By Jack Heyman, ILWU Local 10
September 22
Dear Kees,
In recent ITF circulars and bulletins some disturbing misinformation and omissions have been transmitted that raise some serious questions about the role of the ITF. For instance, in ITF Info #13 you tack on the end of the bulletin a report stating that on September 8th, "Dockers unions take action for global solidarity".
Is it a new policy of the ITF not to even mention the "L" word, Liverpool?
This stirring global action was initiated by the Liverpool dockers rallying workers globally against the concomittant employer/government attacks of dock privatization, labor casualization and waterfront unionbusting. At least for the January 20th International Day of Action the ITF begrudgingly gave its endorsement after it became apparent that the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (of the U.S. West Coast) and Zenkokowan (of Japan) were participating in the worldwide action.
Surely, you are aware that it is no easy task to organize portworkers around the world to take industrial action simultaneously. Yet, on September 8th, the Liverpool dockers were able to organize dockworkers to shutdown over 100 ports worldwide, This action also included for the first time the South African dockers' union which stated that it was participating to repay the Liverpool dockers for their solidarity actions against the apartheid regime. It is true that some of these militant trade unions are not affiliated to the ITF, as in Sweden, France and Spain. (After all, it was only 10 years ago that the ILWU affiliated to the ITF and Zankowan affiliated more recently ). Was it for such narrow sectarian reasons that you refused to even mention Liverpool?
One would think that if Liverpool is one of the last ports with a collective bargaining contract for dockers in Britain, that the ITF, which is headquartered there, would at least give nominal support. As I pleaded with you last year (when I was an ITF Inspector and you and the ITF Secretariat were trying to stop me as an ILWU delegate from going to the International Dockers Conference in Liverpool in February) if the TGWU leadership has failed through its legalistic approach to defend dockers jobs, why not give the Liverpool dockers' efforts a chance? What better banner to organize international solidarity than "Never cross a picket line" (for which the 500 dockers were sacked)?
As reported in the July/August issue of the ILWU's newspaper, The Dispatcher, "The rank and file of the Liverpool dockers' union gave their sacked brethren a big shot in the arm at the union's convention in early July. After a fiery debate, the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) rejected a resolution endorsing the leadership's handling of the dispute..." And again, "The dockers challenge the designation of the strike as illegal as well as leadership's acceptance of the anti-labor laws. At the TGWU convention, Merseyside Port Shop Steward Bobby Morton reminded the delegates that Nelson Mandela had been forced to break the law to fight for justice, a point seconded by a black delegate from London."
It's time the ITF recognize that the course of the Executive of the T&G is not protecting the "fabric" of the union, as it claims, but tearing it apart. That's what the delegates to the Biennial Delegates Conference inferred when they voted (283-182) in opposition to the leadership's strategy. The ITF continues to rationalize its policy of nonsupport toward the Liverpool struggle, stating that TGWU General Secretary Bill Morris has not asked for support. Clearly, he doesn't represent the rank and file of the TGWU in this conflict. For the ITF to pretend otherwise only brings into question ITF's credibility and its intention to act decisively in a significant struggle.
Moreover, on the question of support, while the Coordinadora, which represents 80% of dockworkers in Spain, was holding stop work meetings and shutting down ports, a delegation of Spanish trade unionists from the Workers Commissions and theUGT met with British Consul Christopher Ingham in Madrid. In the course of their discussion Ingham stated that the ITF is not supporting the Liverpool dockers. Kees, is this the ITF's public position now or is the consul misstating it?
In your recent Circular No. 232/D.42/1997 dated 17 September, 1997, you once again disappear any mention of Liverpool. More importantly, the Miami ITF Dockers Section Conference passed a resolution in support of the Liverpool dockers which was amended by the ILWU delegate Glen Ramiskey and is reported in the June 1997 issue of The Dispatcher.
"Ramiskey stepped in with an amendment to the resolution defining what the "appropriate action" would be....The first stage calls for another International Day of Action...And if that did not get the dockers reinstated, stage two calls for continuous actions against shipping companies servicing the Port of Liverpool....All conference participants agreed to that interpretation."
Is the ILWU report accurate and if so why is there no mention of that supportive action in your circular?
Honoring the ILWU's slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all" rank and file West Coast longshoremen are implementing stage two of that resolution. Yet, I noticed that the closest ITF affiliates in Germany, Belgium and Holland where much of the scab Liverpool cargo is going didn't lift a finger or down a tool in solidarity on September 8th ... but then that should not be a surprise since they've done nothing to aid the 315 sacked dockers in the Arbeidspool in Amsterdam. Do the "leaders" of these unions and the ITF really think that the fire-breathing dragon of privatization will not burn them? That their sheepishness protects them?
We are entering the era of neo-liberal economic schema like GAAT, Maastricht and NAFTA. It is defined by a dominant and aggressive capital which on an international scale uses governments on a short leash to control or destroy obstacles to profit, or as they say "restraint of trade". Trade unions are being targeted. To defend our trade unions, our standard of living, our working conditions means breaking the shackles, defying capital's rules.
For example, Thatcher has stacked the deck with anti-labor laws. Now Blair is dealing from that deck. The ITF hopes that Blair will be labor's savior, as you opined last year Kees. But as Blair said at the TUC Conference, he's not interested in pleasing the trade unions. Capital is his master. In a global economy our only salvation is international labor solidarity, as difficult as that may be to organize.
In your circular dated 19 September to ITF affiliated Dock workers Unions, you write that you want to,
"enable our affiliates, together with, and co-ordinated by the ITF, to fight against these anti trade union policies. As we all know, there will be no 'quick fix solution' or a 'one-off action'. As discussed in Miami we need to be prepared to select our targets and plan our action carefully and continue to organise all kinds of actions until we have won. An action aimed at stopping all ships only for one day will not be sufficient, and we should look more to establishing a permanent threat to terminal operators and subsequently shipowners to disrupt their business as long as they make use of ports where unionised workers are being made victims of port reforms or attempts are carried out to destroy trade unions."
Is that an empty boast? If not, then, why are you not fighting night and day for Liverpool? They have been saying for twenty four long months that there should be a 'permanent threat' to shipowners who make "use of ports where unionised workers are being made victims of port reforms or attempts are carried out to destroy trade unions". You could not have given a better description of Liverpool.
As ILWU Local 10's constitution states: "organization of the working class and unity of action is imperative ...to combat the encroachment of .....capital on the fundamental rights of labor". In 1934, it was united strike action - in defiance of the employer-collaborating union leadership, the shipowners and their government, that declared our strike action illegal - that won our union-controlled hiring hall and coastwide contract. Today, faced with global attacks, dockworkers must apply these principles on an international scale.
For real international solidarity!
Victory to the Liverpool dockers!
Jack Heyman, ILWU Local 10
