British labour movement solidarity in the 1913-14 Dublin Lockout

Abstract

While most accounts of the Dublin Lockout of 1913–1914 consider it primarily as an event in Irish history, it was also one of the most important struggles in twentieth-century British history. It was influenced by, and was an integral part of the great ‘labour unrest’ that swept over Britain in the years 1911–1914 and had tremendous repercussions in Britain as well as Ireland. This article provides much neglected analysis of the nature, extent and dynamics of the solidarity campaign that was generated on the British mainland for the Lockout (probably the only other comparable event was the national miners’ strike of 1984–1985), the reasons why such widespread support was forthcoming and its broader implications for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of militant trade unionism in Britain during this period. It provides a comprehensive re-examination of the historical record and offers a critical analysis of existing predominant historiographical interpretations of the dispute. In the process, the article provides new insights into the potential and limits of Jim Larkin’s campaign to secure sympathetic industrial action inside the British labour movement, the refusal of the Trades Union Congress to support such an initiative and the inability of rank-and-file and socialist militants to overcome the entrenched resistance of the official union leadership.

Keywords:

• labour unrest
• Dublin’ solidarity
• trade unions
• strikes

Notes

1. Newsinger, “Jim Larkin, Syndicalism and the 1913 Dublin Lockout,” 3; Whitson, “The 1913 Dublin Lockout and the British and International Labour Movements.”

2. Yeates, Lockout, 435; O’Connor, James Larkin, 45–46; Larkin, James Larkin, 132–133.

3. Yeates, Lockout, 538.

4. Moran, “1913, Jim Larkin and the British Labour Movement,” 44.

5. Sweeney, “The Dublin Lockout, 1913;” Yeates, Lockout, 321–3.

6. Newsinger, Jim Larkin and the Great Dublin Lockout of 1913, 50.

7. Holton, British Syndicalism 1900–1914, 194; Coates and Topham, The Making of the Labour Movement, 484.

8. Daily Post and Mercury, 17 November 1913.

9. The Times, 25 November 1913.

10. Daily Herald, 15 November 1913.

11. Holton, British Syndicalism, 191; Cole and Arnot, Trade Unionism on the Railways, 34–35; Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, 10–23 September 1913.

12. Holton, British Syndicalism, 192–193; Griffiths, Driven by Ideals, 62; Manchester Guardian, 24 November 1913; 3 December 1913.

13. Yeates, Lockout, 183.

14. Forward, 9 February 1914.

15. Cockburn, Union Power, 45.

16. Murphy, New Horizons, 38.

17. Yeates, Lockout, 414.

18. The Times, 12 November 1913.

19. Mann, Tom Mann’s Memoirs, 212.

20. Holton, British Syndicalism, 127.

21. Daily Herald, 6 December 1913.

22. Smith, “A Proud Liverpool Union”.

23. Board of Trade, 1912.

24. Williams, Magnificent Journey, 272.

25. Askwith, Industrial Problems and Disputes, 177.

26. Murphy, New Horizons, 81.

27. Cronin, Industrial Conflict in Modern Britain, 100.

28. Halévy, A History of the English People; Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England.

29. Keogh, The Rise of the Irish Working Class, 3–4; Pelling, A History of British Trade Unionism, 164.

30. Meacham, “The Sense of an Impending Clash,” 1351–4.

31. Holton, British Syndicalism; Darlington, “British Syndicalism and Trade Union Officialdom”.

32. Clegg, A History of British Trade Unions since 1889, 22–74; Pelling, A History of British Trade Unionism, 130; Pelling, ‘The Labour Unrest, 1911–14’; Laybourn, A History of British Trade Unionism c1770–1990, 119.

33. Hobsbawm, “The 1970s: Syndicalism Without Syndicalists,” 273.

34. Bagwell, The Railwaymen; Brown, “Introduction;” Holton, British Syndicalism; Holton, “Syndicalism and Labour on Merseyside, 1906–14;” Darlington, “Syndicalism and Strikes, Leadership and Influence”.

35. Connolly, The Re-Conquest of Ireland.

36. Freeman’s Journal, 10 December 1913.

37. Daily Herald, 22 November 1913.

38. Coates and Topham, Making of the Labour Movement, 486; Yeates, Lockout, 434–5; Freeman’s Journal, 26 November 1913; Larkin, James Larkin, 132.

39. For example, Yeates, Lockout, 435; O’Connor, James Larkin, 45–46; Larkin, James Larkin, 132–3.

40. Larkin, James Larkin, 142.

41. Desmond Greaves, The Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, 131; O’Connor, James Larkin, 70–71.

42. Daily Herald, 10 September 1913.

43. Yeates, “The Dublin 1913 Lockout,” 5.

44. Williams, Magnificent Journey, 268.

45. Board of Trade, 1912; 1913; 1914.

46. Howell, “The Contribution of Direct Action to Gradualism”.

47. Cole and Arnot, Trade Unionism on the Railways; Bagwell, The Railwaymen.

48. The Times, 18 August 1913.

49. Holton, British Syndicalism, 165.

50. Holton, British Syndicalism; Gordon, “1911: The First National Railway Strike and the Rail Union Amalgamation Movement”.

51. Bagwell, The Railwaymen, 337.

52. Yeates, Lockout, 304, 377.

53. Daily Herald, 10 November 1913.

54. Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, 18 November 1913; Holton, British Syndicalism, 193.

55. TUC Parliamentary Committee, 18 November 1913.

56. Taplin, “The Liverpool General Transport Strike, 1911”; O’Brien, “The Liverpool Transport Strike of 1911”.

57. Tom Mann’s Memoirs, 212.

58. Board of Trade, 1911; 1912; 1913.

59. Clegg, History of British Trade Unions, 55–6; Tillett, History of the London Transport Strike of 1911; Lovell, Stevedores and Dockers; Taplin, The Dockers’ Union.

60. Blaxland, J.H. Thomas, 85.

61. Holton, British Syndicalism, 191; Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, 7 November 1913.

62. Daily Herald, 10 December 1913.

63. Alcock, Fifty Years, 475.

64. Clegg, History of British Trade Unions, 114–5.

65. Darlington, Radical Unionism, ??

66. TUC Report, 1914.

67. Forward, 9 February 1914.

68. Yeates, Lockout, 583.

69. Moran, “1913,” 44.

70. Ryan, “The Struggle of 1913,” 176.

71. Yeates, Lockout, 583.

72. Darlington, “British Syndicalism”.

73. Newsinger, Rebel City, 97–98; Jim Larkin and the Great Dublin Lockout of 1913, 66–68.

74. Darlington, “Strike Waves, Union Growth and the Rank-and-File/Bureaucracy Interplay”.

75. Hinton, Labour and Socialism.

76. Hinton, The First Shop Stewards’ Movement.

77. Darlington, Radical Unionism, 261–4.

78. Ibid.

79. Hinton, First Shop Stewards’ Movement.

80. Yeates, Lockout, 581.