In August 1913, over 20,000 workers were fired in Dublin for being members of a
union. 6 months later, and with two of their number dead, the workers gave in andreturned to work, in what is probably Ireland's most well-known strike, the"Dublin Lockout". What is less well known is that some of these strikers' senttheir children to Liverpool so that they wouldn't starve. The "Save the DublinKiddies Scheme" was devised by Dora Montefiore, and supported by Jim Larkin.Leaving on October 22nd, via the Carlow, only 18 children (all Catholics and ledby Grace Neal of the Domestic Workers' Union) made it to Liverpool. Plans hadbeen made for far more "evacuees"; but priests, police and lay Catholics had(often violently) stopped them. This was because the Catholic Church supportedthe employers and (with the support of Sinn Fein) was spreading the idea that inEngland the children would be converted to Protestantism (which of course wasfalse). Plans to "evacuate" a further 300 children were abandoned after the pressstarted to print the names and addresses of their parents. Upon their arrival,the stonemason and syndicalist Fred Bower (who was raised a protestant), wasresponsible for the children. However, some Catholic priests reported him to thepolice, and later made the children cry by asking them about their religiouspractices. In the end, Bower was allowed to be responsible for them, since he hadparental consent, and they were ferried to the Wirral, where they would staybefore being sent to individual homes (3 stayed with Bower). The Liverpool WeeklyMercury photographed the children, and reported Father Leech was responsible forthem, which was false and highly ironic given the Church sabotaged the wholeaffair (Bower was cut out of the picture, but can be partly seen on the farright). When they returned to Ireland 3 months later, Bower noted the childrenlooked far better than when they arrived barefoot, due to being well-fed andreclothed."The syndicalists are principled opponents of every Church, in which they onlysee an institution for the mental domination and damnation of the working people,cultivating willing objects of exploitation for the bosses and loyal subjects forthe State."Milly WitkopThis type of support also took place in London's East End in 1912. At the timeanti-Semitism was rife, and there was a large population of migrant EasternEuropean Jews in East London who spoke Yiddish. When the primarily "native" WestEnd tailors went on strike, they expected the primarily Jewish East End tailorsto undermine them and continue to work. Instead the Yiddish anarchist paperArbeter Fraint (edited by Rudolf Rocker) called for them to join the strike,which was later agreed upon in a mass meeting. In the end, both sets of tailorswon. However, primarily native dockers were still on strike and many werestarving (their strike lasted over two months, and was ultimately unsuccessful),the Jewish tailors felt they should do something to help them. Arbeter Fraintstarted a campaign for the Jewish families in Stepney and Whitechapel to take inthe children of striking dockers. If the tailors could accommodate them, theanarchist Milly Witkop would pick their children up from the docks to temporarilyhouse, feed and clothe them; over 500 children were taken in. The dockers were ofcourse grateful, and would mingle with Jewish families while visiting theirchildren. In 1936, the favour was returned, when dockers were at the forefront ofthe opposition to fascists marching through Jewish neighbourhoods at the Battleof Cable Street.https://liverpoolanarchist.wordpress.com/2021/12/06/evacuees-of-the-class-war/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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