Political strength keeps US going

THE GLASGOW march has had its first 'check-up'. After 24 days on the road and 300 miles from the point of departure, a Yorkshire doctor has pronounced the contingent basically fit.

"The march has gone very well from the health point of view. There are the usual problems with feet and muscles, but it has not demoralized the marchers,' he told me.

'Very few of them grumbled. Yet a march of 500 miles is a considerable task for people not used to this kind of effort. The determination to carry this through obviously comes from their belief in the aims of the campaign. This is essential on a journey of this kind.' The doctor-who gave his services free because he agrees with the policies of the Young Socialists—also paid tribute to the two foot specialists, miner John Hampson and Keith Radford from Tyneside.

"They have been doing fine work. The marchers could not go on without the daily attention they give.' I have been talking to some of the people who, despite their injuries, have been sticking with the march.

One, Ken Gannon, had just The factory estate between Margate and Broadstairs, where trade unionists the marchers passing through Union Collections in Heath's homeland FROM IAN YEATS THREE NEW recruits joined the march at Ramsgate for the 26-mile third-day hike to Herne Bay on Monday. One of them is a young miner from Snowdown colliery.

'This march is for a good thing, 17-year-old John Strand told me the day after he saw the Young Socialists pass through Ramsgate.

'The Tories are putting SO many out of work so that if the miners or anyone else go on strike again, they can say "If you don't like it there's plenty more outside".

"The basic policies of the Tories are for the rich man. I think the miners should have hung on for the extra money, but Gormley and Daly were too frightened to go on.' John has finished his mining apprenticeship, but full time he still takes home only £10 a week.

'Something's got to be done,' he told me. "The Tories are running everything to ruin.' Twenty -year-old Dennis Danton's young wife, who is about to have a baby urged him to join the march.

Said Dennis, who has been out of work since December: 'We were both at the meeting and what the speaker was saying just hit her. She e turned to me and said "You're going on that completed tod ay's 12-mile stretch with deep-rooted blister on the undı erside of his left foot that has b urst.

'I forget about th le pain when I walk. I'm going t o stick it all the way to London • What's the alternative - going Carlisle and the dol 3. This march has opened my eye! s to a lot of things-I won't go back to that existence. The movi ement in the Young Socialists is i determined and I am going to show myself worthy of it by mai rching all the way.' Robina Bright (18 ) is one other marcher who has despite physical d ifficulty. She these youth would rather fight— but has kept and the battle won't stop in bas the told wee, ¡he can. London. After that they will go s at Thirsk back to their areas and build a Robina joined u an. better social future for the with her friend Sus 'I came on the m arch bisially because of the jot , problem. chool after night, we were quartered at the went to night-s ordinary school for 1 two years and was arranged by local Labour trained as a short -hand typist. But when I lef necessary qualificati ons, I could not get the job to I've had more jol remember. I ended 1 up in the local chicken factor y pulling the one who stands for this essential insides out of the 1 irds all day. right of the working people can It's not the kind o f life I want disagree with these youth.

the march couldn't see them without a roof to lead. So when lecided to go over their heads. This is not came through, we c on it and fight bac k. much, but it's the least I could 'The march has :

DEALTO LONDON march". She would have come march". She would have come too if she wasn't pregnant. tan if che wacn't nreonant 'This march is going to put the Tories in their place and show the country that youngsters are not just vandals. They want something to do.

I've just got married and on the dole. Not having a makes me feel as if I'm not one who wears the trousers. making me sick being out work.

'The Tories are the cause all this unemployment.

They're turning the country into a police state. They're even trying to stop free speech and we always had that.

we get rid of them Change until Dennis's views found unexpected confirmation in the manager of Ramsgate labour exchange:

'The majority of the people on our books are in the full bloom of being able to earn a living, but they're not able to. They're not layabouts but there's just no work for them.' Unemployment in Ramsgate and its twin holiday resort of Margate is running at 7.2 per cent and 12.9 per cent respectively and creeping up.

In the largest of the E Kent towns, Margate, with 50,000 people and a strong Labour bias, the marchers' collecting •tins were flled genetously. and' one with the match. charge. bs than I can march. got better as do.' job It's can.' by foot trouble. walked on Labourites who are against working class. pensioner got more good luck we have gone along. The support we have got has encouraged me a lot. I never knew that workers could come together in this way.

makes forget leg trouble and keep going when Walking 300 miles, sometimes through empty countryside, is a considerable physical and mental task. The fact that the youth do it generally with good spirit, is political determination and courageparticularly on the part of girls and those marchers plagued Despite the Tories and Chesterfield on Monday local YMCA. The accommodation councillors and the YMCA secreoffered his building free of He told me he backed the "Whatever your outlook no LOYEX SI He gave 50p saying: 'I've than any of you, so to you' Margate's warm welcome contrasted sharply with the astonished reception at Broadstairs-Heath's birthplace.

In the quaint and expensive main street, rouged women in fur coats with poodles on leads puffed out their cheeks with outrage as the marchers roared 'Heath Out' and 'Socialism In' down the narrow streets.

There isn't a single Labour councillor on the 15-man local authority and Thanet (Deal, Sandwich, Broadstairs, Ramsgate) has never returned a After 300 miles most of the marche feet have been tended every night JOHN STRAND Labour MP. Well under a third of the 20,000 population are working class-the rest are profoundly small-town bourgeois.

According to the local newspaper, many of Broadstairs' citizens are retired and deeply conservative.

Mr R. Franklin kept working until he was 75. He was unemployed before World War I, so he knows what it's like.

But he told me as the march clattered past: 'I don't suppose Broadstairs has ever seen anything like this before. I admire the marchers for having the courage of their convictions.

'The root of the trouble in society is that. things. are pro. WE DEMAND THE RIChT TO WORK 06i irs duced for profit and not for use. duced for profit and not for use. If they were produced for use, If they were produced for use, we'd have the best of everything and everyone would perform some useful function.' The chill of Broadstairs was mellowed when the marchers reached West Wood Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Margate.

Bill Billingham, Sign and Display Union shop steward at the Sericol Screen Printing works, saw the march and raised a collection among the 40 men at the factory.

Just what unemployment can mean in Tory hands was brought home to the marchers when they passed the Rovex toy factory.

The workers all had pay stopped last week for refusing to agree to 12-hour shifts and now the management say they'll close down unless the men change their minds.

Collections were being raised for our march on the estate from the Rank Engineering and EMCO factories and donations of £2 were handed over by two shop stewards from AUEW funds.

Farmers, greengrocers and butchers along the route into Margate handed over a sack of vegetables and a large parcel of meat to the marchers who were offered a free room at the Welcome Cafe, Birchington, to cook and eat their food before -forging.on.to. Herne Bay,..