MEN from the T&GWU for their militant activity and the employers tried to sack Constable on the pretext that he did not have a union card. This action provoked a mass walk-out and the bosses and their full-time trade union allies were forced to accept Constable's re-instatement. He continued as a dock militant for many years afterwards. The present struggle in Britain's ports brings home once again this crucial lesson of history: that nothing has been gained or can be gained without the in dependent action of the ordinary dock workers. This truth apples lo all workers and to all their baste social problems.
But another lesson can he learnt from the most recent and most spectacular victory in dockland. the treeing of the Five showed that to solve the present problems of the working class, workers in one industry, like the docks, cannot and need not stand alone apainst state, employer and union boss. When such barriers are broken down in the struggle the working class has a world to win