SECOND TRIAL OPENS WITH MORE TALK OF TERROR SQUADS' By Three, The TAG on leadenship has given I to the Strewsbury movement. n must mark a turning point to fme the Three and bring an mals of the Shrewsbury 24, Speakers Lup and down the country made between the Pentonville 5 and the y 3. 1m London, Lou Lewis, London ng workers leader, said: When the five it were jailed, the response of the TUC a call a general strike... the jailings at ashury of the three building workers is war attack."
Bob Gordon, convenor of the Thamesmead ute, told Red Weekly: The law courts have been established to maintain the rule of law of the capitalist class and it is unlikely that the matter will be resolved by the law courts, It will of the Pentonville 5 was resolved-by mass dustrial action. That's my view and the view of the works committee.
MASS INDUSTRIAL ACTION
A movement like that which froed the Pestonville 5 will only come about as a result of one or more sections of workers giving a Brad. The most logical group for this role are the building workers, Last week, Birmingham UCATT shop stewards called for a national building strike and pledged to begin this in the Birmingham area, On 21 January, there will be a mass meeting of all Birmingham worker at which the motion for an indefinite poppage will be put.
Now, on 3 February, there is to be a secting or all officials, convenors and shop stewards of every union in the Birmingham datrict, This meeting will give the trade mion movement in Birmingham an ideal opportunity to endorse the initiative in the a campaign of initial supporting action in other industries. In all, Birmingham provides a model of how to go forward. The UCATT executive has agreed to endorse action taken by the regional councils. but we should not Pd on the UCATI or T&G executives to call for a national building strike. The Birmingham area council endorse their initiative. If successful, this should help open the way for building workers all over the country to follow and build a national strike.
Speaking to Red Weekly, Mike Hollahan, of the East London Defence Committee, and a branch official of the CEU, said of the Birmingham initiative: We would welcome this in London, because London is very poorly organised from the building workers' Nevertheless, as in the building workers' strike, I think support would be expressed -if the campaign is got off the ground and the snowballing effect occurs.
SUPPORT FOR BUILDING WORKERS A national building workers' strike will provide the first step to the sort of action which can free the Three. Building workers will not be isolated if they step forward. This was evident my be resolved in the same way that the matter from the support for Tuesday's action from While the stoppages and demonstrations over the jailing of the pickets were taking place, the second stage of the trials opened at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Monday. A small demonstration was held outside to express support for the socond eight of the Shrewsbury 24.
The Eight heard the prosecution open the trial with almost exactly the same speech which inaugurated the trial of the first Six. The Court was told how theme were terntying scenes of violence and intimidation when 300 pickets 'swarmed across" a housing sile at Shrewsbury threats. What happened went far beyond peaceful picketing"
The Eight are some of the men led by the imprisoned Three, Dennis Warren, Eric Tomlinson and John Jones, when they picketed budding trade and set an example by planning Jump building sites in Shrewshury during the building workers' strike of 1972. For playing this organising role, the Three were convicted of conspiracy. The Eight are nor on conspiracy changes, but face charges of unlawful assembly, fighting, and making an affray Liverpool stadium on Shrewsbury POLL OF VICW their support. ment. leaving a trail of damage and shouting atuse and Eight used violence, the other side involved capitalist class and its cffective allies against the strikers.
Tuesday: other groups of workers, In Liverpool, for example, the local Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions supported the demonstration of 2000 workers, and held • mass meeting of engineering workers in In Edinburgh, pits factories and building sites along the entire east coast of Scotland were represented on the demonstration to Leith Town Hall, and the Scottish Executive of the NUM was also represented, Flying pickets of striking building workers could bring out workers from all these trade union bodies in Against this background, the recail meetipg of the Liverpool Trades Council on Shrewsbury delegates or motions of support to this meeting: and on 2 February could be a body which does more call on all working class organisations to give full than pass resolutions and make declarations. It could get down to the real business of planning a movement which can free the Three, put an end to the trials, and provide a rallying point around which the rest of the working class can unite in action to bring down the Tory GovernIn the first trial, the jury heard some astonishing stories. Lump workers stood up in court and told how they had thrown stones at pickets, intimidated them, and wished they could have run over them with vehicles. The court heard one site foreman tell how he threatened pickets with a shotgun, None of these people were ever brousht to trial, VIOLENCE AGAINST STRIKES Hopetully, the detence will bring this evidence to bear on the trial of the Eight.
For it illustrates that, even if any of the in the struggle used it too. What took place ILI-03S. at Shrewsbury simply illustrates that the struggle between working class and the involves the use of force. In lact, the employers had even prepared anti-picket squads to use Terry Barrati, chairman of the Harking and Dagenham Defence Committee, placed this issuc in its wider context. He told Red Weekly or conditioning
have been held long ago to prepare the struggle. immediately to reverse it. But these bureaucrats