected Writings", p. 275.

The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour.

Workers' Republic (socialist newspaper) 8 April, 1916. Reprinted in P. Beresford Ellis (ed.), "James Connolly - Selected Writings", p. 145.

 
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