On the day of the Railwaymen's strike, as previously reported in the Bulletin, a demonstration of solidarity was held in the Old Market Square from 6.30 to 7.30. The press estimated that 500 people attended bt the organisors thought that there were several hundred more. The whole affair was organised in only five days and was all the more difficult to get underway because the Labour Party is not geared to this kind of activity. The local press gave the demonstration hardly any pre-publicity so it was necessary for organisers to do a lot of 'donkey work! in this respect. The burden of doing this fell almost entirely upon the left wing and especially the Fire Brigades Union, the University ‘Socialist Society, Young Socialists, and others who are normally very active in the ¢.N.D. and Left Club. In addition some unknown people chalked slogans in the vicinity of both the railway stations, the Tory Party H.Q., and other public places.
Several thousand leaflets were distributed at the local factories, loudspeakers went round on the Monday, Tuesday and \ednesday, and on the day of the strike 28 people poster-pamled the city centre for an hour before the demonstration. The latter weve mainly young people from the University, Young Socialists and Y.C.N.D and they carried slogans reading: "You may be next - Protest against Railway sackings "Dr. Beeching paid £24,000 per year to sack 20,000 railwaymen", "Sack Beeching, Sack Macmillan - not the railwaymen" and many other similar slogans. All the publicity had some effect because the meeting actually started before time! because a crowd had already formedl
Among the speakers at the meeting were: Butlor, national organis er of the Tobacco Workers' Unions Baker, Nottingham secretary of the Confed. of Shipbuilding and Ungineering. Unions; Barnett, area organiser of the Publi imployees' Union; Dulson, area secretary of the Mineworkers! Union; Harrison, of Derby N.U.R. No.3 branch (who represented the views of the carriage and wagon workers) 3 and Hall, the N.U.R. district organiser. It cannot be eet in general, that the speeches were inspiring but people went away feeling tha H&d shown solidarity with the railwaymen and had been given an opportunity to show their opposition to the Governmente A national campaign with similar demonstrations in every important town around the slogan "Sack the Tories - not the Railwaymen" mst be fought for throughout every working class organisation next time the railwaymen strike, RATLVAYMGN'S 100% STRIKI
The Railwaymen's strike last Wednesday was a wonderful example of solida=— rity, discipline and organisation. Its strength was showm by the fact that not one train ran on the 50,000 miles of track, the daily movement of 3,000,000 passengers was completely stopped and the movement of 750,000 tons of freight was entitely halted. Moreover millions of people stayed at home closings shops and offices in their hundreds, and to quote George Brassington, tho, N.U.R. assistant general secretary: the fact that so many firms had closed down and so many people had stayed away from their jobs was "the greatest compliment that could have been paid to us and to the effectiveness of the strike."
In Glasgow, there was a rally of 5,000 railwaymen at George Square after a big march that had been joined by railwaymen's wives and relatives. In Perth there was a march of several hundred to the City Chambers to present an anti-closures petition to the Lord Provost. Ifore than 2,000 marched through Brighton in protest against the decision to close the local Lancing carriage works. Derby's demonstrat— ion was attended by 2,000 with many engineors from the carriage works participating. Ilanchester saw a 1,000 marsh which included 2.T.U. mombers who stopped work in solidarity. 500 Coventry workers attended a demonstration addressed by Jack Lanwa rne, N.U.R district secretary and applause greeted that announcement that shops stewards at the Standards and other firms had agreed to black work received by rail on the day of the strike (this wasn't neccessary however as none was received) ‘swindon, a centre which will be very badly hit, had a 3,000 strong march to an open- ‘air meétinge,.At all the domonstrations there was a call for stronger action than a one-day strike.