Songs of Freedom

The James Connolly Songbook

By James Connolly, Mat Callahan

PM Press

Copyright © 2013 PM Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60486-826-5

Contents

PREFACE: GREAT, BRAVE, UNDAUNTED JAMES CONNOLLY by Theo Dorgan,
FOREWORD by James Connolly Heron,
INTRODUCTION by Mat Callahan,
SONGS OF FREEDOM (1907),
The Watchword,
The Rights of Man,
The Symbol,
Bide Your Time,
Standard of Freedom,
When Labor Calls,
Hymn to Freedom,
Freedom’s Pioneers,
Drinking and Thinking,
A Love Song,
Freedom of Labor,
Human Freedom,
The Red Flag,
For Labor’s Right,
Lift the Flag,
The Marseillaise1,
A Socialist War Song,
Freedom’s Sun,
1919 SOUVENIR PROGRAM,
A Rebel Song,
The Watchword of Labor,
The Legacy,
The Call of Erin,
The International,
The Red Flag,
THE JAMES CONNOLLY SONGBOOK,
Introduction to The James Connolly Songbook,
Arouse!,
“Be Moderate”,
O Slaves of Toil!,
The Message,
The Blackleg,
Shake Out Your Banners,
Saoirse a Rúin,
A Father in Exile,
A Festive Song,
James Connolly,
BIBLIOGRAPHY,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,

INTRODUCTION

The songs in this volume speak for themselves. Even for those unfamiliar with James Connolly, the lyrics he either wrote or gathered together from other sources make abundantly clear their revolutionary, working-class, and internationalist intent. Furthermore, the introductions to each of the three separate books contained herein eloquently convey the reasons they were originally published. What needs explanation, however, is how the present volume came to be published, why there are three books joined together under the title Songs of Freedom, and the journey of discovery that led not only to the printed material but to the music on the accompanying CD.

It so happens that I was born on July 14, Bastille Day, the inaugural battle of the great French Revolution. When my sixtieth birthday was approaching in 2011, I decided that now, more than ever, it was necessary to celebrate revolution by singing revolutionary songs. Since many of my closest friends are Irish, I thought it most appropriate to sing Irish revolutionary songs. This was partly due to familiarity with such songs, but more importantly it was a response to the devastating effects of the financial crisis on Ireland. So I started assembling a repertoire. While there are literally thousands of wonderful songs available, my focus soon turned to the figure of James Connolly. There are several reasons for this, some personal, others historical, still others of a political nature. I had heard the name of Connolly spoken with reverence in my childhood. In fact, my brother was named James after Connolly. I had read Portrait of a Rebel Father in my youth and long held dear the principles of working-class solidarity, socialism, and national liberation for which Connolly fought and died. I recalled Connolly’s famous statement regarding the necessity for the “joyous, defiant singing of revolutionary songs,” without which there could be no revolutionary movement worthy of the name. I remembered that statement was taken from the introduction to a book of Connolly’s called Songs of Freedom. But where to find this book? My search led me to a bookstore in Cong, County Mayo, where a diligent bookseller advised me that the only existing copy of Songs of Freedom was in the National Library in Dublin. But I needed it now, and I lived in Bern, Switzerland. What could I do? The bookseller kindly offered to locate another book he knew of which contained Connolly’s songs. He eventually found one in a bookstore in London. I purchased this old, battered copy of The James Connolly Songbook, published by the Cork Workers Club, and began looking for the musical accompaniment.

Collaborating in this search were my dear friends Joe McHugh and Alan Burke, who had agreed to join me and several other musician friends in performing at my birthday party. Joe, Alan, and I were able to locate some of the tunes referred to under the titles of the songs in the songbook but we could not find them all, and time was pressing. It became clear that new music would have to be composed if we were to achieve our purpose of presenting a program featuring Connolly’s lyrics. The result was a combination: some of the tunes Connolly originally used, some with music I composed and the band arranged. In addition, we added well-known songs about Connolly and one, by Jim Connell, that was obviously among Connolly’s favorites, “The Red Flag.”

The performance was a rousing success. Joe and Alan had the inspired idea that we do a proper job recording the music and put it out along with a new version of The James Connolly Songbook. This was more timely than ever, they argued, particularly given the dire conditions facing the Irish people, not to mention those in many countries facing similar catastrophes. Undertaking such a project required some research, however. We needed to consult with others more knowledgeable than ourselves on matters both current and historical. How would such an effort be received and how could it be realized? I decided it was necessary to go to the National Library in Dublin and see for myself the original Songs of Freedom.

