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SHREWSBURY ---- REPRESSION AND
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INTHODUCT ION i i . Me
One wet cvening in mid-lebruary, the police rounded uo a nuaber of con feoa ceveral towns in North Wales and dvove tiew to Gheewounsy pricou under full security guard, The following morning they faced charges vanging from damage to property to intimidatiun, assault aid conoypiracye
Knese wen were some of the building workers wno formed the <ilying pickets used co erfeetively in lust year's building strike. ‘there oye new Cb or thea facing their second hearing In Shrewsbury Court on April coh. Hoanwhile a further half dozen are appearing in local courts in the aPoa.s
Lhese won are being prosecuted ror duiug whac thoucuida of vorkera *. have doac for decades ond in many countries tu defenve of vuciy je wo
iad their standard of diving, And, os oo often whea the ruling elacs Wonts vo intimidate workers, the churyes ure vrumped wp. louy of thea Yor ecxaaple, rerer to ducideats alleged to huve takes wlace vn a cite at Pelford, yet the police detained insudy on the doy, ond coven eszorted the pickets to tivo further: sites to continuc thels pichketiug. For collccting money during the sGtrile, some we chuiged vicn collecting ioncy with menuces, Now they are bets, tricd om pnovugrapiie aviceuse collccted by Special Branch and on tue basis of tectinonios Lit moilhe Sine inlet SE Ch oe 9 nai RE aftor the event. Needless to say, the cite agcute was intimidated the workers with a shotuun are not appouring in courte
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CONSPIRACY = INTIMIDATION “
As for the conspiracy charges, many an innocent person who has nevertheless pleased guilty in Court will tell you that a conspiracy charge is nothing more than crude intimidation. ‘To prove it in court, all the prosecution has to do is allege that you ‘intended to do something, regardless of whether you are charged with doing it or not, It carries an unlimited sentence. The police use this every day as a nakeweight: that is you are given a main charge plus conspiracy, and the police will promise to drop the conspiracy 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 indefinive sentence. The Tolpuddle Martyrs, to take the most Samous example, were transported for ‘conspiring’ to form an illega. association (a.trade union) under the Combination Acts.
"GOOD LAWS" AND "BADLAWS”
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 armies of police and lorry loads of scabs, oni those who fight force with force, This scrupulous moral concern 15 vt however applies by the ruling class to its om activities in the<iuss struggle. This has been shown . time and time again. For example, iast month, at St. Thomas' Hospital
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site in London, a squad of pulice waded into a picket line to let through a special police-style van loaded with scab labour. It was unfortunately not possible for the pickets to distinguish the *violent' policemen from the ‘nonviolent’ policemen, as they were being thrown across the road, Neither did they have any Courts to which they could bring the culprits for trial. In the miners strike last year, pickets found themselves faced not only with vident police, but scab lorry drivers driving coal at 50 mph through the line with the open connivanc? of the police (one miner was killed in this way), When the miners at Dover decided to test the neturality of the law by complaining to the Director of Puolic Prosecutions about a lorry driver wielding iron bars to pet through picket lines, he simply stared: 'ih would be necessary...to prove that the truck driver carried the bar with the intention of using it to iniureseee I do nor theretore propose to take avy action in the matter’, No doubt une Caupiiulist press has ne intention of causing injury either when tt incites the "public" to attack rerlwuymen, hospital workers and other strikers, The simple fect is that the ruling class claim a sole right to violence in the class struggle under cover of ‘law and order’, Workers in all countries have learned this ffom practical experience. An exemple taken from one of the first big strikes of the 1950's in the United States snows the naked use of force by the state forges and organised seabse: This incident cccured during the Toledau Auto-Lite strike in Fay to24:
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‘On May 23, there were more than 10,000 on the picket iines. 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 bolt hurled from a plant window and had been taken to the hespital, By the time 100 more cops arrived, the workers were tremendously incensed, Police began roughing up individual pickets pulled from the line... Suddenly a barrage of, tear gas bombs was hurled from upper factory windows, At the same time, company employees armed with iron bars and clubs drugged a fire hose into the street and played water on the crowd, The strike sympathisers replied with bricks, as they choked from ms fumes and fell back.
But they retreated only to reform their ranks. ‘he police charged and swung their clubs trying +o clear a path for the scabs. The workers held their gound and tought back. Choked by the tear gas fired from inside the plant, it was the police whe finally gave up the baitle, Then the thousand» __parkets laid siege to the plant, determined to maintain their picke: Line.
