Picket blinded-£25 Fine
Socialist Press1978 1978-11-29Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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UF BETES The House of Holland mass picket events last week.
With heavy fines being imposed on strikers and their supporters for such heinous crimes as obstructing the highway, MIS Margolis (wife of Garners boss Cyril) received a paltry £25 fine at Marlborough St. on Monday.
After several adjournments because of her refusal to attend the hearing, she pleaded guilty to common assault in an incident in which her blow had caused a striker to lose partial sight in one eye.
As the Daily Telegraph pointed out last week, the nature of the. charge precludes any chance of extensive damages . being won by the injured strikerJalil Khan. the police to curtail the right to picket.
The refusal of the TGWU to mobilise a single sub'stantial delegation to the picket line alongside this agreement with the police to limit numbers to six a restaurant, has disarmed the strikers and given the police official sanction to harrass and arrest the strikers.
Tribune picket
The final act of treachery in this process is the union's refusal to pay the fines of those arrested-leaving individual supporters 'to carry the financial burden of such fines.
To the embarrassment of the Regional leadership, eight "left" MP's including Martin Flannery, Dennis Skinner, Jo Richardson and Audrey Wise picketed Oxford Street Garners on Tuesday lunchtime-more than the agreed limit.
Flannery's protestations (intended as the usual token gesture of support) that the police's arbitrary limits on picketing was 'intimidation' pinpointed the depth of the TGWU's betrayal and, to the obvious embarrassment of the Morning Star, took a position to the left of the Communist Party. • The day of mass picketing called by the Greater London Association of Trades Councils on 8 December represents an important step. • Although not decisive in itself such a mobilisation provides a valuable morale booster to the strikers and focuses the attention of wider layers of the labour movement on the strike.
If supported by large numbers it will also challenge by its effectiveness the union's refusal to mobilise mass pickets, organise secondary blacking and pay the strikers adequate finance.
Because of the potential threat of such mobilisations GLATC, headed by Stalinist Stiller, and Region 1 headed by Stalinist Staden will do their best by planned inaction to ensure that the action on December 8 is a flop.
Success on this day will therefore help strengthen the strikers fight not only against the company but against their own leadership.