What I found was a revelation. Songs of Freedom was published in America, not in Ireland. It was, Connolly wrote in his introduction, “offered until some one with greater means shall present to the American Working Class a more suitable collection, drawn not from the store of one nation alone, but from the Socialist poetry of the World.” Even more striking was the fact that Songs of Freedom differed in important ways from The James Connolly Songbook with which we’d been working. As readers of the present volume will see, the original Songs of Freedom contains eighteen songs, nine of which are by Connolly, while The James Connolly Songbook contains twenty-three songs and poems, nineteen of which are by Connolly. Furthermore, the introductions to the two books are completely different. The introduction to the second book begins with the famous quote, referred to earlier, from Connolly’s introduction to Songs of Freedom but it goes on to describe a concert held in Dublin in 1919 to celebrate Connolly’s birth. It was the “selection of songs and recitation” to be performed at that concert which make up the contents of the Cork Workers Club book.

The story doesn’t end there, however. A supporter of the present project, residing in San Francisco, U.S.A., put me in touch with Jim Lane of Cork, Ireland, who, I soon discovered, had been a member of the Cork Workers Club, was responsible for the publication of The James Connolly Songbook, and indeed had written the introduction to it. Furthermore, the songs appearing only in the songbook and not in the original Songs of Freedom had been patiently gathered from various pamphlets and newspapers in which they had appeared, one by one, over many years. Jim went on to explain that the inspiration for the songbook lay in yet another long lost manuscript: the 1919 Connolly Souvenir program for the concert described in the introduction to The James Connolly Songbook of 1972 (a second version was published in 1980). If that weren’t enough, Jim photocopied this program and sent it to me. When I received it I was astounded. This important document has, along with Songs of Freedom, been virtually unavailable for almost a century. Were it not for the efforts of the Cork Workers Club, its contents would have been buried along with it. I knew in an instant that these three documents needed to be republished together, in one book, so that a new generation could see for themselves the words of James Connolly and those of his comrades, as they first appeared. The introduction to The James Connolly Songbook is, furthermore, indispensable for understanding the circumstances surrounding the Dublin concert of 1919, an historic event in its own right. In combination, then, these three books tell a much larger tale, international in scope and enduring in impact. Songs of Freedom was produced for and distributed to the working class in the United States. The Connolly Souvenir emerged three years after Connolly’s execution as the Irish War of Independence was raging. The Cork Workers Club book was first published as “The Troubles” were unfolding in Northern Ireland. Connolly’s ideas, especially his articulation of the need for a workers’ republic, free not only from Britain but from capitalism under any flag, rang out through all these different and shifting circumstances. They remain the single most important purpose this new book hopes to serve. In short: read Connolly. He speaks as eloquently today as he did a century ago, his analysis and prescriptions for what ails humanity as visionary and practical as ever.

Reading Connolly

James Connolly is a hero to workers and oppressed people everywhere. Born in Edinburgh in 1868 and martyred by the British Government in 1916, his forty-eight years were devoted to the liberation of humanity from all forms of slavery. Reading about Connolly is therefore necessary to understanding the world at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. But even if you know nothing of Connolly’s life, even if you are not familiar with Irish history or labor history, there are compelling reasons to read what Connolly wrote. As extraordinary as his personal leadership was, it is ultimately his ideas that are of the greatest import for present and succeeding generations. This new version of Songs of Freedom hopes to renew a dialogue with Connolly’s writings starting with his poetic expression. But it mustn’t end there. Connolly wrote several important books including Labour in Irish History, Labour, Nationality and Religion, and Socialism Made Easy. He wrote extensively for numerous periodicals, including The Harp and Workers’ Republic. One can find these writings on the internet and in collections available in bookstores (see bibliography).

A few short examples demonstrate the usefulness of Connolly’s method of analysis and the accuracy of his predictions. In 1897 Connolly confronted illusions fostered by an outmoded and naïve view of “independence” from Britain:

If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin castle, unless you set about the organization of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain.

England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.

England would still rule you to your ruin, even while your lips offered hypocritical homage at the shrine of that Freedom whose cause you had betrayed.

Furthermore, Connolly clearly articulated what the Socialist Republic consisted of. The Programme of the Irish Socialist Republican Party first published in 1896 begins:

OBJECT

Establishment of AN IRISH SOCIALIST REPUBLIC based upon the public ownership by the Irish people of the land, and instruments of production, distribution and exchange. Agriculture to be administered as a public function, under boards of management elected by the agricultural population and responsible to them and to the nation at large. All other forms of labour necessary to the well-being of the community to be conducted on the same principles.

