May Day report from Dublin, Ireland

ireland / britain | workplace struggles | news report Sunday May 01, 2005 08:02 by sovietpop - WSM sovietpop at hotmail dot net

In 1907 James Larkin, one of Irelands greatest trade-unionists arrived in Ireland and began to organise casual and unskilled dockworkers.

James Connolly

He worked with James Connolly, the IWW organiser. Today Connolly's statue stands outside the headquarters of Irelands largest trade union. On the last day of April, Irish trade-unionists gathered there to celebrate International Workers Day (yes, I know they got the day wrong).
Usually this is a depressing and lack lustre affair. This year the importance of trade union strength was underlined by the presence of a large contingent of Turkish construction workers. Illegally paid just over two euros an hour, forced to work eighty-hour weeks, cheated and swindled by their employers, these workers are living at the harsh edge of global capitalism.
Scandalously a trade-union bureaucrat announced from the podium that in his (very ignorant) opinion, 99% of migrant workers were treated fairly by their bosses. Soon after a migrant worker also addressed the crowd, spoke of his experiences and the experiences of the migrants he knew, and berated the bureaucrat for getting it so very wrong.
Following the march, a group of anarchists and independent socialists moved through the city centre shops, distributing leaflets to the shop-workers and security guards, informing them of their working rights and giving them advice on union membership. The response we got was enthusiastic and we intend to repeat the action in two weeks.
As James Larkin said ‘The great are only great, because we are our knees. Let us arise!”.

written for Anarkismo.net

Striking Turkish Workers

James Larkin and Turkish Striker

Arise!