Then followed one of the most anasing battles in US labour history. i The Marines had landed in the of the National Guard... On Mey © 4 the guardsmen fired point-blank into the Auto-Lite strikers ranks, killing two and wounding <3. da. 6,000 workers returned et dusk to renew the bottle.” (pp.coo4 Lanours Glant Step, art Price, Pioneer Presa) ARMY, NbXxT Sik cams soreness Say a ae came SLA cine ”
Thus when the state finds it impossible to destroy resistance by clubs and tear gas, the army iS brought in to shoot down the workers. lt wonid be a mistake to than this has happened only in the U.5.4., or iu Western Europe, In Yrivoin too, openly armed repression has been used: notaply during the ot:ixes in the South Wales coalfields prio: to the First World War, v.29 during the marches of the unemployed
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workers in the 1930s when several men were killed in Liverpool, Birkenhead, South Wales, and eleewhcre,
Finally, when the strength of the working class hinges for a moment on the courage of individual leaders, these too will be arrested, beaten and even killed by the siate. The prisons of the internutional capitalist class have been filled with such men and women,
NEW STAGE
Today, in Britain, we have moved into a new stage of the class strugy!e. In order that the working class emerges victorious it is necessary to learn again the lessons of the pust. We must prepare ourselves very seriously for the attacks of the ruling class which will inevitably grow more amd more vicious. And these attacks on workers and their leaders will take botn "legal! and ‘illegal’ public and secret forms, As yet, the workicg class in this country is not in a position to destroy the armect forces of the capitalists or create Courts with which to bring then to trial. So, for the moment we must look seriously to the task of defemtng ourselves from the state wy all means necessary »
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WHAT PREPARATIONS ARE THE RULING CLASS MAKING? a A AGRI SERRE ERO NE RS
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 men, 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 te bear on the unions, is universally hated by the working class. So the Government have avoided using it in the strikes against Phase 2 for fear of provoding the sort of mass response which was seen over the Pentonville Five. Such a mass response could have developed into the General Strike (which the TUC has refused to contemplate}, but which could have smashed through the Pay Laws. Instead, the Government put the Act in cold storage and, defeated one section of workers after another in the fight over Phase 2 by simple determination, knowing that the leaders would not coordinate their pay claims. But wrile all this has been going on, and now Scanlon feels safe enough tv offer concessions on the Act, the Government has given the green light for a different type of
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workers in the 1930s when severasl mon were killed in Liverpool, Birkenhead, South Wales, and e«leewhcre.
Finally, when the strength of the working class hinges for a moment on the courage of individual leaders, these too will be arrested, beaten and even killed by the state. The prisons of the internutional capitalist class have teen filled with such men and women,
NEW STAGE
Today, in Britain, we have moved into a new stage of the class strugy!e, In order that the working claus emerges victorious it is necessary to learn again the lessons of the pest. We must prepare ourselves very seriously for the attacks of the ruling class which will inevitably grow more amd more vicious. And these attacks on workers and their leaders will take boin ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ public and secret forms, As yet, the worbivy class in this country is not in a position to destroy the armed forces of the capitalists or creute Courts with which to bring then to trial. So, for the moment we must look seriously to the task of defertng ourselves from the state vy all means necessary.
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WHAT PREPARATIONS ARE THE RULING CLASS MAKING?
The arrest of the Shrewsbury 2! should not be thought of as just an isolated incident. For the ruiing 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 men, 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 Industria 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 avoided using it in the strikes against Phase 2 for fear of provoding the sort of mass response which was seen over the Pentonville Five. Such a mass response could have developed into the General Strike (which the TUC has refused to contemplate), but which could have smashed through the Pay Laws, Instead, the Government put the Act in cold storage and, defeated one section of workers ufter another in the fight over Phase 2 by simple determination, knowing that the leaders would not coordinate their pay claims. But wrile all this has been going on, and now Scanlon feels safe enovgh to offer concessions on the Act, the Government has given the green light for a different type of
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represssion, Now we see prosecution of pickets unc the laws of 1875 rather than those of 197¢, plus, of course, the systematic strengthening of the police force, ney 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 ont, we must not let the state get away with this vew attack. ‘ths flying picket is one thing which the employers and the Government are more frightened of than all the empty rhetoric of tne trade union ieaders, It has played a big role in winning over the active sympathy of other groups of workers in big strikes, such 4s the miners strike, when the union leaders refuse, to do anything cf{fective by way of solidarity, The flying picket can decide the fate of a strike, and this the Eritish capitalists cannot tolerate, especially at the present time. Intimidating the picket is a number one priority for them. And we should 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 conducicd according te the Geneva Conven~ tions. The Government will seek io press home its advantage by systematic physical and legal asseults on workers, Uefending pickets should be a number one priority for use
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NEW FORCES
