May Day Parades and the SIPTU (ITGWU) Millennium

international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Monday January 12, 2009 20:41

by Michael Gallagher - Photographer

libertypics at yahoo dot ie

One Day of Unity

Speaking as an individual, -I am not a member of any political party- I am throwing this out to all political parties and individuals who see themselves as genuine socialists in the mould of and the bearers of the mantle of James Connolly and Jim Larkin etc.

Jack O'Connor and More Hot Air - pic (c) Michael Gallagher

After attending many May Day marches over many years, the only one that showed the real strength and potential power of workers was the May Day parade of -was it in the Dublin Millennium year 1988? (open to correction).
What a fantastic turnout, not only by the participants of the parade -which was huge- but there was over a quarter of a million people on the streets watching it pass. It was the biggest attendance from participants and spectators, even bigger than any Saint Patrick’s Day parade I have seen in Dublin. The one simple reason it was so big, is that the trade unions got behind the efforts to honour the founders of the trade union movements and the sacrifices made by them and workers down through the years on our behalf. There were all sorts of floats depicting such diverse trades as the old iron works foundries to the modern day postal service.
Since then, the question has always dogged me as to why the trade union movement has not put the same effort in for every May Day. If they even put half the energy that they put into that commemoration, it would be a far cry better than the pathetic attempts we have seen in a lot of the marches before then or since.

Apart from all that, I have a problem marching behind people like Jack O’Connor and David Begg, who have consistently betrayed workers down the years, and not only in their ’partnership deals’ with successive right wing led governments. I do not see any of these government lackeys capable of or willing to carry on the mantle of Larkin and Connolly. Workers have had to listen to a lot of hot air rhetoric down the years from these over paid big wigs of the trade union movement and the Labour Party, paid for by workers union subscriptions etc. Hot air, such as the call by ICTU for the nationalisation of Ireland’s major banks, as if the government was going to bow to their kind request.

Revolutionary actions such as the nationalisation of a country’s banks happen only when capitalist governments are forced into such actions, not requested with cap in hand! If ICTU were serious about defending workers interests and the Irish economy over that of capitalists and privatisation, they would have done the necessary long ago.
The failed trade union leadership knows what power they possess in the sanctioning of more radical action or their ineffective half baked ‘socialism’. Larkin and Connolly, turning in their graves, must have made it to China and back a number of times by now!
The power to get workers on or keep them off the streets ultimately lies in the genuine socialist trade union activists dotted throughout the movement all over this island, and in the workers themselves. The workers only await the empowerment and belief in their own revolutionary instincts, it’s only a matter of time and through persistent gentle informed persuasion that those instincts can be realised.
For example, if Connolly or Larkin were in the same position as ‘our trade union leaders’, it doesn’t take a genius to work out what steps they would see as necessary for the implementation of the democratic control and accountability of our banks. That is one example of many more radical and revolutionary actions that the Irish working class is capable of.
Yes, what would Connolly and Larkin do in the present economic climate in this country?

It’s all too sickly ironic and perverse, in the hundredth year since the founding of the ITGWU, that our country is dripping in depth and our economy is in freefall, and the gap between the rich and poor gets wider and wider. Too many are feeling the pinch while others (the bankers etc) get away scot free along with handouts of taxpayer’s money.

So, in this year of the millennium of the founding of Larkin’s Irish workers union, we can expect lots of BIG things from SIPTU. Lots of BIG pomp and BIG celebrations, lots of BIG rounds of beer, BIG ballad singing, BIG slapping of backs and the throwing of BIG bouquets. Their will be plenty of BIG heads with BIG grins on smug mugs, with chests thrown out and fists clenched along with BIG hot air diatribe speeches. Expect lots more BIG pay days at the top tier of the unions.
And then what for the workers? More BIG sell-outs combined with BIG disappointments on many levels. Many more small May Day parades and small steps for workers in the workplace and BIG steps by trade union leaders. One small step forward for workers and two BIG steps back by the leaders.
Is this our definition of one BIG union?

Is it at all possible that the real standard bearers of Larkin's/Connolly’s trade union and political legacy (wherever you are), can, once and for all, unite behind one banner, the May Day banner of a united Revolutionary Workers Socialist Organisation?
In the year that they would want it to be shown that we are really behind what they stood for, wouldn’t it be a great tribute to them and some recognition of the sacrifices they and their followers made for workers, that for one day, JUST ONE DAY, that the revolutionary/radical left can put their differences aside and unite in their name and their honour.
For as long as the genuine revolutionary elements on the left are divided, the revolutionary legacy passed on by our predecessors will remain unfulfilled. Our revolutionary ambitions will continue on in parallel with the capitalist system, but with one thing in common, they will all remain sick and in need of a cure.

Just one day, one day and one step at a time. What a very big step that first step would be.

Note: The definition of class politics Brian Cowan style:
He must retain his Mercedes E Class for as long as possible, the Mercedes S Class is more expensive, having that model wouldn’t look well in these times of recession.

He will be calling himself a socialist [sic] soon.

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May Day Parades and the SIPTU (ITGWU) Millennium