[page 1]
Shrewsbury...
REPRESSION and the CLASS STRUGGLE NO
by Dave Bailey
IMG
[page 2]
INTRODUCTION
Oae wet evening in mid-lebruary, the police rounded up a number of men feou several towns in North Wales and drove them to Shrewsoury pricon under full security guard. The following morning they faced charges ranging from damage to property to intimidation, assault and conspiracy,
these men were some of the building workers who formed the flying pickets used so effectively in last year's building strike, There are now 24 Or thea facing their second hearing in Shrewsbury Court on April cSth. Usanwhile a further half dozen are appearing in local courts in the Urea»
znese men are being prosecuted for doing what thousands of workers have done for decades and in many countries in defence of their jobs “and their standard of living. And, as so often when the ruling class Wants to intimidate workers, the charges are trumped up. Many of them for example, refer to incidents alleged to have taken place on a site at Yelford, yet the police detained nobody on the day, and even escorted the pickets to two further sites to continue their picketing, Yor collecting money during the strike, some are charged with collecting mouey with menaces,. Now they are being tried on photographic evidence collected by Special Branch and on the basis of ttestimonies six months essor the event. Needless to say, the site agents who intimidated the workers with a shotgun are not appearing in court.
[page 3]
CONSPIRACY = INTIMIDATION
Asc for the conspiracy charges, many an innocent person who has nevertheless pleased guilvy in Court will tell you that a ccuspiracy charge iS nothing wore than crude intimidation. To prove it in court, aL the prpsecution has to do is allege that you ‘intended' to do conecthing, regardless of whether you are charged with doing it or not, ft carries an unlimited sentence. The police use this every day as a makcucignes that is you are given a main charge plus conspiracy, and tne police will prowise to drop the couspiracy charge on condition you ‘admit’ to the main charge. So, even before you get to the Court, you are faced with a choice of pleading guilty or facing an indefinite sentence, The Tolpuddie Martyrs, to take the most famous example, were transported for ‘conspiring' to form an illegal association (a, trade union) under the Cumbination Acts,
the ruling class are fond of trying to confuse workers struggles by using the Courts to draw a line between those workers who picket ‘peacefully’ or protest ‘peacefully!’ even when faced with armics of police anid jjlorry joads of scabs, and those who fight force with forve. This sorupplous moral concern is not however applies by the ruling class to its ow activities in theclass struggle. This has been shown time and time again. For example, last month, at St. Thomas’ Hospital
[page 4]
we 3 mis
cito in London, i squad vi police waded into u picket line to iet brough i special police-style van loaded with scab Labour• It wis amostwooty noi possible lor the pickecs to distinguish the "violent policemen from ne "nonviolent policenen, is iney were wing chow cdross the roado Weither did tiwy have any Coareo to whien they could bring ine culprits for trial, In the minors sürike 1uei years pruners found themselves laced but orty wüh vico pime, bal Jury drivers driving coul ar 50 mph through cho line with the coaD upen connivanõo of the police lone miner vas belled en chio miylo When to winers at Dover cecided to test che neiurainiy of tao law by compluming io the Direstor of Public Prosecurions about a lorry driver viciding iron bars to get througu picker lines, he emmpty stated: 11c would Do nectasary onto prove that the truck draver carried the bar with the intoncion of using si lo injures on 1 do not chereture propose to take iny action in the matier"• do doubt che capitalist press has no imention of causing injury eituer when it inclios the "puble" to actuck railwaymen, hoopital vorkors and The simple lact is that the ruling clues claim a over scrikerso solo eigit to vivlence in the vlass struggle under cover or lIev and urder, Workers in all countries have learned ms aun prat-cal experience An example taken from one vi the jirst big strexco of the 1950°a in the United States snows the naked use vi force vy the scare foreco and urganisud crabs: This incident occured during the 1934= fuiedo Auto-lite strike in Hay
[page 5]
=~ Ho
‘On May 23, there were more than 10,000 on the picket lines, County deputies with tear gas guns were lined up on the plant roof. A strike picket, Miss Alma Hahn, had been struck on the head by a boit hurled irom a plant window and nad been taken to the hospital, By the tine 400 more cops arrived, the workers were tremendously incensed, Police began roughing up individual pickets pulled from the line... Suddenly a barrage of, tear gas bomos was hurled from upper factory windows. At the same time, company ewployees armed with iron bars and clubs dragged a fire hozeé into the street and played water on the crowd. ‘The strike sympathisers replied with bricks, as they choked from as fumes and fell back,
But they retreated only to reform their ranks, The police charged and swung their clubs trying to clear a path for the scabs. ‘The workers held their gound and fought back. Choked by the tear gas fired from inside the plant, it was the police who finally gave up the battle, Then the fhousands cf pickets laid Siege to the plant, determined to maintain their picket line.
