Anti-Apartheid Strikes

“Close your eyes and come with me back to 1984, we'll take a walk down Henry Street to DunnesDepartment store”. The opening line of Christy Moore’s song Dunnes Stores, a tribute to the 11 Dunnes Stores workers who went on strike in solidarity with the black people of South Africa and in their own way, struck a blow to apartheid. A fitting start to the story of the workers who played their own part in the fight against oppression.

In July 1984, The Irish Distributive and Administrative Trade Union (which merged with The Irish National Union of Vintners', Grocers’, and Allied Trades Assistants to form Mandate in 1994) instructed its members not to handle produce from South Africa. The anti-apartheid movement in South Africa was at the time encouraging the international community to boycott any produce that had been imported from the country in show of solidarity with black communities in the country and to show support for end to the cruel and inhumane apartheid system. Members of the IDATU looked around the shop when the boycott of South African goods began and familiarised themselves with any produce that was coming from the cape.

On July 18th, 1984, a woman approached the checkout desk of Dunnes Stores employee and IDATU member Mary Manning with two grapefruit which had been imported from South Africa. As per the policy that had been set out by her union and to show solidarity with the oppressed people of South Africa Manning explained her unions anti-apartheid policy to the woman and told her she could not check them out. In an interview with RTÉ’s Late Late Show in 2013, Manning recalled how the woman was quite compliant and did not cause a fuss over the policy. However according to Mary, managers who were aware of the policy kept a close eye on members of the IDATU who were working in Dunnes Stores on Henry Street at the time. They called Mary Manning and her shop steward Karen Gearon into the manager’s office where they were both given time to think about the policy and if they were going to continue the boycott. Both women bravely stood their ground and refused to handle any goods coming from the time racist nation and were suspended indefinitely by the shop management. 

The two women proceeded to take strike action against their suspension and the company’s refusal to stop selling goods produced by an apartheid state. They were joined by eight other workers from the Dunnes Stores Henry Street branch of the IDATU (Liz Deasy, Michelle Gavin, Vonnie Munroe, Alma Russell, Tommy Davis, Sandra Griffin, Theresa Mooney, Cathryn O'Reilly) and around a year after the strike began another IDATU member, Brendan Barron, from the Dunnes Stores Crumlin branch. Incredibly all the strikers were aged between 17 and 24 years of age when the strikes first began and a campaign which it was thought would only last a few days continued for two years and nine months. 

The times have changed though and the outlook on apartheid in South Africa is different now to what it was back then. Now when we look back on apartheid we see it as a cruel regime and struggle to understand how the South African government at the time were allowed to impose such a cruel law, but back then the numbers of those who stood against this regime weren’t as great as they thought. Different sectors of society did their best to undermine the workers. The Catholic Church publicly stated their objections to the strike, the management of Dunnes Stores undermined the workers in front of their former ‘colleagues’ who it has been said would throw food at them out of the shop windows in an attempt to humiliate them. Allegedly even the Gardaí would attempt to harass the workers into giving up by hurling racial abuse at them. Fearful of the public backlash, the workers' own union ordered them off the picket line, but the 11 workers stood their ground and continued their fight against oppression. 

At first support for the workers was minimal,individuals and groups such as Nimrod Sejake an anti-apartheid activist and ANC member from South Africa who was exiled from his homeland in Ireland and faced the threat of the death penalty if he returned home, stood with the women from the very start of their campaign. Even the Irish anti-apartheid movement leader Kamal Asmal allegedly done his best to undermine the workers. The turning point in public opinion came in 1984 when Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Prize that very year, visited the workers in a show of solidarity on his way to collect the Nobel Prize and invited them to visit South Africa. Eight of the women visited the country and were deported upon arrival for their anti-apartheid stance, a story which gained extensive coverage in Ireland and began to grow public consciousness on the cruelty of the apartheid regime and those who spoke against it. 

As public consciousness grew attitudes changed. Several stores stopped selling South African produce on their own accord such as Clearys, Roches and Best Menswear. Public pressure was growing on the Irish government in support of the workers and in 1985 they finally began researching ways in which they could impose a ban of goods from the Cape. The ban finally came into effect in January 1987 and Ireland became the first western country in the world to impose a ban on South African goods. This was undoubtedly down to the courageousness of the Dunnes Stores workers who stood on the picket line for 2 years and 9 months until their demands were met.

The fallout for the workers though was to continue. In January 1987 following the Irish government’s ban of South African goods some of the striking workers would return to Dunnes Stores only to be presented with new contracts that laughably stated they had to handle all produce no matter where it was from. Other workers decided against returning to the shop. Mary Manning was forced to emigrate to Australia after her name became linked with the strike and she could not find work in Dublin. In her book ‘Striking Back’ she recalls how she spent five years in exile missing the funeral of her father. 

The eleven courageous workers were praised for their actions and received recognition from the masses of South Africa and the world. On his visit to Dublin in 1990 to receive the honour of freedom of the city, Nelson Mandela requested to meet the workers. He described how their actions demonstrated that “ordinary people far away from the crucible of apartheid cared for our freedom”. Unfortunately, Mary Manning who was exiled in Australia at the time did not get the opportunity to meet Mandela but her role in the strike has been recognised. In 2008 South African president Thabo Mbeki presented a plaque on behalf of the people of South Africa to the workers which now has pride of place on Henry Street outside of Dunnes Stores. A street has also been named after Mary Manning in South Africa. Her courage was never forgotten by the South African people either and she was invited to attend the funeral of Nelson Mandela following his death in 2013. For their part, the workers finally got an apology from Dunnes Stores for their treatment of the strikers on June 19th, 2008 following the unveiling of the plaque presented by the South African government that previous day. 

Today though, apartheid has shown its ugly face again. 4,000 miles from Johannesburg we are now seeing the racial discrimination of the Palestinian people in another apartheid state. Just as those brave women did in 1984, we must stand with the oppressed people of the world. In 1984 it was South Africa, today it is Palestine. The Israeli government is currently threatening the annexation of Palestinian land. Now more than ever we must support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement. As a country that fought oppression for hundreds of years and continues to fight against it we must stand against colonialism and shut down the ugly face of apartheid wherever it appears. Encourage your workplaces and local shops not to use or sell Israeli products. Lobby your local TD, especially those from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and The Green Party to support the Occupied Territories Bill, which was left out of the program for government, to bring it back on the agenda. The people of Palestine need our support and just as the brave IDATU members showed back in 1984, people power is unbreakable. The People of Palestine need our support, we must help them in any way we can. 

“As South Africans who have a long and glorious history of struggle for national liberation, freedom and democracy, and against colonialism and apartheid, we raise our voices and our fists in deep solidarity with the Palestinian people in their quest for liberation and self-determination, a people who have suffered for more than seven decades with apartheid, occupation and colonization as the world watched and allowed the violations of international law and human rights. We, the undersigned, together with prominent leaders in the Global South, will not allow Israel, in partnership with the Trump regime, to triumph against justice and international law. At a time when the world is highlighting racism and the legacy of slavery and colonialism, when colonial icons are being pulled down by the actions of citizens ‘gatvol’ with a world order that tolerates injustice against the poor and vulnerable, we will tirelessly pursue the struggle of the Palestinian people for their freedom from racism, occupation, colonialism, and apartheid. Theirs is a struggle, together with that of other oppressed groups such as Black people in the USA, whose character defines the ethics and morality of our time. We will be on the right side of that equation!” – South African BDS Coalition.

Le Aaron O'Rourke