Belfast 1907 General Strike Commemoration in Liverpool
James Larkin RFB | 28.05.2007 16:17 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Liverpool
100th Anniversary Commemoration
Saturday June 2nd 2007, Liverpool
Assemble 12.30pm Combermere Street, off Park Road, Liverpool 8.
March to City Centre. March led by James Larkin RFB.
Afternoon function in the Casa Bar, Hope Street
Saturday June 2nd 2007, Liverpool
Assemble 12.30pm Combermere Street, off Park Road, Liverpool 8.
March to City Centre. March led by James Larkin RFB.
Afternoon function in the Casa Bar, Hope Street
2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1907 Belfast strikes, and the arrival of James Larkin and mass trade unionism in Ireland. The strikes began on Belfast docks, where Larkin organized the workers to resist exploitation wages and to fight for better working conditions. The dispute spread to other trades, with 1000s of workers becoming unionized for the first time.
Belfast, where the bosses had for so long played the sectarian ‘Orange card’ to divide protestant and catholic workers, saw a new working-class unity. The newspapers condemned the dispute as a ‘socialist and fenian plot’. For once, the old divide and rule tactics didn’t work. Strikers from the catholic Falls Road and the protestant Shankill Road, united in resisting the bosses and their scabs and hired thugs. The port and city of Belfast was brought to a standstill.
When even elements of the Police mutineed and refused to intervene against picket lines, the British Army was sent in to put down the workers’ revolt. The Army viciously attacked workers on the catholic Falls Road, and the fragile unity of the working class began to break down.
A cynical alliance of Loyalist agitators, Unionist bosses and right-wing Catholic politicians drove a sectarian wedge between the workers and the resistance crumbled.
James Larkin, and the more politically aware of the organized workers, both protestant and catholic, learned the bitter lessons of 1907. They came to realize
that to resist capitalist exploitation in Ireland, it was also necessary to, at the same time, resist British colonial rule in Ireland. This fact was reinforced during the 1913 Dublin Lock-Out. Larkin, along with James Connolly, formed the ICA (Irish Citizen Army) in 1915. The ICA was both a workers’ defence force and a national liberation army. The ICA played a leading role in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916.
The lessons of 1907
The struggle for an Irish Socialist Republic, and the unity of Orange and Green, continues to this day. Similarly, the struggle of workers and their trade unions against exploitation continues across the world. James Larkin’s message of working-class unity and resistance from 1907 is as relevant as ever in 2007!
Belfast, where the bosses had for so long played the sectarian ‘Orange card’ to divide protestant and catholic workers, saw a new working-class unity. The newspapers condemned the dispute as a ‘socialist and fenian plot’. For once, the old divide and rule tactics didn’t work. Strikers from the catholic Falls Road and the protestant Shankill Road, united in resisting the bosses and their scabs and hired thugs. The port and city of Belfast was brought to a standstill.
When even elements of the Police mutineed and refused to intervene against picket lines, the British Army was sent in to put down the workers’ revolt. The Army viciously attacked workers on the catholic Falls Road, and the fragile unity of the working class began to break down.
A cynical alliance of Loyalist agitators, Unionist bosses and right-wing Catholic politicians drove a sectarian wedge between the workers and the resistance crumbled.
James Larkin, and the more politically aware of the organized workers, both protestant and catholic, learned the bitter lessons of 1907. They came to realize
that to resist capitalist exploitation in Ireland, it was also necessary to, at the same time, resist British colonial rule in Ireland. This fact was reinforced during the 1913 Dublin Lock-Out. Larkin, along with James Connolly, formed the ICA (Irish Citizen Army) in 1915. The ICA was both a workers’ defence force and a national liberation army. The ICA played a leading role in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916.
The lessons of 1907
The struggle for an Irish Socialist Republic, and the unity of Orange and Green, continues to this day. Similarly, the struggle of workers and their trade unions against exploitation continues across the world. James Larkin’s message of working-class unity and resistance from 1907 is as relevant as ever in 2007!
James Larkin RFB
Comments
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ireland
30.05.2007 12:55
so easily tapped into by reactionary power freaks such as football or mass spectator events
these issues were talked about and posed by liberty hall groups of determined social and cultural revolutionaries demanding both social economic and political transformation of the colony of ireland the first one to be subjugated by the english monarchy via army and landlordism and plantation
this is the social base or fuel for the future fierce independence movement which attracted great men women of action independence far seeing vision radical thinking and revolutionary temper without which the desire to kill the capitalist beast, nothing changes just the shirts round your neck
their program of the socialist transformation of society in a then backward Ireland seemed utopian to the union leaders in britain who kept the british working workers in patriotic mental chains here with crumbs off the masters table and petty reforms
then mass slaughter of millions of workers as the consciousness of the people took a sharper turn, the small spark of the Easter Uprising in dublin gave hope and great courage to activist around the globe especially the bolshevik underground who emerged during ther chaos to put to the sword the romanovs 300 year old empire smash it to bits liberating 100s of millions of people throughout the course of the russian revolution thus effectively ending the 1st world war, a link in the chain as the saying goes snapping at its weakest point under pressure of workerw on the move.
the socialism espoused by larkin a lifelong socialist and co worker with James Connoly executed in a chair by lloyd Georges liberal administration for his role in the uprising was earthshaking without a doubt the authorities feared and loathed them and the organisations such as the itgwu the citizens army (ken loachs film wind in the barley depicts this well )
Connollys writings languished in the basements of the ITGWU offices for decades,they are fused with freedom against prejudice and for free development of all inspiring moods that led not to just economic action against the bosses but more importantly a struggle to overcome and take control of their own life..not forever be in protest but to end the greed and privilege
these great visions posed by the pioneers face all of us directly day to day how to change the world and end the privileged elites strangle hold on the world and the exploitation of the people and the planet to the point of total destruction of all life..
whether the g8 in germany or palestine protestin london or maybe the environmental action all these types of social action and diverse politics all play a part each to the own march seperately but strike together.for without the necessary unity in action and decisive hour of action comes we may find ourselves at odds on the opposite side of the barricades..
liverpool is an historic city of radical politics and action
up the rebels
long live the memory of 1907 belfast strike
forward to looking forward
johno