Showing posts with label Amiralty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amiralty. Show all posts

Wednesday 28 September 2011

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - THE INVERGORDON MUTINY.


            This September marks the 80 anniversary of the Invergordon Mutiny, an event that caused a run on the pound, a panic on the London Stock Exchange and Britain to leave the gold standard. Then, as now, it was a conservative government that was implementing pay cuts on public sector workers, which also applied to naval ratings. Most of the ordinary seamen were to see they pay cut by 10% and in some cases by 25%. The North Atlantic Fleet had put into Invergordon and the sailors learnt of the pay cuts from the newspapers. Meetings were held on shore and the Red Flag was sung by groups of sailors. They had decided to refuse orders except essential duties and on some ships, refused to put to sea. The strike action was spreading throughout the whole North Atlantic Fleet and messages were flowing from the Rear-Admiral Tomkinson, who was in charge of the fleet, the Admiralty and Downing Street. Eventually the Fleet set sail for its home base and some concessions were agreed on the ratings grievances. However, Rear Admiral Tomkinson was held responsible for the problem escalating, claiming he didn't take severe enough action at the start of the strike. Several of the organisers of the mutiny were jailed, 200 sailors from the North Atlantic Fleet were discharged from the service and a further 200 from elsewhere in the navy were discharged for attempting to incite similar actions across the service. One of the organisers, Len Wilcot accepted an invitation to go to the USSR, while another, Fred Copeman, commanded a British battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.
That was 1931 and here we are in 2011 and we have a conservative government trying to implement savage cuts to pay and conditions of public sector workers. It seems we the ordinary people never learn, we tolerate a system that every so often takes away everything it can from what the people have fought for, and won. Under this capitalist system what we the ordinary people have is never ours, it is grudgingly surrendered to usafter many a difficult strugle, and then at the first opportunity the parasites try to take it all back. I'm sure we have the imagination to come up with a better and more just system that sees to the needs of all our people, a system built on co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability, free from the greed drive motive of profit for the few. Time to get the parasites off our backs.
ann arky's home.