To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Dublin Lockout, we publish here an article by Gerry Ruddy – editor of the Red Plough – who looks back at this historic struggle of the Irish working class and asks: what lessons are still relevant for workers today?
The Dublin lockout, which took place from the 26th August 1913 to 18th January the following year, stands as one of the most marked episodes of entrenched class conflict in Irish history. Over 20,000 workers and 80,000 dependents were directly affected as over 400 employers locked out members of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU) for refusing to sign a pledge to resign from the union and against sympathetic strike action. Eoin Gilligan looks at this heroic episode in history the Irish labour movement.
2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the Dublin Lockout, the heroic struggle of the Irish working class that began on 26th August 1913. To mark this anniversary, we are publishing an article by James Connolly, the great Irish revolutionary, written on 30th August 1913 for the Irish Worker.
At this year’s IMT World School, held in Greece, Socialist Appeal supporter and member of SYRIZA London, Stella Christou, spoke to Stamatis Karagiannopoulos, member of the Communist Tendency of SYRIZA, about the economic, social, and political situation facing workers and youth in Greece today. We publish here a transcipt of this interview.
On 29th July, Socialist Appeal supporters Lee McNeish and Gavin Jackson visited the occupied headquarters of the Greek public broadcaster ERT in Athens, which – at the time – had been operating for 45 days under workers’ control. We were granted an interview with the elected spokesperson of the journalists, Nikolas Tsimpidas, who spoke about the background to the occupation and the wider political struggle in Greece.
News of further Labour Party and Socialist Party resignations in Ireland has emerged over the last few days. These resignations reflect a dissatisfaction with the existing parties in the face of the social, economic and political crisis within the state. The task of Marxists is to win the working class to a revolutionary programme. There are no short cuts to this.
Riots involving the throwing of a pipe bomb at police officers in Crumlin Road in North Belfast and other clashes involving the use of petrol bombs in East Belfast have been reported in the media. Eoin Gilligan of the Irish Marxists, Fightback, analyses the emergence of “Dissident Loyalism”.
The government in Greece has shut down all state TV and radio stations, causing extreme outrage and anger amongst the masses. This latest attack by the Samaras government has reignited the mass movement, leading to another 24-hour general strike. Georgios Diakogeorgiou looks at the latest episode in the crisis in Greece.
After the trade unions overwhelmingly rejected the original Croke Park 2 proposals, new proposals have been made that are more or less the same as the original ones. The proposals include extensions on the distances people can be redeployed, longer hours, cuts in pay for newly qualified nurses and cuts to teacher’s allowances, as well as alterations on overtime payments. The trade unions must mobilise to defeat these attacks.
We publish here two recent articles by Fightback – the Marxist tendency in Ireland – about the latest developments in the Croke Park 2 deal, which has now been rejected by several unions. An escalation of the struggle is now on the horizon.
The death of Margaret Thatcher has provoked sickening images of odious politicians praising her role in British politics. She put the “Great” back into “Great Britain”, it is claimed. On the other hand there were public celebrations in some parts of Britain (and private celebrations all over Britain) and public expressions of joy in working class nationalist districts in Belfast and Derry.
Marx wrote in the 18th Brumaire that history repeats itself first as a tragedy and then as a farce. This is what is happening in Cyprus. We are witnessing a situation similar to two years ago when the EU put pressure on Greece to accept a bail-out, but this time around 56 Cypriot politicians have created a huge problem for capitalists across Europe.