Dockers (Drama)
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 22 2012 18:02
Feature-length drama depicting the struggles of a small group of Liverpool dockers. Written by working dockers, with the help of screenwriter Jimmy McGovern and novelist Irvine Welsh.
Dockers is a landmark one-off drama suspended somewhere between Ken Loach and Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff. A striking Channel Four production Dockers dramatises the infamous struggle that developed when five Merseyside dockworkers were fired for refusing to work overtime with no pay, and gained the support of co-workers who wouldn't cross their picket line.
There’s no justice, just us! Subversion
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Feb 4 2010 08:15
The March for Social Justice in London, supporting the Liverpool Dockers, saw another explosion of violence against the police. In opposition to those who say the rioters 'spoilt things', we published There’s No Justice, Just Us!. From Subversion #22 (1997)
The "March for Social Justice" on April 12th illustrates well the contradictions involved in the struggle of the Liverpool Dockers and the broader movement of which it is part.
There is for instance the title of the march and the "people's charter for social justice" to which it is linked - an attempt to take the struggle down a straightforwardly reformist, i.e. bourgeois democratic path.
Reclaiming the future
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Feb 2 2010 07:20
The same correspondents report of events of the weekend of 28 - 30th September 1996, which saw Reclaim the Streets activists going to Liverpool to support the dockers. From Subversion #20 (1996)
Just a short note to describe the weekend of 28/29 September. I am only going to describe what I personally saw. Any reflection on the events will have to wait unitl I can check my impressions with others.
Dockers lockout
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Feb 2 2010 07:17
Article written by a communist in Liverpool active in supporting the Merseyside Dockers in their struggle against the MDHC in 1995.
As I write [early September] we are approaching the first anniversary of the dispute which was sparked off by the dockers refusal to cross the picket line mounted by dismissed dockers employed by an ‘independent’ stevedoring firm called Torside. In Britain in the 1990s such sympathy or in the words of the legislation, ‘secondary action’, is illegal.
Liverpool dockers strike photo gallery, 1995
Submitted by Steven. on Dec 11 2008 17:36
Photographs from the Mersey docks dispute of 1995-6.
1995-1997: Mersey docks dispute - Dave Graham
Submitted by libcom on Jul 29 2005 23:04
Dave Graham's detailed and fascinating history of the eventually unsuccessful Liverpool dockers dispute.
For two years in the middle of the 1990s, 500 dockworkers were locked out by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company of Liverpool.
In the course of those long months, their inspiring fight against the casualisation of working conditions has raised a wide range of questions about the changing balance of forces between workers and capital, the nature of unionism, and the practical meaning of internationalism.
Dave Graham was active in Liverpool supporting the dockers throughout their dispute. More than this, he has provided a blow-by-blow assessment of both the conflict itself, and its broader significance.
Robbie Fowler - fined for supporting Liverpool dockers
Submitted by Steven. on Apr 13 2005 11:42
England and Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler was fined in 1997 for showing support for sacked dock workers during a European Cup Winners' Cup match.
Fowler was fined 2,000 Swiss Francs ($1,400) by European governing body UEFA on Thursday for his show of support for sacked dock workers during a European Cup Winners' Cup match.
UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Committee made note of Fowler's sporting behaviour in assessing the punishment beginning its press release saying, "It may seem strange and even unfair...".
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