A rousing welcome from Merseyside working class

THE LANCASHIRE Rightto-Work marchers got rousing working-class welcome right the way through Liverpool on Saturday at the close of their seven-day campaign in the North West.

At a public meeting in the city centre, march leader and YS secretary John Simmance declared the campaign one of the most successful ever organized by the Young Socialists.

He pointed out that not of the 22 unemployed youth set out from Manchester Saturday had dropped out.

*These youth, some of them new to politics, have fought all the way. They represent something in the British working class that defies defeat-this is the element that will build the British The final and triumphant leg of the journey • began at Kirkby new town with a meeting in the shopping centre at 9.30 a.m.

The marchers set off for Liverpool and in the big working-class suburb of Walton they were met by a 150-strong delegation, including dockers, building site workers, engineers and unemployed youth from Liverpool.

As they made their way through the crowded Walton high street four youth joined the march and stayed for the meeting.

The biggest support came from the Everton area. Shoppers there cheered and clapped as the column-the Right-to-Work banner at the front - passed by Great Orme Street market.

Collectors counted at least a dozen donations of 50p from the workers of the Everton district.

Later, news of more financial support-on top of the £121 already collected-was given to a packed meeting at Hackings Hey Hall.

Shop stewards from the British Aircraft Corporation, Preston division, sent fIo; the GEM supermarket workers, Preston, collected £2.75; Butex engineering shop stewards, Leyland, gave £3; BTR shop stewards f4 and Mr Maguire, Preston area official of the General and Municipal Workers' Union, gave a personal donation of £5. At Ford's, Halewood, the transmission branch of the AUEW gave £4 and £8.05% was callected in the steering section for a meal for the marchers.

A message and one other donation caused spontaneous applause among the audience.

This was from No. 21 branch of mated Union of It read: 'We if you continue NOW £320.02 DONATIONS over this weekend have brought our Fund up to £320.02. We now have less than two weeks before our Summer Camp begins to try and raise our target of £1,750. It is a great challenge, but we are sure, from your support each month and last month in particular, that you, our readers, will do everything you possibly can.

All over the country feeling is growing a jainst the treachery of this union leadership. Instead of talks with Heath, they should be mobilizing trade unionists everywhere to force this Tory government to resign.

Only Workers Press exposes the cowardly position of these leaders. Help us therefore this month in every way you can to raise our July Fund. Put everything you can into this fight. Collect extra amounts. Post all your donations immediately to:

July Appeal Fund, 186a Clapham High St, London, SW4 7UG.

last the Liverpool the AmalgaEngineering feel sure that to campaign for Speakers all the courage and the marchers.

*In this situation the MANCHES the overthrow of the present Tory government and its replacement with a Labour government pledged to implement socialism, then you will succeed. We urge you not to compromise on the political policies underlying the march.' paid tribute determination Alan Stanley, shop steward at Vauxhall Motors, Ellesmere Port, said: 'We live in a time when the capitalist system is breaking up on an international scale.

'This means there are bound to be massive attacks on the working class. At the same time the TUC leaders, right and so called left, spend their time drinking with Heath and promising to get together with him to hold back wages.

marchers THE demonstration which greeted the marchers was one of the most spirited and colourful held by the YS in Liverpool. Delegation leaders told Workers Press why they chose to identify themselves with the campaign.

EDDIE SMITH, Bass Charrington site striker, Runcorn, Cheshire:

'It is vital this Tory government is brought down. The YS and the Socialist Labour League are undoubtedly the only organizations that stand out clearly for this policy. In my own union the Stalinists in the Communist Party are lining up with the right wing, who are a discredited force, and preventing political questions being raised-they also go against national strike action. Workers will ignore the politics of the march at their peril.' MARGARET CAMPBELL, young Winsford housewife, with two baby girls:

•I want a decent home, school and environment for my children to grow up in. This is impossible under the Tories - it's impossible under the capitalist system. That is why I support Registered as a newspaper ar the Post Office. Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, London.

SW4 7UG.

Tell Cabbam Hich Street. London:

SW4 7UG. REGIST 9 15 raised the key demand of forcing this government out with a General Strike. This is the only way forward on any issue-that is why the working class is indebted to these young campaigners, he said.

