Irish Labour and the General Election

Page 1

IRISH LABOUR AND THE GENERAL ELECTION. To The Workers of Ireland: YOU will shortly be invited, the great majority for the first time, to cast a Vote in a General Election. Nominally, you will be privileged to elect members to represent your interests and wishes in Parliament; in reality, to a greater degree than ever before, you are to choose which of several National Ideas you subscribe to. THE IRISH LABOUR PARTY sets forth its views upon political and social affairs, and asks for your support. ECONOMIC POWER. For ten years past in Ireland the workers' movement in industry has been growing in power and influence, and Trade Unionism has established itself as the most potent weapon in the hands of the workers. It is upon the power of this industrial organisation that the working masses must in the main rely to win their emancipation. In the right to decide when to sell and when to withhold their labour lies the strength of the workers' position. This has been especially true of Irish Labour since the outbreak of War and will continue for a long period after peace is declared. Whatever part Labour is destined to play in the political life of Ireland its part in the industrial and economic life must always take precedence, since in Ireland as everywhere else economic power must precede and make possible political power. POLITICAL POWER. But we have been taught by experience not to allow the victories of Trade Unionism to be brought to nought by laxity in politics—by leaving the political machinery of the State in the control either of Labour's enemies or of professing friends, who are not themselves of the working-class. We must support our Trade Unionism by our politics; we must be ready to use every weapon that has been placed in our hands, to avail of every opportunity which comes in our way, to strike blow upon blow in the age-long fight for liberty. SECOND Irish Labour and the General Election. PAGE We assert before the world that Ireland is denied this right by the power of armed force, and we call upon the Democracies to make good their professions by their actions, and set free the Irish Nation from its involuntary bondage. To strengthen our hands as representing the workers of Ireland when pressing this demand upon the Labour Parties of other Nations (both of the old world and the new) we ask you to support the Labour Candidates in the coming Election. CONSCRIPTION. Closely allied with the subject of Ireland's status as a Nation, but by no means wholly dependent thereon, is the question of Conscription. In unison with the people as a whole, the Labour Party has taken an active part in the fight against the project to compel Irishmen by force to hear arms. We are resolved to persist in our resistance come what may. We stand firmly on this ground—that no outside authority whatsoever has a right to compel a man to kill his fellowman. Each individual must be left free to act or not to act in such a matter as his conscience directs. Holding this…