Solidarity with the seafarers!: Unite to defy Tory anti-union laws!
Labour Briefing1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
At last a national union has been prepared to break the law and spread industrial action throughout a whole industry! That is, quite rightly, the first reaction of many militant trade unionists to the National Union of Seamen's decision to defy the law and call an all-out strike in defence of the union.
Since the first time the Tory laws were used against the NUM it has been clear that the only effective response is to defy the law, spread the action, and call on the labour movement for support. This was the main problem in the Wapping dispute, where the print unions refused to break the law or spread the action to Fleet Street brought isolation and defeat.
The use of the Tory laws is now the central issue for the trade union movement in Britain. Over the past three years the courts have intervened systematically on the side of the employers. Up till now, every trade union, with the exception of the NUM, has backed down. For the first time since the miners' strike the NUS have created an opportunity to mount a serious challenge to these laws.
The calls for solidarity made at May Day rallies must be heeded. As striker Susan Haynes told the Chesterfield rally: "All trade unionists must now make a stand and not allow this government to defeat us. We are in a struggle equal to that of the miners and the printworkers. We must defend our union and all that it represents. As rank and file members we call on all our fellow seafarers to defy Tory laws and support us."
The seafarers dispute puts the trade union movement right on the line. If they are defeated it will not just be a major victory for the employers, opening the door for an onslaught on wages and conditions in yet another industry, but it will be used by the new realists to "prove" once again that the employers and the laws cannot be beaten.
The movement therefore needs to respond.
• Demands must be placed in the individual unions and through them to the TUC for widespread industrial action in support of the NUS. If Sam McCluskie can be forced into action so can the TUC. The mood in the factories after the sequestration is such that if the TUC made the call, as they did over GCHQ, they would get a response.
• Scab ships must be boycotted. T&G dockers at Dover had a policy at the start of the dispute of "handling any ship, with union or non-union labour, providing the labour is British".
• General, practical support is crucial. The NUS has no means of support other than that organised by the labour movement. Support Committees need to be set up on the scale of the miners' strike, with existing committees and WAPC geared to support the P&O strikers.
• Full support is needed on the Dover picket line, the central focus of the dispute. The main picket is 7am each day.