Then followed one of the most amazing battles in US labour history, Tie Marines had landed in the form of the National Guards... On May 24, the guardsmen fired point-blank into the AutoeLite strikers ranks, killing two and wounding <5, But 6,000 workers returned at dusk to renew the battle." (pp.ce-3 Labours Giant Step, Art Price, Pioneer Press) ARMY, NEAT STEP
Thus when the state rinds it ampossible to destroy resistance by clubs and tear gas, the army is brought in to shoot down the workers, It would be a mistake to think this has happened only in the U.S.A., or in Western Europe, In Britazn too, openly armed repression has been used: uotably during the strikes in the South Wales coalfields prior to the First World War, and during the marches of the unemployed
[page 6]
~ 5s
workers in the 1930s when Geveral men were killed in Liverpool, Birkenhead, South Wales, and elsewhere,
Finally, wnen the strength of the working class ninges for a moment m the courage of individual leaders, these too will be arrested, beaten and even killed ty the state, The prisons of the internae tional capitalis: class have bee filled with such men and wollen,
NEW STAGI
Today, ta Britain, we save meved inte a fnew stage of the class struggle. in order chat the workiug :lass emerges victoriubS it 4S necessary to Ledirm again the Lessons of tne passe, We 1as% prepure curselves very Seriously for the attacks of the ruling class wo ich will ~~
inevitably Brow more ami more viriousS. ani these attucks on workers and their leaders will take teeth Slegac® ang Sitlegas’t public and secret forms, As yet, ths workiug cluss in tnis courtry is not in &@ poSition to déstrey the armea Iorces of the capitalists or create Courts with which to bring them ro tridies oO, tor the moment we must look seriously to the task of derening ourge.-es from the stute by ail means necessary,
[page 7]
- 6-
WHAT PREPARATIONS ARE THE RULING CLASS MAKING?
the arrest of the Shrewsbury 24 should not be thought of as just an isolated incident. For the ruling class it is a test case and a warning to the working class in the struggles to come. If they are Allowed to convict the Shrewsbury wen, it will open the way for the police to beat up, intimidate and frame who they like, as an alternative to the cumbersome and unpopular Industrial Relations Act,
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT
The Industrial Relations Act - itself the beginning of a serious attempt to bring the Courts directly to bear on the unions, is « universally hated by the working class. So the Government have avoidec using it in the strikes against Phase 2 for fear of provoding the sort of mass response which was seen over the Pentonville Five, Sucha mass response could have developed into the General Strike (which the TUC has refused to contemplate), but which could have emashed through the Pay Laws. Instead, the Government put the Act in cold storage and, defeated one section of workers after another in the fignt over Phase 2 by simple determination, knowing that the leaders would not coordinate their pay claims. But while all this has been going on, and now Scanlon feels safe enough to offer concessions on the Act, the Government has given the green light for a different type of
[page 8]
- 7 represssione Now we see prosecution of pickets under the lava of 1875 rather than those of 1972, plus, of course, the systematic Gtrengthening of the police force, They hope the use of these old laws will do part of the job of the I.R. Act, because workers will see them as somehow "different" from the new courts and legislation,
PICKETING CENTRAL
Even though there have been setbacks on the pay front, we muct not let the state get avay with this new attack. The flying picket is one thing which the employers and the Government are more frightened of than all the empty rhetoric of the trade union leaders, It has played a big role in winning over the active sympathy of other groups of workers in big strikes, such as the miners strike, when the unicn loaders refuse, to do anything effective by way of solidarity, Tho flying picket can decide the fate of a strike, and this the British capitalists cannot tolerate, especially at the present tine, lntimidating the picket is a number one priority for them, And we chould not imagine that because there have been victories for the Government over Phase 2, that the state will retreat. The class struggle like war, is not conducted according to the Geneva Conventions, the Government will seek to press home its advantage by syGtematic physical and legal assaults on workers, Defending pickets Ghould be a number one priority for us.
