Philip Wade in W Midlands

From our own reporters David Maude in the West hrough a barrage to miners welcome KEN taste they road arms • 11 - -Plan Yeats in Kent THE BLACK country working class is on the move and Enoch Powell had better watch out! That's the clear message we got after the magnificent support we've received here so far.

On Tuesday AUEW shop stewards at Carrington's engineering plant at Darlaston just outside Wolverhampton applauded the march into their factory canteen and served us with a three-course meal paid for out of their funds.

Leading the servers was convenor Sam Handley, who is also a member of the Wolverhampton district committee of the union.

He told me how the post-war boom has come to a rapid end in the W Midlands. Wolverhampton now has 6,600 on the dole, a rate of 7 per cent where it used to be 1 per cent.

on short-time of four days and three nights for 14 months now.

'Almost every factory in this area is on short time. Workers throughout Britain used to take a lead from this area and now it's the other way round.

'That's a sign of the times, and of the Conservative government of course,' said Sam.

'If the Tories can destroy conditions in this area, they'll do it everywhere. But what we are lacking is a good leadership in the trade union movement.

'We had the opportunity to bring down the Tories in the last seven weeks, during the miners' strike, but the leaders refused to act, added Sam.

The economic boom, together with shop-floor organization, brought big benefits to Carrington's 900 workers. Wages were tripled in ten years from a level of about £14 a week.

It was never necessary to strike for these increases and other conditions like the excellent facilities in the canteen for workers who have been there over 40 years.

And the fact that the management readily agreed to the request to let us use the canteen (the managing director actually paid us a visit) was symbolic of the relationships built up over this period.

But that's all finished, as shop stewards' committee chairman Tom Johnson made clear to me:

'When we meet the management this afternoon, one of the items On the agenda will be T marchers had their first of class war yesterday, but emerged tougher than ever a hail of Tory abuse on the from Herne Bay to an openwelcome at the mining village of Hersden, eight miles away. Once prosperous W Midlands still generous support ONE OF THE LIVERPOOL-LONDON MARCHERS THANKS THE WORKERS AT CARRINGTON'S FACTORY, NEAR WOLVERHAMPTON, FOR INVITING THEM INTO THE FACTORY CANTEEN FOR A. MEAL. ON THE RIGHT IS FACTORY CONVENOR SAM HANDLEY proposals for Measured-Day Work. But no factory in this district hasn't lost labour under MDW and we won't have any of it,' he said.

'With short-time working. however, the whole position has changed. Our bargaining power Right-to-Work is not as strong as it was when the firm had full order books With rapidly-growing unemployment and attacks on conditions, the Black Country working class is under attack in a way they haven't been since the 1930s.

YOUNG SOCIALISTS It was of major importance to us, therefore, that the Wolverhampton AUEW district committee supported us 100 per cent. At a meeting, six district committee members turned out to welcome us into their new HQ, where we stayed the night. PERSONAL CAPACITY) TO lines, but the unity which was created around the miners' The welcome at Hersden contrasted starkly with the neardeserted streets of Tory-dominated Herne Bay when the marchers arrived there late on Monday evening; * se The resort part" the WE DEMAN THE RIGHT TO WORK President Arthur Tomkinson handed over a cheque for £25 and Goodyear convenor Alf Fishlock gave us the same amount from his factory.

Several of the committee members spoke at a meeting we called. Arthur Tomkinson said he was rather sad to see twice within his lifetime marches against unemployment.

'But perhaps you're different from Jarrow. You don't have to beg in soup kitchens and ask for charity. Working-class organizations are coming forward to assist you,' he said.

Rubery Owen delegate to the district committee Ray Rollison told the marchers the working class would never get anywhere with its present leadership.

'They were frightened men in 1926 and I'm not so sure they're not the same now. But the working class is more educated now and have shown recently that workers' control could work.

'I think the miners' strike would really have been worth it if they'd finished up with six miners on the NCB, he said.

When YS national secretary John Simmance replied for the marchers, he stressed the questions of a new revolutionary leadership the trade union movement which had to pose working-class power, socialism.

When he finished, district committee members rose to their feet applauded him.

The big danger in the Wolverhampton area for the working class, . of course, is Powellism. Growing unemployment, together with a big immigrant working class, are just the sort of conditions in which his policies can flourish.

But as we saw in Wolverhampton, Powell has one enormous barrier to surmount: the organized working class.

The powerful AUEW district committee will undoubtedly be in the forefront of the struggle against Toryism in all its forms in the coming days.

On Tuesday night we were the guests of Bentley Labour Club, Walsall, and yesterday we moved on to Birmingham for the evening.

Canterbury-Whitstable employ- Canterbury-Whitstable employment area and out of 34,000 ment area and out of 34,000 insured workers about 1,500, or insured workers about 1,500, or 4.7 per cent, are unemployed. 4.7 per cent, are unemployed.

The local Labour Party, due The local Labour Party, due for resuscitation after years in for resuscitation after years in the political wilderness, turned its back on the marchers. But party secretary and ex-CPer, Mr Eddie Price, welcomed the marchers with an armful of food in a 'personal capacity'.

He told the marchers: 'I think this is marvellous, but it is a pity the whole labour movement is not participating. I deprecate any section of the Labour Party which turns its back on the unemployed.' After a night at a church hall complete with kitchen and games room, the Young Socialists marched on to Hersden.

Local police ignored the march as it wound along the narrow twisting and highly dangerous road to the mining village and for their own safety the Young Socialists were forced to direct traffic round the march themselves.

When we arrived at Hersden after a barrage of Tory insults and a forest of faces twisted with hatred, 17-year-old marcher Tony Dawson told me:

'When we left Broadstairs we all felt right down, but after this welcome from the miners we're back up again. This has really raised my spirits. We are going all the way.