James Connolly
Edited by Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh
p.123Direct Action in Belfast
16 September 1911
We have just had, and taken, the opportunity in Belfast to put into practice a little of what is known on the Continent of Europe as 'Direct Action'.
Direct Action consists in ignoring all the legal and parliamentary ways of obtaining redress for the grievances of Labour, and proceeding to rectify these grievances by direct action upon the employer's most susceptible part – his purse. This is very effective at times, and saves much needless worry, and much needless waste of union funds.
Direct Action is not liked by lawyers, politicians, or employers. It keeps the two former out of a job, and often leaves the latter out of pocket. But it is useful to Labour, and if not relied upon too exclusively, or used too recklessly, it may yet be made a potent weapon in the armoury of the working class.
The circumstances under which we came to put in practice the newest adaptation of it in Belfast were as follows: —
A dock labourer named Keenan was killed at the unloading of a ship owing to a bag being released by one of the carriers a moment too soon. Flying down the chute it struck Keenan, knocking him to the ground and killing him. The accident happened owing to the practice of the stevedores of backing in a team of horses about ten minutes before the meal hour, and demanding that the men rush the work in order to load the vans before quitting for their meals. It was in this perfectly needless rush the sad affair happened.
What was our surprise to read in the report of the inquest that the solicitor for the merchant insinuated that the man was killed because he was a non-union man – that in short he was murdered by the union members! As a matter of fact he had promised to join, and being an old dock labourer had been given a few days grace in which to come up to our offices and make good.
All the papers of Belfast gave prominence to this 'Extraordinary Allegation', as one journal called it, and the matter was commented upon freely throughout the city.
After due deliberation, thinking over all the possible means of redress for this foul libel we resolved to take the matter into our own hands, and put a little pressure upon the purse of the man who employed this libeller to slander the Union.
Accordingly at dinner time we told the men employed on p.124 the ship in question – the Nile – not to resume work until the merchant repudiated the libel or disclaimed all responsibility therefor. The men stood by loyally, and immediately all the forces of capital and law and order were on the alert. The news spread around the docks as on a wireless telegraph, and both sides were tense with expectancy.
While we were thus waiting and watching the stevedore of the Nile sent for the merchant, and asked me through one of his foremen to wait on the spot for him. I waited, but whilst I waited one very officious Harbour official ordered me off the Harbour Estate. The Harbour of Belfast, unlike Dublin or Liverpool, is practically enclosed property. I informed Mr Constable that there was no meeting in progress, and that I was only waiting an answer to our request for a disclaimer from the merchant. He then became rude and domineering, and eventually began to use force. I then told him that if I, as a union official, could not speak to the men individually on the Harbour Estate we would take the men off where we could talk to them.
So we gave the word and called off every man in the Low Docks. In ten minutes 600 men responded and left the docks empty.
In ten minutes more a District Superintendent, merchants, managers, detectives, and Harbour underlings generally were rushing frantically up to the Union rooms begging for the men to go back and 'everything would be arranged.'
Well, everything was arranged within an hour. The offending solicitor, after many hoity-toity protests that “he would not be dictated to by the dockers,” climbed gracefully down and dictated a letter to the Press disclaiming any intention to impute evil actions to the Union members, and the letter accordingly appeared in all the Belfast papers.
In addition the Harbour Master assured us that he regretted the action of the constable, which would not be allowed to happen again, and that we would be given full liberty to go anywhere in the docks or ships at all times.
It was all a great object lesson, and has had its full effect on the minds of the Belfast workers. It has taught them that there are other ways than by means of expensive law-suits to vindicate the character and rights of the toilers; and as a result it has given dignity and self-respect to the members of the Union.
We have found it necessary, in order to cope with the needs of our increasing membership, to open new offices for the p.125 Ballymacarret side of the city. These offices are at 6 Dalton Street, and will be in charge of a Union official between the hours of 4 and 7 p.m. during the week, and from 12 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. They will be a great convenience to the local Quay and to our new members from the Chemical Works.
Our campaign against the sweating conditions in the Rope Works is now in full swing. Breakfast and dinner hour meetings are being held when the gospel of discontent and wise organisation is preached to the sweated employees of this huge capitalist concern. We expect good results to the workers from this campaign.
