FORTY years ago this month, ten workers from the Henry Street branch of Dunnes Stores in Dublin's city centre went on strike to protest against the selling of produce from apartheid South Africa. A year later, the group was joined by another worker, Brendan Barron, from the Crumlin store, bringing their number to eleven. The strike lasted for almost three years.
I remember it well. I joined the picket line a few times and Sinn Féin and An Phoblacht were firm supporters of the Dunnes Stores strikers. Their courageous stand led to the Dublin government banning South African goods from Irish stores. The strike followed a decision by the Irish Distributive and Administrative Trade Union (IDATU), now the Mandate union, not to handle South African produce.
On Thursday, July 19, 1984 a customer approached Mary Manning, who was on the checkout, with two South African Outspan oranges. Mary politely told the customer she couldn't handle the goods because they were South African. The Dunnes Store management immediately sent for Mary Manning and her shop steward Karen Gearon.
Mary was given five minutes to reconsider her position. According to an An Phoblacht report: “Mary was brought upstairs with myself and was given five minutes to reconsider her position,” Karen says. “We weren't allowed talk to each other during the five minutes. She was kept in one room and I was kept in the other. And then we came back in and Mary said, ‘No, I'm sticking by my position,’ and the Dunnes Stores strike began.
"We decided we wanted to learn more about the issue, and so we started to look into South Africa and what was happening there," Karen remembers. "The more we learned, the more passionate we felt.”
The strike began to gain serious momentum when Archbishop Desmond Tutu invited some of the group to meet him in London while he was en route to collect the Nobel Peace Prize. Karen, Mary Manning, union official Brendan Archbold and the meeting's organiser, Don Mullen, travelled over.
All we wanted was for us not to have to handle the goods; the bonus was the government coming out and banning them. We didn't start the movement, the movement was there before us, but we certainly brought a new life to it, and raised its profile.”
“That was definitely the turning point,” says Karen. “We got massive publicity and he invited the strikers to visit South Africa. A plan was made to travel to South Africa on the first anniversary of the start of the strike. We had no money to carry out our plan, so we had to do a collection,” Karen says. “One Friday night we went out around Dublin and raised £6,000. That showed us just how much support was out there, because the '80s wouldn't have been an affluent time in Ireland.”
Karen remembers the trip being a nightmare. When the plane landed in Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg, it was greeted by police and army officials. The group were detained there and sent home eight hours later on the same plane. This incident received huge publicity.
The strikers were on the picket line every day for three years. One winter it was so bad that some of them actually had plastic inside their shoes. One of the women, Vonnie Monroe, lost her house because she couldn't make the repayments on it. They had £21 union pay a week. They all paid a heavy price for their solidarity. There was a lot of solidarity between the Dunnes Stores strikers and the miners in Britain, who were also on strike at the time. The Irish government eventually brought in a ban – the first western government to do so – and the strike officially ended in April 1987.
“We won,” Karen says. “All we wanted was for us not to have to handle the goods; the bonus was the government coming out and banning them. We didn't start the movement, the movement was there before us, but we certainly brought a new life to it, and raised its profile.”
Nelson Mandela made it a priority to meet with the Dunnes Stores strikers on his release from prison in 1990. He recognised the sacrifices they made and praised their “unprecedented stand”.
Forty years later these working class women (mostly) remain an example to us all and a reminder of the importance of solidarity work, not least the need these days for solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Gaza joint strategy required
LIES, hypocrisy, double standards, starvation and the mass murder of civilians have been essential tools in the Israeli government’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people. Some have also been a feature of the policies and propaganda employed by those governments allied to Israel’s war strategy.
Last week Russian missiles destroyed much of a children's hospital in Kyiv. A wave of other similar attacks took place against cities across the Ukraine. There was justifiable criticism of Russia, which this column shares. Meanwhile, the deliberate destruction of so-called ‘safe zones’ in Gaza by Israeli bombers continues using armaments supplied by western powers. Over 150 Palestinians are known to have been killed. Many hundreds more have been left grievously injured, trapped in a place that has almost no medical facilities or resources.
ATROCITY: The slaughter of the innocents continues in Gaza
The bombing of the designated humanitarian zone in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis was the most devastating. Israel claimed it was a “surgical strike against Hamas” but the photos and video of the event exposed this as a lie.
Almost 40,000 Palestinians are known to have been killed in the 10 months of Israel’s genocide. Last week a report published in the Medical Journal The Lancet stated that “186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza”.
Doctors of the World, an NGO that has staff working in Gaza, described the estimate as “credible’ and its President said: “The death toll of 186,000 mentioned in The Lancet is consistent with the health, military and geopolitical situation due to the sea, air and land blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip”.
Those governments, including the Irish government, that have condemned Israel and/or agreed to recognise the state of Palestine need to urgently agree a joint strategy to increase pressure for a permanent ceasefire, substantial aid, and an arms embargo against Israel.
Leonard's 50-year agony continues
EARLIER this month 79-year-old native American indigenous activist Leonard Peltier was denied parole. He won’t be eligible now for another parole hearing until June 2026. His legal team will appeal the decision.
Leonard has consistently denied that he was responsible for killing of two FBI agents in 1975. His family and supporters are now deeply concerned that after almost 50 years in prison that Leonard will die there as his health has severely deteriorated in recent years.
In the intervening years an international campaign for his release has gathered momentum as the evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and due process violations has become increasingly evident. Two years ago James H. Reynolds, the former US Attorney General whose office handled the prosecution and appeal in the Leonard Peltier case, appealed for his sentence to be commuted. In a letter to President Biden he said: “With time, and the benefit of hindsight, I have realised that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust.”
REFUSED: Leonard Peltier
In addition, a witness who recanted her account claimed she had been forced into making a statement by the FBI. A ballistics expert who linked Peltier’s weapon to the murders was reprimanded by the federal court for lying. In 2022 Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action notice calling for clemency for Peltier. Amnesty pointed out that in the decades since his imprisonment he has spent significant time in “solitary confinement, serving two life sentences for murder despite concerns over the fairness of his trial”. Amnesty warned that Leonard Peltier “suffers from a number of chronic health ailments, including one that is potentially fatal”.
Amnesty urged President Biden to grant Leonard Peltier clemency on “humanitarian grounds and as a matter of justice”.
Former FBI agent Colleen Rowley has accused the FBI of a “vendetta” against Peltier. In a letter she wrote: “Retribution seems to have emerged as the primary if not sole reason for continuing what looks from the outside to have become an emotion-driven ‘FBI Family’ vendetta.”
Last September on his birthday Leonard thanked all of those who have supported his cause for justice over the years. He said: “I hope to breathe free air before I die. Hope is a hard thing to hold, but no one is strong enough to take it from me... There is a lot of work left to do. I would like to get out and join you in doing it.”
I support the many calls for clemency for Leonard Peltier. He should be released to spend his remaining time with his family.
