James Larkin: Irish Labour Leader, 1876-1947

James Larkin: Irish Labour Leader, 1876-1947

James Larkin becomes a legend in the labor movement in his own away. Leaving, but not forgetting, the Liverpool slums at the turn of the century, this unique Irish man won an international reputation shortly before the Great War by leading some 20,000 Dublin Workers for nearly six months against a combination of employers who locked them out in an attempt to break Larkin’s Irish transport network and General Workers Union.

For the next twenty-five years, whether in Britain, Ireland, America, “Big Jim”, was always to be found in the front rank of the unpopular cause, and always on the extreme left. He was abused for his socialism, denounced as a revolutionary syndicalist for attempting to organize the unskilled workers, labelled unpatriotic for his violent opposition to the Great War, and jailed as Bolshevik in the United States for his part in helping to found and organize the American Communist Party. As long as free men value dissaves Larkin’s name will be remembered and his memory cherished.

Emmet Larkin

Routledge & Kegan Paul, London

1965

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English

1876-1947

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