The Dockers' Long War
There is not the slightest sign of a stable settlement of the existing dock disputes. On Merseyside, where the strike which began on February 2nd still continues, the original complaint was that the recently granted pay increase of 2s. a day was not enough. But on Tuesday the dockers decided to stay out for the whole "dockers' charter," which includes an increase of 6s. a day, paid holidays and pensions. Similarly on London, where the attempts of the Communist-led Port Workers Defence Committee to foment a strike in sympathy with the Merseyside men failed last week, a much more serious and permanent threat has arisen. The arrest of seven men on a charge of conspiring to incite dockers to take part in illegal strikes has led to a resolution to stage a one-day strike next Tuesday, when the accused men, now on remand, are due to appear in court again, and to continue agitating until Order 1305, which makes a strike an offence unless a dispute has first been reported to the Minister of Labour and he has taken no action, is repealed. Thus in both ports the dispute has been adroitly shifted from a temporary to a long-term basis. Obviously this change has been engineered by the trouble-seeking Communist element. Equally obviously the dockers, who in neither case have shown any great enthusiasm for strike action, will suffer for it as heavily as the general public. But this is no time to dwell on the obvious. Far more dangerous in the long run are the monotonous failure of the Transport and General Workers Union to play any effective part in reducing the menace of dock disputes and the complete absence of any understanding on the part of the dockers of the point of view of the public, of the Government and of the law. A situation has grown up in which the dockers do not regard themselves as part of a wider community, and in which the public at large is coming to regard the dockers as a permanent nuisance. That situation will not be ended merely by uprooting Communists. It requires an effort at mutual understanding which has hardly begun to be made.
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