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Mise agus Rita with John Samuelson and other Trade Union leaders
Last
Friday the Irish American James Connolly Labor Coalition (in the USA Labour is
spelt without the u) organised a luncheon meeting of trade union leaders in
Manhattan, mainly from New York, to introduce them to and seek their endorsement
of the McGuinness Principles. There was a good crowd, good food and good craic.
Additional tables were rolled out as more and more trade union delegations
arrived. By the time John Samuelson, the International President of the
Transport and General Workers Union called the meeting to order the room was
packed. John said a few words of introduction and I spoke about the many
connections between Ireland and the USA, the McGuinness Principles, and Sinn
Féin’s campaign for a unity referendum and a united Ireland.
Irish
American Labor leaders played a positive role in the political momentum in the
USA and in supporting the peace process. Many of the great trade union leaders
in American history have their family roots in Ireland. Leaders
like Mary ‘Mother’ Jones and Peter Maguire; Mathew Maguire and Mike Quill and
many others. That tradition has been carried on to this
generation. Leaders like Terry O’Sullivan, the General
President of LiUNA, (the Laborers International Union of North America), John
Samuelson TWU International President, Jim Callahan President
of the International Union of Operating Engineers, and Mary Kay Henry International President of the Service Employees
International Union are all proud Irish American labour leaders. Joe
Jameson was one of the Irish Americans for a new Irish agenda in the 1990s.
These
same leaders are enormously proud also of their connection with James Connolly
and have contributed to keeping alive his spirit and legacy. Currently in
Belfast they are supporting the new Áras Uí Chonghaile – the James Connolly
Interpretative Centre – which will be at the junction of the Falls Road and St.
James Park close to where James Connolly and his family lived.
Connolly was a hugely influential trade union
activist in America. He lived in the USA
for seven years where he helped establish the ‘Independent Workers of the
World’. Connolly
understood the importance of workers standing together, united against
injustice and oppression. In Belfast he organised the
workers of Belfast, and especially the linen slaves - those thousands of young
women who worked in hellish conditions in the Mills - which were the backbone
of Belfast’s economy. During the Great Lockout of 1913, in the city of Dublin, he and Big Jim
Larkin, led an epic struggle for worker’s rights. Larkin too spent time in the
USA between 1913 and 1924. This involved three years in various New York
prisons, including the notorious Sing Sing, after he was convicted of ‘criminal anarchy’ for fighting for
workers’ rights.
Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LiUNA, (the Laborers International Union of North America), mise agus Jim Callahan President of the International Union of Operating Engineers
Irish
American union leaders understand intellectually and emotionally that the cause
of Ireland is the cause of Labour and that the cause of Labour is the cause of
Ireland. When the talking at the luncheon was over there was an enthusiastic response
as they lined up to sign the McGuinness Principles sitting on a stand to the
side of the podium.
Many
of these leaders had met Martin either on his visits to the USA or their visits
to Ireland. They admired and respected his efforts to build reconciliation, advance
the rights of citizens, and promote peace and Irish unity.
The
McGuinness Principles reflect Martin’s core values and the Good Friday
Agreement. It is an initiative that was launched in April by an alliance of
Irish American organisations. The McGuinness Principles were inspired by the Sullivan and MacBride
Principles.
The Sullivan principles were
developed in 1977 and are named after an African-American preacher Rev. Leon Sullivan, who believed that by applying economic
conditions on US investment in South Africa that the apartheid regime could be
brought to an end. In the 1970’s. The principles called for equal and fair
employment practices for all employees and equal pay for all employees doing
equal or comparable work for the same period of time.
The MacBride Principles based on the Sullivan
Principles. They were about challenging institutional discrimination against
Catholics in the North’s economy. In 1971
The nine MacBride Principles, which were named
after Nobel Prize winner Sean MacBride, called for the banning of provocative
religious and political emblems form the workplace; all job openings to be
advertised publicly and special recruitment practices to attract applicants
from under-represented religious groups; the establishment of procedures to
assess, identify and actively recruit employees with potential for further
advancement; managers appointed to oversee a company’s affirmative action
efforts and the setting of timetables.
The Irish government and the SDLP actively worked
with the British government in opposing the MacBride Campaign in the USA.
When late last year Irish American organisations
began talking about how they could help secure the full implementation of the
Good Friday Agreement and support efforts to advance Irish unity, they looked
to these previous examples of successful campaigns. As a result, they agreed to
launch a campaign around the McGuinness Principles.
These four core principles – equality, respect,
truth and self-determination - seek to address the current difficulties in the
political process by defending human rights, supporting equality for the Irish
language, the victims of the conflict and their families, and endorsing the
demand for a referendum on Irish unity. In summary the campaign seeks:
·
A Bill of Rights.
