Seamen’s union hardliner has links to Unite, bought vessel under curious conditions.
Ship’s ownership traced to Turkish Cyprus
Irish trade unionist Ken Fleming is the man most responsible for ‘acquiring’ the ship involved in the latest Free Gaza search for martyrs. Named after another peace activist Rachel Corrie (allegedly deliberately killed by an Israeli bulldozer, although this isn’t what the YouTube video shows), the vessel used to be called the Linda.
The Free Gaza (FGM) line is that Fleming was merely a man concerned about humanitarian problems in Gaza who bought the vessel last March 31st when it came up for auction. But this isn’t really what happened: his Union ‘impounded’ the vessel a year before, having boarded it to establish that its owners, Forestry Shipping of Riga, ‘exploited its Lithuanian crew members – not paying their wages and subjecting them to humiliating treatment’. At the time of the ship being impounded, Fleming boasted to the media, “We could in fact kill Forestry off”. It seems Ken was as good as his word – Forestry duly went out of business.
Mr Fleming’s politics are well over to the Left. Fleming works full-time as an organiser for the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF). Scottish Seamen’s leader Bertie Armstrong describes the ITF as ‘going from port to port looking for stories’. Along with others, ITF man Fleming was found guilty recently of an unlawful escalation of ITF-affiliated Union SIPTU’s dispute with Marine Terminals. A local Court granted an injunction to Marine, after which Ken’s chums backed off. SIPTU runs a newsletter, Workers’ World. In its latest edition WW refers to capitalism as ‘standing for cronyism, corruption and criminality’. Its monthly magazine Union Post accuses the Irish Government of being involved in a plot to cut workers’ wages, cut welfare, cut pensions for the poor and use the EU as an excuse for keeping the working class down. Its 1970s rhetoric reads very similarly to that put out on a daily basis by Charlie Whelan’s Union UNITE – which is interesting because during another dispute in Dublin, Ken Fleming called upon Unite to support another of his causes celebres, announcing triumphantly to the press that:
“Unite was appalled at hearing the circumstances of the dispute in Dublin port described to them by the SIPTU delegation. I am delighted that Unite has committed to do whatever it can to support the strikers in their battle. “
At the subsequent Dundalk auction of the Linda, Ken bid on behalf of Free Gaza, and picked up the vessel for just 70,000 euros. That really was something of a bargain, because the Linda (since renamed the Rachel Corrie) is a 70-metre, 1200 ton transport vessel. But then, there were no other bidders.
Ken was reportedly ‘ecstatic’ on having acquired the vessel on behalf of Free Gaza. He told the ever-present media:
What has yet to be established is what happened to £20,000 worth of navigation equipment on what was then the Linda while it awaited a keenly-contested Dundalk auction. I could perhaps help on that one, but the lawyers insist that I must contain myself in this regard.
The Slog 