Connolly Lives! Class struggle intensifies in New York City

international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report

Wednesday December 21, 2005 00:33

by gurley flynn

The Living Legacy of James Connolly

The Transport Workers Union in New York City has gone on strike and shut down the biggest mass transit system in the world. The TWU was founded in the 1930s by Irish radicals based on the industrial unionism ideas of James Connolly. The walkout by 34,000 workers shows that the ideas of Connolly are a living reality in New York City.

New York City was put on its feet today thanks to the strike by the Transport Workers Union whose members run the transit system. Named for Jim Larkin's union the TWU was founded in the 1930s by Irish socialist republicans led by IRA man Mike Quill of Gortloughera, Kilgarvan, County Kerry. (Gortloughera, please take a bow).
James Gralton, the only Irishman ever deported from Ireland (by the phony bastards in the 'republican' party, Fianna Fail) played a key role due to his friendship with Quill, and his promotion of the industrial unionism ideas of James Connolly, and through the Communist Party backed Irish Worker Clubs. The national chairman of the Communist Party, U.S.A., William Foster, the son of a Fenian, also was influential. But it was the workers themselves led by Quinn who bulit one of the most effective workers organizations in the world. Quill became a martyr to the class struggle when he was jailed during the 1966 strike. He collapsed in jail and was removed to hospital. The rich bastards who controlled the Transport System caved in after 10 days. Quill emerged from hospital to a jubilant celebration. But he died a few days later. He was a little over 60 years of age.
There was another strike in 1980. The workers victory here was not so jubilant as they had to pay massive fines, imposed under the draconian Taylor Law, passed by the bosses after the 1966 strike.
During the negotiations which preceded the current intensification of the class struggle, the millionaire businessman, Kalikow, who heads the Metropolitan Transportation Authority demanded give-backs in pensions and health care. And he offered the workers a paltry pay increase, despite the MTA having a billion dollars surplus and massive increases in worker productivity.
The leader of the TWU, Trinidadian Roger Touissant, made a pilgrimage to Kilgarvan shortly after he became leader.
A judge today ordered that the TWU be fined one million dollars for every day of the strike. The TWU leadership will show the same contempt for this as Quill did in 1966 when he tore up the court injunction, saying that injunctions do not run trains, and telling the judge to drop dead in his black robes.
Other worker unions have come out in support of the TWU. Brian McLaughlin of the Central Labor Council of NY, has offered one million dollars for the strike fund. Lynch, leader of the police union, spoke at a massive rally yesterday. He said that his father, who was a TWU member and on strike in 1966 and 1980, was not a criminal and that the union members today were not criminals either. Such class solidarity has scared the billionaire mayor of New York, Bloomberg, who today called for no negotiations until the workers return to work. Pataki, the Republican governor, who has already joined the race for the Republican nomination for President, is also taking a hard line.
As the capitalist class intensifies the world-wide war on workers, this struggle here in the core city of capitalism is key. But the living manifestation of Connollys ideas, the TWU, is alive and fighting in New York City today. Well might the rich and powerful tremble.