[page 9]
NEY FORCES
To do this, a new type of police force is being built up. In 1965 under the Labour Government, the Special Patrol Group was created. This organisation is designed to fill a gap. Oa the one hand they had the veguilar police (increasingly unable to deal with the trade union ovement) and on the other the army (which is sufficicatly organised, but whose use would provoke a massive reGponse from the voricing class), ‘the SPG is small, high mobile, trained in all the necessary military techniques of the army, and at the same tine abie to appear as just another part of the police, Recently it has beca strengthened and was introduced to the world with the gunning down of two Pakistani workers at the India High Commission, Thea it was turned on the pickets at St. Thomas's Hospital site, Hull dockers, ‘and other picket lines.
UNION NWON-LEADERSH LP
As usual, the trade union leaders have avoided this thorny and dangerous subject of repression. The most despicable example is the Shrevsbury case. The two main unions involved here, UCAT? and the T & GWU, at first promised legal aid to the building workcrs. But then, a week before their first hearing on the I5th Harch, when thousands of dockers, steelworkers and building workers downed tools,
[page 10]
»~ 9x
vue offer was withdrawn. ‘The len were told that a one-day Lecppage vould do “a great disservice to the union", Clearly, the tuioa icadersaip hoped that the men would admit to the charges, thus preserving the ‘respectability’ of the unions and freeing thea, fron any chance of having ‘couspiracy’ charges laid against the union fer uheir official policy, If the demands ans aspirations of the workers can be cacisried within capitalist society, the union leaders reason, ven the vapitalist state has to be presented as a neutral body which can be uced by either side in the struggle. kverything is played asvovding to the ‘rules’, The state, urbitrates between the hostile classes, and botin sides are all very ‘respectabie’, ‘Lhus it is that vnen tue ruling elass breaks its own rules, the union leaders pretend %O theiselves tnat such things don't really happen. So the men mist have pecn guilty arter ali, The wen are criminals who overstcpped tne law which 15 there to defend us ali, It is all nothing to do Wich trade unionisin,
NOWITING DONE
Neither our famous leaders of the T & G and tne UCALT, or the eminent “UG, have done anything av all over the Shrewsbury case. Decpite the wlassive show of solidarivy on March i5th, despite the thousands of police who oceupicd Shrewsbury for the day, and in the face of the campaign which is being begun by rank and file bodies up and down the
[page 11]
country, they have to this day retused even financial assistance, And of course industrial action in response to state repression is not exactly theirs strong point, even when the Industrial kelations Ast is used. but when conducted through the criminal laWeeee these gceatiemen are nowhere to be seceile
Both financial and industrial support for the Shrewsbury workers is cGbitisally important, All budies of the labour movement should wake donations to the men even if the trade union bureaucracy docs decided to give the building workers legal aid. Then the Shrewsbury vorkers will be able to chose beiween woney given with the ain of to plead guilty and money given them out of uncondigetting ther ba
solidarity. But wore important still, of course, is “6 Lonal olasi sf)
decisive industrial action to get the charges dropped and stop the vicious attacks of the state,
WHO HAS STRENGHH? ~ SET LE
No more convineiiag proof could be given that the law 1s a matter of who has strength rather than a classless machine, than the fact
[page 12]
~i.
