The Neutrality Question: Lessons from Connolly - The Labour Party
For some, neutrality is outdated, a passive stance in the face of injustice. But for those who understand its roots in anti-imperialism and working-class solidarity, it remains a vital principle, one that James Connolly himself would have fiercely defended.
Connolly saw the First World War for what it was: the barbaric culmination of a capitalist system hurtling toward self-destruction. He rejected the notion that mere national independence, without economic justice, would free the Irish people.
His alliance with revolutionary nationalists in 1916 was not born of some sort of naïve patriotism but of strategic necessity, the understanding that only a united struggle against empire and exploitation could bring about true liberation.
True neutrality cannot be passive. It must be active, rooted in anti-imperialism, and solidarity with the global oppressed. Connolly knew that Ireland’s freedom would be forever intertwined with the struggle of workers everywhere.
Today, that means opposing war, supporting the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, rejecting militarism and reclaiming neutrality as a progressive cause.
It is not isolationism but internationalism, an assertion that Ireland’s place in the world is as a voice for peace, disarmament, and justice.
In a time of climate breakdown and widening inequality, pouring billions into armies and weapons is madness.
The everyday security threats we face are very real; a never-ending housing crisis, a broken health system, and ecological disasters happening all over the world, our demand must be a total redirection of resources towards people, not war machines.
Connolly’s vision, of an Ireland free from empire and exploitation remains unfulfilled. But his lesson endures: neutrality is meaningless without socialism, just as national sovereignty rings hollow without economic democracy.
Ireland must choose: Will we be a pawn in the games of great powers, or will we stand firm as a beacon of peace and justice?
The answer lies in the principles Connolly lived and died for: solidarity over submission, people over profit, and an unshakable commitment to the cause of labour which is, and always will be, the cause of Ireland.