>Among the Cabinet papers released today (1/1/01) under the 30-year rule is >PREM 15/92 on "The Communist Party of GB and the National Dock Strike", a >four-page summary of material on an MI5 file whose reference is given as >POL F [Policy File] 299-24. Digital images of this can be seen at ><http://www.pro.gov.uk/releases/nyo2001/heath3.htm>. The following stories >are in today's press: > > >Guardian Monday January 1, 2001 > ======================= >1970 cabinet papers released >------------------------------ >Dockers' leader passed strike tactics to MI5 agents during national >stoppage======================================= > >A former president of the Transport and General Workers' Union has admitted >knowingly passing information on strike tactics to the security services, >after MI5 reports on a national docks stoppage in 1970 released today >detailed his views and attitudes. > >Brian Nicholson, a London dockers' leader at the time who became a close >ally of Neil Kinnock in the late 1980s, told the Guardian: "They used to >play games with me and I used to play games with them. What I told them was >not significant, unless to tell them things to let the other side know." > >Mr Nicholson said MI5 agents "flitted around the docks posing as leftwing >activists and do-gooders" during the industrial upheavals of the early >1970s, although others were associated with rightwing groups such as >Catholic Action and Moral Rearmament. > >"But I realised who they were," said Mr Nicholson, who had a leftwing >profile and now runs a retired dockers' club in east London. "The >establishment panicked easy in those days and they were on to me daily. >People were paranoid at the time about leftwing takeovers. But I was never >a communist - I'm a Catholic and a churchgoer." > >Mr Nicholson features prominently in a string of MI5 reports to the newly >elected prime minister, Edward Heath, about a two week national strike over >pay by 50,000 dockers in July 1970, which led the government to declare a >state of emergency and put troops on standby. The reports by MI5's director >general, Sir Martin Furnival-Jones, which are stamped "top secret", are >contained in Heath's personal file on the strike and are the first such >accounts from the domestic spying service on trade unions in the postwar >period to be released. They have been released to the public record office >under the 30 year rule. > >Focused mainly on the role of communists and their allies in the strike - >which was led by the then TGWU general secretary, Jack Jones - the reports >reveal the extent of MI5's undercover penetration and surveillance of the >left at the time and contain a relatively sophisticated analysis of the >private differences among the dockers' leaders. > >Their release comes at a time when Stella Rimington, who headed MI5 in the >early 1990s, is about to publish her memoirs in the teeth of fierce >resistance in Whitehall. > >Dame Stella worked for MI5's political subversion department, F branch, in >the early 1970s, when its role was massively expanded in response to >increasing industrial militancy on the left. She later headed MI5's >"counter-subversion" operations against the 1984-85 miners' strike. > >The 1970 docks strike was the first of a series of increasingly effective >stoppages during the Heath administration, which culminated in the miners' >strike of 1974, the three-day week and the Tories' electoral defeat. > >The MI5 briefings on the July docks walkout - passed to the prime minister >every couple of days and based on agents' reports, phone tapping and >bugging - include accounts of private meetings between Communist party >officials and dockers' shop stewards and even internal discussions about >the editorial line of the Morning Star, described as "the subject of much >anxious consideration". > >Several parts of the reports have been blacked out, including phrases >around the name of Brian Nicholson, whose views and dilemmas are described >in detail, even though he was only one of several rank-and-file leaders in >the London docks. > >The deletions will have been made either because the words refer to >"material given in confidence" or because of issues of "personal >sensitivity". > > >TIMES >MONDAY JANUARY 01 2001 > >Public Record Office: Release of 1970 files >Union strike - MI5 saw little threat from dock militants > >EDWARD HEATH faced the first major test of his premiership when the >Transport and General Workers' Union called a national dock strike in July >1970. But secret intelligence reports told him that it would be quite safe >to send in troops to break the strike, as the Communist Party and other >militants had been caught largely unawares. > >The MI5 reports, almost certainly originating from a senior source within >the TGWU, told Mr Heath that the dockers no longer had a militant >figurehead such as Jack Dash and that the Communist Party, which was active >within the union, "appears to have been caught by surprise". > >MI5 and Robert Carr, the Employment Secretary, told the Prime Minister that >Jack Jones, the TGWU leader, was "anxious to avoid responsibility for a >national dock strike" but that he was at risk of coming into conflict with >his shop stewards. Intelligence reports claimed that the chief source of >potential trouble was Bernie Steer, of the rival and much smaller >stevedores' union. Most dockers accepted that troops could be used during a >major strike, the reports said. > >During the protracted pay negotiations, in which Vic Feather, the TUC >General Secretary, mediated, Mr Heath insisted that no pressure be exerted >on the employers to improve their offer. The Government was prepared to >declare a state of emergency. > >Sir Burke Trend, the Cabinet Secretary, told Mr Heath that 34,000 troops >would be needed at an early stage to keep essential supplies moving. Sir >Burke calculated that essential supplies of food, power and iron would last >for four weeks, but that the Scottish islands might need special help. > >Mr Heath ordered an independent court of inquiry to set new rates of >dockers' pay. Mr Jones attempted, unsuccessfully, to call off the strike at >the 11th hour, and it went ahead briefly until a shop stewards' conference >reluctantly accepted the inquiry's findings. > >Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. > > >+++ > > >The website for the BBC2 programme on today's release of files ("UK >Confidential: A Leviathan Special", 1/1/01) includes an interesting piece >by Bella Hurrell on "Unlocking the secrets of government" -- see ><http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/uk/2000/uk_confidential/newsid_1 081000/1081675.stm>: > >>The government can extend closure on records for several reasons, >>including the judgement that release could harm international relations or >>national security. >> >>But Elizabeth Honer from the Public Record Office says that one of the >>main reason documents are given the maximum extended closure is because >>they relate personal details about people who are still alive. >> >>Disclosure of such information might be a "breach of confidence" or cause >>"distress" or "endangerment". >> >>"There are some records that perhaps relate to court cases where that >>material was not made available in open court, particularly if they were >>rape victims" she says. >> >>"Those sort of things are deemed personally sensitive. >> >>"If that individual were still alive there is no way we would release that >>information." >> >>Keeping mum >> >>If a government department does want to keep documents secret beyond 30 >>years, it has to explain why to the PRO. >> >>According to Ms Honer, it is far from just a rubber-stamping process. >> >>"It is a very rigorous," she said. >> >>"I might say 'You say so-and-so might be personally distressed by this, >>but where's the evidence? >> >>"Are they still alive? If it is relating to a figure in another country >>are they still prominent in politics? Are they still in power?'" >> >>An application from a department must go before the Lord Chancellor's >>Advisory Council on Public Records - this too can also reject >>applications. > > >+++ > > >In "John le Carr�: The Secret Centre" (BBC2, 26/12/00) a few beans were at >last spilt about the brief involvement in MI5 during the 1950s of David >John Moore Cornwell (his first wife, Alison Ann Veronica Cornwell n�e >Sharp, was rather more informative than the man himself). Apparently he >infiltrated the left at Oxford University while studying there and >consorted with some trade unionists who were disillusioned by the events of >1956. > _________________________________________________________________________
