RNU Call for Republican Left unity around centenary of 1913 Dublin Lockout.

national | anti-capitalism | press release Friday November 09, 2012 11:39 by RNU PRO - Republican Network for Unity

A Revolutionary Republican call for Republican Left Unity.

Republican Network for Unity

RNU call for Republican Left Unity around Centenary of 1913 Dublin Lockout.

The Republican Network for Unity call for republican left unity in order to commemorate next year’s centenary of the 1913 Dublin lockout. The lockout which pitted 20,000 workers against 300 employers ran from August 1913 to January 1914. As an event its significance to both the republican struggle and the Irish left cannot be underestimated. The Irish Citizen Army which was created to defend striking workers from the Dublin Metropolitan police in the city went on to play a significant role in the 1916 rising and was subsequently absorbed into Oglaigh na hEireann. Many members went on to orientate the national struggle along leftist lines right up to involvement in fighting for The Spanish Republic in the Civil war in 1936.
RNU hope that such an important centenary will not be left to the state and to the redundant and toothless trade union movements. It is our opinion that an effort to reclaim 1913 lockout for the republican left is required and we intend to approach organizations and individuals whom we believe can assist in this task.
RNU will be organizing a series of lectures and debates prior to August 2013 for the movement internally and we hope that inter organizational events can be organized also. We believe that the 1913 lockout commemorations will form part of the backbone of the 1916 rising centenary .
We sincerely hope that the Dublin lockout centenary will not fall victim to the petty factionalism and political sectarianism that has blighted both the republican and the socialist struggles in the past, mindful of the fact that all significant republican and socialist events in Ireland came about as a result of unity.

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