Brixton, Adwest: Defend the Right Topicket!

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are more than two-vou're causing an obstruction"

lail threat to Employment, Act the most significant aspect of last Wednesday's mass picket at Brixton Unemployment Benefit Office has been the deafening silence from CPSA headquarters.

Under conditions where two branch officers at Brixton have been sacked for carrying out branch and national CPSA policy; where union members have been on all-out strike for seven weeks; and where on Wednesday alone 18 arrests were made on the picket line, the CPSA leadership has turned its back on the fight to defend the most elementary principles of the trade union movement.

Prominent on Wednesday's picket were "left' MPs Stuart Holland and Reg Race.

Holland's public statements before and afterwards correctly pointed to the need to mobilise workers on the streets to defy the Employment Act, but the crux of his protests was the weak and diversionary argument that the police, in limiting the pickets to six, are implementing something which is nat yet law.

All Prior's laws and recommendations' must be opposed because they are a direct attack on the workers' movementwhether legal, semi-legal or arbitrarily inposed by the police.

Pledged support

Maximum pressure must now be put on Holland, Race and other lefts (like Dennis Skinner and Jo Richardson) who have pledged support for the Brixton campaign to fight for consistent mass support for the picket line.

If they retreat from this struggle now then the working class rnust draw its own conclusioris from the difference between their words and their action s.

WORKS "Move on-there The police, on their own admission, have taken a completely arbitrary decision to limit the Brixton picket to two at each of the three entrances to the dole office.

Earlier in the strike they arrested one of the two sacked branch officers, Richard Cleverley, after he was physically assaulted by a scab.

The scab has gone scot free whilst Cleverley is barred from half-a-mile of the picket line.

On Wednesday, police simply arrested anyone who attempted to set foot on the road dividing the six pickets from the supporting demonstration.

First to be arrested was Jim Farrell, a leading militant on the Department of Employment CPSA Section Executive. Other prominent activists arrested included Stuart MacLennan of the Scottish DHSS.

The union's national leadership, however, were needless to say, nowhere in sight.

7Y ж Having authorised a one-day national strike on June 13 and odd days of official action in Brixton itself, the National Executive has backpeddled to a position of total faith in the management-run Civil Service Appeals Board (whose findings will be published next week).

In doing so, they have totally ignored an overwhelming Annual Conference decision to support Corddell. and Cleverley with massive industrial action.

Witch-hunt But Ken Thomas (General Secretary) and his right wing cohorts have not just been passive onlookers.

On the contrary, they have issued a circular to all CPSA members witch-hunting the strikers and the whole campaign -knowing full well that with no strike pay the Brixton membership is dependent on donations from the rank and file in branches up and down the country.

Thus Brixton has provided an instant focus for the battle against the newly elected amalgam of Tories and right wing reformists who gained control of the union in May.

Moreover, the left forces in the union have not shown a coherent response to the challenge either. The SWP, which is directly involved, has argued against a strategy of calling for supporting strike action in other sections, and the Militant Group (dominant in the Broad Left) has displayed notable lethargy in mobilising socialists Crosbie have been charged under Section 1 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

They are accused of soliciting financial support for the IRA-a charge which carries a possible 5-year jail sentence.

This attack on democratic rights has been widely condemned-even by the Communist Party in the Morning Star.

The question now is to take the fight for action to defend these two comrades into the Scottish labour movement-and in particular Glasgow Trades any kind of tangible support.

A further issue which is clearly linked to Brixton is the Adwest strike, where the Employment Act is also biting into the most hard-earned democratic rights of workers in dispute.

A delegation from Adwest went to Brixton last Wednesday and that must be seen as the basis for linking the two struggles as a national focus for the fight against Prior and Thatcher.

There is now a mass picket at Brixton every day from 7 am. each weekday. Build support for the national mass pickets now and try to attend the daily picket as regularly as possible!

Support the • conference called by the London Area CPSA Co-Ordinating Committee on Saturday 13 September at St. Brides Foundation Institute, Bride's Lane (off Fleet Street). Details from P. Sloman, 6 Falkland Avenue, Finchley, London N3 (01-636-5422 x235).

Support the lobby of the CPSA National Executive on 26 August. CPSA members must fight for strike action on that day to build a mass lobby to demand that the strike be made official.

The strike also needs funds afrests. Send donations to the Brixton Campaign for Trade Union Rights, 16 Knowlton House, Cowley Estate, Cowley Road, London SW9 (01-582 1645).

*Donations to the Adwest strike fund should be made out to J. Dhoot and sent to: Danny Broderick, 46 Berkley Road, Reading.

Adwest picket on 17 August to provide the National Front with a venue for their racist march, free from harassment by left police bans in six Midlands towns did not stop the fascists marching for "British jobs for British workers"; but it did prevent a completely. effeccounter demonstration by anti-fascist forces.

Several hundred On Sunday morning, the several hundred anti-fascists mobilised in Leamington Spa were told that the Front would be holding their march in one of four possible towns: Leamington, Coventry, Nuneaton or Rugby.

Eventually the Front's secret deals with their protectors, the police force, resulted in a decision to march in Nuneaton.

As soon as this was known, the left forces in Leamington headed for Nuneaton. The police, however, were determined to prevent a large counter demonstration, capable of physically confronting fascists and police.

Roadblocks out of Leamington were stopping all traffic.

For those who got through, there were further roadblocks on the outskirts of Nuneaton and Coventry, which prevented at least five coachloads of counter demonstrators reaching the NF march (just to show their "neutrality" the police also stopped a coach full of pensioners who were obviously on a Sunday outing).

Outnumbered Despite the police efforts, the fascists, with about 150 on their march, were outnumbered by about 4-1.

But the anti-fascists were neither numerous enough nor organised enough to break through the police cordon.

Had the extra coaches not been stopped and without the inevitable confusion that results from chasing around the countryside dodging police roadblocks, the fascists would have been lucky to march 100 yards.

As it was, their coaches scurrying out of the town were met with a hail of rocks that sent the fascists onto the floor to avoid showers of shattered glass.

The anti-fascist rally after the NF had left Nuneaton saw local Labour MP Les Huckfield congratulating the forces assembled for standing up to the racist menace.

He tactfully neglected to mention his own policy on unemployment: import controls -which are, of course, another form to the demand "British jobs for British workers"

Prevented

The rally also had a report on events in West Bromwich, where Martin Webster was prevented from making his solo march to lay a wreath at the Job Centre by a strong demonstration. His wreath was destroyed and he was sent packing.

Several arrests were made in Nuneaton-including ANL leader Paul Holborrow, and a youth arrested for laughing at a policeman!

The lessons of the day's events are clear. State bans don't stop the fascists: only mobilisations of the working class can do that.

A secondary point is that the police arrived in unionised Midland Red buses.

A fight must be taken up in the TGWU branches for a position of refusing to ferry the police around enabling them to protect fascists and arbitrarily.

harass and arrest workers who mobilise to stop them.

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Apart from the role of the police and the Tories'

urgently, especially in view of the escalating numbers of