Colin Ross

Death of the Docks Colin Ross

This book will enlighten you as to the real hardships faced by the people in the East End after the war and how many people had to resort to illegal means in order to survive. It will explain how bad the working conditions were in the docks and why there were strikes in an attempt to rectify the chronic working conditions. But intermingled among all the hardship are stories of humour and astonishment, this is what kept us going. The book follows my working career and how I helped to create the unofficial shop stewards movement into an industrial power base that the system could not control. With the stories centre piece being the jailing of 5 London dockworkers and how we overcame everything and got them released. Read how after one off the greatest trade union victories it became the tool that ultimately defeated us. This book really questions those people who claimed to have dockworkers interest at heart, could people keep on making mistakes and continually defend the system that eventually smashed a fine industry. Also the M Ps and local councillors who stood by silently.