MARCHERS' RESPECTS AT ABERFAN

street corners to watch us pass were eloquent with respect for the Right-to-Work march.

The Swansea-London marchers passed through the town on their way from Merthyr Tydfil to Pontypridd.

There a promise of further powerful backing from the miners awaited us. But though briet, our visit to Aberfan touched the marchers even more deeply.

On October 21, 1966, 116 schoolchildren were killed when the massive slag-heap above Pantglas junior school collapsed.

John Collins, whose family was killed subsequently summed up the feelings of many workers all over the country about the tragedy. He told the official inquiry they had been buried alive by the National Coal Board'.

The marchers-now 27-strong -chanted® and sang their way into the town they have done throughout S Wales over the last week, but as they passed the site of the school they dipped their banner, removed their hats and remembered in silence those latest victims of capitalism's unplanned drive for coal.

For Rees Davies, 21, of Swansea Young Socialists, the ceremony was particularly poignant. On Sunday he carried the Rightto-Work banner. In 1966 he was one of the hundreds who flocked to the mining town in a desperate fight to save lives.

'The facts of the Aberfan disaster go back to 1927, when the instability of tips due to uncontrolled water was discovered', he told me.

It was pure murder by the Tory system. Those deaths need never have happened' Our 18-mile trek from Merthyr started with a march round Gurnos estate, one of the big working-class housing estates to the N of the city, where families came to windows, doors and garden gates we staged an impromptu open-air meeting.

By the time we reached Treharris for refreshment, the fine where we made a brief drizzle which had accompanied us through Aberfan had turned to driving rain.

For two of our number, it was their first taste of march life.

Miners' son Peter Warrell is 17. He joined us in Merthyr after eight weeks without work; eight weeks during which he has been offered nothing by the Youth Employment Service apart from a miserly £3.60 a week.

For Peter, the initial experience of life out of school has been bitterly disappointing. Rich experiences on the road AFTER seven days of narching, we have crossed into Staffordshire and are well on our way into the Midlands industrial belt.

But when we left Liverpool that Sunday, few anticipated the rich experiences we would make and the political developments that would take place on • the march.

Most marchers were new recruits to the Young Socialists and had had little contact with the working class in its organized form.

But in these first seven days they have learnt in a most practical way the meaning. of working-class unity in action against the Tories.

On the very first day, miners from St Helens turned out with their lodge banner to escort us into town. Skelmersdale and Winsford Labour Parties supported us 100 per cent. Labour clubs threw open their doors and trades councils arranged accommodation.

In this situation of developing support, a leadership was fought for and ! eventually emerged from among the marchers.

The struggle for it took place around the committee elected at the beginning of the march. The central question raised was the need to maintain a political discipline and certain standards of work,:

In essence. it 'was the' Last night ford in the munity cent Stafford Polyt put on a film Starting work in a bakery at £8 a week, he found that there was no trade union and that he was expected to work from 7.30 describes as 'far too fast, Pace he A second job in a hotel meant a drop in earnings to f7 for very similar hours.

At a supermarket where he spent 12 weeks, Peter was asked to lie to a government inspector about his age. Then he found the management sometimes expected him to work from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. at a stretch with no extra pay.

"They took advantage of me', he told me shortly after we reached Pontyprida.

Rose Print (16), 1s the second marcher to join us from Merthyr.

During her first day on the road to London, she told me a very similar story to Peter's. Her one-and-only. job - working for */.9/ a week at a small ple factory-ended after two months.

'I was just told "you're redundant"; she said. 'Since then there's been nothing!' At Pontypridd, a town with a working population of some 15,000, we were greeted by Emlyn Jenkins, S Wales executive member of the National Union of Mineworkers.

Secretary of the 800-strong Lady Windsor NUM lodge and a Communist Party member, Mr Jenkins told the marchers that what they were doing was 'admirable' He said: 'My union will along with you all the way for revolutionary leadership as against the individualism of many of the youth who had spent months, even years on the dole, hanging around street corners.

By the middle of the week a number of marchers came forward. They took real responsibility for distributing and selling the Workers Press and Keep Left'. And in a political way they took up other comrades who wanted to break the discipline of the march.

'The building of a revolutionary party won't be easy at all, said Kirkby marcher, 21-year-old Tony Morris who has been out of work 14 months.

'At the moment we're only at a small stage. In some towns I felt the older workers may not have been brought round by the march. But most of the youth realized something had to be done.

"They are ready to do something, especially as the Labour Party leaders want to sit back and reform things.

'The Tories are now preparing their counter-attack after the miners' strike. I'm confident we because one is needed, party can build a • revolutionary party Tony.

we stayed in StafNorth End com'e. Students echnic came u y and for us.

DIPPED MARCHERS PAY THEIR RESPECTS AS THEY PASS THE SITE OF PANTGLAS SCHOOL HATLESS AND WITH BANNER the fight for the right to work.

• "Is it all worth it?" you must sometimes be asking on this march. Yes, it is.

*I can give you an assurance that S Wales miners will be out in force at your rally on March 12; every working man should be at that rally.

'On Tuesday I will be asking the area executive to support your cause.' Answèring questions from the tired, but nonetheless critical marchers, Mr Jenkins agreed that the Tories could have been completely defeated had the miners stayed out on strike, but claimed that the support of other unions would have been lost.

He was thanked warmly for his support by Right-to-Work campaign secretary Clive Norris and all the marchers:

Besides Lady, Windsor, there are three pits left in the area around Pontypridd: Ty Mawr, Nantgarw and Lewis Merthyr, each employing about 450 men.

No one believes, however, that all their jobs are safe. 'Wè have to support you because some of us may be joining you before long', , Elwyn Jenkins told me before addressing the marchers.

Jobs are also under threat at Pontypridd's Brown and Lennox chain works.

Before leaving we thanked the district committee of the AUEW and district secretary Tom Evans for giving us wellappointed accommodation to sleep in and cooking facilities.

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