that the release of workers on trial has been achieved many times through industrial action. In 1950 a Lancashire miner called Horres:ks was sent to jaii for breach of contract in leading a strike at Sutton colliery. Sympathy strikes spread rapidly and he was released after two days, Commital orders on another 50 miners were subsequently adrenped. The threat of a Scottish coal strike by the NUM was sufficient to gain the reiease cof the Longamnet miners last year, And of course, finally. the struggle over the Pentonville Five was the mast tonvincing demonstration of all that the law is a farce, as the Government Tisneda around and dug up somebody called the ‘Official Solicitor’ to get them int
OP the hesk, The fate of a worker in a court is not determined GY some plese of paper called °the law’ but by the baiancte of class forces, <A eo ¥ fF indust i aetiscn is needed + t TOP SERS tiassive campaien of industrial acticn is needed te get the discharge of the Shrewsbury men,
[page 13]
- 12 -
PREPARE NOW
In this period we must be prepared for every similar case of repression. If we fail, the ruling class will press its advantage. The trade union bureaucracy has proved hopeless, even on the fight against the Industrial Relations Act. Rank and file workers must therefore be politically armed and organised to respond. It is not just a matter of mobilising once workers appear in court or are threatened with imprisonment. We have to make it a thousand times harder for the police to attack by a campaign in the labour movement for a programme for effective defence af pickets.
There are a number of important things which can be done. First, it is essential to remember that the police, Speciai Branch and other agents of repression are centrally lead. They are highly mobile while at the same time any internal organisational problems they may have are concealed from public gaze. It is possible for the police to concentrate very large forces against ome picket line, without any advance warning of where they are going to strike. This enables them ts appear a thousand times stronger than they actually are, In this way, the police can bluff workers into submission by giving the impression that enormously greater force could be used than is actually possible. The police tried this at Saltiley last year. But in this case their source of strength
[page 14]
~ 4% =
was revealed as a source of weakness. When thousands of workere from all over Birmingham struck and joined thepicket inmes, thus calling the police bluff, the Saltley depot had to elose.
BASIC DEFENCE <= o- r —a
But in order tc be in a position to expose this actual weskmess of the police and so defeat them, it is vital that the labour movement achieves the game sort of central organ= igation a5 the agents of the capitalist state. Organisations such aS Trades Couseils should create action committees to coordinate the defence of picket times. Since the need can arise for auch astient in a matter of hours it is essential that such
somnittess should comprise delegates from all the factories and work pases ~ not Just brancn officials. If Trades Coumsiis orp the dominant unioms im a glen area will not do this, thez he other forms of opganisation must be created which will do She coh, ut in amy sase workers should demand that the unions Take sl tnelr resources available fIor this, Trese measures Je for tne trade unions.
I k hey, pt "th pel 1 “y if wm Ra "y ne 1 ry fai yt ay ? | a = af) ? ret ea rey Ky \ 8 Ly rr tu 4 € ‘
CAPITALIST CRISIS
we >} : < gs T.'? 5 a ay a A fe an A a 4 OE eee End " , jen oh But we must a;a2 Tecsognise that because the need to attack
[page 15]
- 14 pickets and demoralise the rank and file leadership of the working class is mot the result of a particularly 'bad' government. It flows from the need of the ruling class to drasticaliy increase the rate at which they exploit the labour of the workers, for the Eritish capitalists profits are in a desperate condition. We must, therefore, be pre-~ pareé for more sophisticated attacks even if we were able to fight off the present wave. And this can take more violent forme. The morale of the British Army is so bad and the crisie of British imperialism im freland so deep, that it woulé be very dangerous for the ruling class to use troops against the unions at the present time. But if the workers beat of f the ruling class political and economic offensive then they will undoubtediy be used at some stage and almost certainly in any general strike as was the case in 1926, This is why it is mecessary now to break with the idea that becauge the police are armed with truncheoms, pickets should not ke. Self-defence of packets is the only effective way to deal with the police, the scabs and ‘unofficial’ armies. Not to take this step where suitable is to Leave workers unprepared for a real show af armed force by the state - a show ef force which can thoroughly shatter the workers etrugele.
