THE IRISH LABOUR MOVEMENT AND THE 1913 LOCKOUT
THE IRISH LABOUR MOVEMENTAND THE 1913 LOCKOUT
Overview
James Connolly and Jim Larkin. Employers force employees to quit
Unions. Connolly founded Citizens Army.1913 Lockout and
ITGWUWilliam Martin Murphy and Employers association win.
James Connolly and the Start of Socialism
Types of SocialismGradualist. Slow and peaceful. Getting reform
acts passed.Marxists or Revolutionary SocialistsSyndicalist. One
big trade union would bring about a revolution.
Problems for Irish Socialism
Only one part industrialisedWorkers up north dividedHome Rule
diverted attentionWork for skilled workers scarce and they were
afraid.
Craft Unions
Tradesmen better off due to greater demand. Members of branches
of British unions but after 1895 were affiliated to the Irish
Trades Union Congress (ITUC).1900 Keir Hardie (Marxist) elected MP.
Founded the Labour Party in Britain.
James Connolly
1896 Connolly a friend of Hardie lost his job in Edinburgh and
came to work for the Dublin Socialist Society.A syndicalist, he set
up the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP)Newspaper of IRSP was
The Workers Republic.Unlike Marx, Connolly believed in nationalism.
First you must get rid of the Empire.Little support in Ireland and
wages often did not come so in 1903 he went to the US and did not
return until 1910.
James Larkin and the Development of Irish Trade
UnionismBackground
Early 1900s difficult times for unskilled. Few jobslow wages
High inflationTrade Unions for unskilled set up all over
Europe.Strikes.
Jim Larkin
National Union of Dock Labourers1907 Strike. Strikers =
sympathetic strike. Even police on strike for overtime.Dockers got
nothing but transport workers got a rise.Shocked when he came to
Dublin.3 successful Dockers strikes but fell out with his union who
felt he was going too far.In 1910 he was jailed for misuse of
Dockers Union funds.Larkin was a great speaker. Great energy but
arrogant and dictatorial. A syndicalist, he set up Irish Transport
and General Workers Union. ITGWU become very popular. William O
Brien helped.Connolly returned and started a branch in
Belfast.Sympathetic strikes made blacklegs difficult to find.
William Martin Murphy
A Catholic nationalist.Made fortune building railways and
tramways in GB, Africa and South America.Owned Dublin Tramway
Company and built a power station in Ringsend to power it.Owned the
Irish Independent, Evening Herald and The Irish Catholic
(influence)68 in 1913. Cold, austere, distinguished and
hard-working.Paid over the odds and housed some of his workers.But
work was part time for the first 6 years.12 hours a day with few
days off. Fined for late trams.Larkin had no trouble recruiting
some of his workers.Murphy founded the Employers Federation.
Murphy attacks
Sacked 6 ITGWU men and at midnight held a meeting of Tramway men
and told them to choose.Did the same in the Irish Independent and
60 were sacked.Easons workers went on sympathetic action.200
Tramway workers sacked when they also refused to handle the
papers.
The Tramway Strike
Larkin called a general strike in the Tramway Co. at the start
of Horse Show week (26th August).Murphy got police to surround the
power station and managed to keep trams running.Murphy had won the
battle but Dublin Castle messed it up by trying to help.They jailed
Connolly and others. Larkin got bail.They banned a big ITGWU
meeting for Sackville Street on Sunday 31st August. (contrast with
Unionists in Belfast)On Saturday night a demonstration at Liberty
Hall against these measures was baton charged by police, killing 2
and injuring 30.
The Tramway Strike (Continued)William O Brien, hoping to avoid
more violence moved the Sunday meeting to outside the city and
10000 attended. Larkin in disguise. Murphys Imperial Hotel.Police
enraged batoned everyone. 500 injured, most not trade unionist at
all.Larkin jailed.Police invaded Corporation Buildings, a tenement,
beating up innocent people.On Tuesday tenements in Church Street
collapsed killing 2 children.A wave of sympathy for the ITGWU.
Labour's "Bloody Sunday", August 31, 1913, the DMP charge on
O'Connell Street . Murphys next step
A sympathetic Lockout.Any worker who would not sign a
declaration would be locked out.This was a threat to all unions so
they joined in.1st September Jacobs locked out 2000.
Hard TimesBy October 20,000 out of work affecting 100,000.Prices
rose.Soup kitchens at Liberty Hall.Some schools provided breakfast
for children.A threat to all unions so Keir Hardie came to Dublin
and promised help.
The TUC
The British Trade Union Congress (TUC) sent The Hare laden with
food. In all they sent 100000 in food, clothes and cash between
September and April 1914.However the TUC were not syndicalist and
did not approve of sympathetic action and wanted to end the
lockout.
Home RuleRs
Most Home Rulers saw Larkinism as a threat to their property and
religion. They did not like Murphy but very few helped.
The government
Set up the Askwith EnquiryA public enquiry where Larkin
questioned MurphyConcluded in October 1913 that sympathetic actions
were wrong and so was the declaration and proposed conciliation
committeesThe employers rejected this proposal.
The Dublin Kiddies Scheme
Wealthy feminist from London, Dora Montefiore, suggested that
British working families take in strikers children.Larkin ( a
practising Catholic) agreed.Archbishop William Walsh of Dublin
denounced the idea.Priests persuade parents. Against. Mobs appeared
at ferries and railway stations.Middle class opposition to Larkin
hardened.Scheme abandoned.
Employers fight back
Started using petrol lorries rather than carts. 3 or 4 fewer men
needed. These jobs gone forever.Free labourers (non union)
employed. Scabs or blacklegs often beaten up. One was killed. Some
went back to work rather than lose their jobs for good.Murphy asked
the Shipping Federation for help. They supplied special ships to
house free labourers who would break the Dockers. It also donated
10000 to struggling employers.
Connolly and Larkin respond
Connolly closed the port.He and Larkin appealed to British trade
unionists not to handle Irish goods.TUC against sympathetic
strikes.Larkin toured Britain abusing TUC leaders.This annoyed
trade unionists in England, who had done a lot to help. Support
from GB ceased.
The Strike and Lockout Ends
By January it was clear who was going to win.2000 never got
their jobs back.By April it was over.No pay rise and most had to
leave the ITGWULarkin left for the USA.Connolly and his Irish
Citizen Army joined the IRB.Murphy was hated and never again would
anyone treat unions in that way.The right of workers to organise
was not challenged seriously after this
