The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1916-06-01
BY James Connolly
The Stomach, Not the Brain

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Nothing more strikingly illustrates
the crude and unscientific theories Of
ordinary middle class politicians than
the desperate attempts at present be-
ing made to build up great political
party in Ireland on the lines of the
late Home Rule movement. Apparent
ly all sections of the Home Rule party
are possessed with the belief that
great political movements can bg con-
structed at will, and that an effective
aggressive political force may have its
origin, not deep down in the daily life
of the people, but in the brains of some
half dozen gentlemen in parliament.
Viewed from this standpoint the toll
ing multitudes are mere automatic, and
the really effective national force is to
be found in the men whom the Home
Rule press and orators point to the
multitude as leaders" The truth
that the political movements of a
country spring from the pulsations
Of its economic life; that all political
parties are the instruments of class,
and are great and powerful only in
the proportion in which the develop
ment of the struggle for existence
forces their particular class interest
ho 10. If
dominant factor in their daily life
all this seems to be quite unheard
Of philosophy amongst capitalist poll
ticians.
Yet slight survey of the world in
general, or of Ireland in particular,
could not fail to bring the truth of this
eminently Socialist doctrine home to
the mind of the thoughtful student of
events. The great political organiza-
tons which have successfully revolu-
tionized the systems of governments
under which they lived, have had their
origin, not in the brains of mighty
leaders, but in the daily and hourly
needs of the multitude, and have ac-
quired force and power only in so far
as those needs became sharp and pres
sing enough to goad that sluggard
multitude to action. When at such
crisis there arose man lucky enough
or astute enough, to make himself the
mouthpiece of the disconnected null
titude; to coin it's inarticulate groan-
ings into political phraseology, and
give it's hunger-inspired desire for
change an intelligent formulation,
then such a man became a "great
leader" and the organization follow
ing the course he advocated the lead
ing political force. To the minds of
the superficial middle class thinkers
always ready to believe that the world
turned around their heroes and sue
cessful persons as upon it's axis-the
leaders had createdthe movement
which they led; to the mind of the
scientific Socialist the leaders and the
movement were both the product of
the quickening of intellect caused by
social conditions adversely affecting
the life of the people at large.
Examine the great revolutionary
movements of history and you will
find that in all cases they sprang from
Unsatisfactory social conditions, and
had their origin in a desire for ma
terial well being. In other words, the
seat of progress and source of revolu-
ton is not in the brain, but in the
stomach. The fact that this truth has
hitherto been obscured, or even denied,
that the pioneers of progress uniform
ly clothed their political demands in
the most idealistic language and the
most flowery phraseology; or that
they constantly appealed for the sup
port of "all unselfish and generous
souls" rather than to commonplace in
terests, only proves that we are all too
prone to hide even from ourselves the
real nature of our impelling desires,
and even when most stubbornly fol-
lowing our grossest instincts, to throw
around our actions all the glamor of
spiritual cravings" or patriotic
hopes"
The power and unconquerable opti-
mism if the Socialist party is due to
their recognition of this materialist
basis of history, this economic basis of
politics. Knowing that their ultimate