Nick Chaffey, Southern and South East Socialist Party
A delegation of Southampton dockers visited the Liverpool picket line last week to give their support to the strike action.
Restoring the effective militant traditions of the past, they are refusing to handle cargo in Southampton diverted from Liverpool during the strike.
Labour leader Keir Starmer refused to stand on the Liverpool picket line when he was in the city for the Labour Party conference. But the solidarity shown to the dockers in Liverpool, and the action being taken in Felixstowe, show the enormous power of coordinated action to challenge the greed of the bosses, who are making massive profits at the expense of workers’ pay.
It’s a tremendous sign of the new period we are in and the potential to show a way out of this cost-of-living crisis.
We must ensure that this fight has a powerful political voice to match this industrial muscle. As it isn’t going to be Labour maybe it’s time for another tradition to be restored: dockers’ candidates in the next general election.