[page 16]
-~ 15 -
This lesson has been learnt once on the Clyde in 1919 when the wave of strikes undertaken in solidarity with working class leaders such as Gallacher and McLean, who were on trial were rapidly brought to an end by the army occupation of Glasgow.
Conscious preparation of pickets capable of taking on the police on their ownterms played a big role in the many strikes which took place in the USA during the Thirties. Even when National Guardsmen had been @lled in to shoot strikers, the meticulous organisation and deployment of the workers forces was able to overcome these attempts at demoralisation by the state. Farrell Dobbs in his book 'Teamster Rebellion’ des~ cribés some of the planning and organisation which went into the Minneapolis Teamsters strike of 1934:
‘th big garage building at 1900 Chicago Avenue was rented to serve aS an operational headquarters. Besides its capacity to handle picket mobilisations, the building was large enough for a commissary, the necessary offices, and a mechanical repair department. It was also to house a field hospital... (so that those injured by police and armed scabs would not be arrested in state hospitals). A garage had been rented because the strike would be a mobile one, with expanded use of the cruising picket squads which had been developed during the coal strike. In that department, charts of the city were being made up, picketing instructions drafted, and picket captains selected.sreceoe
[page 17]
= 16 =
''The union's approach to the umemployed workers brought Spectacular results, Hundreds upon hundreds of johless poured into the strike headquarters, volumteering their services. A significant number of college students pitched in to help the union. A majority of the city's population proved sympathetic to the strike and soon 2a spontaneous intelligence service waS in operation. People telephoned reports of scab activities, and other information was mailed in anonymously. Typists slipped in an extra carbon to make a copy for the union when a bess dictated something they felt the strikers should know abouteee.
‘"Up to now the workers had gone about their activities barehanded, but they found that attempts to exercise their right to picket peacefully were being repressed with police clubs amd blackjacks. They decided to take steps to enforce their democratic right tc prevent scabs from grabbing their joos. It would have been a tactical blunder for members of an isolated vanguard to attempt measures such as the strikers were about to take, they would only get clobbered by the police. In this case, however, the means used in self-defence had their origin in a spontaneous mood that had been generated by capitalist repression....All day Sanday the strikers equipped themselves for battle, Base= ball bate appeared, garden hoses were cut into short lengths.. to make improvised heimets, heavy cardboards were stuffed into the sweatbands of hats. A fellow striker would be asked to test Lt out with a club, andif the result was negative, more cardboard would be added.’'
[page 18]
oe } ae
THE SHREWSBURY CAMPAIGN: WHAT WE MUST DO
The Shrewsbury 24 come up again for hearing on April 25th, Last month, the police blécked off Shrewsbury, depriving those on trial of the support of thousands of their fellow workers who had come to demonstrate cutside the Court. This time, we mist make sure that huge delegations are sent to Shrewsbury on that day,
We must also campaign in the labour movement for solidarity strikes on that day, The Court have fixed the second hearing for a day on which building workers in many areas are covered by an agreement which eprives them of three days pay if they are absent Irom work on the “i 6, 25th (the previous two days are paid holidays), This makes solidarity by workers cutside the building industry even more urgent.
In addition of course, a key aspect of the campaign must be the collestion of funds tic pay legal fees,
A Mass campaign of industrial action, meetings and demonstrations up and down the sountry can force the state to drap their charges before the ten are sent te the High Court. The Gevernment must be shown *hat Gi has nob won the decisive wictory over the working class which iT LS now ¢ia@iming.
[page 19]
m— WE uo
The IMG see the Shrewsbury case as a key test in the class struggle, the outcome of which will affect the relation of forces on the picket lines up and down the country in the future, And since we are likely to see a pattern of bitter local strikes over the summer, the strength of the picket Lines will kecome key.
