The last issue of the Black Dwarf carried a long article on Striking for Control. In part it was about the one-day national dock strike. Tony Topham has sent us this additional report.
The major ports of Britain were stopped for a day on March 17th while the Commons' Standing Committee D' debated Clause 41 of the Ports Bill. The one day strike was supported by 14,906 dockers in London, (95 ships idle), 10,500 dockers on Merseyside (78 ships idle), 3,000 in Hull (26 ships idle, 1,700 in Southampton (several freighters idle), 1,8000 in Tilbury (15 ships idle), 375 in Goole (14 ships idle) 200 in Rochester (8 ships idle), as well as smaller numbers in Immingham, Grimsby, Leith, Granton, and Dundee.
The strike marks a break-through in the application of working class pressure on the Labour government. It was supported Manchester and Bristol were unaffected. Two demands formed the central aims of the strike: workers' representation and nationalisation of all ports.
The situation did not arise over-night. It was the product of a long period of analysis by rank and file leaders and the more progressive wing of the dockers' union The analysis pointed directly to the necessity for political action to meet the mounting threats to the docker's security and their control over the labour supply in the industry.
The dockers have been opposed to the Ports Bill since the February 1969 White Paper. proposes to nationalise only ports handling over 5 million tons. The smaller, but growing ports, are thus left as threat to the workers" bargaining position. The Bill allows for the continued existence of private stevedores after nationalisation and excludes harbours used by manufacturers importing raw materials for their own processing. Labour Party proposals for elected government is empowered to vary-by Ministerial order-the crucial Dock Labour Scheme.
Three factors combined to bring the dockers to the point of consciousness that produced the strike. The industry is the scene of one of the most dramatic and far-reaching manifestations of the technological revolution. Productivity of labour under containerisation, roll-on roll-off ships, palletisation, liner trains, etc. increases by hundreds of percent. It is claimed that at the Tilbury container terminal 15 men could handle the whole UK-Australia trade. Secondly, as this threat to the old established patterns grew, the T&GWU started on a much needed reform. This brought to the fore new full-time officers and rank and file leaders among shop-stewards and committee members who were prepared to examine seriously the economics and politics of the industry.
The other factor weighing heavily with the mass of dockers was that technology and political interference were underminThe Black Dwarf 10th May 1970