Dear Brother Monks,

Congratulations on the convening of the annual British Trade Union Congress. Your conference takes place at a critical juncture in the history of the trade union movement. With the convulsive structural changes of an ever-expanding global economy threatening the very existence of nation-based trade unions, it is essential that organized labor develop a timely program of action to meet these challenges posed by international capital. In no other industry have workers been more devastated than in maritime, both seagoing and shoreside workers.

Tragically, only two ports in Britain have collective bargaining agreements for dockers, Felixstowe and Liverpool, due in large part to Margaret Thatcher's anti-labor policies. And the courageous Liverpool dockers have been engaged in a struggle for two years to win back their jobs. They were unjustly sacked for nothing more than upholding the fundamental trade union right to honor a picket line, made illegal under anti-union Thatcherite legislation. The principled trade union stand, which we know the TUC will affirm, is to demand reinstatement of the 500 sacked Liverpool dockers and removal of the scabs. Moreover, to win this key struggle seen throughout the world as a litmus test for the British working class, it is imperative that Merseyside trade unions be mobilized to stop the scabbing and defend the integrity of the picket line.

On September 8, the opening day of your conference longshoremen on the West Coast of America in conjunction with portworkers around the world will shut down all ports in solidarity with the Liverpool dockers.

Their so-called "illegal" strike has inspired workers internationally faced with the same attacks posed by privatization, casualization and attendant unionbusting. No wonder their cries for solidarity have resonated so loudly around the globe.

Their voice should be heard at the TUC Conference as well. We are aware that the TGWU Executive has not officially supported the Merseyside struggle for fear of sequestration of union funds. However, we are also aware, as was reported in our union newspaper the Dispatcher, that delegates at the TGWU Biennial Conference in July resoundingly rejected (283-182) the leadership's handling of the dispute. Clearly, the fabric of a trade union is more than its treasury, more than its buildings and even more than its executive.

Fundamentally, a trade union is composed of its members, on whose labor all of the rest depends.

I beseech you to allow Liverpool Steward Bobby Morton, who eloquently addressed our union convention in Hawaii in April, time to report to your delegates on this critical struggle. It is simply a question of trade union democracy.

Victory to the Liverpool dockers!

Fraternally,

Jimmy Dean
Sec.-Treas. ILWU Local 52, Seattle