One of the reasons advanced by National Union of Seamen's leader Jim Slater for postponing the strike was that he feared' lack of solidarity from other workers. The truth is that solidarity does exist for the seamen's cause. Hull is an example of this.
A call for a meeting to set up a broad based solidarity committee was initiated by Red Weekly supporter Keith Russell, chairman of the Botanic Ward Labour Party. The response was quick. Transport and General Union shop steward Stan Suddaby, and Charlie Hodgkins, chairman of the 1960 and 1966 seamen's strike committees, were the first well-known figures in the Hull labour movement to support the initiative Keith Russell also spoke to Stewards Committee, article in the Sun which quoted an anonymous Hull docker as saying that the seamen would get no support from the Hull docks. the cockers repry was to agree to co-sponsor the meeting and send along platform. Building worker Stan Suddaby will also be on the platform.
Stan has a long history of solidarity with the seamen. In both the 1960 and 1966 seamen's strikes the Hull seamen asked Stan, then a railwayman, effective strike action. Along with Charlie Hodgkins, Stan was the victim of a vicious national press witch-hunt. These were the tightly knit group of politically motivated How was solidarity action organised in 1966?
Because the NUS bureaucracy was forced to make the strike official, the CP played an important role in organising solidarity MCCLES throughout Yorkshire. dockers and the miners in particular res ponded to the call for financial assistance.
I went on a speaking tour round the mining areas and we raised over £10,000. In Hull the support was rock solid, not only from the seamen but from the dockers and ine talwarmen as WCH What was the response of the media to ine sohoarity given Eo the seamen by rank-and-file workers?
You've got to understand that the only tactic left to Wilson and Woodcock when confronted with the mass solidarity of the working class was the old 'red smear" campaign. Aller wusons speeen a whole series of articles appeared in the local and national press slandering the strikers attempting to drive a wedge between the men and their leaders. The then Minister of Labour, Kay Cunter, leaked the names of leading militants to the press to stoke up the press witch-hunt.
Last Saturday, Hilary Wainwright, one of the best known militants in the Newcastle and Tyne area, was involved in a serious car crash. For a time, Hilary was in the critically injured ward of the Newcastle General HospBut now she is improving. and Workers Hull Ports Shop who gave the lie to a slanderous delegates to neip mem organise What is your view of the role of the Labour Government and the TUC, remembering not only 1966 but what's happening today?
Just as in 1966, the Labour Government's main job is to hold down the living standards of working class people, so as to ball out ine bosses system. ne poncies or Callaghan and Murray are paving the way for a Tory victory and leading the country in the direction of a Corporatist State. The Labour Government are softening up the abour movement so mar me lories really put the boot in.
In your time you've been a seaman as what are the conditions and wellproblems of seamen?
Well, everybody knows or should know about conditions of pay, lack of benefits, the question of captive time, etc. But what you probably don't know is that seamen under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894 can't strike on the iob like other workers. In 1960 and 1966 seamen were jailed for striking on ship. You might remember the Patrick Neary case — there were mass pickets and demonstrations for his release.
You wouldn't believe this but under this Act in so-called times of emergency' British seamen, if they're in foreign ports, can be 'press-ganged' into the Royal Navy!
What do you think of the role of the NUS Well, as you know, after the mass meeting on Monday in Hull all ine biokes were very bitter, saying they'd been sold down the river yet again. I think Slater took a hard position for strike action — but that's Stan Suddaby speaking at 1966 meeting men'. The Daily Telegraph in August 1960 paid Stan a superb tribute to his life of working class militancy by describing him as 'a disinterested expert who was willing to run strikes anywhere for anybody'.
Although he was for many years secretary of the Hull branch of the Communist Party, Stan is now an open critic of the CP's subordination of independent working class initiatives to the bureaucracy; and in practice over the vears - such as in the bitter and prolonged Jean Jepson dispute in Hull - Stan has fought against the manoeuvres and sell-outs of the CP. Noel Hibbert of Hull IMG asked him about the seamen's struggle in 1966 and today.
way the union is run the lads can't do anything about the full-time officials who voted avails sulke acon.
No matter what happens, the proposed solidarity will take place on Wednesday 29 September at 7.30 p.m. in Stevedore ano Dockers Club, Posterngate, Hull.
Weekly asked TOMMY FORD NUS Executive's response to the seamen s threats:
I expected it. expected them to postpone action. We're being browbeaten.
They could nave action The seamen woule have been behind them. We should demand now that 11 we dont get our claim we go out or strike. We should ask the international unions to support us to the hilt. It should be a mont to me union "The social contract hasn't just workec against the seamen. It's against the workers as a whole, definitely. Prices are going up all the time, wages aren 'As for the shipping industry, the best thing that could happen would be if the whole industry was nationalised 'One last thing. About this 280 a week we're supposed to be getting. My basic is 239.52 a Wee and tve gone up to live months without overtime.
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