James Larkin, born on this day in 1874, was an Irish republican, revolutionary socialist, and trade unionist who co-founded the industrial Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU), the Irish Labour Party, and the Irish Citizen's Army (ICA).

Larkin, also known as "Big Jim", was born to Irish emigrants and began working from the age of seven years old. He took an interest in socialism at a young age, joining the Independent Labour Party as a teenager.

In 1905, while working on the docks, Larkin participated in a strike and was elected to the strike committee, losing his foreman's job as a result. The union was impressed with his organizing ability, and he later gained a permanent position with them, beginning his career as a labor organizer.

In 1908, Larkin began organizing in Dublin, working with other Irish socialists such as James Connolly and William O'Brien. He also initiated a worker's newspaper, The Irish Worker and People's Advocate, however it was subject to censorship and shut down in 1915.

In 1908, Larkin founded the industrial Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU). Under Larkin's leadership the union continued to grow, reaching approximately 20,000 members in the time leading up to the Dublin lock-out.

In 1913, led by union busting capitalist William Martin Murphy, over 400 of Dublin's employers began requiring their workers to sign a pledge not to be a member of the ITGWU and not to engage in sympathetic strikes, causing the Dublin lock-out, one of the most severe labor conflicts in Irish history.

Larkin and other labor leaders were arrested for sedition on August 28th while the lock-out continued. Striking workers were subject to police violence, leading Larkin to call for the formation of a workers' militia, the Irish Citizen's Army. During this period, Vladimir Lenin referred to Larkin as 'a remarkable speaker and a man of seething energy [who] has performed miracles amongst the unskilled workers'.

Following the lock-out's defeat, Larkin came to the United States to do a speaking tour on invitation of "Big Bill" Haywood of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). On November 7th, 1919, during a series of anti-Bolshevik raids, Larkin was arrested and charged with 'criminal anarchy' for helping publish socialist literature.

Larkin eventually returned to Ireland, allying with the newly formed Soviet Union, attending at the 1924 Comintern Congress in Moscow. His relationship with the Soviet Union became strained in the 1930s, as Larkin's syndicalist politics clashed with the Marxism-Leninism of the Comintern.

Larkin spent the rest of his life as a organizer, receiving fatal injuries from a fall while supervising repairs to the Worker's Union of Ireland's Thomas Ashe Hall in Dublin in 1946.

"No, men and women of the Irish race, we shall not fight for England. We shall fight for the destruction of the British Empire and the construction of an Irish republic."

  • James Larkin

Christy Moore - Balled of James Larkin (1969) :ira:

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  • ifgehrehnenyissponde [he/him,they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I consider the sinking of the Blücher one of the most comedic moments of ww2.

    Least incompetent Axis operation

    You've got this brand-spanking-new cruiser, and you're about to sail it and a battalion of troops right into the capital, all the coastal forts and patrol boats have only fired warning shots the entire way and it's only a few hours left of sailing until you're at your target.

    Some guy is standing in a fort with a skeleton crew of mostly recruits and decides that it would be a good idea to fire upon the unknown ship that has ignored warning shots and refused to respond to calls. Two shells hit, and coincidentally one hits the ammo dump filled with supplies for the cruisers sea plane, like fuel and fire bombs, and the other the fire controls, disabling the main guns. So now you've got a brand-spanking-new ship on fire, unable to return fire, after being shelled by two old-ass naval cannons manned by 50% recruits.

    But, the ship is still afloat, many of the crew are alive, the only objective is to reach the capital, all is not lost, so you keep going. Then auto-cannons and smaller artillery guns start shelling you from the other side of the shore, destroying your fire suppression systems and breaking your steering systems, gotta do it manually now. Okay, still afloat, time to start singing "Deutchland über alles" for some reason and keep going, still not sinking.

    Then a man, 13 years retired, commanding a torpedo battery armed with 40 year old pre-ww1 austro-hungarian made whitehead type torpedoes, fires two torpedoes off and blows your now burning brand-spanking-new cruiser to smithereens. The engines are dead, water is being taken on, with 500 extra soldiers onboard and with trying to keep a hush-hush around the operation, there's no extra boats or life-vests and a bunch of people drown, or even with vests, freeze to death cause its the middle of the night on the 9th of April in Norway.

    Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer. Until it isn't and you drown in a fjord after tripping over a giant branch labeled hubris. The Nazis were so high on their Übermensch ideology that they ran their cutting edge cruiser and a battalion into a coastal fort. Master strategists. They should do this again but with paratroopers over some Greek island or something. Or an entire army to a city with a tractor factory. Or all their tanks into a heavily fortified salient. Or another brand new ship on a round trip around Britain.

      • ifgehrehnenyissponde [he/him,they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Ah, the King's Choice, or the much better title "The King's 'No.'" Interesting movie, mostly political drama but has a few neat battle scenes, including the scene you linked.

        The wreck of the Blücher is still there today at a depth of 90 meters. Another fun fact, the Germans put up a memorial for the ship, which was then promptly demolished in 1945 :tito-laugh: