Shop workers boycott
IRELAND in support of the strike. The Irish minister for labour, Mr Ruari Quinn
(a member of the Labour Party)
of the Labour supported the ruling
Court (the 26-county Employer/Trade
South African goods
Union conciliation body) which advised the strikers to return to work. Quinn hypocritically remains a member of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement (IAAM), some sections of which have played a very supportive
ON FRIDAY September 13 Ruari Quinn, Irish Minister for Labour, announced an agreement for the phased withdrawal of South African produce from the four major supermarket chains in the 26 counties.
The statement noted that the action may be extended over some time because of an apparent difficulty in finding a replacement supply. This announcement comes as a direct result of a 14-month struggle waged by a small group of Dublin shopworkers, who are members of the Irish
Distributive and Administrative Trade Union (IDATU). While welcoming this announcement, the strikers noted that they will not return to work until there is a total ban on South African produce in
Dunnes' Stores, the chain with which they are in dispute, where management has warned that they will not be exempted from handling
South African produce, while a new supplier is being sought. Below we trace the history of this heroic and exemplary strike.
LIAM DAVITT
On July 19, 1984, Mary Manning, a young Dublin shop assistant, was for refusing to handle dismissed
South African fruit. Mary was working at a city centre branch of Dunnes' multiple chain
Stores, the largest store in Ireland. Twelve of the other full-time workers at the store
17 out in support of Mary's walked
11 unique action and since then have maintained a picket first strike in support
This, the oppressed Black masses of
South Africa outside of the African continent, began when an individworker followed a standing recommendation of her Trade Union.
In remaining on strike for 14 months these 11 young workers (ten of them are women) have taken a firmer stand on the question of a trade boycott of the racist South African state than any European government.
The workers have received support from large numbers of Irish workers who refuse to pass the picket line, but, more importantly perhaps, they have also increased popular consciousness of the situation in South Africa and of the call of Black South African leaders for a ban on South African produce. Popular support has also been motivated by news coverage of the events in South
Africa over year and the
Irish people's own direct experience of imperialism and racism.
The leadership of the Irish trade union movement acknowledged the principled position of the strikers by placing an Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) picket on the store. Practically however, the ICTU has done little else and it has been left to individual activists and local trade union branches to organise collections for the strikers and/or join the picket lines at the store.
year the strikers approached Dublin dock workers who had been handling Dunnes' The response of these workers in of the strike forced the Dunnes' management to import South African produce through the northern port of Belfast.
The strike at Dunnes Stores has the Dublin government on the issue African ruling class. Many individual members of the coalition have spoken out in support
Others have vacillated on this issue by questioning the validity of the boycott tactic because of the possible effect it could have on the living standards of Black South workers, a stance which ignores the fact that the call for a
African community. But no matter what 'theoretical" tions of the Irish ruling class and have been, none of them have taken any action role during the strike. The Irish minister for foreign affairs, Mr Peter Barry, in his discussions with the other Foreign Ministers of the EEC countries, has failed to follow the lead provided by the strikers on the question of sanctions.
A key point in reached in July of this year when, approaching the first anniversary the strike, some of the strikers set out on a tour of South Africa on the invitation of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Desmond Tutu. On arrival at Johannesburg airport the delegation, which included a member of Action from Ireland an organisation which the strikers, was turned away by the South African authorities, who doubtless feared the publicity which the tour of the strikers would bring to that state.
Throughout the strike the strikers have received support from left groups People's Democracy, Irish section of the Fourth International. The strikers course of the strike and they now that no matter what course their union (IDATU) or the ICTU takes on the boycott, they will never handle South African produce again. Thus their minimum demand has been for the inclusion of a 'conscience clause into employment contracts with Dunnes, whereby shop workers will be allowed to refuse to handle South African goods as an act of individual conscience.
The political strikers has been underlined by the fact that they have led this strike through 14 morale sapping months during which the Dunnes' management's response has been to point out that the strikers may not be employed again by Dunnes' Stores. In this historic struggle 11 young workers from one of the lowest paid sectors of the Irish work force are leading a fight on behalf of the entire Irish trade union movement against an intransigent management, who are exploiting the inactivity of the Dublin government.
All messages of support for the strikers and donations should be sent to the Dunnes' Strikers' Support Fund, c/o IDATU, 9 Cavendish Row Dublin 1.