The Day 10 Workers Changed the World – The Dunnes Stores Anti-Apartheid Strike
Friday 19 July 2024This day 40 years ago (19th July 1984) one of the most iconic strikes in history took place on Henry Street in Dublin. Ten young Dunnes Stores workers, aged between 17 and 24, refused to handle goods from apartheid South Africa because of how their government treated black people.
This courageous and selfless act led to a strike lasting two years and nine months.
In hail, rain, shine and snow, the workers maintained their pickets for millions of oppressed people they had never met.
The strikers were beaten by police. Abused by picket breakers. Condemned by the church. Followed to their homes by the special branch. Spat at. Victimised by their employer. Yet they held their ground. And they won.
The workers forced the Irish government to ban the import of all South African produce.
For their actions, these workers were lauded by Nelson Mandela. He said that the strikers demonstrated to South Africans that “ordinary people far away from the crucible of apartheid cared for our freedom” and helped him keep going when he was in prison.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited the workers on his way to receive his Nobel Peace Prize and said the strikers had “made their point at great cost to themselves and this I wish to commend them for. I must say that they are quite remarkable people.”
This action of solidarity with an tyrannized community by ten ordinary working-class retail workers from Dublin is a proud moment in Irish history. It is a proud moment in Irish trade union history. And it is something we should all reflect on today, particularly in the climate of increased racism, attacks on asylum seekers, and a genocide being perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Today the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, has invited the Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid strikers to a special event in Áras an Uachtaráin.
Mandate Trade Union will also celebrate the Dunnes strikers for their inspiring legacy.
The ten strikers included:
- Mary Manning
- Karen Gearon
- Liz Deasy
- Michelle Gavin
- Vonnie Munroe
- Alma Russell
- Tommy Davis
- Sandra Griffin
- Theresa Mooney
- Cathryn O’Reilly
The original ten strikers were also joined by Brendan Barron from Crumlin.
Today we also remember Brendan Archbald who was the IDATU (now Mandate) trade union organiser who backed the workers in the strike.
Three of the original strikers remain Mandate Trade Union members 40 years on.
The lesson is: if you stand together as a collective, anything is possible. Join your Union and get active today.
