UNIONISATION OF THE WORKING CLASSES

To examine socialism in Ireland.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION• An Industrial Revolution occurred

in Britain in the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century when a large portion of the working population moved from agriculture to industry.

• 60% of Irish people lived in the country and worked as farmers at the beginning of the 20th century.

• The move from country to city would see the rise of trade unions to protect workers’ rights.

CONDITIONS IN DUBLIN• Dublin was in poverty in the late 19th and early

20th centuries. Write a paragraph describing this.

• You may use bullet points.

SOCIALISM• Socialism is the idea that means of production (ways of making money)

should be owned by the state and shared equally between people. This means no private ownership, as everything would be owned by the state. This idea was developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

• Socialism became more popular with the Industrial Revolution because it created a huge gap between the rich owners and the poor unskilled working class.

• In Britain the socialist movement led to the foundation of the Labour Party in 1893, who pushed for greater taxes on the wealthy and social causes. It failed to build support in Ireland.

• Some Socialists argued for a more radical form of socialism called communism.

• The opposite to socialism is capitalism, where the state doesn’t interfere in the running of the economy and power is in the hands of the owners.

IRISH OPPOSITION TO SOCIALISM

• Despite Karl Marx support for Fenian prisoners in British jails, socialism failed to gain widespread support in Ireland. There were several reasons for this:– Fear of revolution– Ireland was mainly rural not industrial– The Catholic Church opposed socialism as ‘godless’– The Home Rule Party saw it as a threat– The Unionist Party saw it as a threat– Sectarianism made it difficult for Catholic and Protestant

workers to unite

TRADE UNIONS• A trade union is an organisation set up to represent the views and

interests of workers. Although Ireland didn’t experience an Industrial Revolution like Britain, the British development of unions had an impact.

• Irish trade unions represented skilled workers, had links with Britain and pushed moderate/limited reform policies.

• Unskilled workers were not represented and they lived in fear of unemployment.

• In Britain new national unions began to represent unskilled workers. They tended to be more radical and socialist. They began to extend their membership into Ireland.

• POLITICS – In Britain Conservatives were opposed to trade unions and Liberals were slow to reform. In Ireland both Home Rule and Unionists were against trade unions.

JAMES CONNOLLY• James Connolly was born in Edinburgh in 1868 to Irish

parents. Growing up in the slums, Connolly was in full time employment by the age of 10. at 14, he faked his birth certificate to enlist in the British Army, where he was posted in Ireland. While in Dublin, he met his future wife, Lillie Reynolds, to whom he had six children. With little early formal education, he later studied economics, history and politics, and wrote articles for Socialist newspapers. In 1896, he was invited to act as an organiser for the Dublin Socialist Society, for £1 a week. Between 1896 and 1903 he published his ideas in a newspaper, The Workers’ Republic.

JAMES CONNOLLY• Unlike other Marxists, Connolly believed that nationalism

could be used to destroy capitalism. He felt that Irish workers should rebel against Britain, an by destroying the empire, enable workers everywhere to take control of their own countries and bring about fundamental social change. Few Irish people were interested in Connolly’s ideas, be he became well known internationally as a Socialist thinker. He could not support his family and spent 1910 working in America. On his return, he became involved in the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU), which staged strikes to improve workers’ conditions. Following the Strike and Lockout, Connolly believed that worthwhile change was impossible without the total destruction of capitalism and the British Empire.

IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST PARTY

• In 1896 Connolly and other activists re-launched the Dublin Socialist Society as the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP).

• This was the first attempt at an Irish socialist party, independent of England.

• The IRSP wanted the following:– A minimum wage– A maximum 48 hour

working week– State control

(nationalisation) of all banks– State control of all railways– High taxes on the wealthy– Free education– Pensions for the elderly

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• WM Murphy led the Employers’ Federation to fight Larkin

and the ITGWU by sacking trade unionists from his United Dublin Tramway Company. In August 1913 Larkin called the ITGWU out on strike in all of Murphy’s companies. Murphy and the Employers’ Federation retaliated by locking out all workers. There was considerable violence at public meetings and the police killed two rioters. British trade unionists contributed £100,000 and sympathisers such as Countess Markievicz set up relief schemes to help the strikers. Individual clergymen sympathised with the strikers but the Catholic Chursch as a body opposed the strike, as did most Home Rule MPs, farmers and Arthur Griffith.

