RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey has said Irish workers in Britain have a duty to join trade unions and help resist the far right.
“If you’re coming here from Ireland, you’ve got to join your trade union and you’ve got to do your bit,” he said.
“It’s no good just landing up over here and doing a bit of work. You’ve got to join your union and you’ve got to work hard, along with your British fellow workers, to improve the lot of everyone, because all of our interests are aligned.”
Dempsey said the Irish community had played a major role in Britain’s labour movement for generations.
RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey (Pic: Hugo Harvey)“The Irish in Britain have got a role to play, and have always had a historic role in the trade union movement in Britain,” he said. “They’ve been the backbone of the movement for many, many years since its inception.”
He added that Irish workers had long been central to union life in Britain. He recalled that when he first joined his union, its president was an Irishman from Buncrana in County Donegal who signed him up to the Connolly Association.
He also referenced his two immediate predecessors as RMT General Secretary, Mick Lynch and Mick Cash, who were both London Irish.
For Dempsey, the connection is personal. Dempsey, whose parents are both Irish, said both his father and grandfather had been members of his union.
“My father taught me that no matter how hard things get, you just keep going,” he said. “If it was easy, they wouldn’t call it the class struggle, would they?”
Dempsey also spoke about the rise of the far right in Britain and how to counter it. Linking it to worsening socio-economic conditions and the loss of trade unions and other social infrastructure, Dempsey said: “We’ve got to show we’ve got the solutions to the real problems that are giving rise to so much discontent and leaving the door open to horrific alternatives.
“People are turning to alternatives. That is an issue that we need to address. It is more about addressing the material questions that have given rise to this than just pointing your finger at people and telling them you’re right and they’re wrong.
“I don’t think that is going to help us. We need to stop worrying about what is in people’s heads, and start thinking about what is going into their bellies.”
On that point, Dempsey also emphasised that solidarity took precedence over harmony.
“It is much more meaningful if people are fighting for each other than whether they agree with each other. It’s more important that people are looking after each other than if they look like each other. That’s what I’m about.”
Ultimately, Dempsey believes that solidarity is what will deliver for working people.
“We’ve made the biggest gains for our people when we’ve been united and working together,” he said. “We’ve suffered our biggest defeats when we’ve been divided.”
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See More: Britain, Eddie Dempsey, Irish, Unions
