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I was a member of NATFHE as a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University (and have maintained my membership of that union despite no longer working there) when all education unions throughout higher education went on strike on the same day, to get a better pay rise from the New Labour government. It was a partial victory!
At the same university, I helped support a strike of construction workers (alongside other Socialist Party members, including particularly the most serious love of my life Nathalie Monier who was a student at the University; she was assassinated soon afterwards about a week before Princess Diana) against the University authorities. Because the construction workers were self-employed, there was no trade union bureaucracy to hold them back and they managed to win their strike.
One of the most important industrial disputes since I joined Militant in 1990 was the Liverpool Dockers' dispute, who had been sacked for refusing to cross a picket line. I went over to Liverpool for a large demonstration in their support, and took part in a picket of Argos, a company that broke the dispute by having goods transported by scabs through the port of Liverpool. Whereas socialist groups (including the Socialist Party) just went along for a picket and then left, it was anarchists who provided a real impact – firstly by draping a huge banner above the shop and secondly by occupying the shop (chaining themselves down inside I think) when most of the demonstrators (including myself unfortunately) had left. The Liverpool Dockers finally lost, betrayed by their union (the T&G) including its leader Bill Morris, but their strength resulted in them getting large pay-offs to settle their dispute.
I also helped the Socialist Party support the Tameside Careworkers strike, of mainly female careworkers in Tameside, Greater Manchester. There were many lively picket-lines and demonstrations, some of which I attended. A few days before the strike, Socialist Party member Noel Pine was elected Secretary of Tameside Unison, the careworkers' union. I improved the draft of Noel's election leaflet that he gave me, which made the difference between him getting elected and losing the election (since he only won by a few votes). However, Noel was smeared by a number of tiny sectarian socialist groups (riddled by big business infiltrators) with accusations of corruptions (which clearly weren't true because Noel is such a nice guy) and that perhaps undermined the self-confidence of the strikers to the extent where they lost the strike. Additionally, Tameside's New Labour Council was prepared to spend huge sums of money to defeat the careworkers, on scabs employed by the Apex agency transporting them past picket lines to work and back in taxis.
