As Contraflow goes to press it seems that the Liverpool dockers' 15 month struggle against casualisation is coming to a head, with ports all around the world due to be affected by shut-downs and solidarity actions on the 20th of January. Just when the world had been made safe for capitalism and working class struggles had been consigned to the dustbin of history, those unfashionable dockers have organized an unprecedented show of strength world-wide. Ports in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the US West Coast, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Holland, Cyprus, Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal are expected to be hit by industrial action in response to the Liverpool dockers shop stewards appeal for action against the shipping lines that use the Liverpool port (ACL, CAST, CanMar, Zim, Gracechurch, Andrew Weir Shipping, MorLine/Baltic and Lazerline). First blood has already been drawn by the Antwerp dockers in Belgium who boycotted ACL`s ship Atlantic Compass for 7 hours on the night of the 15th Jan. On the US West Coast the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) is due to shut down all 18 ports, through which half of all US foreign trade passes, affecting up to 50 ships. The ILWU consider that the Liverpool dispute "exemplifies capital's systematic and relentless global offensive to increase profits at the expense of working people". And the international action represents a growing awareness on the part of dockers world-wide that what has happened in all the British ports (ie casualisation, deunionisation, privatisation) is what's in store for them (in fact Sri Lankan dockers and Israeli port and airport workers have recently been on strike against privatisation).
The dispute began 15 months ago when the Mersey Harbour and Docks Company sacked nearly 500 workers for refusing to cross a picket line, as an excuse to replace them with casual labour and increase their profits (profits were already at £33.6 million in 1994, the company received over £312 million from the government in waived debts and grants, was awarded £690 million in European grants and has also received City Challenge grants, all for the enhancement of directors and shareholders, while workers are sacked after a lifetime of working on the docks and thrown onto the dole. Sound familiar? It should do, because its what we've been letting the bosses get away with all this time!
On the first anniversary of the lockout (28-30 Sept)Reclaim The Streets, and a rag-tag motley crew of road protesters, anarcos, animal libbers (yep - that was us, rent-a-mob!) went up to Liverpool to combine solidarity with the dockers' struggle with protest against the clampdown (ie the repressive CJA and JSA), and take on the Operational Support Division. "Single issue politics is dead!" proclaimed Schnews, as people had finally recognised that they were fighting the same enemy (earlier link-ups had been made by Critical Mass cyclists in support of the striking Tube workers). However we're still waiting with baited breath for the follow- up.. After Reclaim The Future a newspaper was launched taking this name, purporting to represent the movement, something which earned it considerable distrust among the crowds at the Direct Action Conference in Brighton organized by those fearless Justice? activists, especially as behind the new paper is a section of the "to-be-dissolved" Worker's Revolutionary Party along with others in the "Reclaim The Future Alliance". "Why don't we see what it's like in about three issues' time and then judge it ?" said someone finally at Brighton.
One of the notable things about the Dockers' dispute is the way the workers themselves and shop stewards have organized it, after being abandoned by the T&GWU leadership (Union shitbag of the year award goes to Bill Morris for hypocritically talking about supporting the dockers and then doing nothing but whimpering about anti-union laws and it being an unofficial dispute - "if a law is unjust it has to be broken" said dockers at a recent 121 meeting). The dockers set up an International Dockworkers' Committee with international conferences, because for a time the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) followed the T&GWU line about the illegality of the dispute and refused to support the Liverpool dockers, but now the ITF have changed their tune and are supporting the day of action on the 20th of Jan.
Info and support - call 0151 207 3388 and ask for the Dockers Shop Stewards Committee