Great Britain: A Hint of Hope

To Harold Wilson, it seemed high time for plain speaking about Britain's six-week-old shipping strike. "It has been apparent for some time," the Prime Minister told the House of Commons last week, "that a few individuals have brought pressures to bear on a select few on the executive council of the National Union of Seamen. It is difficult for us to appreciate the pressures which are being put on men I know to be realistic and reasonable, by this tightly knit group of politically motivated men who are determined to exercise backstage pressures, endangering the security of the industry and the economic welfare of the nation."

Though Wilson did not mention Communists by name, no one missed his meaning, least of all his critics. The Tories promptly demanded more details. Left-wing Laborites claimed that he was jeopardizing the delicate strike negotiations. Others, that he was grandstanding. Yet there was a growing awareness that Communists might well be prolonging the stoppage that had idled 26,000 men.

After a series of Red-led wildcat strikes six years ago, Union Chief William Hogarth invited their extremist leaders into his union in the hope that he could keep them under control. Gradually a group of the far leftists worked their way into influence, and now are believed to be manipulating the more militant members of the union's 48-man executive council. According to one report, the Communists meet on King Street in Covent Garden before sessions of the executive council, then pass their decisions on to their militant contacts on the council. With his charges last week, Wilson hoped to drive a wedge between the seamen's militants and moderates.

He may be succeeding. Three days after Wilson made his charges, union leaders reopened talks with shipowners on a compromise solution proposed by a government-appointed court of inquiry. The major sticking point in negotiations had been a 'union demand that workers be paid the same weekly wage for 40 hours that they had been getting for 56. Shipowners, who claimed that the seamen's demands amounted to a 17% pay increase, insisted on two years for the changeover. The court of inquiry had compromised on one year, which was fine with the shipowners, the government, and just about everybody else—except the union. Then toward week's end, there were hints that the seamen might be willing to accept the court's recommendations if the shipowners threw in an extra nine days of paid vacation.