AFRICAN SEAMEN STRIKE AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

Gaitskell and Gollan Want H-Bombs Kept Socialists Want Them Swept Away!

Weekly Journal of the Socialist Labour League _Vol. 3, No. 108 Threepence By WILLIAM HUNTER © SEVENTY-EIGHT Africans, members of the crew of the Another accusation was that the three officers had plotted Elder Dempster liner M.V. Apapa, berthed at Canada with the ship’s doctor to sack men who had protested. A no. 1 dock, Liverpool walked. off the ship on list was drawn up, the petition said, naming those who Wednesday evening when the chief steward,’ the second were to be failed at. the next medical. examination.

The petition warned that if the crew’s demands were not steward and the chief storekeeper came aboard.

met they would withdraw their labour.

The men, all but three of whom are Nigerians, had been An Elder Dempster director, in a paternalistic letter to on strike since Saturday morning demanding the transfer the crew, said that difficulties could be settled by ‘a sensible of these three officers for discriminating against African approach to senior officers’, or, failing that, by an approach members of the crew.

to the shipping master ‘on your return to your home port’.

The Apapa walk-off was the climax of a week of protests The letter was rejected by the crew, who knew that if which began with a petition to the company and included they waited till they returned to Lagos they would be waiting a picket round its offices last Saturday morning.

until they were discharged.

On Monday morning the captain and a Board of Trade ‘Step kicking Africans around’

official told them they had been docked two days’ pay ;

The pickets carried placards bearing slogans such as ‘African for stopping work and ordered them back. seamen demand better working conditions’, ‘Stop kicking On Monday and again on Tuesday, Board of Trade officials . Africans around’ and ‘End cheap labour’. visited the ship and asked to see the crew one by one. The The petition alleged: men refused.

Police visited the Sailors’. Home making inquiries about THAT the chief steward instituted a new rule for Africans the dispute. Elder Dempster officials also went there to only, which cut down on the brands of cigarettes they Task for men to work on the ship. They had no success.

could buy; THAT on June 13 the ‘chief steward stopped the chief dockers’ ‘sunport’

Appeal for docke ppo butcher from giving steak to the African crew, saying that ah ORY only EF: meropeans cou ould be serveg Way d with steak; Sia The Apapa men are determined to hold out, and the crews of West African ships berthed in Liverpool have THAT the chief steward was abusive, and pushed Africans sent protest telegrams to the company and to the Ministry around;

; of Transport saying they are resolved to support their fellowTHAT the second steward threatened to black-list men who countrymen.

.

refused to wash down his motor-car during working hours The seamen have issued a leaflet appealing for the support.

on June 16. and sympathy of Merseyside dockers.