06.03.1997

Class not gender

Doreen McNally is a founder member of Women of the Waterfront, set up to organise women in support of the Liverpool dockers. Her husband, Charlie, has worked on the docks for 29 years. Lee-Anne Bates spoke to her about their struggle and how working class women can be organised to fight back

What is morale like amongst the women at this stage of the dispute?

Support has been gaining momentum and we expect a good turnout for the rally in Liverpool on March 22. Workers from five continents supported the international day of action in January.

How did Women of the Waterfront first get organised?

Since 1989 after deregulation, Mersey Docks and Harbour Company have just intruded into our lives to a totally unacceptable level. When the dockers were sacked in December 1995 I spoke at the rally and everyone could identify with what I said about the effects on our home life. Women said, ‘That’s exactly what happened in my house’, and that was our common bond. None of us knew each other but when we had our first meeting we already had that shared experience of this intrusion and the breakdown of family life caused by MDHC.

How did that intrusion affect you before you began to organise?

Everybody thought it was just happening to their husband and didn’t know what to do about it. When the men went back in 1989 they were quite demoralised and the MDHC played on this. Then came the anti-trade union legislation. So everyone felt powerless.

Many dockers had to sign new contracts to move to Seaforth dock. If they refused they were put on 90 days’ notice or they would liquidate the company. Rotas were supposed to be given a year in advance, but they were given a week in advance and there were daily telephone calls to change shifts. You were called in on your day off. There were telephone calls early in the morning and late at night. Messages were left with your neighbours and family. If you weren’t there to answer the phone, you were quizzed about it the next day.

Since 1989 things had been on tenterhooks as MDHC planned how they could get rid of the dockers and they saw their chance in 1995 when they sacked the 80 Torside workers.

The moment MDHC locked out the dockers, scabs were already being brought in up the river in little boats.

Have you been involved in struggle before this dispute?

I’ve never felt the need before. But by intruding in our lives they had involved us. All the women have always been socially and politically aware, which you are if you live in Liverpool. But none of us have really been active before.

Do you think you will stay active in politics now?

Once you’ve had your vision broadened and your eyes are wide open, you have to. I wouldn’t necessarily say politics, but certainly humanitarian issues, though I suppose you can’t divide the two. What we are going through now is a gross violation of human rights and if we don’t stop what is happening here in Liverpool and help others stop what is happening to them, we will end up in the position of those we have met who can’t give their name at a conference because they will be shot or tortured in their own countries. That’s where we are heading if we don’t stop the rot now. Every gain the working class has made is now being eroded.

You say you felt powerless before. What has WoW been able to do?

We have spoken at thousands of meetings around the world - meetings which the dockers would not have been able to cover themselves - as well as doing all the usual types of things that get left to women, such as fundraising and organising events. We spoke to a rally of 1,800 people in Paris on the day of action, which was absolutely incredible.

Are you in contact with other women in struggle?

We’ve been in contact with everyone we can. We’ve been on the picket line with the Hillingdon hospital workers. We’ve been in contact with people seeking political asylum. We have become involved with the Kurdish problem in Turkey, with Women Against Domestic Violence.

Have there been any attempts to raise the need generally for working class women’s organisation?

We have gone out to involve women in this struggle. We’ve made international contacts as well, who we are in constant contact with. I’m going to an international conference in London on Monday as part of International Working Women’s Day. We have a woman who has been in the longshoremen’s union in Australia all her life who is campaigning on our behalf.

Has your experience developed your view of women in struggle? International Working Women’s Day marks the strike by New York machinists in 1908 and when it was first celebrated in Russia Clara Zetkin emphasised that the world is not divided between men and women, but between the working class and the ruling class.

This is exactly how we feel. We are an integral part of this dispute and there has been very little discrimination towards women. It has not been a problem collectively, but only individual instances, hardly worth mentioning. We have not been engaged in the gender battle.

The younger men immediately took on board our involvement, but for the older men it was something new. Women had not been involved in the struggle on the docks before. There has been no feeling that women should not be involved, which is a huge stride forward.

You contacted the wives of the company directors early on in the dispute.

That was proof positive that all women are not the same. Some women think that you have this common bond - you’re linked by your hormones and god knows what else. But this isn’t the fact at all: there is a division between the working class and the rest.

One of the young women in our group who has three young children suggested we get in touch with the directors’ wives to tell them what is happening to our families and kids, thinking they would understand that much, that our husbands must get back to work.

But of course they didn’t think like that at all. Us and our children wrote individually and collectively. Their spokesperson wrote back saying the wives of the managing directors did not want to become involved. That is why I said on the Ken Loach film, ‘What are they like? Do they just sit at home like gangster’s molls?’

What has been your opinion of the role of the trade union leaders such as Bill Morris?

The union tells us they have to stay within the law. We are standing in defence of trade unionism, we don’t have a problem with the union, but maybe the wrong person is at the helm. To us the union should be standing shoulder to shoulder with the dockers - that is clear. But when you get higher up the line, the Labour Party is pulling the strings and telling them not to get involved because of the election coming up. The WoW is clear that everyone in this country should be out on a general strike. We want proper solidarity action in this country because we are standing in defence of trade unionism and the future.

You have been isolated in a dispute which has had a devastating effect on your own lives. How can that situation be turned around?

The Liverpool dockers have sent a loud and clear message to the government and to the hierarchy in the union - ‘We are the union’. So it doesn’t matter about legislation, it doesn’t matter about the bureaucrats. We are the union. 500 families have stood solidly for 19 months - that’s trade unionism. I would say to others - don’t worry what the union says. Get up off your knees and tell them, ‘We are the union. We are the working class and we’re not having this.’

You’ve had that courage and the vision, as you say, to see that it is possible to fight back, but that doesn’t exist generally in the working class. People are cowed and cannot see further than their daily toil.

It’s solely economic fear, because there are so many people unemployed. That has to be overcome. When I raised the need for a general strike at a meeting there was an atmosphere of shock. But people are starting to say now that we need a general strike, which used to be an unmentionable word. We are getting support. We wouldn’t still be here otherwise.

Women are still underrepresented in the political and trade union movement. How can they be drawn into the struggle?

To me it is an instinctive thing, it is a most basic instinct to stand up and protect your young, which may not be a popular thing to say, but you can’t get away from the fact. Women who care about their families will see that they can and have to stand up and fight for them, because they do it every day anyway. What is needed is organisation, because at the moment women have their hands full running the home on top of everything else.

With the formation of Women Against Pit Closures we saw the beginnings of the possibility of a working class women’s movement. ls that something we should be working towards?

There is no generalised movement now, but I think it will evolve out of the experience of WAPC and groups such as ourselves. In the Magnet workers’ dispute the women are involved - it seems to be automatic now. When you actually get involved, you are taking control of your own life.