[The three charges of wounding a police officer…]

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The three charges of wounding a police officer laid against Right to Work march leader John Deason formed a frame-up so flimsy that even the courts could not hold it together-that was the real meaning of the 'not guilty' verdict reached last Wednesday.

Certainly Deason's case had been widely taken up throughout the trade union movement-the large number of trade union banners on the lobby of the Old Bailey on May 4 indicated that.

But the clearly unplanned and highly embarassing way in which the Judge was forced to stop the case almost as soon as it had begun, and direct the jury to acquit Deason was more testimony to an inadequately prepared story on the part of Sergeant Léslie McClyment, (who admitted he could not for certain identify Deason as the "assailant") than the fairness of British "justice"

With their customary ofpor.. ism, the Socialisi Workers the group running the "Righi to Work* campaign kept tactfully silent on the line on the police peddled in recent weeks in their paper. Sociis: harter..

Face to face with a line of these vicious hirelings of the capitalist state, the SWP shouted "Jail the policemen, not John Deason"

They set aside for the moment the idea that the police are just "working class lads" and dropped the implicit support for the police pay claim that has featured in their press.

But now Deason is free, we can expect the line to be resumed.

PHOTO: Socialist Worker.