Nationalize to save jobs Bolton demand

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS ON. THE MANCHESTER - LIVERSUPPORT from trades unions and political parties in Bolton has been the best of the march so far.

Ken Abbott, divisional organizer of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, gave us an immediate £5 donation and sent a delegation to meet the march.

Mr Mackiver of the General and Municipal Workers' Union arranged an evening meal the Breightmet Labour Club and Jack Brown, the general secretary of the Bolton and District Union of Textile and Allied Workers, also gave us financial help and encourageSo despite the drizzle, which continues to fall without a pause, morale continues to improve. Our numbers have been boosted as well by two youth from Bury. They Jolned the march after listening to speakers at our public meeting in the town.

Bolton is like any other mill town except that it's larger and has the worst unemployment rate of the three we have visited.

With 5,000 on the dole the rate is 5 per cent—higher than the North West average. To this figure another 600 redundancies must be added. On June 23 the textile combine J. P. Coats shut their Eagley mill at Bolton.

In 1958 Bolton had 85 mills.

There are 12 now. Over 15,000 jobs have been lost the industry over the last decade and total employment in the industry has shrunk to around 5,000.

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take out a subscription Days required MONDAY Some of the marchers hold a meeting from the Bolton nomic policy has accelerated this decline. Jack Brown warned that the ingredients for a slump equal to that of the 1930s are all present today.

'In terms of employment we are not as bad as the 193Us. But economically we have the conditions that produced the dally pap er that leac Is the figh I again Tories.

Clapham THURSDAY SOCIALISTS RIGIT TO REGION Mati 1930s. Unless unemployment shows a sharp and prolonged decline, the situation could become very, very grave indeed, said Mr Brown.

He said light industry had come into the area to replace textiles.

'But there is by no 11H enough to absorb the labour thrown out of work. You must remember that many of the women who used to work in the mill are married and do not always register as unemployed.

The situation is therefore far worse than the figures Gord skills. Trained cotton operatives suffer a loss of job satisfaction and status if they are forced to work for the mail order firms for example' He admitted that the scale of the problem raised the issue of nationalization of the industry.

'We asked the Labour government to nationalize in 1945 with the mines-but what was the answer? They told us the job was too complex. Every year our conference goes on record demanding nationalization. We passed it again last year, but what chance is there of achieving that with a Tory government in power?

It is an indictment of this system and Tory rule that youth have to go to the lengths these marches have taken to bring publicity to their plight. They should be backed.' The recession in Bolton has also hit the town's main source of employment-engineering.

Brian Northey, AUEW district committee member, who came out to greet the march, has escaped redundancy seven times over the past 12 months.

Redundancies declared over he last year include, 170 al lyders, 300 when Lister engi. neering closed, 390 in two nearby Hawker Siddeley plants, 90 at Edbro Tippers and a dozen smaller pay-offs.

Brian is disgusted with the role of the TUC General Council:

I went to the conference last September. I thought I was listening to a Tory Party gathering when some of them spoke' Bolton as well.

Teenage unemployment is in excess of 200, but here, as in Bury, the number out of work is much greater. This figure does not account for those who do not register or are school leavers who do not qualify for unemployment benefit.

OUR last stop at Bury brought two recruits to the march, Shaun McMahon and Frank Gordon, both 18 years old.

Since he left school three years ago, Shaun has had a string of bad jobs which offered low pay and no prospects. The official unemployment statistics in Bury record 13 boys on the dole. Shaun says this figure is ridiculous.

'When you go for your money the queue stretches right outside onto the pavement-there are about 50 to 100, he says.

"My best job was my first one as a lab assistant at a paper mill. I liked the work, but I was getting nowhere, they were just keeping me at