NEWCASTLE TRADE UNIONISTS PRAISE MARCHERS' DISCIPLINE AND DEDICATION

Right-to-Work Jobs marches help construct revolutionary party THE MINERS' strike has changed the whole course of English history since 1945, Socialist Labour League national secretary Gerry Healy told a rally at St Helens to greet the first leg of the Liverpool-London Right-to-Work march.

'Nothing can be quite the same again in the relationships between the classes. Workers became class conscious during the strike and recognized the ment. nemy the Tory governBut he warned of the dangers of the Tory counter-attack that had to follow.

"They've got their breathing space. And the trade union leadership have given the Tories time,' said Comrade Healy.

"The miners could have won everything. But their reformist leadership did not want openly to make the Tories resign.

'That's why the construction of a revolutionary party is so important. It is in this context that the Right-to-Work marches take place.

"The first major intention of this march is to construct a revolutionary leadership in the trade union and working-class movement. If we do not take up this responsibility, we will suffer a defeat which will make 1926 look microscopic,' he added.

Earlier the Town Hall audience saw performance of "The English Revolution'. It immediately warmed to this play which brought out so clearly the lessons of the bourgeois revolution for our struggle in 1972.

The most enthusiastic response came from the marchers. Said Tony Russell from Bootle:

It showed that what happened there is happening now. The Tories will be beheaded just like : Charles I. It will come to a crunch just as it did in Cromwell's days.

"I always thought actors were top people who didn't care about us. They surprised me tonight and supported us very well,' Tony told me.

DAY 15—Hartlepool FROM STEPHEN JOHNS MARX coined the term lumpenproletariat. He used it to describe a section of the working class who were driven down by economic deprivation into crime and social degeneration. plete victims of the capitalist Eventually they become Often when the unemployedand particularly the young unemployed - recount their experiences they describe this process. By joining the march, they have begun an initial break from this danger and are becoming conscious of it.

Eric Kell (17), who has just joined us, left school in Sunderland with an ambition to get a job and money. Enough anyway to give his widowed mother some comfort and to allow him money to spend.

But he was pushed out of classroom onto the streets Sunderland where youth unemployment is the highest in England.

For a while he was searching for work. The crowded youth dole was little help.

'You need their green card— that's a recommendation The marchers from Liverpool received a tremendous welcome outside St Helens. There to greet us were the Pilkington rank-and-file committee and miners from nearby Bold colliery.

It has already been reported that the miners gave £10 towards the campaign. But we got a real lift when we saw 20 • to 30 of them waiting for us with their lodge banner to escort us into town.

I spoke to Ted Newley, president of the Lancashire craftsmen's section of the NUM.

"The aims of the march clear. We want the Tories out. They should have resigned last DANGERS FACING YOUTH ON THE DOLE job they send you to-but never gave me one.

'You're living on £3.60 and you know there's going to be no job. So you just up and wander about the town, looking in the shops. Perhaps at night you will go to a cheap dance-—if there js one to break the boredom. Really you're fed up all the time. At the weekend there's nothing to look forward to. You can't go out Friday night with your mates who have wages to spend. Sometimes they buy you a pint or two, but it can't happen every week. You become separated off' To break this deadly routine, to strike back at an invisible oppressor, or simply out of sheer boredom the teenager with no job will commit a 'crime'. This might consist of a fight with another youth, petty theft for money.

Eric stole cars.

I used to drive them around for a while. But I always took them back. I didn't want them. It was just the excitement.' He was arrested and sent to approved school, then a detention centre. An attempt to escape landed him in borstal. WELDERNEA THE Ece TO WORK VER WE DEMAND THE RIGHT TO WORK OL TOLONDON JOHN MCGRATH LEADS THE Friday when we got our settleIt is the most reactionary government since 1926. We have set the standard with our strike for the whole trade union moveJim Fullerton, president of St Helens NUM panel, added: 'We feel we have now won a victory. Now we are determined to lend other sections of the working class, like yourselves, all our support.

