Republicans and May Day
The struggle for national liberation in the North has undoubtedly
led to a widespread radical politicisation of not just IRA
Volunteers but of the oppressed people who realise that the
fruits of our victory must be social and economic as well as the
political freedom of national separation.
The term nationalism is something of a dirty word politically
among left groups on the continent where it has right-wing
connections. But our nationalism is anti-imperialist and radical
and we realise that if the connection is not made with the
struggle of labour there will be no realisation of socialism in
Ireland, just as the Labour Movement, if it ignores the national
question, is also acquitting the full potential of the working
class.
To Connolly the basic condition of socialist advance was the
assertion and acceptence of Ireland's right to self-government.
His opponent in the debate was William Walker, a Belfast member
of the British Labour Movement, whose conception of socialism was
reformist. Walker pointed with pride to the progress of
`municipal socialism' in Belfast. Did they not `collectively own
and control' gasworks, waterworks, harbour works, markets,
tramways, electricity, museums and art galleries? They had even
organised a police band!
Connolly described Walker's position as `gas and water' socialism
and insisted that the Irish question was not merely an economic
question, it was also a democratic question, a question of
national independence.
Phoblacht 28 April 1983.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)