Kmflett's Blog

Striking seafarers 17th May 1966 (Socialist Worker)

John Prescott, from ship’s steward to Deputy PM via Ruskin College

The funeral of John Prescott who died aged 86 takes place in Hull today. It sees a gathering of New Labour figures including Blair and Brown

John Prescott may have been Blair’s deputy but he, unlike many from that era, remained an ally of Jeremy Corbyn.

Perhaps he recalled his joint authorship of the pamphlet ‘not wanted on voyage’ about the 1966 seamen’s strike (Prescott was a ship’s steward).

Then Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson argued it was produced by a tightly knit group of politically motivated men (he meant the Communist Party) but actually he was criticising an activist who went on to be a leading Labour Party figure.

Government Papers recently released at the National Archives reveal the role the Government and the security services played in the dispute. John Prescott’s name is not mentioned but he was part of a group of union members pushing their right-wing union leaders to do better.

The papers reveal Wilson’s understanding that the seamen’s union was not well led and that there were real issues that needed to be addressed. They also show that the role of the Communist Party was principally that of providing some leadership and organisation where the union could or would not. The CPGB had very few seafaring members and none at all at senior levels in the union.

Wilson recognised the role the Communist Party was playing but his concern was to settle the dispute because of the impact it had on the economy. The CP was not necessarily a block to this, having wider political ambitions. However the papers make clear that Wilson was not aware of the scale of the security services infiltration of the CPGB. It was only with difficulty that Wilson fended off calls for a inquiry into the dispute from Tory leader Heath. Such an inquiry would likely have exposed numbers of security service agents and informers.

It was the dispute that provided the catalyst to Prescott’s future career. The seamen’s union leadership were not prepared to countenance a union role for him, even though he was highly effective in Hull

Rather after the dispute the NUS sponsored Prescott to go to Ruskin College where he was tutored by the late socialist historian Raphael Samuel and to his credit he never forgot that period or the influence of Raph on his ideas.

Meeting Prescott in the BBC Politics TV studio on Millbank on one occasion (we were appearing on the same programme with Andrew Neil but on different subjects) we had time to compare notes on Raph, who Prescott remembered well and with some affection.