In this series "Stevedore" takes a look at all those legends & myths that have grown around Portsmouth Football Club and seperates fact from fiction.
In researching this series I came to one conclusion, that most of the images that pompey fans like to portray of themselves and indeed of Southampton and its supporters are based on nothing more than shouting out something with no actual factual foundations, long enough and loud enough to make people think that they must actually be true.
This is certainly the case when Pompey tell the World why they call Saints fans Scummers, they refer back to a Docks strike somewhere back in the mists of time when the working class inhabitants of Pompey were stood picketting the gates of Pompey Dockyard, union men all, only to see scabs from Southampton cross the picket lines and keep the docks working.
The truth of the situation is actually a lot different, Pompey as we know is mainly a Naval base, its commercial port (More of this later) is still relatively small nowadays and up to the last few decades barely existed, home only to a few small freighters.
Being a Naval Base, back in the first half of the 20th century Portsmouth dockyard workers were not legally able to strike, they had no union for one thing and they came under the rules and regulations governing militarly establishments and employees, rule one is they did not have the right to withdraw their labour, the upside though of course was that they were employed and effectively had jobs for life. Google Pompey Dock Strike and you will not find one article telling you of an actual event, but on the contary, literally hundreds telling of why Pompey fans call Saints scummers.
At the same time in Southampton things were much different, Dockers were not employees like their counterparts in Pompey, but were casual labour, every morning hundreds of men would gather outside the dock gates for what was called the tally system, the lucky ones would get work, the unlucky would go home with no pay for that day.
In 1890 Southampton had a Dock strike, google Southampton Dock Strike and its the first thing that comes up and not the last, Portsmouth Football Club had not even been formed at this time, however newspaper reports tell of "Blacklegs from Portsmouth being attacked as they arrived at the railway station"
The tally system continued right into the 1950's until the National Dock Labour Board was formed and dockers not just in Southampton but the other major commercial ports were finally given basic wages and employment rights, the system continued right up until the mid 1980's when after the dock strike of 1984/85 the system was again changed.
In the 70's Pompey had expanded its commercial port activity and was now starting to get a foothold in short sea traffic to France, both coommercial and passenger, it had one distinct advantage over its neighbour Southampton though, the unions in Southampton were strong and therefore rigid shift patterns were adhered to, and this made it difficult for the short sea quick turnaround traffic which needed an adaptable workforce, Southampton didnt have this, but Pompeys ferry port with its non union labour did, with every dock dispute in Southampton, Pompey looked to capitalise, they didnt need to send men to Southampton, the ships came to Portsmouth, Southampton Dockers called for their Pompey counterparts to refuse to handle the ships diverted and to back their strike, being non union men, Pompey werent interested and despite picketing from Southampton Dockers crossed those picket lines time and time again.
In 1984 this came to a head, this strike was going to be long, again initially the cross channel ferries that used Southampton went to Pompey, but the ferry owners had had enough, Pompey welcomed them with open arms despite outcry from trade unions across the country and the ferry's moved to Portsmouth permanently never to return.
So what this brief history lesson shows is that the "Scummers" myth is total fabrication on the part of Pompey supporters, is has actually no foundations of truth, in fact the complete opposite, over a period of 122 years, longer than Portsmouth Football Club has been in existence, it has been Southampton Dockers who have had to fight for their rights whilst time and time again Pompey dockers have refused to back them, seeking their own preferment over that of others and with a long record of scab and blackleg behaviour to help weaken the strikes and of time and time again handling diverted ships which the Dockers of the major ports like Liverpool and London refused to do.
What this shows is that the term Scummers is nothing other than an invention in a pub outside of Fratton Park, its not that original even, many other clubs use it to refer to their rivals, perhaps the difference being, they dont shout it long and loud at every opportunity, they dont have a strange preoccupation bordering on the psycotic about "scummers" they havent let it take over their lives, they dont feel the need to scream "Scummer" till they are blue in the face at any opposing player that might at one time have been a youth team player at Saintsa and then tell their friendsand family how they gave him a "good scumming"
So Saints fans can hold their heads up high, our forefathers have a history of standing up for what is right, but not only that, but of standing up for others round us and refusing to make their plight worse as the Pompey Dockers did in 1890 and again in 1984 with all points in between, Pompey fans can call us scum, but back in those daysthey try to tell us are true, Southampton and indeed much the rest of the country had a far stronger word than scum to use to refer to them, Scab & Blackleg were perhaps two of the politer terms used.
In the next installment of Great Pompey Myths Debunked, Stevedore will show how the team with all the history and tradition is actually not the 1895 johnny come lately team from Portsmouth