'First of all it was only the stewards who went to speak at meetings around the country,' he said 'Then other activists, like me. Now almost every docker does the job.'
'It isn't our union that helps us to fix up these speaking tours, it is mainly the various political groups whose members raise support for us in their trade union branch, community group or university.'
'Not that it was easy. Hardly ] anyone knew that we'd been backed because there was nothing in the newspapers, on the radio or TV. We would be on the picket lines and in the middle of all this and then we'd go out and meet people who didn't even know what had happened.'
'I remember the first meeting I did,' said shop steward Billy Jenkins.
'This student, Mike, an SWP member at Manchester university, handed me a loud hailer on the steps of the university and said "start speaking!" After that he took me into this huge canteen. I spoke standing on a chair at one end of the room, then in the middle and then at the other end. Several students appeared from nowhere and started taking the buckets round.
'That student started our first support group and raised £10,000 for our strike in the first month. It showed what was possible.
'It's a great thing for men, who have never opened their mouths before, to be putting themselves forward to speak about this experience,' said Kevin. 'We've been all over: Yorkshire, Scotland, the North East, Wales, London, the Midlands, Lancashire and all over Merseyside. Then it was off around the world!'