On Tuesday, September 11th, we held a most successful joint demonstration with the seamen and firemen, with Father Hopkins as our chief speaker. The magnitude of the meeting surprised and delighted our comrade, and his speech surprised and delighted the vast audience.
Mr D.R. Campbell, President Belfast Trades Council, was in the chair, and the following resolution was moved by James Connolly, seconded by James Flanagan, supported by Father Hopkins, and passed amid great enthusiasm: — ‘Resolved - 'That in the opinion of this meeting of Belfast workers, the action of Wexford employers in discharging men for joining the Irish Transport Workers' Union was an outrageous attack upon the liberty of the workers; and that we call upon our Wexford brothers to stand firm, and also call upon all trade unionists in Ireland to answer this outrage by boycotting all the bicycles and other products manufactured by the firm in question.'’ (James Connolly)
The meeting closed with ringing cheers for Father Hopkins, singing of 'He's a jolly good fellow', and cheers for the Transport Workers' Union. –
Yours, CONNOLLY.
Document details
The TEI Header
File description
Title statement
Title (uniform): Direct Action in Belfast
Author: James Connolly
Editor: Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh
Responsibility statement
Electronic edition compiled by: Benjamin Hazard
proof corrections by: Aisling Byrne
Funded by: University College, Cork and The Writers of Ireland Project
Edition statement
2. Second draft.
Extent: 2284 words
Publication statement
Publisher: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College Cork
Address: College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt
Date: 2006
Date: 2010
Distributor: CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.
CELT document ID: E900002-034
Availability: Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only.
Source description
Edition
- Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh (ed.), James Connolly: The Lost Writings (London 1997).
Selected further reading
- James Connolly and William Walker, The Connolly-Walker controversy on socialist unity in Ireland (Dublin 1911, repr. Cork 1986).
- Robert Lynd, James Connolly: an appreciation, to James Connolly, Collected works (2 vols, October 1916, repr. Dublin 1987) i, pp. 495–507.
- Lambert McKenna, The social teachings of James Connolly (Dublin 1920).
- Desmond Ryan, James Connolly: his life, work and writings (Dublin 1924).
- G. Schüller, James Connolly and Irish freedom: a marxist analysis (Chicago 1926, repr. Cork 1974).
- Noelle Davis, Connolly of Ireland: patriot and socialist (Carnarvon 1946).
- Richard Michael Fox, James Connolly: the forerunner (Tralee 1946).
- Desmond Ryan, Socialism and nationalism: a selection from the writings of James Connolly (Dublin 1948).
- Desmond Ryan, 'James Connolly', in J. W. Boyle (ed.), Leaders and workers (Cork 1960, repr. 1978).
- C. Desmond Greaves, The life and times of James Connolly (London 1961, repr. Berlin 1976).
- François Bédarida, Le socialisme et la nation: James Connolly et l'Irlande (Paris 1965).
- Joseph Deasy, James Connolly: his life and teachings (Dublin 1966).
- James Connolly, Press poisoners in Ireland and other articles (Belfast 1968).
- James Connolly, Yellow unions in Ireland and other articles (Belfast 1968).
- Peter McKevitt, James Connolly (Dublin 1969).
- Owen Dudley Edwards, The mind of an activist: James Connolly (Dublin 1981).
- Derry Kelleher, Quotations from James Connolly: an anthology in three parts (2 vols Drogheda 1972).
- Peter Berresford Ellis (ed.), James Connolly: selected writings edited with an introduction by P. Berresford Ellis (Harmondsworth 1973).
- Samuel Levenson, James Connolly: a biography (London 1973).
- James Connolly, Ireland upon the dissecting table: James Connolly on Ulster and Partition (Cork 1975).
- Nora Connolly O'Brien, James Connolly: portrait of a rebel father (Dublin 1975).
- E. Strauss, Irish nationalism and British democracy (Westport CT 1975).
- Bernard Ransom, Connolly's Marxism (London 1980).
- Communist Party of Ireland, Breaking the chains: selected writings of James Connolly on women (Belfast 1981).
- Ruth Dudley Edwards, James Connolly (Dublin 1981).
- Brian Kelly, James Connolly and the fight for an Irish Workers' Republic (Cleveland, OH 1982).
- John F. Murphy, Implications of the Irish past: the socialist ideology of James Connolly from an historical perspective (unpubl. MA thesis, University of North Carolina at Charlotte 1983).
