Ole spoke at the Dockers’ Club that great night in Feb.96 with Paco and other comrades.
“I speak English now. And I say to you, comrades, stay firm. I’m from Arhus, and we actually have no cargo from Liverpool whatsoever. But I think all here know Denmark is an agricultural country. And we raise a lot of pigs in Denmark. Some is walking on four feet, some on two. Now I want the Liverpool dockers to tell the portworkers in Arhus, what vessel is carrying this cargo to Liverpool. We could maybe have the possibility to take some action in Arhus.”
Whether or not they found any bacon bound for Liverpool, the Arhus dockers struck in solidarity on the International Days of Action. Typically, Ole refused to promise anything until the rank and file voted. Then he wrote to the Liverpool stewards:
The dockers in Arhus have this morning decided to strike until tomorrow morning 7:00 o’clock.
The secret ballot:
60 yes
23 no
In solidarity,
Ole Møller
further information:
In Copenhagen, dockers walked out of their canteen after hearing Micky and Sylvia Tighe describe the Liverpool struggle. They will remain out until tomorrow.
The total number of dockers included in the Danish actions at the moment: 390. The “Sea-Land Nordic” was hit in Arhus, and all work on the Maersk terminal which handles in-bound, out-bound, and railfreight connections has stopped in Arhus, further details to follow re Copenhagen.
At the mass meeting ending the international conference in February 1996, Ole explained:
“Chairman, sisters and brothers, fellow comrades. I am a docker, not a speaker. I really enjoyed my stay here, I really learned something from this experience. Because we have been defeated for too long - the miners, all the workers of Europe have been defeated too long. At this moment in Arhus there is a strike with the garbage workers, for two months, to have their shop steward reinstated. On Tuesday, there will be a meeting in Arhus with 3,400 shop stewards from all over Denmark and I would like to take this resolution and try to explain the Liverpool situation and try to get support from all over. There is a big problem about this strike because it’s invisible. Someone in a pub told me of some English law called D-Notice. I don’t understand it, we got freedom of speech.”
Jimmy Davies read out the resolution.
“From sacked Liverpool dockers. We write after 5 months of being sacked to support your struggle for reinstatement. You have been in struggle since December 1995, in support of trade unionism and the right to elected representation. Your employer, Arhus Venholdings Selskab, acts similar to our employer Mersey Docks. We cannot allow our rights or our dignity to be taken away in such a disgraceful manner. Our struggle continues until the Liverpool dockers and the Arhus refuse workers are reinstated. Yours in solidarity Jim Nolan”.
Ole then spoke of the Arhus dockers’ international representative, killed in a car accident.
“I’m not asking you for one minute’s silence, but I just want you to know, the dockers have a song,‘The Dockers Children’, about a docker named Anton. And he is dead, in the Church, the priest is preaching. And Anton jumps out of the coffin and says ‘to hell with me, go out fighting!’
“But I just want to finish by quoting the title of a video made on the dockers strike. ‘Whenever injustice becomes justice, resistance becomes duty.’ ”