Eddie Smith, building worker on strike from the Bass Charrington site-who carried the site banner on the Liverpool march -said the youth had set an example to all workers:

'They stand out in sharp. contrast, young as they are, to the trade union leaders. They stand for principle and honesty to the working class. Though small in numbers, a force with this political stand is a mighty force indeed because they represent the true history of the working class.

'Let us join with ers--forward to the party in Britain.' DAVE CAMPBELL, band:

'My factory in Winsford has been paying 5p per man as a levy for the march since the national marches earlier this year. This is because the Right-to-Workin an area like Winsford of high unemployment — is a continual talking point in the plant. We Western region march in Bristol WESTERN Region Young Socialists demonstrated 100-strong through Bristol last Saturday as part of the YS regional Rightto-Work campaign.

Shoppers smiled and cheered their support for the slogans: 'We demand the Right to Work, Kick the Tories Out!' and Recall the TUC, Tories Out!, as the column marched around the precinct of Bristol's shopping centre on its way to a meeting at the Corn Exchange.

YS members and trade unionists from Bristol, Reading, Swindon, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton and Exeter took these marchpolicies attract solid the revolutionary aims of this have found the YS the only march. organization to have the correct her huspart in the demonstraSpeaking at the meeting which followed, London region YS secretary Sarah Hannigan said: 'In a few weeks' time, over 500,000 youth will leave school without a job.

'Growing unemploy. ment among youth is a reflection of the crisis of the whole capitalist system . . . We believe that the solution to this crisis is inseparable from the struggle against the Tory government.' Alan Thornett, deputy senior steward at Morris Motors, Oxford, speaking in a personal Final speaker John Simmance recalled the support the marchers had received from workers along the route-in the towns of Oldham, Bolton,. Bury, Wigan, St Helens and Kirkby.

The youth had come to the YS because it was the only political movement that had consistently fought the Tories and against the betrayals of the Labour • Party leaders.

'We must now build on the experience of this march. Above all we must recognize that it is Marxist theory that gives the YS its strength and determination. Not theory as empty words, but the pages of struggle and principle that are the history of the Trotskyist movement.

'Now, in this tremendous industrial area in the North West, we must go out and build the revolutionary party and a mass youth movement. Helphave found the YS the only organization to have the correct political demands to fight for this basic right?

RICHARD ASHTON (20), docker at the Gladstone container dock, Liverpool.

I go with the march and the YS because what they are fighting is part of the dockers' fight against the Tory system to bring it down' capacity, warned of the dangers • to the working class in the Tory government's present policy of inflation. 'Inflation,' he said, 'is now being used by the Tory government to undermine wages and conditions in the working class. August 15, 1971, turned inflation into opposite — it turned it into the creator of unemployment. ... Only in terms of massively increased unemployment can the Tory government solve its crisis. Now we will surely hear all the time the phrase "The National Interest" — this slogan will now become the ing to worker he saic 1o t ca told The marchers campaign with a Liverpool.

is is che best tribute pay these lads,' He the meeting that almost the marchers had agreed go to the summer camp.

'This is a decisive step. At this camp the ground for the revolutionary movement will be laid down. The Tory government— as any conscious worker is aware — is preparing the most severe repression of the working class. We must train the general staff to meet this challenge with the weapon of Marxist theory and the party.

'Trades unionists cannot affurd to miss this camp,' he said. A collection at the meeting raised a further £24.35.

ended their discotheque in support LESLIE MAKEVITT, Metal Box, Winsford.

'I think the march was fantastic. It appealed to a working class which is ready to fight, which is aggressive and eager to smash the Tories and the state. This is not like the 1930s-with a key fight for a revolutionary leadership we could banish Toryism for ever. The march was a most important advance in that fight.' policy geoisie, Of the bourAnd he added: 'When the dockers stopped the use of the Industrial Relations Act on the docks it was reflected in every factory throughout the country ... It had an enormous impact on class relationships' In the discussion which followed, one trade unionist raised the question of a week-long march and said that his trades council would be prepared to support it and he was sure many others would too.

The successful day was brought to a close by a lively discotheque.