James Connolly

 

Importation v. Deportation

(1913)


From Irish Worker, November 8, 1913.
Transcribed by The James Connolly Society in 1997.


It is a crime to deport Dublin children in order to feed, clothe and house them better than they were before. All the newspapers are against it.

It is not a crime to import English scabs to take the bread out of the mouths of Dublin men, women and children, and to reduce them to slavery.

The newspapers are overjoyed about it. Fellow-workers! All the collection of hypocrites and sweaters who paraded our docks and railway stations a few days ago, and prostituted the name of religion to suit the base ends of those who for generations have grown fat by grinding the faces of the poor, are silent as the grave in face of the importation of British scabs. They poured insult, lies and calumny upon the British labour men and women who offered our children the shelter and comfort of their homes in the day of our trial; but they allow British blacklegs to enter Dublin without a word of protest! Will you allow this? If not, you must rally!

Rally and fight as you never fought before. Begin, Monday, November 10th. All individual picketing is abolished, and all persons on strike or lock-out must attend a mass picket outside the doors or gates of their former employment at the usual hours of labour, commencing at the first hours of opening in the morning.

No food tickets will be issued at Liberty Hall in future except to casual labourers, who must sign their names each day between the hours of 9.30 a.m. and 12 noon. Permanent men will receive food tickets from their respective committee men, delegates or shop stewards, to whom they must report in the morning, and who have the power to refuse if they consider that the member applying has neglected to attend the mass picket. Any member found hanging around Liberty Hall without special reason will forfeit strike allowance.

Fellow-workers – the employers are determined to starve you into submission, and if you resist, to club you, jail you, and kill you. We defy them! If they think they can carry on their industries without you, we will, in the words of the Ulster Orangeman, “Take steps to prevent it.”

It is your duty to find the ways and means. Be men now, or be for ever slaves.

 


Last updated on 20.8.2003