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Experienced
trade unionists are always worthwhile talking to.
Their accumulated knowledge of dealing with the conflict
zone that is the workplace helps ground some of the
more lofty but impractical ideals that at times beset
us. Not that the trade unionist's perspective on industrial
relations is always convincing. But a readiness to
see things approached from a different angle adds
nuance and depth to the outlook; if nothing else it
curbs sloganising. During our H-Block days, we viewed
the trade unions with a large measure of contempt.
Forever fearful of dividing their membership they
never seemed to confront the issues that we felt radicals
should. Like something out of Fawlty Towers, the chant
‘don’t mention the war’ became the
official mantra. Their overriding purpose, it seemed
to us, was to promote a status quo-approved consensus,
suppress conflict to the advantage of the bosses and
take a stand only on the anodyne. And to buttress
our cynicism, the screws had a union of their own
- a legalised thugocracy.
But
few of us were older than 21 and there was minimal
experience of the workplace. So we knew little about
unions. TUCAR seemed good, but only because it shared
our political perspective. The same with IDATU in
later years. When word came down from above telling
any of us who had been trade unionists prior to imprisonment
to write to our union and highlight the H-Block protest,
there was nobody on our wing to step forward. And
we wore that as a badge of pride. Preach as we might
about Connolly and Larkin, belonging to a union seemed
to be something for Sticks. In later years when we
had acquired political literature, Marxist books exuding
hostility, replete with accusations of tailism, workerism
and reformism, became the prism through which we viewed
the union movement.
Last
Thursday as part of May week events an ex-prisoners
group I work in was invited to attend a conference
hosted by Cosite Na n-Iarchime as part of its nation
building programme. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions
(ICTU) supported the conference and provided a speaker,
Peter Bunting. The Irish Labour History Society sent
one as well, Sean Redmond. Entitled ‘Barriers
To Social And Economic Inclusion’, the ostensible
purpose of the day’s event was to encourage the
trade union movement to play a more active role in
removing the trip wires that strew the path of ex-political
prisoners. In reality it was more about attitudinising
to the speakers. And the conference title was a puzzling
one. One of the people who attended it had previously
pointed out how Coiste had been a barrier to his economic
inclusion. One of its leading figures had apparently
suggested to Tommy Gorman’s then employer that
Gorman should not be employed in any project involving
former prisoners because he wrote articles that posed
awkward questions for the peace process. And why should
he not pose difficult questions? Is Coiste concerned
that it might be made to feel uncomfortable if republican
voices query the purpose behind its demand for the
lifting of bans preventing its members from serving
as cops? A radical cop is as rare as a black member
of the Ku Klux Klan. The more questions the better.
Coiste
is the group which represents the bulk of former political
prisoners, and the synchronisation of its outlook
with Sinn Fein's operates as smoothly as clockwork.
Given Sinn Fein's inexorable move toward the political
right and the wholly accommodating approach displayed
to capital by the party president at a Dublin meeting
with the Irish business class last month, I wondered
how Coiste would square that with its professed interest
in trade unionism. Would it side with business or
the unions? As Sinn Fein itself had previously backed
bad business practice against legitimate concerns
of workers, the upcoming discussion had the potential
to prove instructive.
For
republicans it is an article of faith that we stand
to the left of the trade union movement which is supposedly
led by right leaning bureaucrats. Joe Bowers, who
chaired Thursday’s conference, never struck me
as someone hewn from Tory stone but I was prepared
to be persuaded to the contrary. As it worked out,
if Bowers had a case to answer, he was not going to
face judgement that day. Little time had elapsed before
it became apparent that H-Block radicalism may have
been to the left of everything but out here the order
of things had been subverted. Much has been made of
the vaunted H-Block library but it seems that very
little in the books made its way to the outside or
if it did it bypassed Sevastopol Street en route to
the Linenhall Library, where the radicalism of the
pages were stamped ‘embargoed until Ireland is
united. Labour must wait.’
When
Peter Bunting pointed out that one of the tasks that
the trade union movement had to tackle in West Belfast
was the practices of the firm that built the Sinn
Fein office at Sevastopol Street, the delusional drivel
that passes for left wing sentiment amongst some former
prisoners was cruelly exposed. Reviled throughout
the city for its abominable pay and conditions, the
firm in question has prospered on the labour of the
poorest sections of West Belfast, including ex-prisoners.
When myself and Brendan Hughes went on site a few
years ago to interview a former republican prisoner
we were smuggled into a kitchen of a house positioned
furthest away from the panoptical gaze of the site
foreman. A former cellmate of my own, he was nervous
as he rattled off a litany of malpractices. We were
amazed. Here was a man that had come through the blanket
protest, and probably held the record for time spent
on the punishment wing long after the protest had
ended for being ‘disruptive.’ Yet sheer
economic necessity had so raised the spectre of the
sack, that he was reduced to meeting fellow republicans
surreptitiously in a back kitchen. He who confronted
the screws at every possible opportunity could not
face a destitute family. He can hardly be scorned
for that. Others, rather than he, were the cause of
his letdown.
An
Phoblacht/Republican News suppressed the piece
that myself and Brendan Hughes submitted and replaced
it with a toothless one of their own. The opposition
to our article from within Sinn Fein, particularly
at Belfast City Council level, was formidable. And
the councillors were backed in their stand by one
of the most senior party national leadership figures.
No surprise, really, that we never hear either An
Phoblacht/Republican News or its sister paper,
Andersonstown News demand an inquiry into the
exploitative practices the favoured firm has pursued.
Would that have something to do with the fact that
the firm built both the Andersonstown News
premises and Sinn Fein's Sevastopol Street HQ while
the owners of both were fully aware of the exploitative
practices ruthlessly pursued by its management?
If
the trade union movement really wants to work to remove
barriers to ex-prisoners, then Peter Bunting and Joe
Bowers might consider establishing an educational
trust that would help those ex-prisoners not yet able
to see that the party they align with and the news
paper proprietors they keep in riches, in their support
for the anti-union Rachmans of the construction industry,
are an integral part of the system of economic exploitation
in West Belfast.
Trade
unions helping republicans to become radical. That’s
a turn up for the books.
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