ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the various facets of state action, and examines their impact on waterfront workers. The early twentieth-century history of Australia and New Zealand shows a pattern of early and vigorous state responsibility for dock labour management. Generalisations about state influence in ports are difficult because of the extreme diversity of states, harbour functions and historical conjunctures in the period considered. The experience of First World War showed that when states needed to mobilise their entire economy, dockers acquired great bargaining strength due to the strategic importance of ports in military logistics and the shortage of labour caused by conscription. City councils and state governments were in charge of many harbour functions in the early history of San Francisco and New York. One of the state's activities that most directly affected dockers' lives was harbour development.