To do this, a new type of police lores is being buvit un, In 1965 under the Labour Government, the a Patrol Group wos created, This organisation is designed to fill 5 gape On the one hand they had the regular police (increasitpiy unable to deal with the trade union movement) and on the other the ermy (which is suffi. organised, but whose use would provoke a massive response working class). The SPG is smal), high mobile, tvsined in all the necessary military techniques cf the army, and a the same time able to appear as just another part of the police, Kecently it has been strengthened and was introduced it. ths world with the gunning down of two Pakistani workers at the lagia High Coneni: nly Then it was turned on the pickets at 51, Thomas's hospital site, Hull dockers, and other picket lines,
As usual, the trade union leads:s lave avoided this thorny and dangerous subject of repression, The most despicuhle example is the Shrewsbury case, ‘The two muin unions involved here, UCAT? . and the T & GW), at first promise! Jeval aid to the culliding workers. But then, a week before their “cot hearing on ihe Sth March, when 9 aay 4 thousunds of dockers, steelwor.of) su building workers downed tools,
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the offer was withdrawn. The men were told that a one-day stoppage would do “a great disservice to the union", Cleariy, the union leadership hoped that the men would admit to the charges, thus preserving the ‘respectability’ of the unions and freeing them, from any chance of having ‘conspiracy’ charges jiaid against the union for their official policy. If the demands ans aspirations of the workers can be satisfied within capitalist society, the union leaders reason, then the capitalist state has to be presented as a ueutral body which can be used by either side in the struggle. Everything is played according to the 'rules', The state, arbitrates between the hostile classes, and both sides are all very ‘respectable’. Thus it is that when the ruling class breaks its own rules, the union leaders pretend to themselves that such things don't really happen. So the men must have been guilty after all. The men are criminals who overstepped the law which is there to defend us all, It is all nothing to do with trade unionism,
NOTHING DONE
Neither our famous leaders of the T & G and the UCATT, or the eminent TUC, have done anything at all over the Shrewsbury case Despite the massive show of solidarity on March 15th, despite the thousands of police who occupied Shrewsbury fo: the day, and an the face of the campaign which is being begun by rank and file bodies up and down the
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country, they have to this day refused even financial assistance. And of course industrial action in response to state repression is not exactiy their strong point, even when the Industrial Relations Act is used, But when conducted through the criminal law.... these gentlemen are nowhere to be seen.
Both financial and industrial support for the Shrewsbury workers is critically important. All budies of the labour movement should make donutions to the men even if the trade union bureaucracy does decided to give the building workers legal aid. Then the Shrewsbury workers will be able to chose between money given with the aim of getting them to plead guiliy and money given them out of uncondibional class solidarity. Bat more important still, of course, is decisive industrial action to get the charges dropped and stop the vicious attacks of the state,
WHO HAS STRENGTH? pao URN) a Aa Ca ea
No more convincing proof could be given that the law is a matter of who has strength rather than a classless machine, than the fact
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that the release of workers on trial has been achieved many times through industrial action. In 1950 a Lancashire miner called Horrocks was sent to jail 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 dropped, The threat of a Scottish coal strike by the NUM was suffueient to gain the release of the Longannet miners last year, And of course, finally, the struggle over the Pentonville Five was the mogt convincing demonstration of all that the jaw is a farce, as the Government fished around and dug up senebody called the ‘Official Solicitor’ to get them off the heok., The tate of @ worker in a court is not determined by some pieve of paper called ‘ihe iaw' but by the balance of class forces, A massive campatgo of industrial action is needed to get, the discharge of the Shrewsbury mMeils
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PREPARE NOW ©
In this period we must be prepared for every similar case of repression. If we fail, the ruling class will press ita 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 ito attack by a campaign in the labour movement for a programme for effective
There are a muamber of important things which can be done. First, it is essential to remember that the police, Special Branch and other agents of repression are centrally lead. They are highly mcebile while at the same time any internal organisational probiems they may have are concealed from public gaze. It is possible for the police to concentrate very large forces against one picket line, without any advance warning of where they are going to strike. This enables them to appear a thousand times stronger than they actually are. In this way, the police can tluif workers into submission by giving the impressicn that enormously greater force could be used than is actually possible. The police tried this at Saltley last year. But in this case their source cf strength
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was revealed aS a source of weakness. When thousands of workers from all over Birmingham struck and joined thepicket lines, thus calling the police bluff, the Saltley depot had to close.
BASTC DEFENCE
But in order to be in a position to expose this actual weakness of the police and so defeat them, it is vital that the labour movement achieves the same sort o” central organ isation as the agents of the capitalist state. Organisations such as Trades Councils should create action committees to cou ordinate the defence of picket lines. Since the need can arise for such action in a matter of hours it is essential that euch committees should comprise delegates from all the factories and work places + not just branch officials. If Trades Councils or the dominant unions in a given area will not do this, then the other forms of organisation must be created which will do the job. But in any case workers should demand that the unions make al] their resources available for this. These measures should be made basic matters of principle for the trade unions.
