When soccer player Robbie Fowler scored a goal in a big game for Liverpool he lifted his shirt for the TV cameras and revealed a vest saluting the dockers. A powerful film about them, The Flickering Flame , has been made by the celebrated director Ken Loach. The support of celebrities has offset an almost total media blackout. So they have played the stock exchange. Strategically placed phone calls to stockbrokers, notifying them of forthcoming blockades, have caused the MDHC share price to tumble.
Dockers now scrutinize the stock-exchange index with unaccustomed zeal.
Most energy, however, still goes into building the blockade. Liverpool was the only port in Britain still unionized. Their own union, the Transport and General, says it cannot make the dispute official because of Britain's anti-union legislation. They must have millions in their funds. I mean, my husband paid into that union for 31 years.