Dockers tighten strike grip

THE LONDON dockers' walk-out took a tighter grip on the port yesterday, with 36 ships idle as opposed to 27 on Monday.

Dockland was silent yesterday morning. All 7,000 men in the enclosed docks stayed away solidly without the need for pickets.

The only sign of activity was a mass meeting at Tilbury, where dockers remained out after being told their 18-man committee would seek official backing from the Transport and General Workers' Union.

Later the 18-man committee, which comprises 12 T&GWU dockers and six members of the National Amalgamated Stevedores' and Dockers' Union, met shop stewards from the riverside wharfs in an attempt to spread the stoppage.

The men in the enclosed docks walked out after employers refused to accept their withMiners ballot against strike action THE RESULT of the miners' ballot rejecting the NUM executive's recommendation for a national strike against the government-imposed pay settlement is a direct consequence of the capitulation by TUC leaders to the state control of wages.

As Joe Gormley himself said after announcing the result yesterday:

"The miners perhaps thought that after the TUC special Congress [where Jones and Scanlon sidetracked the call for a General Strike by asking for a one-day stoppage] they would be on their own fighting government policy The NUM president added: 'It would be wrong to draw the conclusion that the miners have voted to accept the government's policies or that they are satisfied with this wage settlement.

Right-wing THE PRESIDENCY of the National Union of Students fell to the right wing yesterday on day two of the annual conference at Exeter University.

Digby Jacks' current running mate, York university's Mike Randall, won the election on the fourth ballot in a close finish with fellow national executive member Mike Terry, who was backed by the Communist Party.

But voting at the union's biggest-ever conference took place in an atmosphere of frustration and confusion at the marking time over the national grants campaign as prices soar.

Of the 1,100 students packed into the Great Hall at Devonshire House, only 600 voted with some delegates tearing up their 13th ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF YOUNG SOCIALISTS BLACKPOOL APRIL 14/15 1973 RDAY AND SUNDAY, APRIL 14 & 15, WINTER GARDENS, BLACKPOOL DAVID drawal from flexible manning arrangements.

In protest against the employers' £2.60 pay offer, the dockers had decided to 'devalue' Devlin Phase Two conditions Green Book and demand more men in gangs and only one job per shift.

The employers were committed to withdrawing the offer and putting men off pay altogether if this happened.

A mass meeting has been called for Friday and the enclosed docks employers, meeting yesterday morning, decided they had little choice but to wait for the outcome before making their next move.

HULL dockers, meanwhile, were determined yesterday afternoon to go ahead with a 24-hour strike this week following the discharge by unregistered labour *But they saw what was happening around them and said: we'll take what we can get now, and keep negotiating.

'Maybe the miners are being more realistic than anyone believed. They will into ation when When you. time is wrong, her'll tell Gormley admitted he was surprised that only 36.6 per cent (82,631) voted for strike action, and 63.4 per cent (143,006) against.

He thought that last year's seven-week strike and even longer overtime ban was still too near for the miners to decide to strike again.

He said the deal, with extra pension rights and other fringe benefits, like somkeless fuel allowance, was worth about £3 a gerstakestudents' union presidency cards in disgust.

Randall is regarded as a left-winger, although he is not a CP member, and has been careful not to identify closely with the Stalinist-inspired tactics which have so far dominated the fight for higher grants.

A solid middle-of-the-road social democrat, he said the NUS must develop as a strong union and play its part in the struggles of the labour moveBut the Stalinist and revisionist exhortations to escalate the grants campaign with a still bigger show of militancy to force open the Tory Chancellor's purse fell on deaf ears.

timber ship on Sunday.

The ship, the 'Inge Fiedler' • a Dutch vessel, arrived secretly at Bankside wharf in the early hours of Sunday morning.

By 3.30 p.m. eight non-registered men employed by wharf owners W. S. Barchard and Son Ltd, working under a heavy police guard, had unloaded the ship's 400 tons of French beech and battoned it down for sea.

The Hull dockers, who have conducted a long campaign against unregistered wharfs, are bitterly angry at the failure of the recent National Ports Council report on the subject to recommend their registration under the Dock Labour Scheme.

They have demanded the recall of the T&GWU docks delegate conference in this issue.

Both this issue and the London stoppage are expected to form the main items for dis cussion at Saturday's meeting of the national port shop stewards' committee in . Birmingham.

BULL OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT The NUM will ask for its implementation from April 1, and for more talks on holidays, hours and productivity.

In the ballot, 225,637 votes were cast out of a possible 290,000. No area reached the necessary 55 per cent in favour of strike action.

Yorkshire, the biggest coalfield, came closest with 53 per cent, followed by Scotland, 51 per cent, South Wales, 50 per cent, and Kent, 49 per cent.

Of the other 19 areas, only Derbyshire, North Wales, and Cumberland went over 40 per cent.

Emlyn Williams, South Wales vice-president of the union and commented: 'Naturally we are disappointed, but we are not surprised because we are of the view that the national leaderThe conference was thirsting after an assurance that although the present fight could not be taken much further, they could still win. Randall's 'no compromise' platform gave it to them.

The fact that his stance turned out to mean no more than securing an , 'equitable distribution' of whatever money the Tories were prepared to make available for grants was passed over in the frustration at seeing the Stalinist campaign immovably stalled.

In the elections for president the results were:

Mike Randall (right-wing bour) 306 Mike Hill (International ist Group) 136 Piers Corbin Marxist Group)

'OR TEI 01ship out-manoeuvred the members.

Negotiations started on three priorities in November: wages, craftsmen's differentials, and a shorter working week. The Board immediately conceded £2.29 across the board and then for some unknown reason, someone, principally Mr Gormley, introduced the additional week's holiday which was not one of the mandatory negotiable matters' Presumably Williams would have asked for less and settled without a fight Gormley attacked the TUC for delays in organizing the May 1 day of 'national protest and stoppage'. The NUM was still waiting for an official letter from the TUC containing details of the call to action.

An instruction to strike would require another ballot 'which might get heavily defeated'.

Mike Terry (Communist Mike Terry (Communist Party backed) 270 (International Brian Prangle (Young Socialist Student Society) 13 In the election for vice-president Communist Party member Stuart Paul, with a militantsourding policy of full backing for the TUC's campaign against the Tory pay laws, received 353 votes, Roger Haworth got 231 votes, Richard Palser (International Marxist Group) 3, and Dusty Miller (Young Socialist Student Society candidate) 17.

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