Militants fight for convenor

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. £1.10 .£2.20 .£5.50 £10.00 The ditching of the Yorkshire-based Hepworth Iron Company covenor, Barry Almond, by the local TGWU regional officer, Pearson, has met with stubborn resistance from some of the militant stewards and workers in the plant.

Many of them travelled to London on Tuesday of this week to lobby the TGWU headquarters, demanding the recall of the rigged mass meeting at the plant which voted to return to work with Almond still An important division in the ranks of the bureaucracy has opened the way to retrieve the position. The original meeting was heldas reported last week-under conditions where management heavily influenced the attendance by 'circulating those workers who had scabbed on the strike with a letter urging them to go, and where Pearson accepted company edict that Almond would be arrested and charged with trespass should he attempt to attend and address the meeting.

Not only was the return to work on terms that Almond remained sacked, but that two stewards were suspended from office.

Now Bill Cox, national officer of the union, has condemned the meeting and called for a new meeting to organise strike action.

The TGWU branch-the 9/17-has condemned the return to work and called for blacking of the factory. This was unanimously backed by Barnsley Trades The lobby this week must now be turned into a springboard for a new mass meeting to reinstitute strike action-and this time a meeting at which Almond must speak.

Part of the demoralisation of strikers on the first trike was on to ma remusal efficient blacking and organise a regional levy. The next meeting of the Regional Committee must be lobbied with this aim.

Cox's turn in defence of Almond is an expression of bureaucratic • differences within the union. But Socialist Press will support any action taken in the convenor's defence. Cox must be forced to translate his words into action.

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