Industrial Workers of the World One Big Union

IWW in the Maritime Industry As Important Now as in the [G]olden Days

Looking to the Past...

When I was young, my mother used to take me to her old home village on the North Sea coast of Northumberland, and she would show me the big cargo ships from the docks at Newcastle and Sunderland, and the little fishing boats from the local villages, and all the seafaring activity that went with such a coastal economy. Having moved on, first to Liverpool and then to the East End of London, the sea as a place of work and a place of struggle seems to have followed my every move.

I remember hearing about the hard conditions of working the fishing boats, and the seemingly endless strikes on the Newcastle dockyards at their height. It seemed like a hard time, but one that was full of hope. I also remember hearing about the Liverpool dockers' strike from old hands over a beer at the Casa bar, set up by former dockers and their supporters to fund the strike.

It seems like the past was a time of great struggle for those working in maritime industries, and as ever, the IWW was always there, agitating in times like the dock strike of 1947 and more recently on the Liverpool docks. This is not to mention Wobbly activity on the docks in the USA over the years, particularly Ben Fletcher's famous agitation of predominantly African-American longshoremen in Philadelphia in the IWW's early years.

... and Finding the Present

However, it is not only the past that must be contended with. On closer inspection, we can see that a radical union is still needed, at sea, and on the dockyards and shipyards that still remain. Recent reports on working conditions in maritime trades have shown the harshness of maritime life to be little better than previous years.

A 2006 report on shipping and labour standards shows that there are currently around 200,000 fishery workers and several million more in general shipping, largely in northern Europe. It notes that despite the regulations supposedly imposed on companies by the EU and IMO (International Maritime Organisation), many workers are still made to work ten-hour days, six days a week, and with minimal safety measures, that can be easily avoided.

Furthermore, created over forty years ago, the Convention on Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) is still in practice, despite serious problems due to very different issues being faced now compared with when it was first written.