An appeal to Fenians in the U.S. from German First Internationalists in New York. Section One of the First International, the Allgemeine Deutsche Arbeiterverein, was led by Frederick A. Sorge, who likely wrote the address below, and joined the National Labor Union as Labor Union No. 5. A combination of Lassalleans and Marxists, it was the center on the I.W.M.A.’s activity in the U.S.

‘Appeal to Irishmen’ by the Arbeiter Union from Workingman’s Advocate (Chicago). Vol. 6 No. 45. June 18, 1870.

The Arbeiter Union of New York have issued the following address to their Irish fellow citizens:

Fellow Workingmen: We deem it our duty to address to you a few words. In spite of your tried patriotic energy and devotion to your cause, in spite of your sacrifices of life and property, it will never have the desired success of the liberation of your fatherland. As long as you fight alone against the English Government, which is closely connected with the Governments of all countries, you will always be defeated—your sacrifices will be in vain. The English Government, against which you have fought so long with perseverance and courage, is nothing but the representative and advocate of the capitalist class, which rules in all other countries as well as in this country.

This class rules and oppresses in Paris, France; in Berlin and Vienna, Germany; in London, England; Scotland, and Ireland, and in Washington, America.

Against this class the workingmen of Europe, and soon also in America, brotherly united in the International Workingmen’s Association, have fought for years with success. Irish workingmen, follow the example which your brethren in England are about to give, and enter the great brotherly union of workingmen of all countries. Associate yourselves at last with your natural, and therefore most trustworthy allies, the organised workingmen, for the great battle against our common enemy, the ruling capitalist class and their government. Only in this sign, united with them only the victory can be yours.

Your special secret organization has hitherto been of no avail to you, but has solely placed your hard-earned means into the hands of unskilled and unreliable leaders, who have wasted the fruits of your labor and blood for nothing.

Irish workingmen, learn that you can free yourselves and your country only by your own labor in union with your fellow-workingmen of all countries.

Join us! We offer to you the hand of brotherly fellowship! Long life to the Irish Republic and the workingmen’s republic of all countries.

German Workmen’s Union

The Chicago Workingman’s Advocate in 1864 by the Chicago Typographical Union during a strike against the Chicago Times. An essential publication in the history of the U.S. workers’ movement, the Advocate though editor Andrew Cameron became the voice National Labor Union after the Civil War. It’s pages were often the first place the work of Marx, Engels, and the International were printed in English in the U.S. It lasted through 1874 with the demise of the N.L.U.

PDF of issue: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89077510/1870-06-18/ed-1/seq-1/