The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 31, 1926, Page 13

a Life and Struggles in Ireland | rule as well as the industrial freedom * AN IRISH REBEL. By T. J. O"FLAHERTY, OW stands the Irish labor move- ment? What has become of that militant spirit that challenged the ad- miration of the workers of the world during the great lockout in Dublin in 1913, and again 1916, when James Connolly, the social revolutionist at the head of his citizen army, in al- liance with the nationalistic Irish Re- publican Brotherhood, threw a monkey wrench into the war machinery of the British war cabinet, or later on during the years of war and terror that fol- lowed, stood for and fought for the rights of labor against the armed forces of the British crown and against the Irish employers who cared not what government helped them wrest more profits from their wage slaves. Having followed the progress of the Irish labor movement from a distance for the past fourteen years, I was deeply interested in getting first-hand information of the present situation and also the story of the most stirring and eventful years in Irish history from the lips of those who have been at the helm of the movement since the guns of a British firing squad wrote finis to the career of James Con- nolly, the outstanding revolutionary thinker that the Irish labor movement produced, The Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union is the backbone and very’ much flesh and blood of the Irish labor movement. Much of what I learned about it was known to me already, but it can bear repetition. There was general agreement thet apathy and indifference existed at present in the trade union movement, that considerable dissension was pre- valent in the ranks, that the split in the transport union weakened that or- ganization and that the establishment of the Free State government with Irish instead of English agents of cap- italism did net mend matters for the Irish proletariat. Ireland, including the counties un- der both north and south governments, has a population of a little over 4,000,- 000 inhabitants. The north is the most highly industrialized section, Yet the northern workers are poorly or- ganized, while the southern countries are covered with a network of trade union locals, which wield considerable influence, even tho many of them have been weakened as a result of the des- berate struggle of the last two years. The story of the transport union is interesting. It was organized under the leadership of Jim Larkin and fig- ote» ured in many spectacular labor strug- gles, culminating in the great Dublin lockout of 1913, when the Dublin em- ployers decided to crush the union by refusing employment to any worker who did not tear up his card in the I. T, and G. W. U. The answer of the workers to this impudent demand was defiance, The strike was not successful or, rather, the lockout was. The men went back under whatever conditions they could secure. The employers were jubilant. Jim Larkin went to the United States on a speaking tour and was not able to return for eight and a half years, very eventful years. In the meantime the Irish rebellion had taken place, and James Connolly, secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, as well as the leading exponent of Marxism in Ireland, if not in Great Britain, fell before a British firing squad during the regime of the liberal Asquith, whose cabinet included Mr, Arthur Henderson, socialist. Henderson did not move a finger to save a man whom he once called his comrade in the in- ternational army of labor. William O’Brien, co-worker with Connolly in the socialist movement in Ireland in its infancy, told me the story of the union's struggles .after the defeat of the Easter week rebel- lion. He told me of Connolly's last farewell as he set out to challenge the power of the British empire with arms, “We are going out to get slaught- ered,” he said to O’Brien on the morn- ing of the rising. He knew there was no chance for success. But retreat was impossible. The welfare of the union was foremost in his mind. “The union will need your services,” he said to O’Brien as he bid him goodbye. O’Brien is general secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and the dominant personality in the official trade union movement. He spoke frankly about the strength of the union. Instead of a member- ship of 100,000 or more who wereon the rolls a few years ago, the number fs now down to 50,000. O’Brien in- sisted that only dues paying members are considered in this reckoning. After the defeat inflicted on the Dublin workers in 1913 and until after Connolly’s execution in 1916 the trans- port union was weak numerically, It hardly existed outside of Dublin. Con- nolly tried to set it on its feet and systematize its functioning. It is very doubtful if it had more than 5,00Q members in all Ireland when the ris- ing took place. After the Easter week revolt a de cided change took place, The work- ers who were hitherto hostile to the union, largely owing to the poisonous propaganda put out by the capitalists, thru their allies, the press and the pulpit, joined the organization on the crest of a wave of national emotional- ism. And from then until the treaty was signed the transport union was the backbone of the national struggle against the British government, tho after Collins and Griffith signed the treaty in London Eamonn De Valera, now leader of that wing of the Irish republican movement which is willing to participate in the Free State parlia- ment under certain conditions, en- tered into a compact with the pro- treaty forces, which was in effect a political pact to divide the constit- uencies between them. Both called on the Irish Labor Party not to contest the elections on the plea that no class interests should be stressed when the Irish nation as a whole needed unity. The Irish Labor Party declined this counsel and elected 17 out of the 18 candidates put forward, , During the struggle with the British government during the world war and afterwards the Irish labor movement co-operated with the Sinn Fein organi- zation. In fact, the union members gave their first allegiance to the na- tionalist organization. The general strike against conscription as well as the refusal of the unions to transport soldiers or ammunition during the Black and Tan period could not be successfully carried out by the union unaided. While the war was on and for some years afterwards the Irish workers were able to secure substantial wage increases thru the union, This was a strong incentive to join. But when de- pression set in the fair-weather mem- bers refused to pay dues. The union was not getting them anything, they claimed, Another weakening influence was the conflict between Free Staters and republicans inside the ranks. The of- ficial position of the union was that the republican faction cared as little for the interests of the workers as did the Free Staters. This was unques- tionably true as far as the leadership was concerned, tho it might be argued that a labor movement following in the footsteps of James Connolly would consider it its duty to assume the leadership in the struggle for the emancipation of Ireland from British of the working class. The leaders of the Sinn Fein had little sympathy with the proletarian movement. At the annual convention of the transport union held while the Russian famine was at its height a res- olution was passed that the union, in co-operation with the farmers, send a shipload of food to the Russian work- ers and peaants as a gesture of friend- ship from the Irish people. The trans- port leaders believed they could not successfully carry out this plan with- out the support of the Sinn Fein movement, A committee interviewed De Valera and Arthur Griffith and asked their assistance. De Valera was opposed, tho Griffith favored the prop- osition, But De Valera’s position car- ried. The republican politicians were willing to use the labor movement to indy JAMES CONNOLLY (After a photograph by Lydia Gibson) stop Black and Tan bullets, but were not willing to give reciprocal aid, At present the republican movement is split into two factions, one led by Eamonn De Valera, the other under the leadership of Mary MatSwiney and Rev. Michael O’Flanagan, a cath- olic priest who does hot work at the profession, De Valera has come around to the point of being willing to enter parlia- ment provided he is not obliged to take the oath of allegiance to the king of England. The Irish labor movement and Communists in Ireland and elsewhere held from the begin- ning, particularly since the Free Stat- ers won in the civil war, that the anti- imperialist elements should partici- pate in the Free State parliament for agitational purposes. De Valera now finds his following slipping away from him. Hence the new departure, The MacSwiney faction is against participating in the parliament under any condition. They make a moral issue out of it and feel that their re- publican virtue would be sullied by entering the Dail. Tho republican sen- timent is very strong in Ireland, so strong, indeed, that nobody who does not claim to be a republican at heart could get elected in any southern con- stituency, outside of a few university seats. The masses are disgusted with the Gilbert and Sullivan antics of the republican factions and growing more bitter against the anti-social program of the Free State government. Another article on Ireland will ap- pear in next issue, BRITISH CIVILIZATION IN IRELAND. a )