Dockers’ Festival kicks off

Exactly 125 years ago, a small group of workers at the South West India Dock launched a strike that would spread like wildfire, igniting what would become the foundation of the modern trade union movement.

Few dockers of the time were organised, but the Great Dock Strike of 1889 changed everything. Eventually, 100,000 dock workers banded together to fight against low pay and casualised labour. Unusual for the time, the strike gained the mass support of politicians, religious leaders and the general public. Even trade unions internationally pitched in: Australian unions raised over £30,000 (equivalent to £3m in today’s money) to support the strikers.

The striking workers – whose main demand was the “docker’s tanner,” or a rate of sixpence an hour – eventually gained their terms and conditions in one of the most successful trade union mobilisations ever.

To commemorate the strike, Unite has organised the Dockers’ Festival, a year-long series of events, from walks and talks to films and music. To launch the festival, Unite members and dock workers set sail on the Thames on August 14 – the day the Great Strike began over a century ago.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey addressed the guests to kick off the launch.

“The truth of the matter is that many of us wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for the historic struggles that took place during the Great Dock Strike,” McCluskey said. “Above everything else, this strike demonstrated that unskilled workers could be formed into a trade union, that they could organise themselves and fight for justice.”

In attendance at the launch were a number of dock workers who told of their own struggles.

Keith Watson was one of many trade unionists – including 19 shop stewards – who was dismissed for trade union involvement during the more recent Tilbury Port strikes in 1989. Striking against the Thatcher government’s abolishing of the National Docks Labour Scheme, which protected dock workers from becoming casualised, workers in Tilbury and across the nation took unofficial strike action. The 19 dismissed shop stewards were eventually vindicated after the longest employment tribunal in history.

Watson explained the common thread running between the 1889 London strike, the strikes at Tilbury, and the struggles facing dock workers now.

“History continues to repeat itself. Despite all of the employers’ promises, casualised labour –exactly what the 1889 strikers were fighting against, too –became rife just a few months after the Docks Labour Scheme was abolished, particularly in Tilbury. Unless people are prepared to organise and fight, the same thing will continue happening again. It’s happening now.”

The Great Strike of 1889 was also a milestone for religious involvement. Monsignor John Armitage told of Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Manning’s role in the strike.

“Manning was very involved in the East End community and with the dockers and their families. He supported the strike as an establishment figure and helped them win better working conditions,” Armitage explained. “The Pope of the time, Pope Leo XIII, was so impressed that he wrote the first of the social encyclicals inspired by Manning’s work. You could say, then, that Catholic social teachings started in the London Docks.”

Unite assistant general secretary Peter Kavanagh connected the 1889 strike to the battles still being fought by working people today.

“There’s now again a growing tendency towards precarious employment,” Kavanagh said. “We have migrant workers – just like many of the Irish migrants who took part in the Dock Strike of 1889 – being exploited. 125 years on, of course we’ve made important advances, but there’s still much work to do. The Dock Strike can serve as an inspirational example of people – entire communities, even internationally – coming together to achieve something great.”

To find out more about on-going Dockers’ Festival events, visit the festival’s Facebook page.