PROGRAMME

As a means of organising the forces of the Democracy in preparation for any struggle which may precede the realisation of our ideal, of paving the way for its realisation, of restricting the tide of emigration by providing employment at home, and finally of palliating the evils of our present social system, we work by political means to secure the following measures:

1. Nationalisation of railways and canals.

2. Abolition of private banks and money-lending institutions and establishments of state banks, under popularly elected boards of directors, issuing loans at cost.

3. Establishment at public expense of rural depots for the most improved agricultural machinery, to be lent out to the agricultural population at a rent covering cost and management alone.

4. Graduated income tax on all incomes over £400 per annum in order to provide funds for pensions to the aged, infirm and widows and orphans.

5. Legislative restriction of hours of labour to £48 per week and establishment of a minimum wage.

6. Free maintenance for all children.

7. Gradual extension of the principle of public ownership and supply to all the necessaries of life.

8. Public control and management of National schools by boards elected by popular ballot for that purpose alone.

9. Free education up to the highest university grades.

10. Universal suffrage.

Reading these statements in light of the latest crisis of capitalism we must, at the very least, acknowledge that the outcome Connolly predicted has indeed occurred and might have been averted by enacting the proposals he advanced. No doubt, there is much to amend or alter due to changing circumstances but such principles as public ownership, public education for all, and the abolition of private banks demand our reconsideration today. Not only do they stand in opposition to ruling dogma, they provide a useful starting point for any discussion of alternative means of social organization. And these are only two examples from a much larger body of work covering themes as varied as religion, women’s emancipation, military tactics, culture, and national liberation. In every sphere, Connolly’s analysis contains not only consistent reasoning but genuinely novel insights. While rooted in revolutionary socialist thought, especially that of Karl Marx, Connolly applied himself to problems with an inventiveness and originality that could never be mistaken for the dogmatic or doctrinaire. This, too, should inspire us to unleash our own creativity applied to age-old problems.

Addressing the issue of the imperialist war about to break out in Europe in 1914, Connolly could have been speaking of today’s imperial adventures in Afghanistan or Iraq: “If these men must die, would it not be better to die in their own country fighting for freedom for their class, and for the abolition of war, than to go forth to strange countries and die slaughtering and slaughtered by their own brothers that tyrants and profiteers might live?” In a manner strikingly similar to today’s “clash of civilizations” rhetoric, imperialism’s apologists were then loudly trumpeting a War for Civilization. Connolly’s response is as persuasive now as it was a century ago:

Civilization cannot be built upon slaves; civilization cannot be secured if the producers are sinking into misery; civilization is lost if they whose labour makes it possible share so little of its fruits that its fall can leave them no worse than its security.

The workers are at the bottom of civilized society. That civilization may endure they ought to push upward from their poverty and misery until they emerge into the full sunlight of freedom. When the fruits of civilization, created by all, are enjoyed in common by all, then civilization is secure. Not till then.

About the Music

When we set about preparing the music to accompany Connolly’s texts, we had at our disposal some old recordings, internet sources such as YouTube, and personal memory. We had no idea that the Connolly Souvenir program of 1919 even existed, let alone that it contained musical notation for the songs. The James Connolly Songbook only reproduced the lyrics and the names of the tunes or airs to which Connolly set his lyrics, so that’s all we had to go on. But we took encouragement from Connolly himself. Connolly had often used popular tunes as the basis for his lyrics, many of which were not even Irish and certainly not traditional. Besides, as the introduction to The James Connolly Songbook states, “as many of these airs have long passed on in public memory, we suggest that where possible, workers should adapt his songs to the airs of today’s popular songs and ballads.”

This also presented a difficulty. Connolly’s lyrics do not lend themselves easily to today’s popular songs. They are readily comprehensible as texts but as song lyrics they require music designed to support their own rhythm and rhyme. The challenge, therefore, was to produce music that would make these lyrics singable by anyone while at the same time retaining melodic interest. Above all, the music had to convey the emotion intended by the text. The listener will have to judge how well we succeeded.

In conclusion, I need to emphasize that this book and accompanying CD are the result of a collective effort involving many people from several countries. I have already mentioned the crucial contribution of Joe McHugh and Alan Burke. To this must be added all the musicians and technicians who participated in making the music. None were “hired guns,” and all gave their talent and labor to bring this message to the world. Initial financial support came from a circle of friends in Bern, Switzerland. The Cantons of Bern and Schaffhausen provided arts funding. Subsequently, appeals in San Francisco and Northern California gathered support from a diverse group that included labor unions, political activists, artists, and educators. It is a testament to the power of Connolly’s vision that so many people from such different backgrounds have been inspired to call it to life in the 21st century.

(Continues…)Excerpted from Songs of Freedom by James Connolly, Mat Callahan. Copyright © 2013 PM Press. Excerpted by permission of PM Press.
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