Days Before October ... what you could do instead of going to the Labour Party Congress - Solidarity Actions with the Liverpool Dockers 1996
Contacts, Chronology, and Comment on Actions in Liverpool 28/9/96 - 30/9/96
Contacts:
to be added
Chronology:
25/9/96 * 3 people nicked busting squat
28/9/96 am: 12 coaches leave London from 3 different locations, minibuses and vans from most other large cities
1-4pm: Demonstration gathers and marches, Myrtle Pde Liverpool 8 to PierHead
- numbers well over 5,000 - including contingents from: Magnet workers, Hillingdon workers, JJ workers, autonomous groups resisting new Job Seekers Allowance etc
front 1,000 of march clearly Dockers and immediate friends, supporters etc [comments made that representation from families of dockers less than previously]
back 1,000 cohered around Reclaim the Streets, Advance Party and Freedom Network Drummers
- interestingly no major left group in UK mobilised nationally for this march [ie Militant, SWP]
6pm - 1 arrest for D+D
6.30pm - main posse sets off for accommodation in occupied customs building / prison in middle of [now largely devastated] docklands- police respond by surrounding this building with some 200 police in riot gear ... mexican standoff resolved by intervention by Dockers stewards police withdraw to leave token [and extremely wet] uniformed branch presence - Dockers Stewards remain at doors of occupied building til 4am [ish] - occupiers return stolen police helmet - allowing years of jokes about circumcision angst.
til 10 am - big party - hoped for link up to Liverpool rave scenes not as successful as hoped for ... reason unclear
? Bristol Sound System busted, tyres slashed, 2 arrests
29/9/96 Supposed day of rest etc ...
Problems of internal democracy, and communication within occupying group flared and aired at emergency General meeting
Problems of anti social behaviour [graffiti, abuse of people trying to clean up, destruction of bacteriological hazards ok ... a shit searching machine was taken apart and shit spread about one of the prison cells] and how to deal with this
Problems of what to do with certain Journos and how to exclude them henceforth [eg J Vidal from the Guardian who wrote a [large page 2] fucking snide article playing up divisions and then an even more patronising piece of advice on the Wednesday after]
Workshop reports ...
Visits to the pub as a way of making links ... contrary to reports in the bourgeois media ... every pub my affinity group went to had locked out workers and or supporters drinking .... on the Monday during a short break, we watched the news at the end of which it was stated that "police accused people from all over the country of coming to the picket to show support" at which point the whole pub burst into laughter!
What was the social composition of the occupation group? ... a bit hard to say - clearly many young dolees/eco activists but also union officials [local level], refugee activists, individual SWP/Mili's etc ... one London trade unionist was heard to say that after 25 years in the union movement he had to reassess everything ... this at 4 am on the dance floor ... in other words many of us had wide experience of class struggle politics - though this was not recognised either by the press nor many of the 'organisers'
what is this unified thing the Dockers? - as events on Monday showed they have as many differences as we do ... likewise the large scale participation of wives and partners on the picket questions the [very naff] 'picketing is macho' argument
30/9 early am: activists and dockers occupy 2 main gantries - so no containers were loaded or unloaded all day - and the roof of the management head quarters - a new flag flies over the bosses offices, black with red and green lightning bolts, or red with black and green [ie two different flags]
7am ... bulk of Pickets have arrived, picket is about 500 strong, some abortive, late attempts to get over the fence fail, further arrests [2]
8.45: mass shifts to south end of docks, 20 odd scale fence, chased after by pursuit police in body armour and trainers many reach and disrupt grain terminal, mass shifts further down, here fence is constructed of concrete and much of it is destroyed, internal road occupied, frantic drumming of the Workers United will never be defeated joined in by many ... all pickets here bar one released, one 40 - 50 something Docker [with heart condition, cuffed and charged with assault police]
9.15: with bulk of police now on south end of docks, march takes over main north south commuters road, most police have no way of relocating ... frantic race back to main gate - police lose - main gate successfully closed -despite the use of the 3 Hoolis [vans] at the front of the demo in an attempt to ram / contain the crowd ... the police drivers must learn to lock their doors and petrol caps!
3 arrests made after failed dearrest attempt here ... police clear road but block it with own vans [for about 30 minutes]
about this time ... 10 buses from London detained on Liverpool outskirts - forced under CJA to return - further detentions at Lime Street Train station
10.15 singing group begins ... this turns into quite a big crowd and along with a banner surprises the police by reblockading the road while singing ! cool or what! in chaos caused by this another 20 go through fence and disrupt traffic inside docks.
10.45 riot police used to reclear road - unfortunately their security was even worse than ours as pickets heard the instructions and the numbers confronting the police grew ... some amazing sights here - basically one squad of the OSD [ala TSG] was pushing normal coppers [who were unwilling to give us a good enough shove[?], these normal coppers were then replaced by riot coppers who didn't try much harder ... then in my sector of the line, a van pulled up and 4 -6 of these lightly clothed OSD thugs came out and just started letting rip into the crowd ... one picket was sexually assaulted, I was kicked in the balls etc etc ... police clear road but block it with own vans [for about 30 minutes]
All during this there was very good mixing of people and good banter between dockers and supporters.
More arrests here ... one beating led to police refusing to allow face to face IVs with persons solicitor - solicitor refused to conduct interview through slot in wall and ejected from police station
OSD put out fire where helmet was being burnt
Horses used to cordon off crowd ... the tactic of giving them organic carrot ends was somewhat defeated by the horse piss and shit all over the area that the picket was then allowed to use
12.30 Another similar blockade
til 5 pm: occupiers allowed to leave each area once lack of damage is proved by police ... police take out anger at lack of damage by attacking gantry occupiers on way out
5 - 6 about 250 pickets return to squat en masse, 6-8 riot vans track them, attacking the crowd, arresting people, beating them in the vans and then throwing them out again
6.30 Crowd has made it to squatted centre - some 50 dockers remain outside facing off the riot police ...
[Total number of arrests reported - 41 of whom 5 were sacked workers, 33 of whom came from outside Merseyside - virtual media blackout on the events the following day in the national press]
other events not listed here, clarifications, arguments that what is being said here is wrong etc etc all welcome!!