Dockers Against Racism: an interview with Micky Fenn

Abstract

This hitherto unpublished interview with left activist and trade union organiser Micky Fenn (1938–1996) was carried out in 1990. He recalls how he, as a member of the Unofficial Shop Stewards’ Committee in the London Docks, dealt with fellow trade unionists’ racism (even turning the racist vernacular to his own ends). The interview covers the critical episode which reflects the nadir of British trade unionism when, in April 1968, Dockers downed tools and joined the London Smithfield Meat Market porters’ strike and march in support of MP Enoch Powell who had become the mouthpiece of anti-immigrant sentiment, warning of ‘Rivers of Blood’. Fenn describes the quandary this posed militant organisers who believed in collective responsibility: not wanting to strike-break but completely opposed to the basis of the strike, not wanting to put up the usual pickets against strike breakers, but not wanting to cause a precedent. He goes on to show how elements in the unofficial trade union movement learnt from the 1968 debacle and went on to tackle racism on the Docks to ensure that extreme rightwingers never again got a foothold and black workers could. Fenn explains why he later felt the need to take to direct action against growing fascism in East London.