The Irish Women Workers Union

Contact us: info@womenworkersunion.ie

La na mBan

Women’s Pledge 2018 Competition

On 9th June, 2018 women and men from all over Ireland will gather to re-enact the march, 100 years to the day earlier, by thousands of members of the Irish Women Workers Union (IWWU), from their headquarters at Great Denmark St, Dublin to City Hall where they signed the Women’s Day/Lá na mBan anti-conscription pledge.

At City Hall this June, we will sign new pledges from women, about women’s issues, in Ireland. We want you to tell us what those pledges should be.

The Women’s Day/La na mBan 1918 Pledge

‘A Solemn Pledge from the Women of Ireland’.

“Because the enforcement of conscription on any people without their consent is tyranny, we are resolved to resist the conscription of Irishmen. We will not fill the places of men deprived of their work through refusing enforced military service. We will do all in our power to help the families of men who suffer through refusing enforced military service”.

We want you to modernise the Women’s Day/Lá na mBan 59-words pledge so it reflects the issues concerning women in the Ireland of 2018.

[Download the Womens Pledge 2018 competition PDF form.}

Individuals, trade unionists, students are welcome to try their hand. The winners will be the first to sign a new 2018 pledge book in City Hall on 9th June, 2018 and will receive a framed copy of their pledge, based on the design of the original 1918 Pledge. 

There will be three prizes

            1. Under 18 entrants

            2. Over 18 entrants

            3. Trade Union/Groups/ Organisations entrants

We urge individuals, groups, communities, trade unions, activist groups, students at all levels, to think about, and come up with, pledges for women in Ireland in 2018 and into the future ahead of Women’s Day/Lá na mBan, 9th June, 201

[Download the Womens Pledge 2018 competition PDF form.}

Background

In 1918 the British government decided to extend conscription to Ireland. Nationalist opinion was outraged at what it saw as a violation of the rights of small nations that Britain claimed to be upholding in the war with Germany. It viewed the measure as ‘an act of insanity’. Nevertheless the House of Commons passed all stages of the Military Service Bill on 16th April, when the Irish Party withdrew in a body from Parliament as a protest. The Bill received the Royal Assent and became law on 18th April. On the same day the Mansion House Committee was formed by representatives of Sinn Féin, the Irish Parliamentary Party, the Irish Volunteers, the All for Ireland League as well as the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress (ILP&TUC). The Committee decided to call on ‘all Irishmen to resist by the most effective means at their disposal’ any attempt by the British government to introduce conscription.

Cumann na mBan, Irish Independent, June 10, 1918

On 20th April, at a special conference of the ILP&TUC 1,500 delegates affirmed Ireland’s right to self-determination and called for a general strike against conscription. Held on 23rd April, the strike brought much of the country to a standstill and, despite a ban by the British government on demonstrations, almost every town and city outside of Ulster had marches. So successful was the strike that the Irish Times said that April 23rd would ‘be remembered as the day on which Irish Labour recognised its strength’.

Two million people, men and women, signed the anti-conscription pledge over the coming weeks. Thousands of women in the Irish Women Workers Union (IWWU), Cumann na mBan, the Irish Citizen Army and other bodies felt it was crucial to take an additional pledge not to ‘fill the places of men deprived of their work through enforced military service’. This was to demonstrate their own opposition to the war and to warn the British government that the economy would be crippled in the event of it pressing ahead with its plans.

While such resistance ended active attempts to impose conscription, it also led to more intensive repression by British authorities. Nevertheless, women persisted with their anti-conscription activities. The IWWU, with its expertise in co-organising huge events, had members on the Women’s Day/Lá na mBan planning group, chaired by Alice Stopford Green, which brought together all the different women’s organisations who opposed conscription.

