On this day in 1916, revolutionary Irish Republicans initiated the Easter Rising, proclaiming an Irish Republic independent of British rule and battling with the British Army for six days. Sixteen Rising leaders were executed.

The rebellion was a collaboration of multiple militant Irish organizations, including the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), and Cumann na mBan, and an Irish women's paramilitary force. Notable leaders include schoolmaster and Irish language activist Patrick Pearse and socialist James Connolly, who served as head of the ICA.

Together, this coalition seized strategically important buildings in Dublin. Britain responded militarily, sending thousands of troops and artillery to clash with the Irish revolutionaries.

The resistance lasted six days before surrendering to the better equipped British Army, and artillery shelling and street fighting left many parts of Dublin in ruin. 3,500 people were captured, 1,800 of them sent to internment camps. 485 people were killed, and more than 2,600 were wounded. Pearse and Connolly, along with 14 others, were executed for their role in the rebellion.

The Rising was the first armed conflict of a revolutionary period of unrest that began in the early 20th century. In the "Proclamation of the Irish Republic", the revolutionaries linked their cause to centuries of struggle:

"We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people.

In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations."

"Come Out, Ye Black And Tans!" - Irish Rebel Song :trouble:

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  • ClassUpperMiddle [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Everytime I come here I think about young some of you guys are, how being a leftie will just be a phase for you and it always flattens me when I do.

    • President_Obama [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think the people on this site have an understanding of how class politics work, and that's not something you move on from like a twitter opinion

      • ClassUpperMiddle [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I feel like that's not necessarily true, if you're rich/upper middle class you can just decide that the whole thing is futile and stop giving a fuck about the people below you.

        I'm also deeply suspicious of people who are class conscious but never spent a long period of time around poor people and POC. Like how quickly do the gears shift when you become uncomfortable or when they don't meet your romanticized expectations?

        I'm having a rough time atm so just ignore me if you're not trying to engage with this because I'm definitely not trying to argue with anyone.

        • President_Obama [they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I’m having a rough time atm so just ignore me if you’re not trying to engage with this because I’m definitely not trying to argue with anyone.

          Appreciate this, now I see it's just real :doomer: hours

        • bubbalu [they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          This! I work as a teacher in a district where each school might have 'the white kid' and see so many white new teachers and administrators just cannot talk to the students appropriately. There was this one very r/MFA looking white vice-principal at a school who would put on a very condescending 'blackcent' when speaking to (never with) students that disgusted me.

          But similar to orgs, there are so many idealistic white folks that come in, cannot overcome their own whiteness/racism and leave as quick as they came.

          • ClassUpperMiddle [they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            do you mean the white kid as in there's one white kid amongst non-white kids?

            in my experience, the shitty poor and brown schools are just resume builders before teachers can move to a decent school. they stay for two years tops until they get to a white school wtih budget

      • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        nah, this has happened in irl orgs for years
        pretty much every org has a slow revolving door of uni students

        • bubbalu [they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          This trend becomes much less painful when you stop counting book clubs that might occasional stock a sharing table as 'orgs'. Very few upper-crust college students get into or meaningfully integrate into organizations doing meaningful mass work because at the end of the day they can't stand working people.

          • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            you responded to the wrong person

            “you lot are fake lefties cause you’re young” is quite the take

            good thing i never had that take then isn't it?

            it depresses me that you are young because young people are unreliable and you’ll just leave the left when you grow up

            show me where i said this

            ts not because they are young its because their material conditions change

            yep

    • Comp4 [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      To be fair I grew only more radical the older I got. Like I always had some unliberal thoughts but damn it really escalated. I sometimes need to be careful not to appear lets say a bit unhinged. (in the eyes of people outside of this lovely place 😍 😘 ) Then again im not wh*te so it might just be me starting to see clear in the last decade or so.