The state deliberately picked on a weakly organised section of the building trade and stuck over 200 charges on 24 pickets from the '72 Building Workers' strike, They careulatedly included the ominous charge of common law conspiracy which carries an unlimited sentence, The press clampdown and the refusal of the leaders of UCATT and TGWU, the building unions, as well as the TUC, to fight the law, made sure the matter was hushed up until the prison doors had banged firmly shut.
The press did their job well. Their supplied six previous High Sheriffs to the Denbiphshire court where the pickets were prosecuted-and this con spiracy against the Shrewsbury workers was ail irrelevant to this Labour MP. No doubt such a 'terrifying dis play of force and violence as the cold-blooded murder of 13 Catholies by the British army in Derry three years ago pales next to the actions of the Shrewsbury pickets, And not superingly it was Lord Widpery who presided over the white-wash of the army after that event and over the court wherehe sent the Shrewsbury pickets hack to jail last year.
The trade union leadership cannot answer tbese charges aboul law and
has consistently solely in the hands of the trade unic Len Murray, George Smith and