The Great Dock Strike of 1889
The call-on
A: At that time the call-ons took place frequently in the day and they seemed to be calculated to inflict upon the dock workers the maximum of inconvenience, discomfort, anxiety, and misery. The first call of the day was at seven o'clock in the morning.
A second took place just before eight o'clock, a third forty-five minutes later, and a fourth at a quarter to one. In the intervals the unfortunate wage-slaves who had not caught the foreman's eye had to loaf about and kill time as best they could. In wet and cold their misery can better be imagined than described ...
At the "cage", so termed because of the stout bars made to protect the "caller-on", men ravening for food fought like madmen for the ticket.
As a brute would throw scraps to hungry wolves to delight in the exhibition of the savage struggle for existence, with beast tearing each other to pieces, so these creatures would delight in the spectacle.'
BenTillett, Memories and Reflections, 1931.
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Contact
Nigel Sagar
Design and Technology
London Borough of Barking
and Dagenham
Email: nigel.sagar@lbbd.gov.uk
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