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The Occupation of the Cammell Laird Shipyard

£3.00
Combination/copies

Birkenhead, 1984

by
John Cunningham
2021
Pamphlet
-
29 pages
ISBN
978-1-909639-55-3

A pamphlet remembering and documenting the struggle of workers at Cammell Laird Shipyard who fought to save their jobs and preserve their industry for future generations.

Promotions & Offers

Socialist campaigns in Merseyside
£3.50
The 1984 Cammell Laird occupation and the 1987 Wallasey Election
Variations 

In the 1980s Lol Duffy, a Socialist Organiser supporter (a predecessor to Workers' Liberty), was a part of two important struggles. The first, the occupation of the Cammell Laird Shipyard in 1984, where Lol and other workers occupied their workplace in order to save their jobs and the jobs of future generations. The second, Labour's campaign in Wallasey in 1987, where Lol came within 300 votes of beating a Tory minister in what was thought to be a safe seat. The pamphlets in this deal tell these historic struggles, their stories and explore lessons for today.

Included publications 
Workplace Occupations
£4.00
Cammell Laird, 1984; Vestas, 2009 (two pamphlets)
Variations 

This deal includes The occupation at Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead,1984 and The Vestas Jobs Battle. Both tell the stories of historic workplace struggles. In 1984, Workers' at the Cammell Laied shipyard occupied their workplace to try and save their jobs as the Tories privatisation threatened to mothball the yard altogether. In striking parallel, in 2009, the workers at the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of White occupied their factory to demand the Brown Government nationalised their factory to save their jobs and continue the production of wind turbine blades.
These pamphlets give an opportunity to hear the stories of and study the lessons from important workers' struggles.

Included publications 
Links 
Blurb 

In 1984 workers at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead occupied their workplace in defence of jobs. The occupation and the strike which preceded it lasted just over three months, and then on 3 October the occupiers were arrested.

37 of them were found guilty of contempt of court and jailed. There is a campaign to lift the convictions.

Workers’ Liberty has published this pamphlet so that we can remember those who took risks to fight to save not just their jobs but the jobs of future generations.

Table of Contents 

1. Introduction

2. Shipbuilding in decline: the background to the occupation

  • Organisation of workers in the shipbuilding industry.

3. The situation at Cammell Laird

4. The occupation

  • Workplace occupations
  • Frank Field: a record of infamy

5. The aftermath of the occupation

6. Postscripts

  •  The roll of honour: the 37 who were arrested and imprisoned.
  • Acknowledgements, sources and references
Related / Further reading 

British factory occupations in the 1970s

The occupation of their workplace by working people is certainly dramatic but it is not a new tactic of trade union struggle.

The most dramatic occupations to occur were the seizure of factories by workers during the Russian revolution in 1917, and the widespread occupations that took place in Italy in 1920.

Groups of British miners and railwaymen staged stay-down or stay-in strikes in the 1920s and 1930s. In America, also in the 1930s, car workers of the emerging CIO union organisation were involved in a number of sit-ins. In France around the same time large numbers of industrial workers barricaded themselves in their workplaces during widespread strike activity...

Turin, Gramsci, and Italy’s “red years

On 30 August Alfa-Romeo, in Milan, locked out its workers. This sparked the climactic confrontation. Within days factory occupations spread across Italy, and beyond the metalworks, partly triggered by other bosses’ lockouts. In Turin, the occupations dominated the city.

Many workers felt that at last, if not by their choice, the decisive confrontation had arrived. The first Sunday of the occupations, 5 September, saw huge assemblies in the factory, with songs and speeches.

The factory councils took control. Production was continued, partly in order to lay the basis for later demanding pay for the days of occupation (which in fact was largely won), partly to show that the workers could run the factories without the bosses. The occupations were widespread enough, and support from railworkers was strong enough, to maintain supplies.

Occupations, workers' control, and workers' government: readings

Readings from Genora Johnson Dollinger, Leon Trotsky, and Antonio Gramsci on strikes occipations and workers control.

How sit-in strikes built the unions in USA

Throughout the twentieth century there were periods of class struggle that saw workers occupy factories and workplaces: in the 1920s in Italy; in the 1930s in France, the USA and elsewhere; in France in May 1968. And in Britain in 1973-75 there were over 100 occupations over job cuts.

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