The Labour Party have betrayed the very people they vowed to protect, Waterford TD John Halligan blasted, just days after Labour had makred the centenary of the 1913 Lockout.
In a stinging letter published in the Irish Independent, the Independent Deputy claimed the actions of Labour since returning to office in 2011 “must have Jim Larkin turning in his grave”.
Reacting to comments made by Junior Minister Alex White about the “stark choices” facing Labour in office, Deputy Halligan said such choices had been made “while mass unemployment, unpayable debt, forced emigration and a refusal to transform the system that created the crisis prevail”
He addedL “It is clear that, 100 years after the 1913 Dublin Lockout, capitalism still behaves with the same contempt for workers’ rights.
“The only difference between then and now is the Labour movement’s collusion in protecting corporate profit and the profit system, and treating people like a commodity.”
Deputy Halligan claimed the 1913 Lockout was “not the biggest defeat of organised labour” in our history.