Fifty years ago this month, the most un-British direct action was undertaken by an unlikely group of militants – our inshore fishing fleet.
Barely a year after the miners’ union had brought down the Conservative government of Edward Heath, UK fishermen undertook a blockade of our ports which threatened to do the same to the new Labour government. As North Shields skipper George Crawford said at the time, the fishermen managed ‘do in four days what Hitler could not achieve in four years’ – that is, close Britain down.
In Scotland alone, a total of 900 vessels with 5,000 men targeted 18 ports.
Gavin Cargill, who was an advisor to some of the fishermen’s leaders, went on to tell the story of the protests in his book Blockade 75, which was published the following year.
We have six signed copies of Blockade 75 to give away. For your chance to win, simply answer the question below. The closing date is Monday, 21 April, when the winners’ names will be picked at random.
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