From: "dave graham" <davgraham-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: AUT: Wharfies - and Answers to Questions [or whatever people are 
Date: Sat, 02 May 1998 03:53:34 PDT


Dear All

Because of my incompetence with this technology and perhaps because I am 
getting old, I have somehow managed to delete every single message on 
this thread from my 'In box', 'saved messages etc etc so I am writing 
this from memory.

Firstly a plea - don't turn my questions into an academic or ideological  
debate.

My purpose in asking the questions was not simply one of seeking 
information, although that in itself is something that needs doing. Too 
many of the replies that I received were simply an excuse to serve up 
'old wine in new bottles', and to fight ideological battles that come 
from the days of the Second International. 

So the first thing is - we need to know in far more detail what is 
actually happening on the ground. Some of this information can be got 
from the press [even the Left press but in my experience this is the 
least informed].

Some can only be got by actually going out and asking people. Here in 
Liverpool during the dispute [ and still ] it is relatively easy for us 
to go and ask the dockers what is happening, to find out their general 
thinking, even the disagreements they are having amongst one another. 
Because by and large we have earned their trust and we have not broken 
any confidences they are quite willing to do this. One of the things 
that we learned very quiclky was the variety of political expressions 
and sophistication amongst dockers - this is perhaps the most 
politically informed section of workers in the world. So no bollocks 
about 'trade union consciousness' please.

I had hoped that those on these lists who particularly share my thinking 
might have been able to do the same and ask people directly. I would 
surmise that this has not been the case. Presumably those making the 
decisions which count are not making themselves available for comment or 
even justifying their actions. Hence the lack of reply from the union. 
And perhaps the militants feel bound to the MUA and so are not 'open' or 
amenable to voicing their real thoughts and feelings.

This I half expected. 

However from the lack of news from the pickets, and other scenes of mass 
activity, I would gues that the 'social space' that real, autonomous 
movements of workers need to organise such things, also hardly exists. 
If it did people would find it far easier to raise the issues that need 
raising - we would have as a mate of mine here calls it, 'collectivity'. 
This would generate a lot of energy and debate, but I see little 
evidence so far of this.

This is itself is very telling. It rather puts in perspective all the 
talk of some on these lists of 'mass, wildcat pickets' and so on. And it 
certainly knocks the idea of party building completely on the head. If 
the working class needs a party [and who knows in the future it might] - 
it would build one. Here not many dockers came away from a day on the 
picket line saying 'what we need is a new party' - on an average picket 
line there were generally representatives of at least half a dozen they 
could choose from. Significantly also, over the whole 28 months of the 
dispute the only recruit I know of is Jimmy Nolan who joined Arthur 
Scargill's SLP - well done Arthur.

Secondly there have recently been some people who have begun to develop 
some of the questions that I had posed [an example here is Earl Gilman 
who brings up the experiences he knows of amongst Hispanic workers - 
thanks for raising this experience Earl]. This it seems to me is where 
much useful work [and it is work] can be done. This was my main purpose 
in posing the questions

The questions I asked demand practical answers - answers in the here and 
now. Irrespective of whether the MUA 'wins' the present dispute [and 
what 'winning' means in the present context is debatable] the Patrick's 
workforce has lost its jobs. What is to happen to them ?

Will the banks put together a 'rescue package' [and saddle the workforce 
/MUA/ community] with a load of debt? Or will the workers themselves see 
that we are no longer dealing with a simple jobs issue but one involving 
the entire question of the reproduction of the working class in modern 
capitalist society. I found it very interesting that banks are being 
picketed and their role being questioned - more information please.

How are these workers managing - what structures and organisation is 
emerging to look after the homes, feeding,  kids, education, leisure and 
so on of Patrick's workers ? Or because they are alleged to be a 
'priveleged' labour aristocracy' [NOT] are they simply being left to the 
capitalist market or the Oz social [in]security system to solve ?

I could go on and on, but I am not on the spot and without such hard 
information [information which I tried to provide in my reports during 
the dispute here] it is very hard to understand and relate to what is 
going on.

If the answers to the kinds of questions I am asking can be forthcoming, 
workers all over the world will be able to relate much more concretely 
to what is happening and the muzzle, that official organisation is able 
to put over our struggle, will be much more effectively broken.

As ever, my grateful thanks to those who are, as we say here 'on my 
wavelength'.

And if anyone in Oz can actually get answers to my questions . . . . 

Take care


DG


'Those who work hard and do their best - go down the road with all the 
rest.'  

my mate Jimmy Burns


PS I don't even have copies of my original posts.

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