Never Cross A Picket Line - Tribute to Liverpool Dockers -1995/1998

Billy Bragg wrote these words for Never Cross A Picket Line as a direct result and in support of the Liverpool Dockers dispute which ran for 3 years between 1995 - 1998.
It was released on an album called Rock the Dock in September 1998 and it captures the determination of the Liverpool Dockers to never cross a picket line and extend that picket line internationally calling on the solidarity of Unions all around the world. This was truly one of the greatest achievements of trade unions of the 90's against the backdrop of anti trade union legislation and rampant conservatism (despite the election of New Labour).
Thankfully the Labour party is back in the hands of one of the Dockers supporters at the time Jeremy Corbyn and also boasts an MP moulded from this very dispute (Dan Carden).
It is time for this dispute to rightly get the notority it deserves from a Labour party who owe it to them once elected.
Five hundred men sacked for refusing
To ever cross a picket line
The voices down the ages warning
Never cross a picket line
You must never cross a picket line
Two years gone by but still they never
Ever cross a picket line
With their wives and children they stand together
Never cross a picket line
You must never cross a picket line
Look away, look away
Look away out west to San Francisco
Look away, look away
Look away down south to Sydney Harbour
Where the dockers have organised
The world's longest picket line
Technically this is an illegal strike
Never cross a picket line
But technically workers have no rights
Never cross a picket line
You must never cross a picket line
Oh, I want to live in a Brand New Britain
Never cross a picket line
Where workers rights are enshrined and written
Never cross a picket line
You must never cross a picket line
Look away, look away
Look away out west to San Diego
Look away, look away
Look away out east to far Osaka
Where the dockers have organised
The world's longest picket line
The Tories are gone but there's no improvement
Never cross a picket line
Now where is the might of the Labour movement
Never cross a picket line
You must never cross a picket line
Look away, look away
Look away down south to Auckland City
Look away, look away
Look away out west to old Vancouver
Where the dockers have organised
The world's longest picket line
Where the dockers have realised
You must never cross a picket line

[@semiacoustic2017]

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