CAPITALIST CRISIS
But we must also recognise that because the need to attack
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_pickets and demoralise the rank and file leadership of the . working Glass is mot the result of a particularly 'bad! government. Jt flows from the need of the ruling class to drastically increase the rate at which they exploit the labour of the workers, for the British capitalists profits are in a desperate condition. We must, therefore, be prepared for more sophisticated attacks even if we were able to fight off the present wave. And this can take tore violent forms . The morale of the British Army is so bak and the
crisis of British imperialism in Ireland so deep, that it wonld 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 undoubtedly be used at some stage and almost certainly io any general strike as was the case in 1926, This is why it 1s necessary now to break with tne idea that because the police are armed with truncheons, rickets should not be. Self-defence of pickets is tne only cifective way to deal with the police, tne ceabe and ‘unofficial' armies.
Not to take this step where suitable is to leave workers unprepared Por a real show cf armed force by tne Btate - a show wi force which car tn ocvurciy shatter the workers StPugeate
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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 allied 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:
"tA 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 .ecees
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''The union's approach to the unemployed workers brought spectacular resulis, Hundreds upon hundreds of jobless poured into the strike headquarters, volunteering 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 a spontaneous intelligence service was in operation. People telephoned reports of seab activities, and other information was mailed in anonymousiy. Typists slipped in an atra carbon to make a copy for the union when a boss dictated something they felt the strikers shouid know abouteces
‘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 and blackjacks. They decided to take steps to enforce their democratic right to prevent scabs from grabbing their jobs. It would have been a tactical blunder for members of an isolated vanguard to attempt measures such as the strikers were abou! to take, tney 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 Sunday the strikers equipped themselves for battle, Base~ ball bats appeared, garden boses were cut into short lengths.. to make improvised helmets, heavy cardboards were stuffed into the sweatbands of hats. <A fellow striker would be asked to teat it out with a clvb, andif the result was negative, more cardboard would he added.''
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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 outside the Court. This time, we must 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 deprives them of three days pay if they are absent from work on the 25th (the previous two days are paid holidays), This makes solidarity by workers outside the building industry even more urgent.
In addition of course, a key aspect of the campaign mist be the collection of funds to pay legal fees.
A mass campaign of industrial action, meetings and demonstrations up and down the country can force the state to drop their charges before the men are sent to the High Court. The Government must be shown that it has not won the decisive victory over the working class which it is now claiming.
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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 become key.
The IMG intends to take all possible opportunities to mobilise for the 25th, In those places where we have comrades in the building trade such as in Edinburgh and Rotherham we are peshing for strike action, helping to organise coaches of workers and students to go to Shrewsbury and in Rotherham moving that the UCATT joint shop stewards committee produce a 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 to pian action and delegations to Shrewsbury. In the Oxford Council of Action we have campaigned on this issue and the delegates to the Council of Action have committed themselves to gaining support in their various union branches. In the midlands we are fighting for a co-ordinating committee to be set up to conduct the campaign. And of course those comrades holding positions in Charter, the rank and file building workers organisation, are doing everything possible to get Charter to conduct a campaign. We also intend to fight within London conference against the Freeze and against the Government on April 14th for a plan of action on Shrewsbury, We call for every
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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 ef the labour movement, Trades Councils, union snoulder to the et 4 branches, action coumittess ets, much put their wheel.
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THE INVERNAT I:
Li MARXIST GROUP Pe gemma ar a me I: eemmaeierse. ear Tanceect. pia
“he Tnternationat Maxis! Gooup vo a revolutionary sowislist organisation wnich believes that the struget oY the trade unions ugainst the cliployers aud against tue predobu. Tory goverment is coupletoly ine ceporable rrom the straggle agucust the entire system of capltalisa, We therefove Support every struvite against that syaren and ite effects, ineluding «very strappy ie ho desuc oY wapos ond conditions, che struggle of blacks ‘enim the aycugple of women agains oppreséivn aud the strugele of rign people against Eritich rulic, Ve believe, however, that all oltiuggles cun only ve brought to euccess if linked tu 4 peneral siratery of navionalisution of all ga70r industry and the establishment of vorkers concrol, Jy additin, as the struggle against capitalism is as international one, we are wenbers of the Fourch International, To achieve these ends it uerks within al? the organisations of the working sioss und welcomes ce. operation with any group or andividadal on any of these issues for which we compli gen, in this way we believe woth ihe oniperloriby of vevoluiilonary cocialint ideas van be seea in prac Mbt do organisation cun be buiit which will be able to figny 2: or the capitalist stare, The ING has preduced a series ot ifn 2tG newupaper, iie Red Mole on the buidlion imiustey aud Ga peor tarw.ar on the Lump, For further details about these and otner a tivities of the IMG rill in the foru below,
i WATT OWE L- a tab GP PPradasn sectasm a: ces hour th Interna tional} ro? Penton hth ah & ered a ERTL ah Nt
Piece Sond me mece ..pocmoutton about the IMG
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