Bulletin No 1
1913 Committee – Reclaiming Our Past – Proclaiming Our Future!
Bulletin 1 April 2nd, 2011 (Tram Strike Day -876)
Join Us On Our Journey
We are on the eve of a decade of centenaries in Ireland, beginning with the Ulster Crisis in 1912 and concluding with the Civil War in 1922-3. There will be much retrospection, showers of pious platitudes and a host of spurious heirs claiming ownership of the past.
The 1913 Committee wants to do something different and this bulletin is our tocsin. We do not believe 1913 was a mere curtain raiser for ‘1916 and All That’. On the contrary, the issues on which Irish – and British – workers, feminists and radical nationalists challenged the consensus of wealth and privilege on these islands are at least as relevant today as events in the GPO or on the Somme in 1916.
The only real political debate on the nature of Home Rule Ireland and, by default, post-Treaty Ireland took place as street theatre during the hectic months between August 1913 and February 1914. Both the 1916 Proclamation and the Democratic Programme of the First Dail, seminal documents of the Irish revolution, were not subjected to public debate at the time. The Dail debate on the Treaty was dominated by the Oath of Allegiance and, to a lesser extent, the issue of Partition. Discussion of social and economic policy – on the very nature of Irish society in twentieth century Ireland – was relegated to the margins during the decade after 1913.
The organisation that played the leading role in 1913 was the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, of which SIPTU is the direct descendant. SIPTU has set up this Committee to not alone commemorate the events of 1913 but to recall and reaffirm its values. These were core values of Irish society until they were derided and marginalised by the champions of the free market and aggressive individualism in the recent boom. They wanted to reposition Ireland closer to Boston than Brussels or Berlin. Today we are living with the consequences of policy choices based on the delusion that the invisible hand of the market could fix the value of everything.
The 1913 Committee is committed to:
- Reaffirming the values that inspired Larkin and Connolly and their belief that every individual is entitled to a life that is culturally rich and socially rewarding
- Recognising that this objective can only be achieved by people working together through their civil society organisations, trade unions, political parties, credit unions, sporting, artistic, voluntary and community groups, and other democratic organisations
- Asserting the Right to Freedom of Association, in society at large, which is meaningless in the workplace without the complementary right to Collective Bargaining
- Defending basic living standards and setting a threshold of decency for everyone.
- Protecting young people and tackling the growing scourge of youth unemployment, recognising that further education and training are essential to equipping them with the means to articulate their interests
- Strictly regulating market forces in the interests of sustainability and the Common Good
- Acting in solidarity with people everywhere and especially those who are victims of exploitation, state repression or terrorism
- Promoting and working with other groups, individuals and organisations that share these objectives.
Over the coming months we will be announcing initiatives, some by SIPTU and other bodies to reassert the lost legacy of 1913. If you would like to join us, or simply be kept informed of events please log in to www.1913committee.ie.
The site will, hopefully, provide a forum for debate, a test bed for new ideas and a vehicle for campaigns.
In solidarity,
Padraig Yeates
Project Manager
SIPTU