Labour Must Blast the Blimps

MILITARISM has exacted full toll for the 'riot' that took place at Shepton Mallet military prison on March 10.

Last week a military court staffed by members of the officer caste handed out sentences totalling thirty-five years to nine of the thirteen alleged mutineers.

After sentencing the prisoners the president of the court, Brigadier C. T. W. Gough, went out of his way to commend the prison commandant, Lt-Col. J. C. M. Morton-Clarke, and his staff for their 'handling of the mutiny'.

ANCIENT SLUM. The War Office brass hats and the ruling-class politicians hope that Shepton Mallet will now return to normal, undisturbed business. They hope to restore the shroud of secrecy hiding what takes place in this ancient slum where men are made to polish floors with boot polish, to shine buckets that are never used.

Despite a number of official inquiries into allegations of physical brutality against prisoners, secrecy has been rigidly maintained.

Last year civil police were called in to investigate the case of one prisoner who had his skull fractured.

Despite the inquiries, not one official report has ever been made available to the public.

Shepton Mallet was built 348 years ago. In 1930 the civil authorities condemned it as unfit for use as a prison.

Preparing for the war for democracy by increasing the number of jails at their disposal, the army took it over as a military detention barracks in 1939.

Since then this hell-hole, described by one of its former padres as degrading and needing to be 'utterly destroyed', has seen inflicted on its unfortunate inmates all the humiliations that only the militarized mind could conceive.

Living within the confines of the damp-soaked walls, compelled to perform the most inane tasks at the behest of the guards, denied any real medium for the settlement of their grievances, the prisoners were undoubtedly goaded to a point beyond human endurance.

Men whose only channel of complaint is an orderly officer who is one of the staff responsible for running the prison have no alternative but strike action if they want to bring attention to their grievances.

The whole responsibility for what took place at Shepton Mallet rests upon the military. Yet this same military is prosecutor, judge and jury—and hands out savage sentences of five years to four of the men and three years to the others.

These sentences are designed not only to punish the so-called mutineers, but also to serve notice on all other prisoners—and all other soldiers—not to get out of line.

The Labour movement has a responsibility both to the convicted men and to all other working-class lads who are serving in the Forces.

Under no circumstances can we permit the Blimps to continue with their brutalization and inhuman treatment of young workers, of which Shepton Mallet is only one example that has happened to come to public notice.

Labour should demand an independent inquiry into Shepton Mallet—an inquiry conducted by representatives of the trade unions, not by people whose main concern would be to hush up the whole affair.

WORKERS IN UNIFORM. Labour should demand that soldiers have the right of trade union representation at all levels.

Let Morgan Phillips and other Labour Party leaders who profess such concern over young people take up the fight for the young people in the army.

Let us ensure that young workers in uniform receive from Labour the help and protection against Tory officers that they are entitled to.

BOB PENNINGTON