Dockers representatives from five countries are meeting in Liverpool to discuss the terms for the formation of an international dockworkers committee.
The initiative arises out of coordination developed during the 28 month long Liverpool lockout and taken forward at the Gothenburg conference in May which set up the working party meeting this weekend. During the dispute all five unions with delegates in Liverpool – ILA (US and Canada East Coast), CGT (France), Co-ordinadora (Spain and Canary Islands), Swedish Dockworkers Union, and ILWU (US West Coast) – took industrial solidarity action and gave financial support. The MUA (Australia) and the All Japan Dockworkers Union, who likewise blockaded ships and sent donations to Liverpool, sent messages of support to the meeting.
Introducing the 12 delegates to a mass meeting of sacked dockers and Women of the Waterfront, Jimmy Nolan (Working Party Chair) explained that proposals for international coordination had surfaced 25 years ago through the Port Shop Stewards Committee and declared that the International Transportworkers Federation (ITF) was “not capable of looking after dockers’ interests”. Both the ILWU and ILA are ITF affiliates, as are the Australian and Japanese dockers unions, but the CGT, Co-ordinadora, and Swedish Dockworkers Union remain outside the international trade secretariat.
Pat Riley (ILA Local 273) told the sacked men that “we and other dockers are learning from Liverpool that we must stick together globally, and we must not give up”.
Bjorn Borg (Swedish Dockworkers Union) said that Liverpool had fought the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, politicians, and the leadership of the T&GWU and ITF. “In the early ’80s we failed to set up an international organisation which could have helped you, but now your struggle lives on for other dockers”.
Willie Adams (ILWU Local 23) declared that “what happened here should never have happened, but now we need to look ahead and leave a legacy for our children”.
Gilbert Natalini (CGT Marseille) expressed pride that “we could come out with our heads high” and thanked the Liverpool dockers for “enabling us to look to the future”.
Jose Luis Llorca Bermejo of the Co-ordinadora said the new international dockers committee must be ready to fight multinational companies and globalisation.
A proposal from the Spanish dockers will be debated in detail tomorrow.
From the floor, Liverpool men conveyed their sympathy and condolences to the Co-ordinadora over the death of Tenerife docker and union activist Paco.
Liverpool steward and international coordinator Terry Teague reported that MUA activist Phil Toby, who attended the first international dockers conference in February 1996, had now been sacked. Delegates pledged support for his reinstatement, and described their own industrial actions during last year’s war on the Australian waterfront.
In his introduction, Jimmy Nolan had reminded the meeting of the Liverpool dockers’ role after the Chilean coup in September 1973, when cargo was blockaded and seafarers were sacked for refusing to sail to Valparaiso. As news filtered through of today’s court decision authorising General Pinochet’s extradition to Spain, the Chilean exile Ernesto Arellano – who had turned up to translate for the Co-ordinadora – told delegates his own story. Ernesto, then a merchant seaman, only managed to remain in Britain after the dockers found him in Risley Remand Centre awaiting deportation back to Chile in 1977. Dockers like Jimmy Nolan and Jimmy Davies and seafarers like the late Joe Kenny made it clear that no ship would sail from Liverpool with Ernesto on board.
Two decades later, the spontaneous international solidarity ingrained in Liverpool dockers may give birth to an organisation.
