The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-22
Marx and the Irish Question
The Right of SelfDeemnaton of PeopeA of
Marxsm on the National Question.

Marx and Engels followed the national movements of
the Italians, Hungarans, Poles, Irish, etc. with the
greatest attention and the warmest sympathy. In many
articles and many letters their friends there
be found abundant material disclosing the attitude
of Marx and Engels toward these national currents
They understood how explain every of these
ments from Observation-Disclosures standpoint how to
reveal their socaleconomic Marx followed with
particular eagerness, the movement in Ireland while
he lived in England And during the time of the LIST
International and thereafter, he tried support the
Irish movement with all his power always stressing
to the English workers. that the independence of Ireland
must be their first thought and that this unthnk-
able without proletaran revolution in England
In his letter Siegfried Mayer April g. 1870 Marx
wrote: ireland is the buwark of the English land
owning aristocracy. The exploitation of this country
is not only the chief of England national riches,
but it is her greatest moral power 1t represents in
fact the hegemony of England ireland. Ireland
is therefore the powerful whereby English ars
tocracy maintains its rule England itself On the
other hand, if the English army and police should
Uate Ireland tomorrow you would Immediately have
agrarian revolution in Ireland The overthrow of the
English arstocracy in Ireland makes necessary, and
will be the result of its overthrow in England Thereby
the preparatory conditions for proetaran revolution
in England would be fulfilled ="
"As far the English bourgeoise is concerned, its
interests fully in accord with those of the English
aristocracy, turn Ireland into mere pasture land
in order to furnish the English market with meat and
wool at the lowest possible price. But the English
bourgeoisie has still important interest in the
presentday Irish economy Ireland because of the per-
petuay increasing concentration of easeholds, fur
nshes continual surplus for the English labor mar
ket, and thereby depresses the wages well the
material and moral position of the English working
class And most important! All industrial and COM
nTercal centers of England possess a personnel
which is split into two opposing camps English prole
tarians and Irish proletarians The ordinary English
worker hates the Irish worker rival who depresses
his standard of life. He looks upon the Irish worker
as does member of the ruling nation, and therefore
no alyp tbo oF 4hoo
tasts against Ireland and thereby strengthens their
rule himself He religious social and ma
tional prejudces against him. He conducts himself
toward the Irish worker in about the way did
the whites to the Negroes in the former slave states
of the union. The Irshman pays him with interest in
his own coin. He sees in the English worker stimuli
taneously the accompice and the stupid tool of the
English rule Ireland These antagonisms are cev
erly kept alive through the press, the pulpit the hum
orous magazines, in short through all the means at
the command of the ruling class. This antagonism is
the secret of the weakness of the English working class
in spite of its organization 1t is the secret Of the
enormous of the capitalist class of England Of
this fact the ruling class is fully aware.
This evil does not stop here but is carried across
the ocean. The antagonism between Englishmen and
the Irish is the secret foundation of the antagonsm
between England and the United States 1t makes every
earnest and honest cooperation between the working
class of the two countries impossible 1t permits the
government of the two countries soon as they deem
it necessary to break the edge of the social conflict
through war between these two nations
England the metropolis of capital as the power
which until now, has ruled the world market is for the
time being, the most important country for the work
ers revolution, and in addition the only country where
the material conditions of the revolution have devel
oped to certain ripeness. To accelerate the social
revolution England therefore the most important
task OF the International workers association The only
means of acceerating it, to make Ireland independent
1t is therefore the task of all internationalsts every
where to place in the foreground the conflict between
England and Ireland, openly to take the side of ne
and IL the special task of the General Council in
london, to awaken the consciousness of the English
working class to the fact that the national emancipa
ion Of Ireland is abstract question of justice or
humanitarian feeling but that it is the first condition
t its own social emancipation"
These wonderful words of Marx have deep historical