From ‘ Mother Earth: Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature’, July 1916, New York City, published and edited by Emma Goldman
By libertarians of all nationalities scant sympathy is likely to be conferred on any attempt to change the form of coercion from a foreign to a home government, it being the contention of the Anarchist that a subject people are none the less fettered under a democratic than under a despotic rulership.
Yet the recent Dublin uprising cannot but be commended in that the ostensible purpose was the overthrow of at once the most cowardly and treacherous government that besmears the annals of the deeds of men.
Many are the corollaries that may be drawn from the latest event of Britain’s bloody career, The heartlessness of the Government’s hasty reprisal is indicative of its sincerity in the stand that small nations must be guaranteed their freedom. But it is also in keeping with the established barbarity of the British Empire when the odds are on the English side, though supinely humanitarian when faced by an opponent on equal footing — but when has England ever met an enemy on terms of equality? When has she ever kept a treaty or promise that it pleased her to break and she dared to break ?
Faith! Faith in the sense of loyalty and honesty is an unknown characteristic of English rule.
Any nation under whose dominion the population of a colonial possession is reduced by half in much less than a century, as has been the case in Ireland, has something palpably wrong in its system. Moreover; an enslaved people like the Irish, and in fact the people of all countries, are by nature bound, sooner or later to destroy that desolating hand of tyranny.
Any methods are justifiable to this end.
The degree of justification, however, depends upon the measure of success achieved. Determined by this standard, the Dublin affair was a bad mess, though it portrayed one singular feature that seldom obtains in the aftermath of an overt act to gain liberty by being entirely free from betrayal within its own ranks. Every member of the Sinn Fein who was brought under arrest took his medicine stoically and fearlessly. This in itself was the more remarkable because it cannot be said that it was a popular revolt. Still, those who were in accord with its purpose were loyal beyond intimidation.
It is much to be regretted that Ireland is not united, for in such an event there is small likelihood that the affair would have turned out so disastrously. The division is a serious obstacle to the freedom of Ireland from the iron heel of Britain, and it is a dissention that the Government carefully fosters and cherished, else why should the Ulsterman Carson be in Parliament instead of having swung in the Tower for his own part in the physical force preparation but a short time back?
England’s policy in Ireland is, and always has been, that of extermination. One does not have to go far back to the days of the infamous “Crowbar Brigade” or the still more recent wholesale exodus under the venerated old Victorian harlot.
There is but one difference between the murderous rule of Britain in India and Britain in Ireland in which the people of the latter country have a slight advantage, and that is the question of race. Outside of Ireland, his native land, the Irishman at least has a chance to live with other men. But with the Indian even this is denied him. As an educated Hindu once remarked: “The Indian may emigrate, but he must emigrate perpendicularly, for there is no room and no right for his horizontal expansion on this globe.” And so it is. England’s work in India is utter annihilation through manufactured famine and military slaughter.
In the words of Sir William Harcourt in the House of Commons, Britannia’s methods the world over were aptly portrayed when he said of Irishmen who cherished the idea to be free that “it would be the duty of Englishmen to stamp upon them as if they were a nest of vipers.”
The crown of thorns on Ireland’s brow is the curse of the church. So long as the Protestants of the north and the Catholics of the south nourish this cancer of bigotry, they will continue to witness their betrayal by their own respective Carsons and Redmonds who have now joined hands in their treason to the Irish people. A recognition of the sham of religion as represented by any church must precede any successful attempt to free the sod of Erin from an alien rule of foreign barbarians who use Parliament as a cloak for their crimes,
Perhaps by the time that this state of mental progress is reached, the people will have learned that there are better ways and more practical methods of escaping the tyrant in the institution of the state than internecine warfare against insurmountable odds through the vehicle of education.
The Dublin revolt is destined to go down in history as a glorious demonstration of what a determined minority are capable of doing; yet it is merely additional evidence that the institution cannot be destroyed by substitution, even though the uprising be successful.
It must be undermined, this government idea; and the only effective weapon for digging beneath its foundation is by the intelligent application of knowledge against blind force, The Sinn Feiners did not realize this, nor do most other people, radicals included; but the day is coming when it must be recognized and acted upon,
And yet withal, the sincerity of the Irish rebels should act as a beacon light to the lovers of freedom. Their fruitless sacrifices should give courage and stimulation to the pursuit of more efficient means of casting off tyrannical authority at the cheapest possible price to the people.
Also
Remembering James Connolly, by Ronan Burtenshaw (2023)
Man-Made Famines, by Marie Louise Berneri (1943)
Anarchism — A Philosophy Of Action, by Captain Jack White (1937)
Blood in Palestine, by Solidaridad Obrera (1936)
On the Death of James Connolly and Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, by Padraic Colum (1916)
Skirmishes, by Juanita Arteaga (1916)
The Only Hope of Ireland, by Alexander Berkman (1916)
The Irish Flag, by James Connolly (1916)
The Roots of Modern War, by James Connolly (1898)
An Appeal for Justice, by Louis Riel (1885)
Anarchists on National Liberation
Anarchism & Indigenous Peoples