Wrongful Conviction Of Shrewsbury Building Workers

[teqniq]

Result!

 

[marty21]

Result!

Fucking finally pity it took 50 years , add that to the campaign Dave Smith was involved with for decades, the blacklisting scandal .

 

[existentialist]

Result!

A timely reminder of how government will happily pervert the course of justice in the name of political expediency, and make it as difficult - and slow - as possible for it to be remedied.

Something we might well bear in mind today as we watch another illiberal government trying to force through draconian and capricious laws to suppress assembly and dissent, and make it easier to prosecute people just like those picketers, on just as flimsy a basis.

 

[hitmouse]

Des Warren's trial speech:

I have spent a week in jail, and people in there and various other people, not including my counsel, have told me that it was always a mistake to make a speech from the dock, because whatever you are going to get will be doubled. I tried to explain to them that the system that operates is purely for the upper class, and I don’t expect any leniency or mercy from it, so I’ll continue anyway.

It has been said in this court that this trial had nothing do with politics. Among ten million trade unionists in this country I doubt if you would find one who would agree with that statement. It is a fact of life that Acts of Parliament have been passed and picketing and strikes are looked upon as a political act...

...It therefore follows that every action taken in furtherance of an industrial dispute also becomes a political act. There are even those who say it is a challenge to the law of the land if a man decides not to work more than an agreed number of hours, and bans overtime. This is something known to many trade unionists as politically motivated interference by governments acting on behalf of, and under political pressure from the employers, and it now means that no trade unionist can enter freely into negotiations with the employers, and they can’t withdraw their labour – the only thing they possess as a bargaining lever – without being accused of setting out to wreck the economy or break the law.

On the other hand, employers, by their contempt of laws governing safety requirements, are guilty of causing the deaths of a great many workers, and yet they are not dealt with before the courts. Mr. Bumble said: ‘The law is an ass.’ If he were here now he might draw the conclusion that the law is, quite clearly, an instrument of the state, to be used in the interests of a tiny minority against the majority. It is biased; it is class law, and nowhere has that been demonstrated more than in the prosecution case in this trial. The very nature of the charges, the delving into ancient Acts of Parliament, dredging up conspiracy, shows this to be so.

Was there a conspiracy? Ten members of the jury have said there was. There was a conspiracy, but not by the pickets. The conspiracy began with the miners giving the government a good hiding last year. It developed when the government was forced to perform legal gymnastics in getting five dockers out of jail after they had only just been put there. The conspiracy was between the Home Secretary, the employers and the police. It was not done with a nod and a wink. It was conceived after pressure from Tory Members of Parliament who demanded changes in picketing laws.

Of course, there was a very important reason why no police witness said he had seen any evidence of conspiracy, unlawful assembly or affray. The question was hovering over the case from the very first day: why were there no arrests on the 6 September? That would have led to the even more important question of when was the decision to proceed taken. Where did it come from? What instructions were issued to the police? And by whom? There was your conspiracy.

‘I’m innocent of the charges and I shall appeal. But there will be a more important appeal going out to every member of the trade union movement in this country. Nobody here must think they can walk away from here and forget what has happened here. Villains or victims, we are all part of something bigger than this trial.

The working class movement cannot allow this verdict to go unchallenged. It is yet one more step along the road to fascism, and I would remind you that the greatest heroes in Nazi Germany were those who challenged the law, when it was used as a political weapon by a fanatical gang for a minority of greedy, evil men.

The jury in this trial were asked to look upon the word ‘intimidation’ as having the ordinary everyday meaning. My interpretation is ‘to make timid’, or ‘to dispirit’, and when the pickets came to this town to speak to the building workers it was not with the intention of intimidating them. We came here with the intention of instilling the trade union spirit into them, and not to make them timid, but to give them the courage to fight the intimidation of the employers in this area.

RIP

 

[hitmouse]

Shrewsbury Pickets, Political Policing and the State

Online meeting to celebrate and learn from the significant victory of the 'Shrewsbury 24' in quashing their almost 50-year-old convictions.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Online meeting to celebrate and learn from the significant victory of the 'Shrewsbury 24' in quashing their almost 50-year-old convictions.





