On 23 March the National Industrial Relations Court issued an interim order against the Transport and General Workers Union, restraining its members from blacking container lorries from Heatons Transport of St. Helens. The T&G was not represented in court, in line with the TUC's then policy of non-cooperation with the Court. So began the confrontation between State and dockworkers which has now led to the jailing of the five London shopstewards.
Heatons' application was only the start of a rapid move towards full-scale confrontation. Less than a week later the T&G was fined £5,000 for continuing the blacking in contempt of court. The president of the NIRC, Sir John Donaldson, stated that the contempt was "aggravated" by the Union's refusal to attend the Court. By this time a second firm, Bishops Wharf of Warrington, was also involved. By mid-A pril there were already signs that the trade union bureaucracy was looking for a way out of this situation. The T&G decided to ask 182 Pentoaville Road, London N.I.
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and The Times reported that there were *instructions from Transport House to settle the dispute as quickly as possible". A further impetus in this direction was provided by the entrance of a third company, Craddock Brothers of Wolverhampton, into the fray.
On 20 April the crunch came for the trade union bureaucracy with a further E50,000 fine for the T&G. The retreat was immediate. Vic Feather announced on 24 Hours the next day that in future unions would be allowed to defend themselves in the Court, and on 26 April the TUC advised the T&G to pay the fines. At the same time the Union started making frantic appeals to its members to stop the blacking.
But these were ignored by the rank and file, who knew only too well the T&G's role in producing the situation which led to the blacking. Instead, the campaign was extended outside Liverpool with dockers in Hull, London and Manchester voting unanimously to take similar action.
INTERNATIONAL MARXIST GROUP (British Section of the Fourth International)
1 would like more information about the IMG. of the T&G half-heartedly issued a 28-day notice of a national docks strike against the effects of containerisation, in an obvious attempt to seize back the initiative from the militants of the National Ports Shop Stewards Committee (NPSSC). Meanwhile, however, a further firm, Panalpina, was obtaining an order against the blacking of its lorries by Hull dockers, and a day later the NIR ruled definitively that the Union was responsible for the actions of its shop stewards.
Against this, the T&G argued that unless it responded in some slight way to the demands of its members they might resign and join the more militant National Association of Stevedores and Dockers (the "blue' union). Nevertheless it did decide to take a harder line, and David Shenton, T&G secretary for Humberside, publicly denounced the NSSC as representing nothing but itself". However, the response was not encouraging. At a London meeting, a T&G official argued plaintively that, "We will carry out the law and the law says we will not black indiscriminately." But all that happened was that, "From behind him a voice roared: "F- - the law, and the dockers shouted in agreement." (The Times, 26 May)
On 13 June, however, came a new development with a ruling by the Appeal Court that the T&G was not legally responsible for the actions of its stewards; a clear sign of a move towards a limited accommodation of the retreating trade union bureaucracy. As The Times commented, *what the ruling does mean is that shop stewards calling industrial action without the authority of their union will be held individually and collectively responsible at law for the result of their actions*. • And just one day later, the NIRC committed the three London shop stewards to prison for breaching an order restraining them from blacking activities at the ICD depot at Chobham Farm. clearly under way. Suddenly, up popped the Official Solicitor to represent and win an appeal for the men in their absence. So the dockers went free, but far from defusing the situation the Appeal Court's ruling was quite rightly regarded as a victory by the NPSSC, which voted to intensify the campaign. Meanwhile, however, the T&G had managed to postpone for a further period a national docks strike by setting up the Jones-Aldington committee to investigate the situation.
On 5 July began the action by Midland Cold Storage which led to the jailing of the dockers. This was an extremely well-prepared action, and included an application to the High Court as well as to the NIRC. It also involved systematic activity by Eurotec, a private detective firm, in its collection of evidence for the case. By the time this case had gone to the High Court and been referred back again to the NIRC the State's position also seemed to have been strengthened by a further development - the action against the dockers organised by the newly formed Drivers and Warehousemens Action Group. By Thursday, 20 July, this group had managed to bring the London docks to a virtual standstill, and such a situation threatened to produce widespread confusion and divisions within the working class as a whole. Now, so it seemed, was the time for the State to act, and this time the Official Solicitor could find no grounds for appeal against the committal of five dockers to prison.
As events rapidly showed, with the drivers and warehousemen coming out in support of the dockers, this was a mistaken assessment of the situation. But by then it was too late for any second thoughts. The Government has to win this one if it is not to lose the support of the bourgeoisie as well as the working class. And it can only be prevented from winning by united working class action to free the five.