The IMG intends to take all possible opportunities to mobilise for the 25th. In these places where we have comrades in the building trade such as in Edinburgh and Kotherham we are pushing for strike action, helping to organise coaches of workers and students to go te Shrewsbury and in Hothernam moving that the UCATT joint shop stewards committee preduce & special bulletin for mass distribution. In Sheffield we are initiating moves through the AUEW for a meeting on the 18th April of workers representatives throughout the area ta plan action and delegations to Shrewsbury. In the Oxford Council of Action we have campaigned on this issue and the delegates to the Council cf Action have committed themssives to gaining support in their various union pranches, in the midlands we are fighting for a co-ordinating committee to be set up to conduct the campaign. And of course these comrades hoiding positions in Charter, the rank and file building workera organisation, é doing everything possible to get Charter to conduct a campaign. We also intend to fight within London conference againet the Freeze and against the Government on April 74th for a plan of action on Shrewsbury. We cali for every Fal
[page 20]
= 19 other political organisation in the working class to take Shrewsbury | seriously and make it a priority campaign for their forces in the unions at the present time.
ALL organisations of the labour movement, Trades Councils, union branches, action committees etc, must put their shoulder to the wheel,
[page 21]
20
THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST GROUP ii eenstee {SAS la Tk
Sa revolutionary socialist organisation . oy tne trade unions against. the present Tory povernment is completely ine : ainst the entire system of capitalism, We al one fore support. every strugels against that system and its etfects, including every étruge.e on the issue of wages and conditions, L the SUrugsse oF oJAck® agains: rasiem, the svruggle of women against mite bee ay « people against British ruie, . hey bs aay? ef my Ie co aon iY ots ry A ao r "} tie nad no ca?
A + r it: uy frm he te r uggeles can oniy be brought te a cea Pal Pa: iat Vrategy « of dationaiisation of ali major workers sontrol., In addictpn, as the SUtLURLLG aZaAinest caplitajiam is an internavilonal one, we are members of i the Bourth Interranimim@i, Vo achieve these ends it works within all the organisations of the working class and welcomes te-oberation witha anv grout orf individual on any of these issues Tor which we Campaigns in this way we feileve both the superiority of revolutionary scecialist ides6 cunm he Seen in practice, and an organisation tan be built which will be able to fight ALL parte af the sapitalisr state. The IMG to PRY » a e tn, 7 = aan a i> ih Po) sa ri 2 40)
EY) r © F ie 3 ry ord rt wo * a My. ed : ot : ry 5 ck Pee 2 4 a ' 2 a - - . buidiineg iMQustgry and in oarticudar « 0 3 * 5 P “4 4 Lae a] St -) Ft za] . wt (? +O ky tg wr og Par FEN of ey her i - cad . = aod 4 a & a 4 + 1 » *t 4 4 = . => ne. My ome ge. oe ta Cr ” - - Me hs zy a he ge dno, i r * “ re al devhiics about these and ofmer activities af the iMG till in the form 4 ey
te See. or ee Se er. a BA TST BR EELS Doe ae eo ee CR een oe te ee ZK 2 184 TAP TANAY MARY TAM « inl - REN A ere a 4 a “¥L imi wb Az, OUP b~ . = Po eng ee, aw. eee, SFr -s ee, ene “L & (Beibisn section ef tne Fourth International 4 e Ys feng ws fo. oa: ~~ + : a, ag ce 4 = - v "= +: a ~ A = ia restonmville Roat,, Londor XN”
ms al ed aq > 7 =. z7 2 — - 3 7 . 4 e- Yn, a Fabd Please Sang Me dere teioarraritom ataut tie lita
AAT? -- sf a ea a a a a a Ny t
AP eso sete E OD og Cat ee Oe OOH ROK HAR HHHRHOACHBHe REC oMEOHE
ae aes ~% S SEC PAT 7 SY eeetpepore ewe deo. P ies @Owoere +t eoreceseerpe reese ion. teil
ToM PAT a eae eee gt Sertoe Cee Se ne Se re ea ee ee, ee 6 ee ee ee ee