Dublin 1913

Submitted by Matthew on 20 April, 2011 - 2:37

The Dublin Labour War was one of the great battles of the working class. In 1913, under the leadership of Jim Larkin, the working class of Dublin was making Dublin one of the best organised cities in the world.

Dublin’s slums were officially admitted to be among the worst in the British Empire. Infant mortality was higher there than in Calcutta. During the 1914-18 war, a British Army recruiting leaflet would tell the workers of Dublin that the war trenches of France were healthier than the slums of Dublin! But now the workers were on the move.

The workers had discovered the power of the sympathetic, solidarity strike. Where necessary they brought their weight as a class to bear on each individual employer on behalf of his employees.

Wages were pushed up. Conditions began to improve. The workers, long downtrodden, became everywhere assertive and confident. A tremendous growth of working class dignity ad self respect began to make Dublin uncomfortable for the upper classes.

So the bosses organised themselves in a cartel and locked out every worker who would not leave or promise never to join “Larkin’s union”.

This week we print two articles by James Connolly, “Glorious Dublin” and “A titanic struggle”.


Glorious Dublin, from Forward, 4 October 1913
A titanic struggle, from the Daily Herald, 6 December 1913
Timeline

Between 1911 and 1913: By use of sympathy strikes, the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU), led by Jim Larkin and James Connolly, wins improved conditions and organisation for Dublin workers.

From 15 August 1913: William Martin Murphy sacks more than 200 workers from the Dublin trams, which he owns, for being ITGWU members.

26 August: The ITGWU responds by a strike on the trams and other sympathy action, for example a boycott of the distribution of the Irish Independent newspaper, also owned by Murphy.

30 August: Police issue a warrant for Larkin’s arrest on charges of “seditious language”.

31 August: Police baton-charge a workers’ rally in Dublin city centre banned by the government, injuring more than 400. Larkin appears at a city-centre balcony to speak to the workers, and is then arrested.

3 September: William Martin Murphy organises a meeting of 400 employers who pledge to lock out all workers who continue to be members of the ITGWU. Thousands of workers attend the funeral of James Nolan, a worker killed by police batons in protests on 30 August.

Early September: British TUC meets, hears pleas for solidarity from Dublin, but responds only by organising food aid for the locked-out workers.

26 September: British government appoints George Askwith to head an inquiry into the dispute.

27 September: A ship arrives in Dublin, bringing 40 tons of food that was raised by British trade unionists to feed the locked-out workers and their families.

6 October: Askwith’s inquiry reports, recommending a Conciliation Committee be set up to resolve the dispute without lock-outs or strikes. Bosses reject the report.

17 October: Dora Montefiore and other British socialists and trade unionists arrive in Dublin with plans to help the workers by having their children looked after by British trade unionists’ families during the lock-out. The Catholic Church and the bosses raise a hue and cry against this as a threat to the faith and morals of “Catholic children”.

From 13 November: Larkin, released from jail, tours Britain calling for workers’ solidarity.

November: The union launches the Irish Citizen Army, a workers’ militia, to counter further police violence like that on 31 August.

18 January 1914: ITGWU concedes defeat and advises workers to seek reinstatement. Murphy claims that he has “smashed Larkinism”, but in fact the ITGWU survives and grows in the following years.

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