NEW BEGINNINGS

In late 2001, disillusioned UCATT members in the caravan building industry were looking for another union to represent them, one which would not sell them out in their disputes with their employers. Some of them approached the Hull Direct Action Group, some of whose members were known to them from previous campaigns. The Hull DAG, whose members were mainly syndicalist in outlook, were dedicated to a strong rank and file movement exercising complete control over union officials, making them answerable to their members. One of the group was a member of the IWW and this was suggested as an alternative. The caravan workers agreed to give the IWW a try and went away to inform their colleagues. The Hull DAG members agreed to join the union and form a General Members Branch to act as a support for any workshop branches formed in the caravan industry. The caravan workers found if difficult to make headway in their workplaces-it has been alleged that pressure was put on them by the union's national and regional officials, and workers became unwilling to transfer. But, though workshop branches did not materialise, the Hull GMB was formed and continues to grow. (This is not the first time that the IWW has established a presence in Hull, but more about that later.) A second attempt to form a workshop branch followed the recruitment of the eleven employees of a local social research company. When the management was approached for discussions with the union, the approach was rejected. Subsequently notice was given to employees that redundancies were imminent. As a result five workers quit the union under pressure, and one quit the firm. The five remaining members were all sacked or made redundant. These sackings are now subject of an employment tribunal. As the Industrial Workers of the WORLD, with members of four continents, we subscribe to the formula of acting locally and thinking globally. We oppose rampant global capitalism and its most obscene by-product, global conflict. We have been active in opposition to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and we will oppose the next event in the Bush/Blair rolling warfare programme. We organised demo's against the ethnic cleaning of the Palestinian people. We will continue to speak out and act against war, massacres, genocide and state terrorism, wherever it occurs. Continued below..

THE HISTORY OF THE IWW IN HULL Although it is known that the IWW has a history in Hull very little has come down to us. It is not likely that our forerunners were great writers. Any records they kept have not been recovered. The IWW was founded in the USA in 1905, and internationalist in outlook, it soon spread to other countries. Word of its ethos being carried across the oceans to all parts of the world by merchant seamen. We know that there was a "small IWW group" in Hull by 1912, which held open-air meetings in Paragon Square. The union continued in existence throughout World War One, consisting mainly of dockworkers. When the first Hull branch disbanded we cannot say. It probably suffered as a result of the Russian Revolution, which was welcomed by all opponents of tyranny. Unfortunately many class-conscious workers then joined the Communist Party, which they saw as a means of achieving world revolution. One such was the Hull-born merchant seaman and IWW member, Dick Beech, who went to Russia as an IWW delegate and returned a Communist. It took him about ten years to become disillusioned with the "worker's party". The US and Canadian delegates had no such illusions about the newly formed Red Trade Union International, and advised their fellow workers not to join. The US and Canadian sections survived but the British organisation went out of existence. A few members remained but there was no British Administration until 1946, when a Marine Transport Workers section was chartered in the UK, with branches in several ports. A handful of Hull dockers tried to form a branch here, but without success. The Hull Branch, of the IWW, would be interested to hear from anyone who has more information about the IWW's part existence in Hull. If you have any comments about this story, please contact the local IWW GMB in Hull. Email : hullgmb@iww.org.uk

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