Faculty Sponsor(s)
Peter Buckingham
Location
Jereld R. Nicholson Library
Subject Area
History
Description
James Connolly, born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1868, was an Irish socialist who would go on to be a leading member of the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Ireland. From an early age he became involved in the socialist movement through groups such as the Scottish Socialist Federation and the Independent Labor Party. A self-educated man well read in the socialist and political literature of his day, Connolly eventually made his way back to Ireland, forming his own socialist group, the Irish Socialist Republican Party. In 1902 he embarked on a speaking tour in the United States at the invite of Daniel De Leon’s Socialist Labor Party. Upon return to Ireland, troubles arose within his party, resulting in his expulsion and subsequent return to America, where he would live from 1903 to 1910. Connolly’s years in America had a profound impact on his political and socialist ideology, providing him with real world experience navigating leadership politics, and refining his grassroots labor organization and strike methods. He wrote and traveled extensively with the SLP, IWW, and SP, thus gaining valuable experience he would bring back to Ireland and employ for the causes of the Irish worker, and of Irish national independence. He had arrived in America as a socialist speaker and writer from a minor party, but then returned to Ireland as a veteran strike leader and labor organizer, with revolutionary aims for Ireland and a far more defined understanding of his own socialist ideology.
Recommended Citation
Owen, Sydney M., "James Connolly's Years in America, 1902-1910" (2015). Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement. Event. Submission 31.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/symposium/2015/all/31
James Connolly's Years in America, 1902-1910
Jereld R. Nicholson Library
James Connolly, born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1868, was an Irish socialist who would go on to be a leading member of the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Ireland. From an early age he became involved in the socialist movement through groups such as the Scottish Socialist Federation and the Independent Labor Party. A self-educated man well read in the socialist and political literature of his day, Connolly eventually made his way back to Ireland, forming his own socialist group, the Irish Socialist Republican Party. In 1902 he embarked on a speaking tour in the United States at the invite of Daniel De Leon’s Socialist Labor Party. Upon return to Ireland, troubles arose within his party, resulting in his expulsion and subsequent return to America, where he would live from 1903 to 1910. Connolly’s years in America had a profound impact on his political and socialist ideology, providing him with real world experience navigating leadership politics, and refining his grassroots labor organization and strike methods. He wrote and traveled extensively with the SLP, IWW, and SP, thus gaining valuable experience he would bring back to Ireland and employ for the causes of the Irish worker, and of Irish national independence. He had arrived in America as a socialist speaker and writer from a minor party, but then returned to Ireland as a veteran strike leader and labor organizer, with revolutionary aims for Ireland and a far more defined understanding of his own socialist ideology.
