11 October 19851
We would first like to thank the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid for inviting the Dunnes Stores strikers to be a part of this Day of Solidarity with the Political Prisoners in South Africa and to tell of our contribution to the end of the apartheid system.
At our union's annual delegate conference in April 1984, a motion was passed saying that all union members were not to handle South African goods, because of the apartheid system. We in Dunnes Stores of Henry Street, Dublin, received the instruction on 17 July 1984 and informed management. For a day and a half we were allowed to refuse to handle South African goods. Then, however, management told us that if we continued not handling South African goods, severe disciplinary action would be taken. On 19 July 1984 one member was suspended. The other members came out in support.
We offered Dunnes Stores a compromise: that we would handle what was left in the store if they would not bring in any more South African goods. They told us that they would sell what they wanted and when they wanted, and they would never take South African goods off sale unless the Government put a ban on it, the customers did not want it, and the competitors stopped selling it.
In the early stages of the strike, we had a lot of police harassment. On numerous occasions there would be five women on the back door to prevent deliveries. The management inside would call the police, and there would be at least three policemen to every one striker. On a few occasions, some of the women strikers had to have hospital treatment for injuries caused by management and police violence.
We also got a lot of harassment from companies which have a reputation of passing official picket lines and which, because of continual harassment, chose to deliver the goods at non-working hours. As there are only 11 strikers, it is impossible to maintain a 24-hour picket.
In December 1984 we were invited to meet Bishop Desmond Tutu in London, on his way to collect the Nobel Peace Prize. He stated publicly that he supported the strike and asked Ben Dunne to reinstate all strikers and give them the right not to handle South African goods. Ben Dunne and his management chose to ignore this request and said that we could have our jobs back if we handled South African goods.
We have had a lot of support internationally from people like Sean MacBride, Jesse Jackson, the British Trade Union Movement, the South African Trade Union Movement and the South African Council of Churches, and numerous organizations and individuals both inside and outside Ireland.
In March 1985 we were invited to South Africa by Bishop Tutu and the South African Council of Churches to see for ourselves what it was really like in South Africa. We had planned to go for the first anniversary of the strike, in July 1985.
As Irish and British citizens, all we require to visit South Africa is a current passport and a return airplane ticket. But when we arrived at Heathrow Airport in London, we were informed by British Airways officials that we would not be allowed to board the plane because they had been informed by South African Embassy officials that we now required visas. British Airways officials requested us to surrender our boarding passes, and when we refused to do so they threatened to call the police. Finally, after a three-hour delay they allowed us to board the plane.
When we arrived at Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, we left the plane and found that there was a line of soldiers on each side of the pathway. At the time, we thought that this was the normal procedure; but, in fact, they were there for us. When we joined the queue to get our passports checked, we were approached by a British Airways official and asked if we were the group from Dublin. We told him that we were. We were immediately surrounded by South African security, who accompanied us up six flights of stairs to an unauthorized part of the building. There they detained us for eight hours. During this time, we requested to be allowed to contact our families, to tell them where we were and that we were safe. They refused to let us do so. We also asked to speak to the Irish Consulate and a British Embassy official. The Irish Consulate was refused entry to us, but the British Embassy official was allowed up. He stated that if it was political, he did not want to know. He told a woman who was a British citizen that, in his opinion, we were being treated very well, and if we had been anywhere else we would probably have been thrown in a cell somewhere and left without food or anything. He also informed her that he would contact her family, but said it was not his concern to deal with the other members of the group.
If we had to go to the toilet, we had to have an escort of two South African security women accompanying us.
After approximately five hours, we asked whether we could change our clothes. Before we were allowed to do so, our cases and hand baggage were searched, and all personal letters and diaries were read.
We finally persuaded British Airways officials to contact our families to tell them that we were safe and were being sent home on the next plane.
At 6.30, we were finally escorted by armed guards back on the plane. The last words that we spoke were: "We will be back to South Africa when it is free".
When we arrived back in Ireland, we asked the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to request the reason why we were refused entry to South Africa. We met with the Department of Foreign Affairs three weeks later, when they told us that any country has the right to refuse entry to any foreign citizens. They also said that it was up to us whether or not we signed the application forms for visas.
The Minister of Labour, Mr. Ruairi Quinn, held a conference of all the major supermarket chains in Ireland, at which they agreed to phase out South African goods. Although this was a step in the right direction, there was no time limit. So we requested a meeting with Dunnes Stores management to find out exactly what their position was.
They issued a statement saying that they would only phase out South African produce if they could find better quality and cheaper prices, but until then we would still be required to handle South African goods - which is no solution until the end of this strike. We intend to continue the strike as long as we can, but we will never ever go back and handle South African goods; we would rather lose our jobs.
Many of the speeches of Mr. Minty were compiled and edited by E. S. Reddy in Anti-Apartheid Movement and the United Nations: Statements and Papers of Abdul S. Minty. Sanchar Publishing House, New Delhi, 1994. They are available at www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/aam/abdul-1.html