Back to index of Nerve 11 - Winter 2007 | Merseyside Resistance Calendar January

20th January 1997: International dock strike in support of Liverpool dockers

On 20th January 1997, a massive show of international solidarity with Liverpool’s five hundred sacked dockers took place in twenty-seven countries across the globe. Dockers from Australia to Denmark and Japan to America took part in different actions, including demonstrations, work-to-rules, and full scale stoppages. It was the first designated worldwide day of action in support of the Liverpool dockers, and a hugely significant day in terms of the international labour movement.

Workers from different continents had organised the day as a global response to the globalised capitalist economy’s drive for casualisation of labour. The newly emerging internet played a big part in coordinating workers worldwide, for perhaps the first time on such a large scale. The importance of this cannot be overstated, as it demonstrated how technology that was developed for instant communication between branches of the US military could be used to unite working people and threaten the rule of the rich and powerful.

In Liverpool itself, fourteen people changed themselves onto the top of 150-foot cranes at Seaforth docks for twenty-seven hours, and stopped the unloading of genetically engineered soya beans.

‘Historic Struggle - Ten Years Since the Liverpool Docks Dispute’ - www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve7/docks_dispute.htm
Labournet article on the dockers and the globalisation of class struggle - www.labournet.net/docks2/9708/canliv1.htm
A n introduction to activism on the internet, with reference to the Liverpool dockers amongst others - www.backspace.com/action/campaigns_around_the_world.php
Article on internet activism, also using the example of Liverpool - www.dkrenton.co.uk/research/edgepaper.html
SchNEWS report of the event - www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news104.htm
Wikipedia article on the dispute - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_Dockers'_Strike
Extensive LibCom account of the dispute - libcom.org/library/mersey-docks-dispute-dave-graham