He victory at the end of last week when they are that after a four-week sinke ane lemands bad been granted by the companyThis success was due to the flying pickets, used for the first time in the car industry. When management provoked the dispute over shoddy work' they were hoping that a strike would exhaust the workers before the pay negotiations which begin this week. Instead the pickets nearly busted Chrysler out of the market. After two weeks of picketing at the Unionists back SN5 Last week the Appeal Court rejected the appeals of the five people convicted of conspiring to commit the Angry Brigade bombings. They have been condemned to a combined sentence of half a century - no leniency was shown even to Hilary Creek, who according to a statement by the Stoke Newington Five Solidarity Committee 'is extremely ill ... her illness can be shown to be a direct result of prison life,'* At the same time, however, the first success in getting the trade union movement to take up the case has come with the passing of a Linwood and Dunstable, Chrysler were facing the closure of almost their entire Uk operations and the prospect of laying off their workforce at a lay-off rate of 65% of the basic wage At the beginning of the week management had tried, one last desperate ploy when they hired thugs at £500 a man to break through the picket lines at Stoke and get enough engines to Dunstable to allow a few moro days production there. But this only heightened the resistance of the pickets, and resolution by Stockport Trades Council pledging solidarity with the Stoke Newington Five, John Broome, President of the Trades Council and himself convicted by Lond Chief Justice Widgery on a charge of obstruction for picketing during the building strike last •We are committed to campaigning for their release and getting as many workers as possible to support this campaign, One of the things this case shows is that divisions in the Left can be very destructive when they prevent urgent practical lasks from being done. settle.
The successful use here of the flying picket tactic, and its rapid impact on the whole Chrysler combine, only emphasises the prob. len faced by the employers in this field. The use of thug tactics by the company - in this case of men who described themselves as "professional strike-breakers' did not arise because of a nasty American management but was determined by the whole logic of the class struggle in Britain, The bou movement must prepare to defend its picket lines against attack by making sure that the enemy, in uniform of otherwise, is not alone in using physical means. Ed Wyatt 'The decision was unanimous. It was recognised that this was a political trial and that they are political prisoners, just like Angela Davis. Some people linked up the repression of the live with what is happening to the building workers at Shrewshury and to the increased repression all round under the Tories. Someone pointed out the good politic work the majority of the five put into building claimants unions. People abso put emphasis on the dangers of the Special Branch and how diey were infiltrating working class orginisations. Everyone was concerned at the suvagery of the sentences, We want their release.
Steve Cohen * Copies of the complete staterpent can be ontained from: S4 Harcombe Road, London, N. 16.
The Herne Hill struggle opens up new prospects