In Ireland, for this generation at least, it would be impossible to
secure in a legislative assembly majorities representative of the class
we wish to see emancipated. It may seem as if I had closed all the paths
out of the social labyrinth; but the way to emancipation has, I think,
already been surveyed by pioneers. A policy of social reconstruction is
practical, and needs but steady persistence for its realization. That
policy--I refer to co-operative action--has been adopted in various
forms by workers in many countries; and what is needed here is to study
and coordinate these applications of co-working, and to form a general
staff of labor who will, on behalf of the workers, examine the weapons
fashioned by their class elsewhere, and who will draw up a plan of
campaign as the staff of an army do previous to military operations. It
will be found that economic action along co-operative lines has, in one
country, barriers placed before its expansion which could be set aside
by supplementing this action by methods elaborated by the genius of
workers elsewhere.
Pages:
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111