London conference on Shrewsbury this Saturday & George Smith, General Secretary of UCATT.
This is the same man who, along Shrewsbury pickets from the start.
NO LEGAL AID A recent statement by UCATT said it would be against union rules to grant legal aid to those like the Shrewsbury pickets changed with camunal aus tor wowd wo Do soenI to be condoning the use of these This same statement, issued just • few days before the Shrewsbury Three came face to face with Lord Widgery in the Appeal Court, even went so far as to assume the guilt of the pickets in the text.
So it isn't likely that George Smith will be endorsing any plans relcase these "criminals" from prison.
Bureaucrats like Smith are not concerned with opening the prison doon. Kather they want only to coter a debate in the condor of Parliament about what should replace the Industrial Relations Act or how to modify the 1875 Conspiracy Act under which the pickets were Imprisoned.
Of course this is an important debate for the workers" movement, and a Parliamentary struggle may ensue, But the defence of the right to picket, which is what the Shrews bury struggle in all about, must also.
involve a pardon for the convicted pickets.
HOLLOW VICTORY
Any legal change will be a hollow victory unless the ruling class is dealt • bloody stae over Shrewsbury, And this will only be possible by industrial action to gain a pardon for the pickets.
For George Smith, the UCATT Executive, and indeed the whole Labour Party and trade union leaderthrough Parliament.
In the meantime, to sanction Inw-breakers like the Shrewsbury pickets or the Clay Cross Councillors would be to blaspheme against their hallowed parliamentary principles.
Of course, it is a good thing to involve bureaucrats in the struggle. But the reaction of Smith and his ilk was perfectly prodictable because of their bourgcois political principles.
Kent students' action week The NUS week of action on the grants campaign was taken up with particular enthusiasm at Kent Unlversity, where activities focussed on inues which have lain dormant elsewhere, The week began with an 80-strong contingent joining the anti-victimisation demonstration in Oxford, and this was followed hy a sucoessful catering boycott over a recent 10 per cont increase in food prices.
Wide circulation was given to a confidential letter sent to heads of campus colleges saying that if an Inquiry ware held into the raising of A section of the workers at Coventry The ssue is therelore bow to Usc these bureaucrals to turther the campaign without allowing them to dominate it politically. Only stepping un the independent initiatives of the with his Executive, has seabbed on the rank and file can ensure this.
Yet it was in an effort to get these bureaucrats to take the belm tat tne r oroke the back ot toc rank and file movement which was built up so painstakingly throughout 1973.
This can be seen in the conduct of the caintalen over the last two months. The Shrewshury court had techniques to further industrial ends. timed the first judgement to fall a im possible to develop mass sinke action immediately, Nevertheless, some preliminary moves were made.
One of these was the call by the North Wales Defence Committee for HOCHE SIELE HOHE SOUSE The Morning Star never reported it It dig however report a ister recomcalls.* Then, carly in January, the Birmingham UCATT shop stewards committee entorsed a resolution calling for an indetinite national building strike as a first step to pledging to start this in Birmingham towards the end of January.
MILITANTS ISOLATED The Morning Star failed to report this too, and the Birmingham militants ternained isolnted Instead the CP projected at one сеслос атет anotocs a sones or one-day actions and protests. These were ambiguous in aim. They failed to affect the course of events in the courts. They did succoed in getting the Executives of UCATT and the TAGWU behind the campaign, and even to raiso the matter with the TUC in the 'proper" way. But the TUC never actually "led" the campaign as intended. For that matter, the Star never spelt out where the campaign should be led to. Never did It call for an indefinite national At the Liverpool Conference on 2 February, Kevin Halpin said that 'the building trade cannot lead the Stone dead.' This is exactly what the CP did in North Wales and Birmingham.
Instead of the Liverpool Confe action to he led by the building trade, it agreed to yot another day of action-nearly two monthr into the catering prices, no adequate explanation could be gven!
beard a member of the Swanses University Posteraduate Strike Committe for improved pay and condition of married women's grants and the handship facing unmarried mothers were discussed al forums, together with the question of goy oppression. These forams helpod to mohilise support for Saturday's International Women's Day march in London.