·
Full statutory equality for the Irish
Language.
·
Funding for legacy inquests as part of
the process of healing and reconciliation.
·
A referendum on Irish unity in keeping
with the Good Friday Agreement.
In the few months that the campaign has been running it has attracted
significant political support. The active endorsement of the Labor Movement in
the USA is a crucial addition. If you want to know more about the McGuinness
Principles log on to www.mcguinnessprinciples.com
THE MARTIN MCGUINNESS PRINCIPLES
“I believe we stand on the threshold of great change. Previous
generations have struggled for a United Ireland. But our generation has the
best opportunity to achieve it.” -Martin McGuinness
(1) EQUALITY
THE ENACTMENT OF A BILL OF RIGHTS:
“We have pressed consistently for the establishment of a Bill of Rights
in the North and an all-Ireland Charter of Rights” -Martin McGuinness
The terms of the Good Friday Agreement called for the adoption of a Bill
of Rights in the North of Ireland. Twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement
was ratified by more than 70% of the voters in the North of Ireland and 94% of
the people in the Republic there is still no Bill of Rights. The Northern
Ireland Human Rights Commission was mandated to put forward recommendations.
In 2008, the Commission made proposals to the UK government recommending the
recognition of a broad range of social and economic rights. Successive
British governments have failed to affirmatively act on these recommendations.
Now, with significant opposition from within the British government to
continuing to accept the jurisdiction of European human rights conventions, and
a determination to scrap the Human rights Act, it becomes even more important
that the rights of Ireland’s citizens in the North be protected when it comes
to critical human rights issues.
2) RESPECT
FULL STATUTORY EQUALITY FOR THE IRISH
LANGUAGE:
“Successive British Governments…have totally failed to meet their
obligations…to protect the rights of the Irish language community” -Martin McGuinness
The Good Friday Agreement affirmed “the importance of respect,
understanding and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity, including in
Northern Ireland, the Irish language, Ulster-Scots and the languages of the
various ethnic communities, all of which are part of the cultural wealth of the
island of Ireland… the British Government will, in particular in relation to
the Irish language, where appropriate and where people so desire it: take
resolute action to promote the language; facilitate and encourage the use of
the language in speech and writing in public and private life where there is
appropriate demand …”
Eight years later, under the terms of the St. Andrews Agreement of 2006,
the British Government committed to introduce an Act to give the Irish language
official status equal to that accorded the Scots Gaelic and Welsh
languages. They failed to honor this obligation, and the Democratic
Unionist Party explicitly repudiated it. Subsequent DUP moves in government to
defund Irish language study were a major contributing factor to the resignation
of Martin McGuinness as Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister in 2017, when
he cited that party’s lack of “respect” for the rights and cultural traditions
of the Irish nationalist community in the North.
(3) TRUTH
EQUAL JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF THE
CONFLICT AND THEIR FAMILIES:
“Dealing with the legacy of the past remains one of the key outstanding
challenges of our peace process. Unless it is dealt with in a comprehensive
manner then the essential process of healing and reconciliation cannot gain
momentum”
“Instead of working constructively to address the hurt and pain caused
by the legacy of our recent conflict, the British Government has, at every
turn, blocked and frustrated all efforts to reach a solution” -Martin
McGuinness
Many victims of the conflict in the North and their families have waited
decades to learn the full truth about what happened to them and their loved
ones. Funding must be provided for proper inquests to move forward.
The full story of collusion and cover-ups must be told, and those responsible
for human rights abuses must be brought to justice.
(4) SELF-DETERMINATION
THERE MUST BE A REFERENDUM ON IRISH
UNITY TO AFFIRM IRISH SELF-DETERMINATION:
“There is a democratic imperative to provide Irish citizens with the
right to vote in a border poll on Irish unity to end partition and retain a
role in the EU.”
“A border poll on Irish unity is part of the process of building a
modern and dynamic New Republic on this island – an agreed Ireland achieved by
peaceful and democratic means.” -Martin McGuinness
Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the British
Government committed to formally “recognize that it is for the people of
Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without
external impediment to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis
of consent…” Provisions were included for referenda on Irish unity, whose
results would be given effect by the governmental parties to the Agreement.
The Agreement went on to commit that the signatory parties (including the
British Government) should not “make any change in the status of
Northern Ireland save with the consent of a majority of its people”.
Despite the fact that Brexit clearly represents a “change in status” of
Northern Ireland, and despite the fact that the people of the north voted by a
large majority to reject Brexit and remain inside the European Union, the
British government is determined to impose this very significant change (having
potentially profound consequences for Ireland), on the people of Ireland north
and south, against their democratically expressed wishes.
If the Good Friday Agreement’s commitments to self-determination are to
have any meaning, the British Government must allow the Irish people the
opportunity to determine their future.
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