John Pilger: A Nod and a Wink TV - Justice for the Shrewsbury Pickets 2011 -
A law made before the Middle Ages and never sanctioned by parliament has been dug up quite recently to be used virtually unchanged as a tool of suppression. Let’s be quite clear. This law can affect us all ... At your trial you can be convicted on rumours, on who you are, on how you live, on what your friends are. Conspiracy, an English judge said recently, can amount to a nod and a wink. John Pilger, A Nod and a Wink, ITV 1975
In 1973 Shrewsbury building workers campaigned against the notorious Lump – the use of non-union labour and its acceptance of dangerous work conditions. At the trial of the Shrewsbury pickets, who are charged with conspiracy to intimidate, the judge said, You know very well it can be a conspiracy when they never met and they never knew each other. ibid.
These laws are a dragnet, a perfect weapon to use against critics of the prevailing order and political opposition ... A great many lawyers are appalled by the use of the conspiracy laws ... Used to intimidate and silence all kinds of dissent ... The conspiracy laws can in effect by used to invent new crimes. Indeed the application of these laws is unlimited, and they are in my view bad laws. ibid.
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.