The Women’s Pledge – Adams and Sons

On 9th June, 1918, thousands of female activists, many of them working class women and trade unionists, took to the streets for Women’s Day/Lá na mBan. They collected masses of pledges; the Freemans’s Journal reported that 40,000 signed the anti-conscription pledge in Dublin’s City Hall alone. It also reported that the 2,400-plus IWWU women who marched from their Great Denmark Street offices to City Hall, along with about 400 uniformed Cumann na mBan women who marched from their branches around the city, made a huge spectacle on the day.

On the day and in the following weeks, an estimated two-thirds of Ireland’s women signed the campaign’s ‘solemn pledge’ that ‘the enforcement of conscription on any people without their consent is tyranny’. Women’s Day/Lá na mBan demonstrated the ability of women’s trade unions and women activists to bring large numbers on to the streets in acts of civil disobedience against the imposition of repressive laws.

How to enter the competition to update the pledge for the Ireland of 2018.

You can download the pdf form, fill it in with your pledge, name and contact details then send it to Women’s Pledge 2018 Competition c/o SIPTU, Liberty Hall, Eden Quay, Dublin 1 or you can simply email your pledge, name and contact details to info@womenworkersunion.ie Please let us know whether you are under/over 18 and whether you are entering as an individual or part of a group/union/other organisation.

On 20th April, at a special conference of the ILP & TUC 1,500 delegates affirmed Ireland’s right to self-determination and called for a general strike against conscription. Held on 23rd April, the strike brought much of the country to a standstill and, despite a ban by the British government on demonstrations, almost every town and city outside of Ulster had marches. So successful was the strike that the Irish Times said 23rd April would ‘be remembered as the day on which Irish Labour recognised its strength’.

Two million people, men and women, signed the anti-conscription pledge over the coming weeks. Thousands of women in the Irish Women Workers Union (IWWU), Cumann na mBan, the Irish Citizen Army and other bodies felt it was crucial to take an additional pledge not to ‘fill the places of men deprived of their work through enforced military service’. This was to demonstrate their own opposition to the war and to warn the British government that the economy would be crippled in the event of it pressing ahead with its plans.

While such resistance ended active attempts to impose conscription, it also led to more intensive repression by British authorities. Nevertheless, women persisted with their anti-conscription activities. The IWWU, with its expertise in co-organising huge events, had members on the Women’s Day/Lá na mBan planning group, chaired by Alice Stopford Green, which brought together all the different women’s organisations who opposed conscription.

On 9th June, 1918, thousands of female activists, many of them working class women and trade unionists, took to the streets for Women’s Day/Lá na mBan. They collected masses of pledges; the Freemans’s Journal reported that 40,000 signed the anti-conscription pledge in Dublin’s City Hall alone. It also reported that the 2,400-plus IWWU women who marched from their Great Denmark Street offices to City Hall, along with about 400 uniformed Cumann na mBan women who marched from their branches around the city, made a huge spectacle on the day.On the day and in the following weeks, an estimated two-thirds of Ireland’s women signed the campaign’s ‘solemn pledge’ that ‘the enforcement of conscription on any people without their consent is tyranny’. Women’s Day/Lá na mBan demonstrated the ability of women’s trade unions and women activists to bring large numbers on to the streets in acts of civil disobedience against the imposition of repressive laws.

Delia Larkin image courtesy of the NLI Ms 40,395, Patricia Lynch / R.M. Fox Collection

On June 9, 1918, thousands of female activists, many working class women and trade unionists, took to the streets for Lá na mBan. They collected masses of pledges, the Freemans’s Journal reported that 40,000 signed the anti-conscription pledge in Dublin’s City Hall alone. It also reported that the 2,400-plus IWWU women who marched from their great Denmark Street offices to City Hall along with about 400 uniformed Cumann na mBan women ‘made the biggest show’.

On the day and in the following weeks, an estimated two-thirds of Ireland’s women signed the campaign’s ‘solemn pledge’ because ‘the enforcement of conscription on any people without their consent is tyranny’. Lá na mBan’ demonstrated the ability of women’s trade unions and women activists to bring large numbers onto the streets in acts of civil disobedience against imposition of repressive laws.

[Download the Womens Pledge 2018 competition PDF form.}