Republican News · Thursday 12 September 2002

Liverpool remembers Larkin

BY NEIL DOOLIN

Nearly 2,000 people marched through Liverpool City Centre last Saturday in the fifth annual James Larkin Commemoration march and rally.

The march, led by the Strabane Memorial Flute Band, included eight other bands from Scotland and Liverpool. The theme of this year's march was 'Against Fascism' and speakers at the rally included Alec McFadden, President of Merseyside Trades Union Council and Daithí Doolan, chair of Dublin Sinn Féin. Alec McFadden said that the march was the "biggest mobilisation against the rise of the far right in Liverpool for over 20 years" and thanked the organisers of the event, the James Larkin Commemoration Committee.

Daithí Doolan spoke of the life of James Larkin and the need for working class people to stand united against racism and oppose fascist politics at all levels. He urged British trade unionists to support nationwide strikes being organised in Ireland for 4 October.

SIPTU, TEEU, BATU & UCAT have organised for their members to strike on the afternoon of 4 October, an action is being organised to highlight the ongoing dipute in Ardagh Glass in Ringsend.

Earlier in the day, the south Liverpool contingent of the march assembled at Larkin's birthplace in the Dingle area of Liverpool where Jimmy Nolan, who was leader of the Liverpool striking dockers, addressed the crowd before marching to Liverpool City Centre to the main assembly point.