The purpose of this demonstration is to publicize the situation that three of our lads are faced with in jail; secondly, to point out that there are another eight now on trial, and another ten pending trial. Justice for the Salisbury Pickets ***** man with megaphone, Platform Films 2011
In 1973 Ricky Tomlinson and Des Warren were 2 of 24 building workers charged under an 1875 Conspiracy law for their part in organising the first national builders’ strike. The jailing of the Shrewsbury Pickets was not an isolated incident, more the start of a concerted campaign to criminalise rank and file trade union activists. In the 30 years since their imprisonment we have witnessed the increasing use of laws aimed at weakening organized workers’ ability to defend living standards and working conditions. ibid.
‘Working conditions were appalling; men were being killed.’ ibid. Elsa Warren, 2009
With 2,411 workers killed on building sites in the 10 previous years and with over 30,000 serious injuries, the 1972 national building strike had to challenge the lump system if wages and working conditions were to be improved. Tens of thousands of workers downed tools around Britain. ibid.
Later that summer, an even bigger show of working class solidarity had forced the release of five dockers jailed in Pentonville Prison for refusing to recognise the government’s industrial relations court. ibid.
‘We were accompanied at all times by the police.’ ibid. Tomlinson
‘The case was political because the start of the trial there was at least 1,000 police all around the court. ibid. John Jones
‘Two of the jury changed their mind … The court usher had gone into the jury room.’ ibid. Tomlinson
A savage campaign in the Tory press condemned the pickets for violence when in fact they had taken lawful means to spread the strike. ibid.
One of the most vicious attacks inflicted on the labour movement since the Second World War. ibid.
This is a film about injustice, injustice on a scale most of us wouldn’t imagine possible in this country. It’s a film about the imprisonment of people without trial, of innocent people – first offenders, petty offenders and children. John Pilger, Guilty Until Proven Innocent, ATV 1974
Many thousands who almost unnoticed in the last few years have been caught in a system which has become almost as chaotic and repressive as in countries without even the pretence of our bill of rights. ibid.
Out of 50,00 people whom magistrates remand in custody every year, more than half of 25,000 people are later proved completely innocent or are merely fined or are given conditional discharge. ibid.