Sir, – As a retired Siptu member and one of many thousands of people on the Protest Against Austerity recently, I heard the heckling that Jack O’Connor complains about (Home News, November 26th). The jeering and heckling of Ictu chief Eugene McGlone was far from fascism: it was a legitimate expression of disapproval for the inactivity of the trade union leadership.
If brother O’Connor wants to find fascism I would suggest that he examines the attitude of some of his Labour party allies in the majority government party with its Blueshirt past and the attitude they display towards the poor, trade unionists, the sick and the old especially with the cutbacks already imposed and more presumably to come.
I remember well the words of Tory Reginald Maudling MP during the “Social Contract” wage freeze of 1972, under the Heath Tory government of 1970-74. “The capitalist system . . . had led inevitably to large disparities in living standards and to the concentration of a large amount of wealth in a fairly limited number of hands . . . We must recognise that this has only persisted because the majority have not been prepared to use their potential economic and political power against the prosperous minority.”
This, I believe, says it all. Mr O’Connor should be organising the fight-back, not throwing shapes at potential allies. He should direct his energy towards the real enemy, defend the union’s members, remember why our unions were set up.
I am sure Jim Larkin up there in O’Connell Street on his statue would be appalled at the spinelessness of our movement’s leadership. – Yours, etc,