NEW RECRUITS EXPLAIN THEY JOINED

Workers Press no. 691, 17 February 1972 · scan pages 4, 5

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DAY NINE-Hexham WE'VE begun to pick up people on the way. The latest recruit is a miner, John Hampson from Cumnock. He took the decision to come on the journey to London after the Carlisle meeting and play.

"The reason why I came is because the march is in line with the battle down on the picket line — with one big difference. You are fighting for all the working class and trying to build socialist movements everywhere,' he told me.

'I believe in this. Socialism to me is making the workers one big family and getting a decent job and a good wage. Getting back to normal really, and away from what the Tories are doing to this country.

•When I say we want the right to live decently, I reach this conclusion because I see this right is threatened. All these lads on the march don't have a chance under this set up. They come out of school then waste away on the dole. There are boys I know with "O" levels who can't get work. This is no life for anyJohn also gets angry about the fate of the old people under Tory rule. He lives with his mother and father and they have to exist on £10 a week.

'It's better for me to go marching. It takes some weight off my parents and they back my beliefs anyway. One of the first things a Labour government must do is to give a better deal to the old.

'As a whole if the Labour Party do get in, they must adopt the Young Socialists' policies. As far as I know them I agree with them 100 per cent.' What does he think of the march so far?

'I have always been interested in politics and the main attraction for me is to listen at meetings and talk to people we meet in the towns.

"This has been a great experience for me. At first I thought the aim of getting the Tories out was per aps a little bit ambitious, but now, after seeing the feeling in the areas we have passed through, I know this is possible if people would come forward and fight.'

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