Honouring Revolutionary Labour Hero, James Connolly

Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) held a James Connolly commemorative event in on Saturday 21st June as part of the union's annual conference in Edinburgh.

Wobblies from across Europe gathered to commemorate the revolutionary syndicalist and internationalists contribution to the labour movement and to the ideals of the 'One Big Union'.

As members stood underneath the Cowgate arch at the memorial plaque to the labour hero, one member stepped forward and addressed those assembled. They described Connolly's early life when he was born back in June 5th 1868, to Irish Immigrant parents. How Connolly joined the ranks of the British Military at age 14 to escape deplorable levels of 'extreme poverty' in working class community of Cowgate, Edinburgh. Eventually having left the military at the age of 21, Connolly settle in Dublin in 1896.

In 1903, Connolly with his wife and young family, emigrated to the United States. Sharing accommodation with relatives in the Troy neighbourhood of New York and how he found work as a sales rep with an insurance firm. However by 1905, Connolly left to become a full-time union organiser with the newly established IWW of which he participated in creating.

It was during those early days of the union, Connolly worked for a period in area's such as New York City and Newark New Jersey alongside a noted family friend, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Together they focused mainly at encouraging migrant workers to them to help organise and unionise their place of work, and to join the ranks of the IWW.

On returning to Ireland in 1910, the years that followed were turbulent for he and that of our class. From the sectarian division of our class in the North by bosses and the political establishment alike, he continued to fight for workers unity and the need to unionise workers in both Belfast and Dublin. With further industrial struggles around the 1913 lookout. Under Connolly's direction, saw the first workers militia set up to defend workers on picket lines and at protests known as the Irish Citizens Army (ICA).

However it was during the wartime insurrectionary period of 1916, Ireland had moved closer to the brink as Connolly with Patrick Pearse commanded of the Easter rebellion. He was wounded in the fighting and, following the rebel surrender at the end of Easter, was later executed along with the six other signatories to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

A spokesperson for the IWW said that "It was important for us as a union, to acknowledge the fact that fellow workers who had travelled far and wide to attend this years conference, that we acknowledge honour James Connolly at this time. Not only was he a revolutionary historical figure within the labour movement internationally, but also have to recognise his important contribution to the Industrial Workers of the World and to the ideals of the One Big Union.

"I think for many of us, who attened this years IWW annual conference in the Edinburgh, that it was important for us as a union to marked the occasion. To pay tribute to a working class hero of labour from the city with an equally important connection to our union. We look forward to have a permanent acknowledgement to that fact here in Cowgate sometime in the near future."

As the event came to a close, those in attendance raised their fists in the air and sang one of the most iconic labour anthems "Solidarity Forever". Written back in 1915 by Ralph Chaplin in 1915, is sung to the tune of “John Brown's Body” and is inspired by “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”