Lothian votes for strike

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Toxteth: it's the one in the middle who gets charged with Socialist Organiser Alliance To make Socialist Organiser a real campaigning paper that can organise the left in the movement, it needs its own Local supporters' groups have been established in mos big towns to build a real base for the paper.

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If you like Socialist Organiser, think it's doing a good job, but realise that it can't possibly do enough unless you Fill in the form below and send it to: Socialist Organiser I want more information/I wish to become a Socialist " Youth Movement] OVER 2,500 youth have een arrested in the recent nots.

The charges range from hreatening behaviour which I've been charged vith) to criminal damage nd burglary - with alleged damages as high as ·3,000.

To commit 'threatening behaviour' , all you had to do was walk the streets of la town where riots had been going on.

When they take you to court, they make up all •* sorts of stories about what * you were supposed to be loing. They told me 1 vas 'throwing bottles at volice cars' . " Ano They admitted they had 10 witnesses except the solice. But although I have vitnesses as to where I vas all night, I don't have nuch chance of presenting a case. They refused me egal aid, and I can't afford he £150 it would cost for a solicitor as l am on the dole.

Some of the others brought in had other charges added on. For every window that was smashed, the police wanted to charge someone. The CID used their wellPHOTO: J.M.B.HARRIS known tactics to get confessions.

The threatening behaviour charges were ridiculous. One lad who was in the cell with me had been arrested having only just come out of hospital with a walking stick.

He was charged with threatening behaviour and 'possessing an offensive weapon'! He just happened to be West Indian.

When they took us to court, they talked a lot into pleading guilty, saying that they'd get dealt with straight away and wouldn't be remanded. [secretary, National Left Wing They asked us whether we were in the British Movement or 'coon lovers' When the police arrested us, we all got beaten up in the police vans. So much for 'community policing': this is what 'beat bobbies' are all about!

The majority of those arrested were snatched to make up the numbers, and to make it look as if the police had things under control.

When we got out of prison, we thought that a lot of people would support us and see that the real reason for the riots was a fightback by youth against mass unemployment, exploitation as cheap labour, racism and police harassment.

Year after year, the police beat up youth and lock them up for no reason, and the newspapers and TV are quiet.

But when youth strike back for a few hours, they're up in arms calling us all hooligans and demanding that we're thrown into jails or army camps.

Even the leaders of the labour movement wouldn't give support. Michael Foot, leader of the Labour Party, wouldn't even speak out against the use of CS gas and water cannon. Roy Hattersley congratulated Whitelaw and said: 'Long may he continue in office'!

Foot asked Thatcher to go to Liverpool and see for herself. She did. Then she came back and blamed the parents of the rioters. Some step forward!

Not only does she throw the parents out of work, drive them into poverty and slash social services, but she attempts to turn working class men and women into an unpaid police force. 'threatening behaviour' by Rowland Sheret Ricky Houston "NO CUTS, no job losses and no compromises" That was the message from a 200-strong conference of Labour Party members and trade unionists in Edinburgh on July 25th.

The conference also called for all-out strike action in the event of cuts or job losses.

The previous day, 200 shop stewards also unanimously voted for industrial action to save jobs.

Lothian Regional Counci is on the front-line of the cuts fight. The Tories are slashing £47 million of its Rate Support Grant, and supplementary rates are illegal in Scotland.

The weekly RSG instalments of £3 million are due to stop at the end of August, and Lothian unions have calculated it could mean a loss of 15,000 jobs.

A strike by NALGO members, a 15,000 strong demonstration at the end of June, and well-attended conferences of Labour Party and trade union members have shown will to fight in Lothian.

But the issue goes beyond Lothian. 'If the Government destroys Lothian now" , said GLC leaders Ken Livingstone; "we will be next. Lothian's fight is our fight, and we look to all London MPs to help local democracy"

A campaign office for Lothian has been established at County Hall. Now not only Labour Parties, but also trade unions, must start organising to spread any strike action beyond Lothian.

The TGWU must be forced to stand by its recent conference decision committing it to strike action in support of Labour councils defying the cuts. A resolution calling for a national action conference was carried on July 25th in Lothian. Trade unions and Labour Parties should start contacting the Lothian Action Committee now to get this conference set up. There is no more time left for empty declarations.

A petition calling for the national conference, put out by Socialist Organiser, has been supported by Ken Livingstone, Ted Knight, Tony Banks, Frances Morrell, Bernard Dix, Gordon Wills, Derek Gregory, 70 delegates at the London Labour Briefing conference and 300 at the Labour Coordinating Committee conference.

Ron Brown, MP for Edinburgh Leith, has been hauled out of the House of Commons and suspended for 20 days for staging a protest on the Lothian cuts.

What are the rest of the Labour MPs doing? They can disrupt the workings of Parliament - they should do it!

In Lothian itself, there is a debate on all-out action or selective action. The union leadership has not been ready to go for all-out strike.

But at the joint shop stewards' conference on the 24th, CPSA militant Steve Cardownie pointed out that 20 weeks of selective action in the civil service have led nowhere.

Rank and file support for all-out action has been shown at the July 25th conference, and by the NALGO social workers' shop stewards' committee.

The Lothian Action Committee and Labour Party members should challenge t.ne union full-timers' timidity, and put out an appeal for bold action to the whole movement.

* Contact: Lothian Action Committee, Ruakin House, 15 Windsor St, Edinburgh.

. Phone TU

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n appeal to the labour movement EFEND YOUTH AGAINST TORIES