The management replied by threatenking class was uneducated about other hand it is quite clear that The longer they stay inside, the stronger the ruling class becomes. few days before Christmas, making it flying picket teams to go around, an indefinite building strike, using cers and pulling them out on strike to back up the bullders.
campaign was tiesigned to defend!
had a direct interest in defending pickets. Their militants faced imif picketing had become intense during the coal strike. And they It war also the same weekend drawing in other sections of workers, that Jack Collins called for the NUM bury pickets among its demands.
failed to see the miners as a spearbead for the Shrewsbury campaign.
Subsequently, notable Communists such as Mick MeGahey of the NUM Executive ignoted the Collins call, even though the Star was calling for Showsbury.
but negotiate with the enemy around a table to change the protoCos or war Repealing laws which attack workers is a necessary objective. But in the fight to defend the "right' to picket effectively, such a change in the law will he a hollow victory if it is not coupled with dealing the enemy a bloody nose over Shrewsbury.
pickets is stronger than any legal rence calling for indefinite industriul protocols. But to beat the enemy. troops are needed. The fighting forces must be reassembled once again.
CP speakers often argue against a lead by the building trade. The worShrewsbury. Action of a direct type would remain isolated. Yet on the when the ruling class puts militants into jail, a rapid response is needed INDEFINITE STRIKE To overcome this problem, it would have been necessary to start simultancously educating other worThis is the value of the flying picket which the entire Shrewsbury The miners are a group of workers neither isolated nor weak. They prisonment under "conspiracy laws"
voted to strike just as the Liverpool movement.
to include the release of the ShrewsYet the Liverpool Conference with councils:
union executives to take action' on So the campaign is now heing led by the leaders.' Yet the troops have fallen by the wayside, exhausted and away from the front to the headquar ters of a reluctant general stalt, Now For the enemy's need to attuck The widely-publicised take-over or a block of luxury Mayfair flats by London squatters on Sunday marks a new coming together of forces struggling for decent housing, and simultaneously exposes the rightward development of the reformist "protest' wing of the housing action The Mayfair squat was jointly organised by activists from the All London Squatters Federation, a grouping of 'unofficial' squatters. together with members of the Family Squatting Advisory Service, which makes official arrangements The flats at 5-7 Daver St, W1, are owned by Brompton Securities, hacked by Harry Hyans and Joe Levy, and symbolically stand # stone's throw from the Ritz Hotel. Brompton Securities is presently negotiating ownership of the Juxury flats at Centre Poior.
SPECULATORS EXPENSE The take-over of the block was initiated for two main reasons. Firstly, to house homeless people, including families, at the expense of speculators. In contrast to the Centre Point weekend occupation in January, the Dover St squatters bave made it clear that they intend to hold out for as long as possible.
Secondly, again in contrast to the Centre Point cacapade which was posed merely as a protest to urge the authorities to intervene, the Dover St action demonstrates a practical way forward in the strugale tor decent housing, by providing a focus for intervention by the labour movement.
Following from this active approach, the squatters are putting forward a series of political demands: for the re-imposition of the statutory obligation on local authorities to bouse the homeless, scheduled by the Tories to he removed on 1 April; requisition of all empty properties; the right of squatters to be supplied with electricity, gas, and waterwhich electricity boards have recentty in some instances refused to do; and abolition of the conspiracy laws, togetber with the release of the Shrewsbury Six The Dover St squat, unlike the epic takeover of nearby 144 Piccadilly py 'alternative society protagonists in 1968, has the posibility of real and necessary support by the labour PITCHED BATTLE The importance of this is highlighted by the fact that on the same day as Dover St hit the headlines, a group of alternative society squatters were evicted by Camden Council and arrested, in spite of a hard-fought pitched battle. This was unfortinately met largely with indiffercace by the local labour movement, emphasising the necessity for a political campaign, on the lines of the 220 Canden High St squat, for example.
Drawing from these lessons, the Dover St squatters have now atmost Gilled their building with about Su people but are not stopping there The huilding will be used as a political organising centre for meetings and publicity, and the referral of additional bameless families to other squats. PIERS CORBYN
----- pull-quotes -----
ship, laws like the 1875 Conspiracy Act are 'bad" laws, even "anti-working building strike. class" laws. They must be changed
this woekend for industrial action to mendation for workes to return to work on 1 January "peading further
describe the action taken al Swanses and Edinburgh by postgraduatos striking
tiday was devoted to the questio of women's oppoession. The problems
dispirited during the long detour the generals will not fight a battle,