STEEL

Part four. Ebbw Vale. Return of a Labour government. In the crisp dawn of October 30, 1937 'A' furnace at Ebbw Vale steelworks, South Wales, was blown in for the first time since 1929.

Earlier, in January 1936, lorries, excavators, dumpers, cranes and bulldozers tore down the obsolete 19th century furnaces to make way for. what was to be the most modern strip mill in Europe.

When it opened on September 30, 1938, as the first shift went to work, the bells at Christ : Church tolled and retolled in endless peals as a token of the community's thankfulness that work had once again returned to the valley.

The long years of slump and closure in which grass and weeds covered the steelworks and rabbits multiplied where bars and rails were once rolled appeared to be over.

Today men who never dreamed that they or their sons would ever return to the hunger and rags of the 1930s are faced with the dole once again.

The British Steel Corporation's statement that steelmaking will be ended at Ebbw Vale by 1975 is the third time workers' livelihoods have been seriously threatened within living memory.

The furnaces were blown out in 1911, 1929 and now finally, and irrevocably, in d to e town centre. A commun 1 built 1975. the third time in its history. Ibove : ironWith the 1 Vang men Bu tages as ce alrea In turni £41 steel Wale exper was supp porte and valle RE Thi not New docke work build Ne merce around steelmaking, it threat- now work: The steelworks. the y

and even death in the town.

In 1911 and 1929 when world recession hit stéel, some of the town's then 45,000 population could find work at the pits.

In 1973 only 700 of the town's 13,000 working population work in coal. Of the rest, 9,000 are directly connected with steel, plus at least 1,000 others in associated trades.

The loss of even the planned 4,500 jobs is serious enough. The closure of the entire plant would be an unimaginable disaster.

Work in extractive and heavy manufacturing industry has been leaving the valleys of the South Wales coalfield for more than a decade.

Unemployment in the area, which includes Ebbw Vale, Brynmawr, Tredegar and Abertillery, is 5.3 per cent, or over 1,000. There are about 40 vacancies.

February As Foot put it in the Tory 'Western Mail', whom he thanked for the opportunity. FIRST they will seek to persuade BSC to change its mind and modernize the steelmaking side of Ebbw Vale SECONDLY they will plead at least for the retention of the hot mill.

THIRDLY they will ask for guaranteed alternative work.

None of these things is probable or even possible.

Understandably the works action committee still has some confidence in the power of negotiation.

Until the Tories and their banker friends leaned on him see sense, BSC chairman Lord Melchett had reprieved Ebbw Vale in 1970 and promised the retention of at least 8.000 jobs. Why, asks the action committee, can't he do it again?

Because this time Tories' recognition that slump and