Finally, I must thank on behalf of all of us Kirkby Labour Club for the reception they laid on for us on our midday stop from Liverpool.

Borstal and later prison moulds what was a young school-leaver into another personality.

He comes to accept a life of dole, crime and institutions and becomes complétely alienated from the labour movement and working class.

Eric told me how this began to happen at his borstal.

'You went in there and from the start they told you who was master. You obeyed them and they had grades to encourage you. The first was Ordinary Grade, the second Training Grade, the third was Senior Grade and then you got the discharge tie when you were due out.

'Eventually they let me out to sweep • the streets in the staff village. This was to put you down and make you feel menial. Especially when the magistrates came, they would see you.

'When you disobeyed you'd find yourself in the block for punishment. They made you scrub the floor all the day. Sometimes you would stuff Teddy bears.

"The thing about borstal is not just the toughness, but the THE NEWCASTLE and District Trades Council has passed a resolution complimenting the Young Socialists Right-to-Work march which passed through the city last week.

An executive committee minute from the council's meeting Harry Shult, delegate to Ormskirk Labour Party, shop steward at Otis elevators and secretary of Kirkby AUEW, told me he was against the bans and proscriptions imposed by the Labour Party on other left-wing organizations.

'Everyone must have the opportunity of attending Labour Party conferences, putting forward their ideas and fighting the capitalist system on a united front.' It was also at Kirkby Labour Club that playwright John McGrath joined the march to St Helens.

ERIC KELL February 17 states: "The secretary reported that he had met the marchers at Denton Burn and marched with them carrying the trades • council banner through Benwell, Elswick to the Central Methodist Church hall where he had arranged accommodation.

'He paid tribute to their dedication, enthusiasm and disciplined behaviour. It was agreed that a letter in complimentary terms be sent to the march leaders and a letter of thanks to Mr and Mrs Richardson, care takers of the church hall, for their helpful co-operation.

"A letter had been receivea from the ETU Newcastle E branch) thanking the trades council for their support.' The minute was sent to the Right-to-Work campaign executive by Mr C. G. Steel, general secretary of the trades council.

The Woodside branch of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, Glasgow, is giving support to the march and making a contribution of f2. Collections will also be undertaken at other branch meetings.

Castleford, Yorkshire, town council has agreed to put up the Glasgow-London marchers for the night on Friday February 25. They will provide them with an evening meal and a breakfast before they set off again Saturday morning.

The Trades Council in the town has collected £3.80 towards financing the march and has called on all affiliated branches to take collections. The Trades Council is organizing a collection in the town as the march passes through.

Glasshoughton branch of the National Union of Mineworkers has decided to support the march.

Saville miners (NUM branch) from Methley, near Castleford, voted to support the Right-toWork campaign and agreed in principle that ten delegates should attend the rally.

The AUEW branch at Pollard Bearings, Knottingley, Yorkshire, has donated £5 to the campaign.

LONDON YOUNG SOCIALISTS' Right-to-Work Meetings Tuesday February T&GWU Offices, 173, Clapham Road, S' Vednesday February Voolwich Town Hall (public hall)

Market St, SE 18 Thursday February Ruskin House, Coombe Rd, S Croydon monotony and routine. At my place we were one in a cell. The days were all the same. You got to feel strange and different. For nerves and be confident in front of people. Now I'm very bad, my nerves are bad. I think this was caused by borstal and unemployment.' The Tories are now attempting to produce a vast new lumpen-proletariat among the youth. A special kind of policeman had been created to deal with this.

The stories of police harassment and brutality on the Tyne match those from Glasgow, and the Vale of Leven. The police arrest arbitrarily in an attempt to force some kind of curfew on youth at night.

In Sunderland, and places like Renton, near Glasgow, youth face immediate arrest simply for standing or walking down the street after certain hours at night.

The fight against the kind of backwardnes s promoted by the dole, police oppression, borstal is a major issi le in getting young workers to fight politically.

February 22,