Hundreds of people turned up at Cork City Library on Friday to stand in solidarity with library workers who have been targeted, abused and harassed by far-right agitators. Darragh Adelaide reports on the day and its significance in the wider fight against the far-right.
Protestors turned out in large numbers on Friday in support of Cork City library workers who have been facing harassment from homophobic far-right agitators.
Hundreds marched with Fórsa banners and rainbow flags with the union praising the “Huge showing of solidarity for our members in Cork City Library who deserve a safe place to work”.
Book Burning Bigots
Library workers across the country have come under attack from far-right personalities masquerading as “concerned citizens” over the last number of months. Cork City Library alone has been subject to more than half a dozen of these “protests” . The thrust of this campaign of harassment is to demand the removal of books that educate young people about LGBT issues. Often facilitated by Gardaí, protestors have entered libraries from Cork to Fingal and shouted at workers, accusing them of being “groomers” and “paedophiles” for stocking LGBT books. These protests; far from being an organic, native movement, have been imported directly from the US where right wing groups have targeted and attacked educators, schools and libraries and sought to ban books that discuss race or sexuality. These campaigns have successfully managed to get books such as “The life of Rosa Parks” banned from schools in Florida.
Armed far-right paramilitaries outside Red Oak Community School Columbus, Ohio.
Connected through social media, the Irish far-right have been attempting to emulate their US counterparts, putting Cork City Library workers in the firing line. However, with less than 20 turning out in support of the far right on Friday (despite a national call for support), as well as the record numbers attending pride across the country, it’s clear that only one side of this “debate” is rooted in the local community. In spite of major losses on both the marriage and abortion referendum, ultra conservatives are attempting to worm their way back into relevance through conspiracies about LGBT-inclusive education, which they claim is being used to “indoctrinate” children. This will come as a big surprise to any gay person who has lived through the Irish education system, as the state provides limited information regarding LGBT issues in relationship and sexual education. Notably, a People Before Profit-Solidarity bill on the Provision of Objective Sex Education Bill was blocked by Leo Varadkar.
The Far-Right Are Anti-Worker
Unfortunately for many working class people, library staff are not the first group of workers to be subject to repeated attacks from far-right grifters, nor will they be the last.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, conspiracies about vaccines fueled extended campaigns of harassment against nurses and pharmacists. In one case, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation had to request that Letterkenny University Hospital tighten security after workers were approached, followed, recorded, and shouted at by anti-vaccine protesters. In addition to working to save lives with limited resources in a pandemic, healthcare workers have been in a constant battle against government austerity, understaffing and low-pay. The geniuses on the far right gladly joined the struggle – not on the side of the workers, against austerity and overcrowding – but against the healthcare workers themselves. More recently, a viral video showed a Dublin bus driver on the receiving end of abuse from another “concerned citizen” about a pride ad on the side of the bus.
All of this is far from accidental. Historically, the far-right has always made enemies of the organised working class and tried to break up unions or any other expression of unity – focussing their energy on dividing people based on racist, homophobic or transphobic conspiracies. The likening of gay people (and their allies) to paedophiles is reminiscent of many fascist movements in Europe, such as the National Front in the UK or the NSDAP in Nazi Germany.
Fighting Unions Can Win Change
The successful rally In Cork city re-emphasises the need for militant unions that put feet on the street instead of suits in boardrooms. The massive turnout of 50,000 people at the “Ireland for all” Rally back in February was in part due to on the ground work done by the likes of Fórsa, Unite, and SIPTU. The Irish working class is a diverse mixing pot of different races, sexualities and genders. It is of fundamental importance that our unions fight on social issues like racism and transphobia. The alternative is to allow fascists to divide working people even further, making any kind of united fight for workers rights impossible.
In another display of grassroots union power, RTÉ workers protested corruption among the elite multi-millionaires at our national broadcaster. Workers raised the issue of 0-hour contracts, understaffing and lack of benefits for regular RTÉ workers while millions are handed to executives and the top presenters. The RTÉ workers have put pressure on both the national broadcaster and government to investigate and end the practice of enriching the wealthy with public money while services are starved. Contrast this with the dozens of anti-corruption protests held by the far-right outside RTÉ, which achieved nothing. Fueled by Covid conspiracies, protestors attacked and intimidated the very workers who would be fighting to actually end corruption.
The involvement of unions in the struggle against racism and homophobia is welcome and necessary. It must also be backed up by a real fight on housing, healthcare, and low pay. The economic crisis caused by years of privatisation, austerity and corruption has allowed the far-right to fester – redirecting anger against minorities; anger that should be directed at the Government. Large scale, working class movements fighting on housing and poverty would rip the oxygen out of the room and leave the far-right suffocated. This movement won’t be delivered by the union bureaucracy and will need to be built and fought for by rank and file trade unionists.
