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Liverpool Dockers Dispute
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Better than Prosac Proof that the
Personal
IS Political by Pauline Bradley
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Part
One
November 1997 I am writing as a 35 year old political activist
and
officially diagnosed lunatic. I've tried (generally I've been
coerced)
several `cures' ranging from the latest wonder drug, to being
hospitalised, but the most effective and liberation one has been my
involvement in the Liverpool Dockers Dispute. This also happens to be
the
politically the most important dispute for at least a decade and
probably
several decades.
For those who have been on another planet and
don'
t already know the background to the dispute, it is this. 80 young
Dockers, many who were sons and relatives of long standing Dockers
who
worked at Liverpool docks for a subsidiary called Torside, were
sacked
when their management reneged on an earlier overtime agreement. They
set
up a picket line at the Seaforth terminal where Dockers of 30-40
years
service worked. These Dockers refused to cross the picket line ( as
workers world-wide know you NEVER cross a picket line) and they were
sacked for breach of contract, under the Tories (now Labour)
anti-union
laws. The Dockers turned to their international comrades for support
and
anyone else who was interested - like myself.
When I first
learned
of the dispute, I was mainly involved in Women's Politics, due to my
own
discontent with male dominated, sectarian political parties. When I
heard
Doreen McNally from the Women of the Waterfront (WOW) speak , I was
immediately hooked. I've since written a song about this `evening
that
changed my life', where I mention her shyness and the `passion within
her
heart' - I felt her anger and emotion, and the dispute encapsulated
what
I'd learned intellectually from Marxism and Feminism. This was a
momentous
occasion for me personally, and now my life had a meaningful focus.
It
took a little while to get into the swing of getting up at 4 or 5am
for a
demo or picket, but the solidarity and comradeship I experienced from
the
Dockers and WOW's soon made these events something exciting to look
forward to.
In the first few months I learnt a huge amount
from
people I'd never met before e.g. hundreds of Turkish and Kurdish
comrades,
some of them who had been imprisoned and tortured, told me that
solidarity
= love, and that's how I grew to feel about the Dockers WOWs and the
movement I was involved in.
I was not brought up to be
political,
my dad was in the RAF and my parents are working class Tories. I
lived in
Doncaster for 10 years which included the 85 Miners Strike, when the
town
was virtually under siege from the police. I became more politicised
at
this time and I saw at first hand the devastation of peoples lives
caused
by the brutal destruction of the mining industry. I reluctantly moved
to
London for college, where my life's distress was uncontained and my
tutor
(a power hungry trainee psychoanalyst) was more interested in my
sexuality
than getting me through the course - a series of crisis ensued.
Therapy
(with a trained woman therapist from the Women's Therapy Centre) has
helped me through, but the Dockers's dispute has been far more
meaningful
and allowed me to move on in my life.
Since the WW2 and
particularly through the Major and Thatcher years, people have become
more
and more fragmented, isolated and in Marxist terms - alienated. This
leads
to a whole number of states of mind which can be labelled by
psychiatrists
(i.e. schizophrenia, manic depression) but generally means that one
feels
like shit, and can be prone to self harm, self neglect, lack of
motivation
and loosing touch with reality. As a society we're yearning for a
unifying
experience, the mass grieving of Princess Diana was, I think, an
attempt
at gaining one back. However, for more thought out political people
the
Liverpool Dockers Dispute provides this with much more wide reaching
conclusions for the future of humanity.
The first year of the
dispute was really painful for the Dockers, as there was felt to be a
conspiracy of silence by the British Media. However the Dockers kept
their
dignity and their non violent picket line (exceptions being violence
from
the Operational Support Division of the police and some scabs who had
burnt down the Dockers caravan several times and had been violent
towards
sacked Dockers. However, other alienated and disaffected people
became
inspired, notably young environmentalists like Reclaim the Streets
(RTS).
On the first anniversary of the dispute, international
action took place around the world and, in the UK, a major effort was
made
to get the dispute publicised. Dockers, RTS and others demonstrated
and
occupied gantries and the roof of the Mersey Dock and Harbour Co..
Again
it was emotionally momentous for me, I felt great pain at the efforts
having to be made to move the dispute forward. In therapy this was
likened
to memories of child sexual abuse being suppressed and my efforts to
warn
other children and communicate to those who might help, being
thwarted.
The dispute moved from strength to strength. The
March
for Social Justice in April '96 led by the Dockers was inspired by
the
Chartists who demanded the vote and more control offer their lives.
It
brought 35,000 people on to the streets and united trades unionists,
women
, black people, Irish groups, lesbians, gays and disabled people,
chanting
slogans like "The Dockers fight is our fight".
The Dockers
have had
to deal with real hardships and changing roles. I too have adjusted
my
life to the needs of the dispute. I may not have got the boundaries
absolutely right, given previous problems in this area, but every
thing is
dealt with in a comradely way.
The Dockers and WOW's are used
to
hardship and are full of history, determination and imagination,
they'll
never give up, even though their union the TGWU ( which was formed by
the
Dockers) may try to dump them. This isn't just a struggle for jobs,
its a
struggle for human dignity, for the right to show humanity/solidarity
to
other humans and not to be controlled simply by the needs of the
capitalist system (casualised).
I' ve already had my
personality
split in two, have tried to end it, but been put back together by the
NHS
and my therapist. It's not necessary for this to happen any more and
we
have a real chance to end things forever. Battle lines are being
drawn,
the media will try to demonise the Dockers as they did with the
Miners. In
future years people will ask: "what did you do during the Liverpool
Dockers dispute?" - what will YOU answer?
Part Two May
2000 The dispute has ended; the Dockers sadly lost. They were
unable to sustain the dispute after two and a half years with no
strike
pay. They never got the full backing of the Trade Union leadership
and the
New Labour government didn't use their 14% golden handshake to
resolve the
dispute, but sold it instead. The ending was a difficult time for me.
I
had a little crisis and took about two weeks off work. Still I had to
confront painful issues like how it feels to be thwarted. I also used
homeopathic remedies which I had found very useful, (on this occasion
I
used sea salt for grief). In the past I have used hydrogen for when I
've
gone high ( the psychiatrists have called it manic depression). The
homeopaths describe it as "going out" of my body. The remedy helps
bring
me back in.
Tragically, only a few weeks after the ending of
the
dispute, a young man called Simon Jones was killed on the docks in
Sussex.
He was killed by heavy machinery and had been sent there by the local
Job
Centre with no proper training. This bears out what the Liverpool
Dockers
stood for - proper apprenticeships and no casualisation. Though they
lost
the dispute, the experience for me was life changing and catalysed
lots of
good changes in me. I still have the Dockers and WOWs as friends and
they
have me - no one can take that away.
In work I have changed
specialisms to Children and Families, a real challenge to see if I
can
help abused children - like I was. I'm also the shop steward - I've
learnt
lots of techniques from the Dockers on being a good union rep. We had
a
dispute over terms and conditions in the council which we won after
striking for three days. I led the workers in my office; we only had
four
scabs out of one hundred workers. Trotsky once said that a victory
heals
the hurts from previous defeats and this one did. I feel very strong
now,
in my office, stronger than some managers. I've ended therapy and
have got
into Revaluation Counselling which has a liberation philosophy to
it.
I believe it is part of the human condition to struggle to
improve our lives, our children's lives and our environment. I/we
must
continue to do this for our own survival. My personal struggle has
made me
more effective in the wider struggle. I thank the Dockers, WOWs and
all my
friends and comrades for this.
In love and
solidarity.
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