Don't forget stevedores
Wednesday 09 January 2013
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EmailI really enjoyed Graham Stevenson's article on the Pentonville Five (M Star January 3) following the sad announcement of the death of Vic Tuner, a great trade unionist and a great socialist.
However Graham failed to mention the crucial role of the stevedores' union, given that the majority of the Pentonville Five were stevedores.
And we shouldn't be shy about proclaiming the leading role of the Communist Party, which played a leading role in organising one of the greatest rank-and-file industrial machines.
No wonder the intelligence services placed an agent.
Bert Ramelson and Danny Lyons fine-tuned the organisation, guiding and advising the great dockers, as well as leader and party member Jack Dash.
Jack often stated he had more aggravation from his union bureaucracy than it did from the Port of London Authority.
Unfortunately even with such a rank-and-file machine, the dire warnings from the Communist Party and the unofficial strike, the union bureaucracy went along with the Jones-Aldington agreement - which signalled the death knell of the London docks.
Terry McCarthy
Hastings
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