Two anniversaries - Dreams still waiting for an answer

Two significant anniversaries in humanity’s visceral but never-ending struggle for justice, recognition and equality fall this week.

One — it fell yesterday — marked the centenary of Dublin’s 1913 lockout when James Larkin led the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union strike. The objective was trade union recognition and a wage that might allow workers and their families escape appalling living conditions. During the four-and-a-half month strike workers faced unsympathetic and violent police, strike breakers and the reality that their actions imposed hardship and hunger on their families. They laid the foundations of Irish trade unionism and for almost seven decades the movement’s influence grew. Today, outside the public sector at least, unions are ever more irrelevant and in many instances completely absent. From many workers’ viewpoint Larkin’s objectives remain elusive. For many employers, especially foreign investors, his influence is still far too potent. This divide will continue as long as employers are supported by the courts in their refusal to recognise trade unions.

Tomorrow, America’s president Barack Obama, the hyperpower’s first black president, will speak from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, the very place used by Martin Luther King to deliver his seminal ‘I have a dream’ rallying cry in 1963. That march was the first great, non-violent demonstration that made a real difference in American life. It led to Lyndon Johnston’s society-changing 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Very much like Irish trade unions marking Larkin’s mould-breaking leadership, those who would remember the life and tragic death of Dr King feel he would not consider the advances made in America a victory but rather an ongoing process.

“This is not the time for nostalgic commemoration,” said Martin Luther King III, his eldest son. “The task is not done. We can and we must do more.” Whether it will ever be, or can be, remains an open question.

As Mr Obama speaks tomorrow, and he is surely one of the few American leaders since Dr King that might be considered his equal as an orator, it is hard to think that George Zimmerman’s recent acquittal in the Trayvon Martin murder case will not cast a shadow over his thoughts. It was the latest chilling reminder that the racism confronted by Dr King still exists. That it is so active, so open, even on the extreme fringes of the Republican party, confirms that the 50th anniversary of his great speech is a milestone rather than a finishing line. America today is a far better place for African Americans than it was in 1963, but it, as any honest American will admit, it is far from ideal. A lack of opportunity and cross-generational poverty are the unchanging lot of too many black Americans. The same challenges face many migrant communities.

Larkin would not recognise Ireland today and despite our terrible unemployment and economic challenges he would consider this, as it is, a society transformed.

These two anniversaries, when stripped to their core, focus on the great question that has always animated societies — is our commitment to equality and justice strong enough to overcome our fears and greed? James Larkin and Martin Luther King thought, or at least hoped, they had the answer but, tragically, they are still waiting to be proved right. Considerable progress has, however, been made.