THE DUBLIN STRIKE

Otago Witness, Issue 3115, 26 November 1913, Page 36

THE DUBLIN STRIKE

EMPLOYERS DEFENDED. GOVERNMENT HOTLY ATTACKED. ME LARKIN’S POWER. DISREGARD OF AGREEMENTS. CONTINUOUS DISPUTES. LONDON, November 17. In the course of a letter to The Times, the President of the Dublin Tramways (Mr Murphy) defends the Dublin employers. He says that they are really fighting the battle of sane trade unionism. Mr Larkin’s colossal vanity and his vaulting ambition to make himself a Labour dictator will yet cause trouble. Mr Murphy suggests to the Labour party that it is unfair to make unionism the issue in the present dispute. November 18. The subscriptions in England now enable the Transport Union to distribute 10s (?) per week to married men and 10s per week to unmarried men. The Dublin relief fund now totals £54,500. The tenth ship conveying food has been despatched. Mr Orbell, general organiser of the Dockers’ Union, states that the dockers strongly favour action being taken on behalf of the Dublin strikers, and that he has the greatest trouble in holding thorn in check. K a stoppage takes place it will be of greater magnitude than any previous upheaval. Neither men nor money will be spared. November 19. Mr Larkin had a long conference with th.e parliamentary committee of the Trade Union Congress, representing 2,250,000 workers. It is understood that the English trade unionists are determined that there will bo no surrender in Dublin unless the masters fully recognise the Irish Transport Union, and the right to resort to a sympathy strike is maintained, though they admit that the sympathetic strike is used too freely. \ Lord MacDonneil is assisting in Hie negotiations in Dublin. The Albert Hall was crowded for Mr Larkin’s meeting. Some medical students exploded crackers, and Pandemonium reigned until they were turned out Mr Larkin hotly attacked the Government, and Mr Birrell’s name was hissed and greeted with cries of “ Hang him !’’ Mr Larkin demanded that English trade unionists should assist the Dublin men immediately instead of calling a national conference in three weeks’ time. The meeting passed a resolution demanding the release forthwith of the 390 men who are imprisoned in Dublin. The Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress does not intend to xeeommend a sympathetic strike, but

favours continuing to support the Dublin strikers in every other way. November 20. A band of students at the Albert Hall raided the electricity generating station, and were with difficulty prevented from extinguishing every light in the building. Four arrests were made. Other disturbers broke street lamps and tampered with fire alarms. Air Larkin says there was a time when Mr Asquith and Air Lloyd George had human hearts. Now, however, they have become stones. They have forgotten that the people have a right to live.. At the Albert Hall meeting Air Larkin said that Air Augustine Birrell was an idler, a loafer, and a trickster, and should be shuffled out of the pack. Ihe Liberals were “ humbugs and unctuous hypocrites. When the meeting heard that the British Trade Union leaders had deferred the calling of a national conference until December 9 a storm of hissing and booing swept the hall, and the proceedings had to be suspended for five minutes until the audience had spent their rage. The Joint Board of three National Labour Committees has endorsed the Parliamentary Committee’s action in fixing the date of a special congress for December 9. It explains that the apparent delay is clue to a desire to secure the voice of the rank and file on the Dublin situation. In his speech at the Albert Hall Air Larkin called Sir Edward Carson that “ cadaverous lawyer, who took ill at the psychological moment.” He also described the Irish press as the most vicious, intolerant, and stupid that any country was ever cursed with. November 22. Air Larkin’s manifesto invites the English trades unionists to compel their leaders to terminate the warfare at Dublin. It declares that lire leaders act as though the t. rdes unions were intended to salve the sore of poverty, ill usage, long hours, and low wages. It is a root remedy that is wanted and not industrial commissioners, conciliation boards or cabinets to chloroform tire workers and persuade them to remain as dumb-driven dogs. November 23. In a manifesto Air Havelock Wilson says that Air Larkin had absolutely controlled the Dublin branch of the Sailors and Firemen's Union. For the last two years the union had been involved in continuous disputes without reference to the governing body. The present strike could have been finished if common sense had prevailed. Air Wilson asks whether those who are now booming Air Larkin can justify his disregard of agreements. Seven hundred strike-breakers in Dublin are receiving 35s a week and free meals. They send cargo and cattle to Birkenhead. The Daily Citizen says that British Labour can only exert its full influence on behalf of the Dublin strikers by trusting itself to the guidance of its well-tried leaders. Air Larkin docs not serve his own or Labour’s cause by sowing distrust between leaders and followers. November 24. Air Larkin, addressing an assemblage of 10,000 people at Cardiff, compared nonunionists to camp followers watching a battle from afar off, and then robbing the dead. Speaking at Swansea, he declared that his purpose was to weld the workers into one union. IDs idea had not been achieved heretofore, owing to persons who had obtainedjpooitions of monopoly and privileges among the workers and declined to surrender them. He contended that the rank and file and not the leaders must decide the lino of advance. He added ; “We ought to take over Ireland and use the country in the best interests of all its people.”