Not In Our Name, Cancel The Black and Tan Commemorations!
Tuesday 7 January 2020Mandate Statement on Government Commemoration to RIC / DMP, Black and Tans and Auxiliaries on 17 January 2020
Mandate Trade Union today calls on the Government to cancel the proposed commemoration to the RIC/DMP Scheduled for 17 January 2020.
Mandate Trade Union the biggest retail workers’ union in Ireland with over 35,000 members has today called on Government to cancel the commemoration to RIC/DMP planned for 17 January 2020 in Dublin Castle.
This commemoration is totally inappropriate and an affront to the thousands of victims and their relatives of the war crimes committed by the RIC/DMP (The Black and Tans/Auxiliaries) during the attempt by the British colonial powers to supress the struggle for Irish independence. The former President of Mandate Trade Union, Patrick Moran was executed in 1921 for his part in the struggle for freedom and any attempt now to sanitise the atrocities of the British occupying forces is simply wrong and a misuse of taxpayers’ money.
Mandate Trade Union calls on other Trade Unions, Trade Unionists and Trade Union Councils to join the call on cancelling the event, an event which we believe is offensive to the majority of the Irish public. In fact, approximately 50,000 citizens have signed a public petition in the last three days calling for the event to be cancelled.
Mandate commends the Mayors of Cork and Clare for their refusal to attend the event and also the call by Dublin City Council to cancel the event. We call on all County Councils and Mayors to adopt a similar approach. Mandate also calls on political parties, in particular Fianna Fail and the Labour Party to make their position clear on the staging of this event.
The Trade Union Movement played an active role in the struggle for independent and a fair society in occupied Ireland with many Trade Unionists paying the price with their lives, we also remember James Nolan and James Byrne who were murdered and over 300 of their fellow striking workers who were wounded when the DMP brutally attacked striking workers on O Connell Street, Dublin during the 1913 Lock Out.
NOT IN OUR NAME, CANCEL THE EVENT
John Douglas
Mandate General Secretary
