ILWU International President Jim Spinosa presents Liverpool dock steward Jimmy Nolan with a plaque from the ILWU recognizing the historic struggle of the Liverpool dockers.  Photo by: Steve Zeltzer.

By Jack Heyman

Once again dockworkers from around the world met in Liverpool Sept. 23-24, this time not to coordinate solidarity actions for the Liverpool dockers, but to recognize those unions that participated in the worldwide actions and learn the lessons of that struggle in preparation for future waterfront battles.

The Liverpool struggle began 10 years ago when young dockworkers spontaneously set up a picket line over substandard conditions and other union members of the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) honored their picket line, as they had always done. All 500 dockers were sacked by the employer, Mersey Docks and Harbour Company.

Starting the weekend’s main event, Liverpool dock steward Jimmy Nolan opened by reminding participants that the gathering was not a celebration because the dockworkers did not win their struggle, rather it was a commemoration of a struggle that reignited militancy and underscored the necessity of international workers’ solidarity in today’s global economy. In the heat of the Liverpool battle, maritime unions around the world awakened to their call—from Europe to Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

In the end the Liverpool dockers lost because they couldn’t mobilize mass picketing on the Mersey docks to stop scabbing. That key element of solidarity was betrayed by the lack of support of their own union, the T & G, the Trade Union Congress (Britain’s AFL-CIO) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s so-called New Labour Party.

Bob Crow, General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union (RMT), whose union was recently purged from the New Labour Party for its militancy and opposition to the war in Iraq, fired up the crowd when he cited the illegal strike action by Gate Gourmet workers, mainly South Asian women, earlier that month. Their action sparked an unofficial strike by baggage handlers that grounded all flights of British Airways at Heathrow Airport. He condemned the banning of solidarity actions by Thatcher’s anti-union legislation and left intact by Blair’s New Labour Party.

To rousing applause Crow asked, "What’s a ‘secondary’ action? Surely that’s what the trade union movement is based on."

One of the first speakers was ILWU International President Jim Spinosa, who headed a delegation of 15 members and officers. He reminded the audience that the Liverpool dockers’ struggle had inspired longshore workers to network and to organize solidarity actions: first, the Neptune Jade in Oakland in support of the Liverpool dockers, then the Columbus Canada in Los Angeles in support of the Australian wharfies, then actions in defense of the Charleston longshoremen and most recently the bloody police assault on dockworker union president Jorge Silva Baron in Iquique, Chile. Spinosa noted what dockworkers have been learning in this era of international capitalism.

"We have to understand how the employers have been able to mobilize and get an upper hand in globalization," he said. "They project out 10, 15, 20 years. We working people are now doing the same thing, hooking up with organizations and networking around the world in solidarity. We are closing the world tighter and tighter so we can put together actions much quicker than we did for the Liverpool situation."

Receiving warm applause for his open and honest appraisal, Frank Leys, Secretary of the ITF Dockers Section, acknowledged that mistakes were made by his five million-strong organization during the Liverpool dispute. The T&G never supported the strike, making it unofficial and thereby illegal. Since the T&G was an ITF affiliate, the ITF didn’t support the dockers either.

"Staying silent has never brought the workers forward," Leys said. "Mistakes of the past will be remembered in order to avoid repeating them."

He exhorted all dockworkers to unify now in order to fight and defeat the European Unions’ Port Directive on "selfhandling" that would allow ships’ crews to do longshore work in port. If implemented in Europe, this union-busting move will be repeated in all the world’s ports.

Ken Riley, president of ILA Charleston longshore Local 1422, recounted how their contract struggle with Nordana Lines in 2000 and the subsequent Charleston 5 defense campaign was ultimately successful because of ILWU’s international dockworker links, especially the Coordinadora of Spain, that were brought into play. These bonds were forged at international conferences in support of the Liverpool dockers.

In the tradition of Harry Bridges’ good Aussie friend, Tas Bull, then-head of the waterfront workers union, Paddy Crumlin, National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) spoke poignantly about the practical reality of the state of trade unions and of class struggle globally. He praised the Liverpool dockworkers for their courageous struggle and criticized Bill Morris, then-General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, for not supporting the strike.

"The ITF should have played a stronger role, no matter how difficult, in making sure it was a win…not a loss," Crumlin said. He said now the movement has "the experience to go forward" and "we’ve learned the lesson from the Liverpool struggle: unions must organize properly, supporting rank-and-file workers on the job, and organize globally."

As an example, Crumlin cited the ILWU’s solidarity action during the MUA strike. The Columbus Canada had been loaded by scabs in Australia and because of the labor-community picket in the port of Los Angeles, the ship was forced to return to Australia to be loaded by union wharfies before it would be discharged on the U.S. West Coast.

He pointed out that dockworkers’ unions are being targeted by maritime employers and the governments because of their progressive stands, including dock protests against wars like in Vietnam and Iraq.

"They are systematically taking us on because we are a threat to what they are doing to our societies and our global market, and I’m proud of that," Crumlin said. "We’ve identified the enemy and most of us here have looked the devil in the eye and we find if we are prepared to stick together and work together, the devil always blinks."