‘An Appeal of the Irish Socialist Republican Party to the Working Class Irish of America’ published by the Socialist Labor Party, 1898.

DUBLIN, September 15, 1897. The publication in the United States, under the imprint and by the authority of an American political party, of a pamphlet originally published in Ireland, and dealing with the social and political conditions of the latter country, marks, we venture to hope, the beginning of a new era in our international politics.

The history of the great American Republic, from the date on which the first general Congress of the United States addressed from Philadelphia their message to the people of Ireland asking the sympathy of that people, until the present day, has been a subject of the most intense interest and pride to Irishmen. This pride has, to a large extent, arisen from the fact that multitudes of Irishmen have contributed by their valor and genius to build up, and, when built, to safeguard the liberties of the Republic. Whereas our countrymen, in the service of the continental powers of Europe, sank to the position of hired mercenaries of foreign despots, as often suppressing liberty as fighting for it, in the United States our exiles of the working class have, on the whole, been. or meant to be the champions of freedom.

But the people of America are just beginning to realize that a more deadly foe to their liberties than any encountered by their fathers has established itself in their midst. The shadow of the impending and inevitable conflict between that foe and the champions of human freedom already gathers upon the horizon. It is but fitting, therefore, that the working class at home should desire to gain the ear of their compatriots in America in order to point out the absolute identity of the ideal sought after by the SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY of the United States with that hope which, vague and undefined, fired the imagination of Irish poets and martyrs in the past, and which at last is clearly and definitely expressed in the programme of the IRISH SOCIALIST REPUBLICAN PARTY to-day. This identity once realized, the Irish working class in America will, it is to be hoped, awake to the fact that no stronger blow could be struck for the liberties of “the old land” than will be given on the day when a majority of the electorate of the United States vote for the installation of a Socialist administration, pledged to uproot that last and meanest form of human slavery, the wage system of capitalism.

The international effect of such action will be best understood by Irishmen when it is remembered that, according to the report of a Judiciary Committee to the Fifty-first Congress of the United States, no less than 21,000,000 acres of the soil of that country are at present in possession of titled aliens-members principally of the British and Irish aristocracy; while United States railroad stocks and bonds and other American securities to the value of over $1,000,000,000 are likewise, according to the statements of well-informed financial writers, owned by the vulture investing classes of the same British Empire. How deeply those hereditary enemies of the Irish people, the English governing classes, are interested in the maintenance of the capitalist system in America is further daily illustrated by the “sympathetic” response of the London Stock Exchange to every rise and fall on Wall street; by the unconcealed delight of the English press at every reverse of the working-class movement in America; by their shrieks of joy upon the triumphs of undisguised reaction in American politics, and by their persistent and successful attempts to inoculate the upper-class circles of American society with a desire to reproduce on American soil the political and social conditions peculiar to monarchical countries such as Great Britain. The only measure which can effectually checkmate this conspiracy against the liberties of America, and at the same time lay broad and deep the foundations of Irish freedom, is SOCIALISM. The Socialist Labor Party carries its banner in America as the Irish Socialist Republican Party does in Ireland. Given the triumph of the one and the other is within sight of its goal. Working-class Irish of America, rally to the support of the only American political party which, recognizing that the interests of the oppressed are the same the world over, aids the revolutionary working-class party of Ireland to spread a knowledge of its doctrines among the scattered children of the Clan-na-Gael.

PROPAGANDA COMMITTEE, Irish Socialist Republican Party, 67 Mid. Abbey street, Dublin.

Erin’s Hope The Ends and the Means by James Connolly. Published by the Socialist Labor Party, New York City. 1898.

Contents: Introduction, Erin’s Hope, Stages of Development, The Pivotal Issue, The Septal System, The National Struggle, Rising Bourgeoisie, Home Rule – Its Meaning, Limited Markets, Sweat-Shop Factories, Nationalisation of Land, Science in Agriculture, Effects of Conquest, The Use of the Soil, Production for Use, Labour Power, No Difference, A Socialist Republic, Complete Separation, Who are the People?, Shorter Working Week, An Appeal of the Irish Socialist Republican Party to the Working Class Irish of America September 15 1897, An Address of the Socialist Labor Party of the United States to Irish American Workers by the National Executive Committee, Socialist Labor Party. 32 pages.

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