After 47 years
The convictions of the Shrewsbury 24 have at last been quashed. There was a conspiracy - between the employers, the police and the Tory government. Bernard Mattson reports
A webinar was held on Wednesday March 31 hosted by the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), entitled ‘Shrewsbury pickets, political policing and the state’.
This, of course, concerned the 24 Shrewsbury building workers falsely convicted in 1973-74 following their strike and militant picket. Six of the accused were actually jailed, including Ricky Tomlinson, who today is an acclaimed actor, and Des Warren (now deceased), who recalled his appalling treatment in his 1982 book
The key to my cell. They were let down by their own union, the TUC and the Labour Party leadership, though there was plenty of support for them in the working class as a whole. But their convictions were finally quashed by the court of appeal on March 23 after a mere 47 years!
Letters
Problems
Dave Vincent admits to having problems grasping the CPGB’s position on some issues - relating mainly to the kind of party that should be established and the nature of socialism (Letters, January 21). He seems to agree that “all Marxists should unite in one party with a programme along the lines suggested by the CPGB” - in other words, a Marxist party. But he adds that the CPGB “frowns upon the setting up of any other party of the working class, which it always derides as being a ‘Labour Party mark two’”.
Well, if the left did unite in a single, democratic-centralist Marxist party, I can assure you we would more than welcome that! Our central organisational aim is the achievement of such a party and we will work in any political grouping where we believe that cause can be advanced. Over the years our comrades have participated in Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party, the Socialist Alliance, Respect and Left Unity, to name just a few - and, of co
Letters
Robin
My big brother, Robin, passed away on December 19, aged 80. After a fall at home he was taken into hospital, where he caught Coronavirus and died of it three weeks later.
Robin was always six years older than me, and five years older than our brother, Ken. I count myself lucky to have been the youngest, as parents always seem to be stressed about the eldest - and Robin was the eldest son of an eldest son, so I think he got a double dose of parent pressure - and, despite living a long life, I believe he never fully recovered. Right into old age he never stopped complaining about his parents.
Letters
Abolish gender
Comrade Paul Demarty’s article was a welcome breath of fresh air (‘Getting out of the culture wars’, December 10). As a 19-year-old communist, my entire
political life has existed under the shadow of identity politics and the question of gender. It was therefore extremely uplifting to read an analysis identical to the one I have been putting forward to various comrades at the last two Communist Universities: destroy the social construct of gender.
It has always surprised me how some veteran comrades fall into the trap of reaction - on both sides of the current debate - rather than adopting a historical, and indeed Marxist, understanding of gender. Whilst the content of its function in a society may necessarily stay the same, the form it takes is socially malleable. Much like class, gender is not necessary for society - let alone human existence. By altering its form and resolving its contradictions, the social foundations of its content disappear and