from Mike Ma THE C.BeR.
a . ee
f the historic 9 month loc
Shanklin Rood to mark the end o ogee oa ats aR pet Mills, Brighton, was sper wig La Ae people, seis local trade unionists and students from Sussex
of shift It was an orderly affair, which had been timed to catch — tage Ps: at the factory where men were dismissed for joining a ke etc path. resist the intolerable conditions and a 72 hour woek pte Se cone However, the management changed the tim of the shift chang missed the full benefit of the occasion.
i j yas addres= The rally marched into Brighton to hold an open-air ee rs partied sed by speakers from local organisations which had suppo eee oe ae are after the strike had become unofficial when the union lea pe ns oes HeK.W, did a deal with the company. The only incident = : : regent: heres a couple of Gonservatives -- a councillor and his wife - aa He ts to wave a banner calling for trade unionists to ‘turn to the ry te eed roar of disapproval made it clear that none of tios° familiar with t sm of C.B.eR. would fall for that, and the banner was soon destroyed following a scuffle in which a student was alleged to have been assaulted by two policemen. It appears that the policemen concerned refused to give their namése The significance of this lies in the fact that the police in this area have dropped the practice of wearing numbers. This has caused a good deal of resentment among local trade unionists. The most oncouraging feature of the dispute was the spirit in which it was ended. The Lock-out Comittee issued a statement recording its decision to terminate the dispute and its thanks to all those in the labour movement who had helped the pickets and who had contributed towards the appeal fund which raised £1,600. Prominent here were the Brighton Trades Council and the students of Sussex University. In the view of the Committee, the very fact that there was a protest was itself a major achicvement, even though it failed to sccure recognition, After referring to the scale of the camo.ign -- involving 41 weeks of activity, the issu ing of 200,000 leaflets and the organizing of innumerable meetings and demonstrations , the Committe makes some interesting conclus~ ions in its statement, "We know now thet there is half union rates," the Committee says," which must therefore be regarded as a normal part of working conditions under the present economic and political order, The lock-out has also proved that Britain's ratification of I.L.0. Conventions No.87 and 98 does not mean that they are fulfilled in practice, C.eB.Re is now operating a minumum 72 hour week and we are still locked out..."
no effectual remedy for a 72 hour week at
"The present economic and political order needs to be changed. Even under a Labour Covernment, we cannot believe that the working class is in power, for if it were the C.BeR. lock-out would never hawe happened, or would soon have been over, "In common with the other historic dis
putes of 1967, at Roberts-Arundel ana the Darbican, the men in dispute atc
eBeR. had occasion to criticize their
sscsuis LOCK-Our continued