James Larkin, an Irish trade union leader and socialist agitator, fought tirelessly for the rights of workers and the oppressed in early twentieth-century Ireland. His charismatic leadership and militant tactics galvanized the labor movement, leading to significant reforms and laying the groundwork for future labor struggles.
"Claiming for ourselves liberty of conscience, liberty to worship, we shall see to it that every other individual enjoys the same right."
"A mutual arrangement, I repeat, is the only satisfactory medium whereby the present system can be carried on with any degree of satisfaction, and in such an arrangement the employers have more to gain than the workers."
"The fate of you, the aristocracy of industry, will be as the fate of the aristocracy of land if you do not show that you have some humanity still among you."
"I am, of course, aware that the ultimate solution is the ownership and control of the means of life by the whole of the people; but we are not at that stage of development as yet."
"No, men and women of the Irish race, we shall not fight for England. We shall fight for the destruction of the British Empire and the construction of an Irish republic."
"The question of religion was a matter for each individual's conscience, and in a great many cases was the outcome of birth or residence in a certain geographical area."
"The best thanks we could offer those who went before and raised the Irish working class from their knees was to press forward with determination and enthusiasm towards the ultimate goal of their efforts, a Co-operative Commonwealth for Ireland."
"We are now on the threshold of a newer movement, with a newer hope and a new inspiration."