About this Event

On Tuesday 23rd March 2021 the Court of Appeal made the following judgement in the case of our clients Ricky Tomlinson, Arthur Murray and the ‘Shrewsbury 24.’
“It follows that under Ground 1, the convictions of all the appellants are unsafe.
Their appeals are allowed and all the verdicts in relation to them are quashed.” (pt.99)
The convictions of the ‘Shrewsbury 24’ have been quashed. They are unsafe, and they walk from this court – as they have always been - innocent men.
We say they are victims of police corruption, of a political trial, and of a Conservative Government – who at the time were looking to take revenge against the trade union movement.
Join us online on Wednesday 31 March at 6.30pm to analyse and discuss the historical lessons to learn from this courageous struggle.
Speakers:
Ricky Tomlinson (Shrewsbury Picket and jailed Trade Unionist)
John McDonnell (Labour MP)
Dave Smith (Blacklist Support Group)
Piers Marquis QC and Annabel Timan (Doughty Street Chambers barristers)

 

[hitmouse]

oops, posting seems to have gone a bit overexcited there

 

[hitmouse]

third time's the charm, etc

 

[StoneRoad]

Finally, at long last ...

My late father would have been over the moon about this result.
As a lifelong trade-unionist, this mis-carriage of justice really annoyed him, and he frequently mentioned it and even campaigned on the subject.
And it would have been his birthday today.

 

[hitmouse]

Article from Ricky Tomlinson: We were convicted after a political trial – it was a nonsense | Ricky Tomlinson

In December 1973 I stood in the dock with my friend and comrade Des Warren. We awaited sentence after being found guilty of conspiracy to intimidate, unlawful assembly and affray – it was of course a nonsense. Dessie knew it, I knew it and I think the judge bloody knew it as well.

But what were we really guilty of? In 1972 we took part in the first and only national builders’ strike. We were campaigning for better wages, for the end of “the lump” – where builders were given a lump sum for work that they had to pay tax out of – and for health and safety to be taken seriously by the building industry bosses.

In the 1970s, every day at least one person was killed or seriously injured on the sites – they were not called the “killing fields” for nothing. We won that industrial dispute and the bosses wanted revenge.

I heard the judge say it wasn’t a political trial, that it was just an ordinary criminal trial – that too was absolute rubbish. Of course it was a political trial. Every day hundreds of police officers stood outside the court. The Conservative government wanted this trial, wanted the convictions, and wanted to put not just me and Dessie on trial but the whole trade union movement. We were used and punished as a warning – they were telling the working class: “Don’t step out of line!”

 

[hitmouse]

Short but decent from Kenan Malik: Why the Shrewsbury 24 case is so relevant right now | Kenan Malik

 

[hitmouse]

Last plug for this, starting in a little bit, probably should have posted this earlier today but I didn't get round to it: Shrewsbury Pickets, Political Policing and the State

 

[hitmouse]

RIP, very glad he lived to see the court result:

Bernard Williams - building worker, trade unionist and Shrewsbury picket, August 2021 - The Official Shrewsbury 24 Campaign

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of another Shrewsbury picket, Bernard Williams, at the age of 75. Bernard stood with his fellow pickets and the Shrewsbury 24 Campaign throughout the long years of campaigning for justice. Bernard was convicted in the third trial at Shrewsbury...

www.shrewsbury24campaign.org.uk

 

[hitmouse]

Shrewsbury TUC are hosting a celebration event on Saturday night:

Shrewsbury 24 celebration

Shrewsbury 24 Celebration

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Shropshire and Telford TUC are holding an event to celebrate the appeal to overturn the Shrewsbury 24 convictions in the 70s.
Speakers:
-Eileen Turnball and Shrewsbury 24 pickets

• Jeremy Corbyn MP Islington north
• Steve Gillon General Secretary POA

-Rob Williams National Shop steward network.
And much more.
An evening of catch up food and music.

St Nicholas Bar & Grill
24 Castle Street
Shrewsbury
SY1 2BQ

Although inviting a speaker from the fucking POA seems a bit tasteless, you'd think a screw would be the last person you'd want to see at a "congratulations on your wrongful conviction being overturned!" party.

 

[hitmouse]

If anyone's in Liverpool on Wednesday night, here's your chance to hear from two of the Shrewsbury pickets:

 

[hitmouse]

 

[hitmouse]

Recent-ish podcast interview on 1972 and all that:

E65-66: Building workers’ strike w/ Ricky Tomlinson

Double podcast episode on the 1972 building workers’ strike and subsequent backlash from employers and the state, which resulted in one of the biggest miscarriages of justice experienced by t…

workingclasshistory.com

 

[hitmouse]

Talk by Eileen Turnbull from their justice campaign happening in Salford in April:

A Very British Conspiracy: the Shrewsbury 24 and the Campaign for Justice

In 1973 a group of building workers were arrested for picketing related offences. Dr Eileen Turnbull, campaign researcher tells the story.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

As it happens, one of the Shrewsbury pickets showed up at a strike rally in Knowsley this week: