The weekly reflektion 44/2026

Sometimes things are not the way they should be. Something is wrong, it may even be obvious to many people that it is wrong and it may have been wrong for a long time. No one takes a stand and no one demonstrates the courage to make the changes needed to put it right. Then an accident occurs, and the consequences of the failure to act become tragically clear when people get hurt or even killed.

Do you have the courage to make the changes that matter?

On 19 July 1984, Mary Manning, a 21-year-old checkout worker at Dunnes Stores in Dublin, refused to sell South African grapefruit. She was following her union’s instruction to boycott goods from apartheid South Africa. Management suspended her. Her colleagues stood beside her, beginning a strike that lasted two years and nine months. Her shop steward Karen Gearon was particularly supportive. The strikers were joined in their struggle by a black South African trade unionist Nimrod Sejake.  Sejake, a political exile, had been arrested with Nelson Mandela in 1956 and shared a prison cell with him. 

In December 1984, Archbishop Desmond Tutu met representatives of the strikers in London while travelling to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He praised their bravery publicly and promised to tell South African workers that people abroad cared enough to act. The strikers recalled this as an enormous encouragement and an important breakthrough in media attention. Tutu subsequently invited the strikers to South Africa to see apartheid for themselves. Eight strikers travelled in July 1985, accompanied by their union organizer and other supporters. South African authorities refused them entry, held them at Johannesburg airport and sent them back after eight hours. The incident generated further publicity and strengthened support for their campaign.

Reverend Jesse Jackson supported the strikers and helped connect their stand with the wider international struggle against racism. He invited them to march with him in New York, recognising the significance of workers accepting hardship for people in another country. 

The workers’ stand became internationally recognised and helped bring about Ireland’s ban on South African imports in January 1987.

Nelson Mandela met the strikers at the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin in 1990, a few months after his release from prison. He thanked them for their solidarity and praised their courage in standing up for the cause. Mary Manning missed the meeting, as she was living in Australia. The strikers also travelled to South Africa for the ceremonies following Mandela’s death in December 2013. Mary Manning, Karen Gearon and Liz Deasy attended the official memorial service for Nelson Mandela on 10 December 2013 at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, where they sat in VIP sections. 

Mary Manning had little power, no guarantee of success and much to lose. Continuing to serve customers would have protected her income and avoided confrontation. Instead, she accepted personal hardship because continuing as before meant participating in something she believed was wrong.

On 23 March 2005, an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery killed 15 people and injured 180. During startup, a distillation tower overfilled, releasing hydrocarbons through an atmospheric blowdown system. A flammable cloud formed and ignited. People in nearby temporary trailers were especially exposed. The US Chemical Safety Board identified organisational and safety deficiencies throughout BP, including cost cutting, inadequate investment and production pressures. Perhaps a Mary Manning at the Texas City refinery would have had the courage to fight for the changes that were obviously required at Texas City.