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• The more extreme Nationalists tended to support the

strikers. Larkin called on British trade unionists to stage sympathetic strikes in Britain. They refused. Larkin viciously insulted them and they withdrew their support. The strikers received little aid through the hard winter of 1913 – 1914 and by January 1914 many men were drifting back to work on the employers’ terms, which usually involved resigning from the ITGWU.

• AFTERMATH: Larkin went to the USA in 1914 and James Connolly and William O’Brien saved what they could from the wreckage. They were firm friends but their attitude to problems was very different.

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• O’Brien concentrated on recruiting new members

into the union and on improving working conditions in the immediate with as little fuss as possible. However, the strike confirmed Connolly in his belief that worthwhile change was impossible without the total destruction of capitalism and the British Empire. During the strike, the workers formed The Irish Citizen Army to protect themselves from the police. Connolly now planned to use this army in a revolution to establish a workers’ republic.

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• In August 1913 Larkin called the ITGWU out on

strike in all of Murphy’s companies. Murphy and the Employers’ Federation retaliated by locking out all workers. There was considerable violence at a public meeting in Sackville St. and the police killed two rioters. This became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’. There was great sympathy for the strikers and workers from other companies went on sympathetic strike and it was difficult to bring in new workers (scabs or black legs) as they were intimidated by strikers.

CASE

STUDY

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• Examine SOURCE A on page 167.

1. How is James Larkin shown in this source?2. According to source A, what would solve Dublin’s

problems?

CASE

STUDY

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• SOURCE B:1. How does SOURCE B

show William Martin Murphy’s attitude towards workers, according to the ITGWU?

CASE

STUDY

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• SOURCES A & B:1. The cartoons in SOURCES A & B offer two

viewpoints of their enemies. Which do you think is more negative? Explain.

2. Could SOURCE A & B be described as propaganda? Explain your answer.

3. SOURCE A is taken from one of Murphy’s newspapers, the Saturday Herald. Do you think this cartoon is objective?

CASE

STUDY

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• THE REAL STRIKERS:1. What event is this

cartoon commenting on?

2. According to this picture, what attitude do the police have towards strikers?

3. Are the police portrayed in a positive or negative light? Explain.

CASE

STUDY

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• The lock-out spread when Murphy issued employers

with an ultimatum. They had to pledge to leave or not to join the ITGWU or they would be locked out. Over 400 employers agreed to the ultimatum and within weeks over 20,000 workers had been ‘locked out’ of their jobs because they refused to sign the guarantee.

CASE

STUDY

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• SOURCE C:1. What does this pledge

demand from the employee?

I hereby undertake (promise) to carry out all instructions given to me

on behalf of my employers, and further, I

agree to immediately resign my membership of

the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (if a member) and I further undertake that I will not

join or in any way support this union.

CASE

STUDY

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• SOURCE D:1. What does Larkin

mean by his ‘divine mission’?

2. How does Larkin hope to achieve his aims?

CASE

STUDY

The race to which I belong has never been beaten, and when the employers started out to

make good their boast that they would beat Larkin they began

an impossible task. I care for no man, or men. I have got a divine (from God) mission, I believe, to

make men and women discontented (unhappy) with their situation. No Murphy or Aberdeen (Lord Aberdeen, the

Lord Lieutenant), nor other creatures of that type can stop me carrying on the work I was

born for.

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• The ITGWU attempted a compromise with the

employers. It suggested:– Employers should withdraw the demand for workers to

sign an anti-union guarantee. Sacked workers should be re-hired.

– The union should end its policy for sympathetic strikes and would attempt negotiations before turning to strike.

• The employers rejected this proposal and were heavily criticised. This built up support for the strikers.

CASE

STUDY

STRIKE & LOCKOUT• SOURCE E:• What does the Daily

Mirror report about Larkin’s arrest?

CASE

STUDY