[When the toolroom workers launched their strike which…]
Socialist Press1979 1979-04-11Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 5 →
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When the toolroom workers launched their strike which ultimately sparked off the Labour/ ¡Liberal coalition • in 1977, sections of the Tory press defended them in a backhanded kind of way.
Seeing in the toolmakers lever for the Tory policy uf "paying our key people more" (usually meaning by this managers and professional staff) the press gave them a curious image, half hero, half villain.
In particular Roy Fraser was pointed out as a reasonable man. Pictures appeared of him mowing his lawn; articles about the ordinariness of his house and domestic life.
Today the stakes are higher. The strike takes place as the capitalists hope to govern in their own name under their own flag.
The prospect of coming into office in the middle of complete Leyland shutdown is disheartening.
Fraser has therefore been subjected to a witch-hunt comparable only to those usually aimed at strike leaders a thousand times more radical.
Edwardes • handed. the press the ammunition, saying "I have a very real query whether Mr. Fraser is a PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report Fraser