- Anthony Lake, James Connolly: the development of his political ideology (unpubl. MA thesis, NUI Cork 1984).
- Frederick Ryan, Socialism, democracy and the Church (Dublin 1984). With reviews of Connolly's 'Labour in Irish History' and Jaures' 'Studies in socialism'.
- Connolly: the Polish aspects: a review of James Connolly's political and spiritual affinity with Józef Pilsudski, leader of the Polish Socialist Party, organiser of the Polish legions and founder of the Polish state (Belfast 1985).
- X. T. Zagladina, James Connolly (Moscow 1985).
- James Connolly and Daniel De Leon, The Connolly-De Leon Controversy: On wages, marriage and the Church (London 1986).
- David Howell, A Lost Left: three studies in socialism and nationalism (Chicago 1986).
- Priscilla Metscher, Republicanism and socialism in Ireland: a study of the relationship of politics and ideology from the United Irishmen to James Connolly, Bremer Beiträge zur Literatur- und Ideologiegeschichte 2 (Frankfurt-am-Main 1986).
- Michael O'Riordan, General introduction, to James Connolly, Collected works (2 vols Dublin 1987) i, pp. ix–xvii.
- Cathal O'Shannon, Introduction, to James Connolly, Collected works (2 vols Dublin 1987) i, 11–16.
- Austen Morgan, James Connolly: a political biography (Manchester 1988).
- Helen Clark, Sing a rebel song: the story of James Connolly, born Edinburgh 1868, executed Dublin 1916 (Edinburgh 1989).
- Kieran Allen, The politics of James Connolly (London 1990).
- Andy Johnston, James Larraggy and Edward McWilliams, Connolly: a Marxist analysis (Dublin 1990).
- Lambert McKenna, The social teachings of James Connolly, by Lambert McKenna, ed. Thomas J. Morrissey (Dublin 1991).
- Donnacha Ní Gabhann, The reality of Connolly: 1868-1916 (Dublin 1993).
- William K. Anderson, James Connolly and the Irish left (Dublin 1994).
- Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, What Connolly said: James Connolly's writings (Dublin 1994).
- James L. Hyland, James Connolly: life and times (Dundalk 1997).
- William McMullen, With James Connolly in Belfast (Belfast 2001).
- Donal Nevin, James Connolly: a full life (Dublin 2005).
Connolly, James (1997). ‘Direct Action in Belfast’. In: James Connolly: The Lost Writings. Ed. by Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh. London: Pluto, pp. 123–125.
You can add this reference to your bibliographic database by copying or downloading the following:
@incollection{E900002-034,
author = {James Connolly},
title = {Direct Action in Belfast},
editor = {Aindrias Ó~Cathasaigh},
booktitle = {James Connolly: The Lost Writings},
publisher = {Pluto},
address = {London},
date = {1997},
pages = {123–125}
}
Encoding description
Project description: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
Sampling declarations
the whole essay.
Editorial declarations
Correction: Text has been proof-read twice and parsed using SGMLS.
Normalization: The electronic text represents the edited text. Italicized or capitalized sections of the text are tagged emph.
Quotation: Direct speech is tagged q.
Hyphenation: Soft hyphens are silently removed. When a hyphenated word (and subsequent punctuation mark) crosses a page-break, this break is marked after the completion of the word (and punctuation mark).
Segmentation: div0=the whole text; div1=the essay. Page-breaks are marked pb n="".
Standard values: Dates are standardized in the ISO form yyyy-mm-dd.
Interpretation: Names of persons (given names), and places are not tagged. Terms for cultural and social roles are not tagged.
Reference declaration
A canonical reference to a location in this text should be made using “essay”, eg essay .
Profile description
Creation: by James Connolly
Date: 1911
Language usage
- The text is in English. (en)
Keywords: political; essay; prose; 20c
Revision description
(Most recent first)
- 2010-04-16: Conversion script run; header updated; new wordcount made; file parsed. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
- 2008-08-29: File validated. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
- 2008-07-30: Keywords added. (ed. Ruth Murphy)
- 2006-01-25: File proofed (2), structural and content markup applied to text; header inserted and file parsed. (ed. Benjamin Hazard)
- 2005-12-01: File proofed (1). (ed. Aisling Byrne, Dublin)
- 2005-09-10: Text scanned. (data capture Benjamin Hazard)