The 1911 Liverpool General Transport Strike Centenary Conference

68 Hope Street, L1
Saturday 8th October

By John Owen

You may not have known of the significance of the 1911 conference at John Moores University on Saturday 8th October, it was advertised for several months under the auspices of the year of radicalism celebrating 1911 and has never been so hotly debated!

It was the culmination of a series of events beginning last year in September where an event was staged at the Rapid paint shop, followed by an event at the FACT and also the calendar of the Nerve special edition on 1911.

The Nerve calendar photos ran continuously over the whole day in all rooms including the main hall. It was a daylong activist conference really, with those most politically active in the city, including the authors of several Labour movement books and popular Socialist speakers.

Left Wing MP John McDonnell and RMT awkward squad speaker Bob Crow were joined by Tony Mulhearn (ex-council leader turned Socialist party member) and a host of equally good speakers. It took the form of a congress with those wishing to go to particular meetings for an hour each session. Luckily food from Baguette Bite was ordered in to keep the synapses firing. Big up to Yvette and Steve they certainly prevented the rancour developing – for a hungry mob is an angry mob.

There were two big open forums with questions and answers from the panel, one at the beginning and one just before the last sessions, these were rounded off by singing the Internationale led by Liverpool’s Socialist choir. All in all there was a good comradely atmosphere.

Despite a sectarianism that we have yet to emerge from and a long history of acrimony between groups in Liverpool, the entrance was open to all and operated on a concession basis of £3 and £5, but this was flexible.

It was how the Labour conference should have happened, instead of the Milliband charade that hid behind police barriers and away form the people.

With speakers from Ireland’s SIPTU Union in Dublin, Francey Devine spoke on the connection to the 1913 Lockout – celebrated in the culture to this day unlike 1911 – and Larkin’s role both here and Ireland. The speaker sang a few rebel Larkin songs and answered questions afterwards.

It had relevance to the on-going struggle in Liverpool today, anti cuts etc, coincidently, the James Larkin flute bands paraded by the building at the same time. A large and raucous celebration of Liverpool Irish heritage was in the city, with about 10 bands and the festival of Irish culture showing films all over the city.

Eric Taplin a noted historian kicked off proceedings and he is still as passionate 30 years on from his books publication. Around 150 people attended and these are the people who are currently engaged in the anti cuts protest as well as active union members in their own right. It was a good event to get involved with and mix with others.

A national mobilising conference is in the offing on the 19th in London with the major offensive by the unions protest strikes on 30th November.

There were some great political bookstalls and discussions on syndicalism and the role of the trade unions throughout the day and at one point Bob Crow said “We don’t need a party to organise a general strike” to which one member of the audience replied “How to prepare for general strike is with collecting battle funds now, a triple alliance and the mobilisation of others outside the traditional union structures” triggering a great round of applause. “Union membership is down to 6.7 million members yet opposition is growing across the country” another speaker reported.

There were some good questions put to the panel, from people all over the North West, Manchester, London and Wigan. Familiar local activists provided the bulk of the audience. Those groups in attendance were North West Labour History Group, Nerve, Mersey Solidarity Federation, Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, PCS, RMT and UNITE sponsoring it.

This was a step forward to some kind of unity in the on-going campaigns over health, pensions, jobs and welfare attacks. A coach was being organised for the blocking of Westminster Bridge over the passage of the NHS reform bill, it was free the next morning and several people including MP John McDonnell were going. All in all a positive, inspiring and confident atmosphere was generated from the event.

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