When the Red Flag flew in
Munster
A hidden history of sympathy strikes, socialism, workers'
councils and revolution
FARM LABOURERS STRIKES, occupations of creameries, red flags
flying and 'soviets' being declared. Not usually the sort of thing
associated with the years 1919-1923, the years of the War of
Independence and the Civil War. These were most unsettling times for
the establishment, so much so that even today they prefer these
events to pass unremembered. Anarchists, on the other hand, are eager
to see this history remembered because it reminds us of the spirit
and potential power that lives within working class people.
To find out about this period one had to seek out little pamphlets
issued by local historical societies, the occasional article in a
left wing paper, and the few books giving any detail about particular
incidents such as Liam Cahill's Forgotten Revolution, Limerick Soviet
1919. Now there is a book covering the entire period, Revolution
in Ireland by Conor Kostick
(Pluto Press,
£12.99).
Following the defeat of the 1916 rising, nationalism began to grow
in support, much of it thanks to disgust for the death sentences
carried out by the British authorities. Also growing was the trade
union movement, for the first time since its epic battle with the
employers of Dublin in the 1913 lockout. Over the next few years the
ITGWU (now merged into SIPTU) saw its membership rise from 5,000 to
120,000.
The increasing opposition to the World War, combined with the
Russian Revolution which had not yet been defeated by the Bolshevik
dictatorship, generated a mood for change. And for many workers this
was not just directed against the British government but against
native exploiters as well.
In 1917 10,000 marched in Dublin to show their support for the new
system in Russia. The Irish Citizen Army declared, with great
foresight, that the lesson of Russia was that "the state must be
destroyed and industrial control by workers established".
In 1918 up to 15,000 workers taking part in Limerick's May Day
parade passed a resolution "that we, the workers of Limerick and
district, in mass meeting assembled, extend fraternal greetings to
the workers of all countries, paying particular tribute to our
Russian comrades who have waged such a magnificent struggle for their
social and political emancipation".
That year the British parliament voted to extend conscription to
Ireland. The trade unions met this with a general strike on April
23rd. Everything stopped, apart from in the region around Belfast.
The British government took fright and scrapped their plans to draft
Irishmen into the trenches of France and Belgium. The victory gave
confidence to workers and many wanted to push on with a fight against
the bosses.
In 1919 40,000 Belfast engineering workers came out for a 44 hour
week. Electricity was stopped, except for supplies to hospitals.
Pickets of up to 2,000 strikers closed the shipyards. The 'Belfast
Telegraph' was also stopped and the 'Workers Bulletin' of the strike
committee became the most widely read paper in Belfast.
That year also saw the "Limerick Soviet". For the two years
previous to this the local Trades Council had been publishing 'The
Bottom Dog', a weekly working class paper which claimed to represent
the interests of the"bottom dog"; those oppressed because of their
class, sex or nationality. The ITGWU, which claimed 3,000 members in
Limerick City, also recruited heavily in the countryside and a wave
of farm labourers strikes swept the county.
It was in this context of trade union militancy and the republican
war against British rule that a momentous event occurred. The
incident that sparked it was the death of local IRA officer Robert
Byrne, who was also a delegate to the Trades Council from the Irish
Post Office Clerks Association.
Byrne had gone on hunger strike and an IRA rescue attempt had
failed, leaving Byrne and an RIC man mortally injured. In retaliation
for the policeman's death the British army occupied the City area and
declared martial law. Everyone passing in or out of the city had show
special military passes.
The Trades Council called a general strike in protest. For the
next two weeks the Council ran the city. No shop opened without their
permission. Food prices were regulated to stop profiteering. Only
transport authorised by the Council was able to move through the
city. Printing presses were taken over to explain their case and a
daily bulletin was produced. The Council even issued its own money.
British soldiers were called on to desert their "imperialist
capitalist government". It is said that a whole Scottish regiment was
sent home for refusing to obey orders.
That winter also saw a national strike by lorry drivers against
having to get permits from the British army. It was won with massive
support from all over Ireland. All these events set the scene for
what would become known as the "Munster Soviets"
The millionaire Cleeve family owned mills, bakeries, agricultural
machinery works, the 'Limerick Chronicle' and 14 creameries
throughout Munster. Their 3,000 staff had no union and earned one of
the lowest wages in the country, 85p a week. In 1919 they joined the
ITGWU and its affiliated clerical union. They formed a Council of
Action and prepared to strike for higher wages.
Gains were won but Cleeves tried to split the union by offering
different rises to each job. However, even when Knocklong creamery
were left out on their own they still succeeded in wining a wage of
£1.95 to £2.10 a week. This was secured after a campaign of
spilling strike- breaking milk deliveries into ditches.
