Parents occupy Coventry -nursery
Socialist Press1980 1980-07-16Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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Once again violence flared at Adwest Engineering this week as the Thames Valley SPG (Thames Valley Support Group) brutally smashed up a lawful picket line.
As the 85 pickets arrived at 6.30 a.m. they were met with the same police tactícs as last week's day of action: ranks of front page at the time of the incident.
The police have not yet decided whether to charge Cramp.
Between the time Thornett phoned the police and their arrival, Daily Mail reporters Robert Porter and Harry Longmuir arrived at Thornett's house -a week and a half after they first arrived in town-asking to speak to Thornett.
Although these reporters got the story of Cramp and the gun from the police the same evening, the Daily Mail has not carried this story and on the phone they have suggested that the whole incident was the invention of the Workers uniformed strike breakers on either side of Adwest's gates prevented pickets from taking up positions and created a pathway for the blackleg labour force.
This time, however, TGWU convenor Danny Broderick, himself arrested at an earlier day of action, announced over a megaphone that to deny a picket line was an unlawful act and could not be tolerated.
Gates
The pickets then marched in an orderly fashion to the gates. Reading's E Division tried to intervene, but in the ensuing melee, over 40 demonstrators managed to form a line across the entrance.
It was then that the support group moved in and after ten minutes of police violence, 21 pickets were dragged off and arrested and charged in most cases with wilfull obstruction of the highway.
They were held for six hours in the Reading cells and hauled importance to the trades union and working class as a whole.
"Because we are fighting to defend our lawful right to picket this must be seen as the most crucial strike in the country and, as such, must be supported financially as well as physically.
"We urgently need financial aid to keep this dispute alive.
"We call on sympathisers everywhere to send contributions to the strike fund which, because of factors like fines, legal costs and lack of strike pay is desperately low".
"Given the actions of the police and help received from those who understand the significance of this strike, we are now more determined than ever to win it.
"The next day of action is the survival of the strike" Donations and messages of Over 100 . people crammed into Wheatley St Nursery School in Coventry last Sunday evening to take part in a public meeting called to launch a campaign of support for the occupation, which started last Friday.
Consistent appeals from parents to Coventry's Labour council had failed to stop the planned closure of the nursery, which has catered for ?0 children and has an extremely good reputation in the city.
No alternative Faced with "no alternative other than the hope of the appeal to Education Secretary Mark Carlisle would succeed in reversing the decision, parents and supporters moved into occupation when the term ended last Friday.
At the public meeting a campaign to resist the closure was formally constituted as the Coventry Nursery Campaign (Wheatley Street).
In the main speeches outlining the situation it was stressed that the closure was a cut in the already slender number of places in the city, and that the council's claim that the buildings were unfit was simply a smokescreen.
Independent
An independent survey shows that the cost of repairs is nowhere near what the council is claiming.
Messages of support for the occupation were heard from local NUPE branch secretary Joe Little, the chairman of Coventry SE Labour Party, the Oxford and Leicester Nursery Campaigns, the local Women's Voice group and a number of Labour councillors.
The occupation has come few days after ten Labour councillors defied the Labour whip and voted against an increase in school meals charges from 35p to 45p.
A battle is underway within the City Labour Party to commit the council to a policy of no cuts.
The occupation has been visited by 200 or more supporters in just the first few days, and it is clear that the campaign against the closure can be won.
Messages of support and donations should be addressed to The Occupiers, Wheatley St. Nursery School, Coventry.
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Dro >FOR REDS!
REDUNDANCY OOPS, SORRYNOTICES! CARRY ON ERNSHAW!