The 500 sacked Liverpool dockers are to host an international conference of dockworkers on 17-22 February.
`The solidarity given to us has taught us an important lesson,' said Jim Davies, secretary of the Liverpool Dockers Shop Stewards' Committee at a meeting in the House of Commons last month.
`We have already heard many interesting things about working conditions and struggles in other countries. Now we want to know more. We want to build on the solidarity actions our strike has opened up.'
Anti-trade-union laws, privatisation and casualisation are not `British' questions.
A century after the international struggle for the legal eight-hour day, workers are being forced to work at tremendous speeds, on 12-hour shifts with cuts in wages and casual work. Workers are `bought' and `sold' like rolling-stock by international employment agencies.
There is plenty of talk about the `globalisation' of the multi-national companies. Now let's have workers' globalisation!
