ved, and the government had to both coerce and offer concessions in addition to those in offered in the report itself. For instance, they ordered the Hull employers to add 25 per cent to the assessment of labour needed by Phase Il (The Port) in an attempt to make the reduction of the work force palatable. The proposals were thus implemented without the resistance which would otherwise have resulted. The extra men in Hull are now finding their jobs threatened. Another pledge which baited the trap for the reluctant docker was the promise of nationalization of the portsindustry. Though this was in the 1966 election manifesto and was promised by both Jones and Mikado of the Labour Party NEC, it was not accomplished. Public ownership would have been enthusiastically adopted by Labour only if the cost of necessary modernization had been too great or the expected profits too small for the existing owners.
The policies pursued on the docks were no accidental product of some High Court Judge, but a forerunner of a policy intended to be universally applied. Labour intentions for the working class can be seen in this policy. Since 1964 the problems of British capitalism have increased. There is no chance of a capitalist government leaving the trade unions alone. A Labour Government would, at this stage, have more openly anti-working class policies than the last.
E. Waring
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With a national docks strike impending on the key ques pay, we deal with the approach of the Labour Governme the Devlin Report; examine the general significance of of demands being put forward; and look in more detail