The Danish Dockers' unofficial strike of 1982-83

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The 1982-83 dockers' strike in Denmark was a remarkable affair. The ten week strike attempted to repeal a labour law enacted by the new conservative government. This law aimed to reduce the wages of part-time workers - dockers, nurses, part-time school teachers, cleaners etc. - by 1,000 to 1,500 pound [$1,500 - $2,300] a year.

The strike was also against the Special Workers' Union (SID). The largest union in Denmark sided with the government. The very same union that the dockers were members of even organised the blacklegs that helped to break the dockers' strike.

The strike was organized independently of the dockers' union, but was eventually defeated by the combined efforts of the police, media, blacklegs (scabs) and the SID.

Havnearbejderen (The Dockworker)
The ground for struggle had been well-prepared in the Danish docks. Havnearbejderen (The Dockworker) was a rank-and-file magazine that had been coming out since 1974. Produced by a group of about 12 dockers from Aarhus, it held weekly meetings open to any docker.

In clear opposition to the local union, Havnearbejderen covered the dockers' world from a young, rebellious point of view. It is read by dockers throughout Denmark and during the strike it came out in German and English as well.

Persistent and stubborn work saw Havnearbejderen build an extensive national and international network of contacts.

This led to an international dock workers' conference in Aarhus in September 1982 with delegates from most of Western Europe and even Egypt and Australia.

Independent organisation
The Danish dockers' strike of necessity was organized independently of the dockers' union. In each of the 30 to 40 harbours across Denmark, dockers directly elected an economic committee as well as other sub-committees to control their strike.

Each harbour also sent a representative to meetings of the central Striking Dockworkers' Committee which coordinated the strike across the country.

The following is from a post-strike report from two Aarhus dockers:
“During the first weeks of the strike a tremendous amount of organisational work from the dockers was needed. For the strike to have any hope of success the harbours had to stand together, keep in constant touch with each other, and coordinate every move they make. There was so much to be done . . .”

“Dockers were falling over each other to help: many went out to factories and other places of work to explain why we were striking and to ask support. Others from the larger harbours (Aarhus, Copenhagen, Alborg) helped stop black-leg work in the smaller harbours . . .”

“Every docker was on strike and every docker was equally important . . . everyone had a free hand and was encouraged to use their own initiative and to help out however they thought best”.

International “economic committees” were formed during the strike by dockers in various Scandinavian ports, including Oslo in Norway and Hamburg in Germany.

These committees functioned as press groups, with information supplied directly to them by striking Danish dockers and not via the shock/horror distorting mirror of the media.

Sympathy - but not enough solidarity action
The beginning of the strike was marked by enormous working class sympathy, especially among part-time workers who found it great that the tough dockers were fighting for their sakes too.

But other groups of workers - those several hundred thousand affected by the wage cut - did not follow the example of the dockers. The only solidarity strike was a two-day action by women in the fishing industries.

The striking dockers also held some meetings with the unemployed to encourage their support. A small number did actively support the strike.

A beautiful incident
At a dockers' fundraiser one supporter was about to hand over his 1,500 kroner donation. He handed over 1,400 to the dockers, then grabbed the last 100-kroner bill and said: “This money is just plain crap. It means slavery. For once I will deal with it the way it ought to be dealt with”.

He then took out a lighter, set fire to the bill and threw it away, shouting: “And then, comrades, give some more of this shit to the dockers, so they can go on fighting!” Everyone went wild. With their minds turned to practical problems, they were reminded of a goal much farther away.

Defeated by police, media, blacklegs - and their own union
Part of the problem was that the 3,500 dockers thought that - because their position was central to the Danish economy - they could smash the new labour law by themselves. They were wrong.

“We strike until either this damned law is removed or until this damned government is removed” the dockers declared mid-strike. The police then pounced on them like never before.

The police resorted to terror tactics.
“During the strike, a factory in Esberg harbour was burned down - even though it was being guarded by the police at the time. Later, during a clash between police and dockers, two harbour workers were arrested and held in isolation, charged with violence against the police”.

“After one-and-a-half months in isolation arrest, the police announced that the same two dockers had 'confessed' to setting fire to the factory.”

The media also played its part. At Padborg, the border station with Germany, 500 dockers and 100 sympathisers went to close border traffic. While negotiations were going on between truckers and dockers, police reinforcements with dogs charged the assembled flying pickets. Next day, the press screamed about the savagery and brutality of these thugs: the dockers.

There were many nasty clashes. One docker from Alborg was struck and killed by a Dutch truck while picketing in the small harbour of Hirtshals in northern Jutland.

The unkindest cut of all came from the Special Workers' Union (SID) which sided with the government and employers and helped to organize the scabs that helped break the dockers' strike.

Since the end of the strike, there have been selective reprisals. A long court case gave employers the right to blacklist any workers whom they consider to be “difficult” or “uncooperative”. Eleven dockers from Aabenraa in South Jutland - among others - were subsequently sacked.

The work courts finished off the job. These “fair” and “impartial” bodies fined four union locals (pound) 15,000 each while each docker was fined roughly half the amount he would have earned during the period the strike lasted.

As audacious as the independent struggle of the Danish dockers was, the defeat has been shattering for morale.

Nevertheless, after the dockers' defeat about ten categories of workers were exempted from the conservative government’s new labour law.

[Information from International Dockers' Struggles in the Eighties, no date (circa 1985). B.M. Blob, London. The full article can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/cordobakaf/blob_docks.html]