WATCH: Derry's McCann 'rages' for fair pay at rally

Snow was falling far from softly in Derry’s Guildhall Square as Eamonn McCann addressed the mass rally in support of striking public sector workers.

Offering solidarity to the upwards of 2,000 people who braved the elements on Thursday (January 18) lunchtime, the veteran trade union activist paid homage to the local trade unionists - including his father - he knew in his youth.

He recalled: “I come from Rossville Street, where there wasn’t an awful lot of luxury around but there were a lot of trade union militants around, Jim Sharkey, Frank Deane and others. And my father’s favourite statement from a politician from history was not really to do with Irish history specifically, although it could be said to do with the history of anywhere.

Eamon McCann quotes Rage Against the Machine as he addresses thousands of Derry workers on strike. pic.twitter.com/qHOw6BqBk1

— Derry Now (@DerryNow) January 18, 2024

“Anytime the Tories were mentioned, anytime Chris Heaton Harris’ party was mentioned, my father - to the point we could even mouth the words before he had started speaking - would say, ‘Tories are vermin’.

“That was a remark made by the great British socialist and trade unionist Aneurin Bevan in the House of Commons. He was asked to leave because of it. But I think maybe  it was the best statement that could be made in the House of Commons, to the assembled Tory benches. It should be used again.

“It is right we should be standing in Derry speaking about these things. Derry has a long, long tradition of trade unionism and of people standing up for the underdog. This is by no means the first but it is the biggest trade union demonstration in the centre of Derry,” said Eamonn McCann

The Bloody Sunday campaigner said the city had come a long way, as the biggest demonstration until today was a trade union demonstration in 1881.

He recounted: “Eleanor Marx, as my old friend, the late Dermie McClenaghan used to say, ‘Karl’s wee girl’, came to Derry, invited by Derry Trades Council. She was a member of London and District Trades Council and she came over to speak here, in order to help with the drive by women workers in Derry to unionise the shirt factories in Derry.

“Derry was the first place in this island where there was an organised and militant women’s trade union movement and that is a radiation which is kept on. I think of Cathy Harkin and Noleen O’Kane and all of the other brave women of recent years who have actually helped the whole of Derry.

“We have a long trade union tradition and we are bigger than anybody else. There are more members of trade unions in the North of Ireland right now, organising to 34 affiliated unions attached to the Irish Congress. 

“We have 200,000 members. Bigger than all the political parties and all the Orders - Orange and Green. All of them put together. We are bigger than they are. In a way, we have been the sleeping giant of Northern Ireland’s society, when the trade union movement comes together like this. When I look down from this platform, the best thing I see is the fact, when I look around, I couldn’t tell you who comes from where or what community anybody comes from,” said Mr McCann, to loud applause.

“We are here together,” he added. “When people talk, as they do all the time, of the need to get the ‘two communities’ together, here we are, here we are. 

“We are the peace process. We are the organisation of the future. There is a connection between peace and the conditions of life of the mass of ordinary people here. There is a connection between that and the trade union movement. It is the great mission of the trade union movement.”

Pausing, the inimitable Mr McCann said he wanted to read a poem. 

He said there were a lot of union songs around and that the younger members of the crowd might recognise what he was about to read:

“‘Rage Against the Machine’ has got a union song too, which was written in the midst of a strike wave in California: ‘So, come rain or sleet or dark of night. Come wind or frigid snow. There’s thousands of us on these streets and our number is going to grow. And when we put the government on trial, we’ll be in the front row. Just take a look around, we’re a union town. When they come for our wages, Derry says, NO.’

With evident passion, Eamonn McCann then quoted Jim Larkin, “a great trade union leader of the past”.

“Larkin talked about the militancy of the trade union movement, standing in front of him, in the centre of Dublin and he said, ‘This is all we know on earth and it is all we need to know.’

“Forward with the trade union movement. Forward with Derry workers. Forward with the cause of justice, led by the trade union movement. Thank you very much.”