workingclasshistory:

On this day, 6 September 1921, workers at Cork Harbour declared a Soviet in protest at the refusal of Cork Harbour Board to increase wages. They took over the Harbour Board’s offices, hoisted a red flag, and declared a Soviet. Their plan was to collect dues from shipping agents directly. The Labour Minister intervened and the Soviet was ended through negotiation within hours. However, a contemporary article in the Irish Times observed “Short-lived as was this outbreak of Irish Bolshevism, it was highly ominous. To-day Irish Labour is permeated with a spirit of revolt against all the principles and conventions of ordered society. The country’s lawless state in recent months is partly responsible for this sinister development, and the wild teachings of the Russian Revolution have fallen on willing ears. It is small consolation for thoughtful Irishmen that the first experiments in practical Communism - like this affair at Cork and like the seizure of Messrs. Cleeve’s premises at Bruree - have collapsed in a few days or hours. Their real significance lies in the temper and aspirations which they reveal.” This is a short history: https://libcom.org/history/cork-harbour-strike https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1204211243097357/?type=3