Ricky Tomlinson to lead Shrewsbury ‘flying pickets’ march
Saturday 3rd July 2010, 9:00AM BST.
Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson was today due to lead a march in Shrewsbury as part of a campaign to clear the names of workers jailed over the “flying pickets” – building workers’ strike nearly 40 years ago.
The march will be followed by a rally outside Shrewsbury Crown Court, where they were sentenced in 1973.
Among the speakers is general secretary of the RMT Union Bob Crow.
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would he be doing this if he hadn’t had a lucky break in a soap opera?
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Tomlinson is a convicted criminal and for the serious offence that he committed, he served a lengthy term of imprisonment. How he has the effrontery to return to this town where he was convicted must defy imagination. He brought “flying pickets” from the Liverpool area onto building sites in Telford and ran a campaign of destruction and damage in the town and surrounds. At his trial in Shrewsbury, the usual crop of extreme left wing rabble rousers and troublemakers brought the town to a halt with demonstrators brought in from all parts of the country, a truly massive Police operation ensured that no further problems were caused.
This man was rightly convicted and it is understandable that the usual crop of other extremists are now jumping on the bandwagon. I think this man Crowe is trying to fill the shoes of Scargill. We should have no truck with them and regard them with the utter contempt that they rightly deserve.
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The building workers strike in the early 70’s was a success and resulted in better pay and safer working practices. The subsequent arrests and jail sentences were purely political and the result of a state backlash against a successful joint trade unions campaign, driven by the vengeful Tory administration. This campaign and the fight for justice is even more relevant today in these austere times as the ConDem cuts bite. As the working classes shoulder the burden of City greed unions are again under attack. Don’t believe all you read in the press!. Our rights to protest and campaign for better pay and conditions are ever being eroded. Please support the Shrewsbury24 campaign!.
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These were thugs and rabble rousers who roamed over a wide area committing mayhem and destruction. I saw at first hand the results of their handiwork on the building site in Telford and for some time I sat through the court that rightly convicted them of serious offences. Furthermore I also saw the massive “rent – a – mob” socialist demonstrators in Shrewsbury during the trial and had the pleasure of witnessing the utter humiliation of one of their leaders who tried to personally “take on”, in a political harangue, the then chief Constable of West Mercia who demolished him with a few choice words.
These are convicted criminals not worthy of even fleeting consideration or support.
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