The following year the local union secretary, Sean O'Dwyer, who
was a creamery worker, drew up plans to bring the company to its
knees by occupying the creamery and its 12 subsidiary depots. Before
taking over the workers arranged their own sales orders for the
butter, with most success in Belfast. Workers at other creameries
were visited and they agreed not to take milk from Cleeve's usual
suppliers. This meant the farmers could be made an offer they
couldn't refuse: to send their milk to the occupied creamery or throw
it away.
On the second Saturday of May the strike began, and the following
morning the strikers took over. A Red Flag was hoisted and the
company's nameplate removed. In its place was put a sign Knocklong
Soviet Creamery, and above this we make butter not profit. All the
depots were occupied as well. The manager, Riordan, was ordered out
and a new manager elected from among the ranks of the union members.
97% of the usual milk supply continued to arrive at the creamery.
Two tons of butter were made each day and all orders filled,
including those of Belfast. The workers were making a better job of
running things than the bosses, and Cleeves freaked out. They
contacted the union, where the workers gave them a list of demands
including more pay, fewer hours, more holidays, the permanent removal
of Riordan and no victimisation.
After just 11 hours Cleeves gave in and conceded all these terms.
On being given back the creamery their very first act was to paint
out the 'Soviet' sign... with green paint! But there is nothing like
a win to inspire others. Cleeves workers in Limerick, Clonmel and
Carrick-on-Suir also occupied their workplaces and turfed out the
management, winning wage rises and better conditions. The least
successful fight was in Tipperary where the women workers found it
impossible to get supplies or markets. But even here they got half
the pay rise they were looking for.
A wave of land occupations, mainly in Munster, then followed. The
County Wexford Farmers Association warned of Red Flag Terrorist
Agitators. In Waterdord some of the the big farmers organised their
own 'White Guard' travelling around by car pistol-whipoping union
activists and burning their houses in Dunhill, Holycross, Butlerstown
and Ballduff.
Over 400 landlords were dispossessed by agricultural labourers
(often ITGWU members). This went on until the IRA came to the aid of
the gentry by having the republican land courts order an end to
"illegal seizures".
This was not an isolated incident. The IRA was increasingly moving
against workers' struggles. Among the better known examples are the
smashing of a farm workers' strike at Bulgaden and the eviction of a
'Soviet' occupation from the mills at Quarterstown. Though they
didn't always get their own way, one case was at Kilmacthomas when
the IRA tried to keep the roads open while strikers were stopping the
movement of scab labour and goods. A "labour flying column" arrived
from Stradbally and forced the IRA to withdraw.
Countess Markievicz warned of the "imminence of social
revolution". Her colleagues in the Dáil decided that "All this
is a grave menace to the Republic. The mind of the people is being
diverted from the struggle for freedom by a class war". The
republican leadership had no problem declaring that their idea of
freedom certainly did not include freedom from the boss.
Self-declared 'Soviet' occupations occurred at Cork Harbour, North
Cork railways, the quarry and the fishing fleet at Castleconnell, the
gasworks and a coachbuilders in Tipperary, a clothing factory in
Dublin's York Street, sawmills in Ballinacourty and Killarney, the
Drogheda Iron foundry, Waterford Gas, mines at Arigna and
Ballinderry, two flour mills in Cork, Sir John Kean's farm in
Cappoquin, the Monaghan asylum. Undoubtably there were others.
Most were successful as ways of forcing the bosses to pay wage
claims, but they were about a lot more than just pay rises. They
reflected the growing confidence of newly unionised workers and a
political idealism that looked to an Ireland free not only of the
British army but also free of native bosses. They called their
occupations soviets because they were impressed by the example of the
Russian workers who had established their own elected councils,
called soviets, to run that country.
It could have led to great change in Ireland but instead the
movement petered out. When the Irish Women Workers Union (now a part
of SIPTU) called on the union leaders to get behind the occupations
and extend them all over the country, not one of them paid any head.
Even those who were not outrightly opposed were neither enthusiastic
nor supportive. Like today's union officials they preferred to got
through the proper channels rather than challenge the bosses'
authority.
In his conclusion Kostick says "a great tragedy of those years is
that a perspective which could have challenged the hegemony of
nationalism and unionism, that of fighting for a workers republic,
had virtually no organisational form". His solution would have been a
vanguard party of the Bolshevik type (he is a member of the Socialist
Workers Party), suffice to say that history has given its judgement
on that model.
But he was right. Very noticeable, by its abscence, was an
organisation (or organisations) capable of making the case for a
revolutionary change in Ireland and able to build links between the
various isolated groups of workers in struggle.
The great value of Kostick's book is that it brings together a
wealth of information about the hidden history of ordinary people in
Ireland fighting to dump the bosses off their backs. The struggles
our grandparents and great grandparents engaged in are inspiring.
They certainly disprove the myth that the Irish working class are
somehow naturally inclined towards caution and conservatism.
Alan MacSimóin
