B: One of the larger processions
C: The Docker's Baby. Illustrated London News, 1889.
The Great Dock Strike of 1889
Events 1
By 18 August the strike was well under way and a strike committee was formed to coordinate and direct the strikers. The committee issued a manifesto.
The strike leaders, aware of the need for public support, organised a series of well-disciplined marches.
Daily processions of strikers made their way from the East End info the City and to Tower Hill where they listened to speeches by strike leaders.
The strike turned into a kind of 'London Spectacular' which captured the attention of Londoners and brought them out on the streets to watch.
Money was collected from onlookers and used to feed the strikers and their families.
A: 'To the Trade Unionists and People of London. Friends and Fellow Workmen.
Trie dock labourers are on strike and asking for an advance in wages ...6d. per hour daytime and 8d. per hour overtime. The work is of the most precarious nature, three hours being the average amount per day obtained by the docker.
We, the Union of the Stevedores of London, knowing the condition of the dock labourers, have determined to support their movement by every lawful means in our power...
We now appeal to members of all trade unions for joint action with us, and especially those whose work is in connection with shipping - engineers and fitters, boiler makers, ships' carpenters, etc. and also the coal heavers, ballast men and lightermen.
We also appeal to the public at large for contributions and support on behalf of the dock labourers ... and in doing this we feel sure our efforts will be appreciated - not as disturbers or peacebreakers, but as a demand from men determined to ... succour [help] the poor and uplift the downtrodden.'
Quoted by Ben Tillett in Memories and Reflections, 1931.
D: 'Next came the brass band of the stevedores, following which streamed the multitude whose calling lay at the docks and riverside ... burly stevedores, lightermen, ship painters, sailors and firemen, riggers, scrapers, engineers... coalies in wagons fishing aggressively for coppers [money] with bags tied to the end of poles ...
Emblems quaint and pathetic were carried in the ranks, the docker's cat, the docker's dinner, the docker's baby ...
It had its moods - was merry on some days, taciturn [solemn] on others ... but it never lost command over itself or caused serious anxiety to its leaders or to the citizens of London.'
Smith and Nash, The Story of the Pockets' Strike. 1889.
Go back to The Great Dock Strike of 1889 menu |
B: One of the larger processions
C: The Docker's Baby. Illustrated London News, 1889.
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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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