This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
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Tackle ‘flags of convenience’ and protect domestic shipping
The lesson from the pandemic is clear: the global maritime industry must be properly regulated, warns MARK DICKINSON
A general view of the Port of Liverpool
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A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
FLAGS of convenience (FOCs) are a legal aberration and a stain on the shipping industry. They provide shipowners with the means of avoiding effective control by the countries of ownership, mostly from the global North, and the enforcement of strict rules and regulations that protect seafarers.
They have become a powerful vehicle for social dumping by allowing shipowners to exploit weaker legislation and lack of enforcement meaning lower wages, longer tours of duty and hours of work, and unsafe working conditions for seafarers.
Low or no taxes are also a key motivating factor behind a shipowner’s decision to use FOCs, many of which are considered tax havens.
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Seafaring is vital to our nation’s economy, but the industry has been allowed to diminish with a devastating impact on our port cities and coastal communities – a rejuvenation policy is urgently needed, argues MARK DICKINSON
Nautilus International general secretary MARK DICKINSON calls for the rights of workers to be protected as we move to zero-emissions shipping
To close employment law loopholes and build a fairer ferries industry, we need new legislation that ups the legal penalties to ensure no company can buy its way out of consultation with the unions again, writes MARK DICKINSON
Nautilus International leader MARK DICKINSON explains how pressure from his union prevented seafarers being criminalised under the government’s Nationality and Borders Bill for assisting those in danger at sea
