Irish-born Jack Carney’s ‘Truth’ carries a resolution from the Socialists of Boston’s James Connolly Literary Society making a clear political distinction with Sinn Fein just as the War of Independence began.

‘Sinn Feinism Not Socialism’ from Truth (Duluth). Vol. 3 No. 5. January 31, 1919.

The following resolution has been passed by the James Connolly Club of Boston, Mass.:

According to reports in the daily press, the Irish people, after declaring at the polls for an Irish republic, have announced their intention by proclamation to set up in Dublin at an early date a parliament of the Irish people. We also read that Lloyd George has no intention of granting even Home Rule to Ireland, and that the Irish question is not going to be brought up at the peace conference. In view of the fact that the nations who are going to dominate the peace conference have Irelands of their own to free, it is vain to hope that Ireland is going to be recognized as a nation at that conference.

The James Connolly Literary Society believes with the martyr whose name we bear that Ireland cannot be freed politically or economically except by the action of the Irish working class, and that any republic set up in Ireland cannot be lasting unless it has behind it the full force and sympathy of the working class of Ireland. A republic based on working class aspirations would be in line with the revolutionary movement which is sweeping Europe today, and would have the elements of stability which are lacking in a capitalistic republic.

The James Connolly Literary Society therefore calls on the Irish revolutionary working class to assume their historic function as the bulwark of Irish freedom; to model their conduct in this crisis on that of their Russian comrades and the Spartacus group in Germany, and to establish a Workers’ Republic in the interest of all the people of Ireland. Many people in America are becoming infatuated with the Sinn Feiners and are of the opinion that Sinn Feinism is something akin to Bolshevikism. There is nothing in the Sinn Fein propaganda that can be called revolutionary. Sinn Feinism means that the Irish people must be exploited by Irish masters. That is all that Sinn Fein amounts to.

The ONLY person in America who can speak with real authority about the Irish question is James Larkin. Strange is it not, that Larkin has not given his approval to Sinn Fein, if Sinn Fein is doing something? Some day, when the emotions of the Irish people cool down to normal, and matters, painful and otherwise, can be discussed, which must be discussed, then the truth about Sinn Fein will be told.

Sinn Feiners in 1913, during the Dublin strike, advised the Irish workers not to eat the food sent over to them by the English workers, for fear they might be poisoned. The sending over of foodships by the British workers was an expression of solidarity, that if allowed to develop would be the means of destroying the British empire and setting free the subject nations of that empire. But no, the blind, intolerant, insular prejudices of the Sinn Fein absolutely forbid any contact with the English. To the Sinn Feiner, the English worker is as bad as his master.

The Irish rebellion of 1916 has been called a Sinn Fein rebellion. The story of the behavior of the Sinn Feiners during that rebellion had better be left untold. It is a story that would bring a blush of shame to the cheeks of every Irish man, woman and child. The man who turned traitor during the Irish rebellion was a Sinn Feiner. The two men responsible for the success of that rebellion, and it was a success, because due to that rebellion, conscription was never introduced into Ireland, and that is an achievement to be proud of, were James Larkin and James Connolly. It was the remarkable organizing ability and intelligence of Jim Larkin that created the Citizen Army, the mainstay of the rebellion, and it was the remarkable qualities of James Connolly that kept it going after Larkin left for this country. The Irish rebellion had for its ultimate ideal, the formation of a Workers’ Republic, but its immediate task was the stopping of conscription and in the completion of that task the Sinn Feiners played no part whatsoever. Of course, we can sympathize with those of our readers who are of the opinion that Sinn Fein in Bolshevikism.

They have gained their ideas from the Irish- American politicians. In future do not judge Irish men and women in Ireland by the Irish politicians in this country. In Ireland there is no such animal, and if one ever gets over there, he has to disguise himself to be noticed. The real Irish Republic will be formed by men and women who understand modern capitalism. In other words, when the working class of Ireland controls all the means of life, then it will be in a position to declare a Republic. As James Connolly states in his Labor in Irish History:

“Irish toilers from henceforward will base their fight for freedom not upon the winning or losing the right to talk in an Irish Parliament, but upon their progress towards the mastery of those factories, workshops and farms upon which the people’s bread and liberties depend.”

Truth emerged from the The Duluth Labor Leader, a weekly English language publication of the Scandinavian local of the Socialist Party in Duluth, Minnesota and began on May Day, 1917 as a Left Wing alternative to the Duluth Labor World. The paper was aligned to both the SP and the IWW leading to the paper being closed down in the first big anti-IWW raids in September, 1917. The paper was reborn as Truth, with the Duluth Scandinavian Socialists joining the Communist Labor Party of America in 1919. Shortly after the editor, Jack Carney, was arrested and convicted of espionage in 1920. Truth continued to publish with a new editor JO Bentall until 1923 as an unofficial paper of the CP.

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