Connolly's Marxism

Description

James Connolly, born in Edinburgh 1879 and executed by the British in Dublin 1916, was a major socialist theorist. He worked his way out of a poverty-stricken Scottish childhood, through lengthy spells in the army and as a trade union organiser in America. He emerged as Ireland's most clearsighted and resourceful socialist organiser and thinker. In this interpretative study Bernard Ransom presents a complex Connolly — historian, philosopher, strategist and activist. In particular he shows how Connolly made marxism relevant for Ireland by reconciling nationalist and socialist ideas; and how he restored a viable, realistic use of marxist theory as a guide to action, at a time when most of its practitioners treated it as an unchallengeable 'scientific' dogma. What emerges is a consistency of thought and action by a man not afraid to be inspired by Irish history and christian traditions; a man whose life's work, including the apparently 'hopeless' Easter Rising of 1916, was an attempt to establish the theoretical and organisational basis for socialism in Ireland. Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 CCO_000059.pdf Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 CCO_000063.pdf Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 CCO_000033.pdf Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 CCO_000030.pdf Page 1 Page 2 CCO_000032.pdf Page 1 Page 2 CCO_000034.pdf Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 CCO_000035.pdf Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 CCO_000061.pdf Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6