THE PILKINGTON SAGA

Philip Wade reports from the We were joined during the early part of the LiverpoolLondon march by one of the proudest banners in the entire labour and trade union movement - that of the St Helens Pilkington Rank-and-File committee.

An so the link was made between those 250 glassworkers sacked by Lord Pilkington in August 1970 for defending their basic rights ght-to-Work march and the Young Socialists' campaign to defend the right to work by forcing the Tories to resign.

It was in St Helens that the Tories opened their offensive aimed at destroying the right to work. Two months after coming to power they backed the mass sackings of militants who had led the seven-week Pilkington strike in April and May of that year.

The Tories were ably assisted by the leadership of both the TUC and General and Municipal Workers union. Both refused then and refuse now appeals to help reinstate the men. Nearly 70 are still without work in 1972.

But the Pilkington rank and file took up the battle cry throughout the length and breadth of the trade union movement: 'Defend the right to work! Pilkington is only the beginning!' they rightly declared.

Eighteen months later, the committee is throwing its full weight behind our march. They carried the campaign into the heart of the town's working class.

The committee found a big response in St Helens where almost 3,000 workers are on the dole. For the.2,310 men without jobs there are just 70 vacancies. In other words 30 men chase every job going.

I spoke to jimmy Crosby, secretary of the Rank-and-File committee, about the march to London and the connection he thought it had with the Pilkington struggle.

"The Pilkington issue is more important than ever before. What we saw in August 1970 was a test case for employers' brutality all over Britain and a springboard for Toryism as it really is, Jimmy told me.

'We're now in a straight-out fight between the working class and the ruling class. The Tories planned this before they came to office in June 1970.

In was a blueprint for mass unemployment and the destruction of the right to work. At the same time it exposed the weakness of the trade union leadership.

'These men are always or the outside looking in, never repared to do anything t‹ ight the Tories. They play everything in a very constitutional way, resting on workers' ignorance of social and political history.

I anticipate another Labour government will be returned shortly. Workers will have to apply every sort of pressure to back, added This is where he saw the Right-to-Work marches playing a big role in the struggle for a Labour government. 'Someone in St Helens asked me why I was campaigning for this march. I told him that we had to fight for the unity of employed and unemployed workers to bring down the Tory government and remove it for all time. "The thing that has struck me is that the youth are not prepared to sit back-they want to get up and do something about unemployment and the Tories. 'The march is the only way forward for young workers. Every worker with a son or daughter at school must be told there is absolutely no future for his children as things stand. In my opinion this march will go down in the annals of working-class history like Tolpuddle and Jarrow.' While I was speaking to Jimmy and other committee members, the wide support for the campaign from the St Helens' working class was vividly confirmed when two shop stewards from a building site inside Pilkington's Cowley Hill works walked into the office and handed over a site collection to help the marchers.

At the same time, news came through that Mr Geoffrey Langton Pilkington, former chairman of the glass empire, who died in January left the small sum of £820,684. The information wasn't exactly greetea with acclamation. munahad anolomatica Cliff Fyles was working at the Cowley Hill plant, where the August three-day • strike began over the right to be represented by the union and stewards of the workers' choice. He was sacked and remains so to this day.

• Altnougn Filkington was 6Alah-...L n: 11.: unique at the outset, it has ceased to be like that because so many workers are being hit with the same. hammer. Now we've all got to make a stand or fall together,' Cliff who years before going to Pilkington told me. He explained why he thought the tide was turning their way again. *Pilkington bought industrial peace, but it will come back at them again. The situation will come again when, so to speak, those making the bullets actually begin firing them.

ULNICU nEMIEn 'Our aim is to make inroads into the rank and file of the trade union movement to explain what's at stake. We have to do it this wav because the union leaders have denied us the right to do it any other way.

'In the past a Labour government has nationalized all the non-profit making conand-File committee.

coming round to realizing it's to work as the most important right of all. That is why I'm carrying the Pilkington banner all the way. We'll march through the country with it, showing workers that we're still fighting to defend our rights, both against Pilkington's and the G&MWU leadership. 'Workers are on the move, but they want to see a leadership come forward. This march will show them that here's a party willing to have a go. have to make him pledge to carry out socialist policies. At to get anywhere. 'Many workers will go through what we went through. If the Tories get their chance they will use the Industrial Relations Act.

I'm marching with the Young Socialists because they are the only. organization which has kept us going. We well remember the £1,200 we received from the YS summer fair last year. The YS have led the fight for the right to work,' added Jim.

The last of a three-part ser on 'Conditions in the 193