By Eileen Turnbull

In 1972 we had a Tory Government, an economic crisis, rising inflation and a determination by organised labour to defend living standards. Sounds familiar?

That year began with the miners’ strike, followed by disputes on the railways, occupations of engineering factories against redundancies and dockworkers strikes. Solidarity both within unions and between unions was strong. All of the disputes that year were successful. One such dispute that is often overlooked in all the histories of the 1970s is the first and only national building workers strike, from 26th June to 18th September 1972. I hope to have filled that gap in my new book, A Very British Conspiracy: the Shrewsbury 24 and the Campaign for Justice.

The book was published on 6th September. The date was chosen deliberately as this was the day, fifty years ago, that five coachloads of North Wales building workers travelled to Oswestry to meet a sixth coach of local strikers which would lead them to Shrewsbury. The pickets planned to visit working sites in the town, where trade unionism was weak and the employers used cash-in-hand ‘lump’ labour on many projects. In the event they visited seven sites in Shrewsbury and Telford. Eighty police were with them throughout the day. There were no cautions, no arrests and no complaints from the police. But five months later, on 14th February 1973, 24 building workers were charged with 243 offences between them. This led to three Crown Court trials and the imprisonment of six pickets, Des Warren being given the longest sentence, of three years. Sixteen others received suspended prison sentences.

The building workers succeed

The strike was a milestone for building workers, uniting them in a common cause, regardless of trade or of union. Tens of thousands were actively involved, attending mass meetings and picketing. Their determination resulted in a settlement with the employers that was seen as a significant victory, even though it fell short of the full claim.  It would be a springboard for the next claim and for strengthening trade union organisation on sites to rid them of the lump and to improve health and safety in a notoriously dangerous industry. But the prosecution and imprisonment of the North Wales building workers brought a dramatic halt to the growth of trade unionism on the sites, and indeed the loss of members. It also saw a dramatic increase in blacklisting workers by the employers.

Research

The book, based upon my research at many UK archives, sets out how the employers responded to the strike. A carefully co-ordinated campaign was waged by the National Federation of Building Trades Employers (NFBTE) and larger employers led by Sir Alfred McAlpine & Son Limited to pressure the government and the police to act. The Home Office, headed by Conservative Home Secretary Robert Carr, directed the supposedly independent West Mercia police to conduct an extensive inquiry into picketing in Shrewsbury on 6th September. Carr’s speeches over the next six months urged police forces to arrest and prosecute pickets in any industrial dispute.

The Shrewsbury 24 Campaign

A campaign was set up by North West trade unionists in 2006. It was motivated to obtain justice for the pickets as a result of the premature death of Des Warren two years earlier. On his release from prison in 1976 he was never able to obtain work due to the blacklist and, later, his failing health.

The campaign needed to obtain ‘fresh evidence’ to submit to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to persuade it to refer the pickets’ convictions to the Court of Appeal. In 2008 I volunteered to take on that role, unpaid. Over the next ten years I travelled the length and breadth of the country, visiting archives, interviewing pickets, striking building workers and anyone else who might have some information about the case.

The convictions were quashed due to one vital piece of evidence that I unearthed at the National Archives in Kew. An official document showed that the police had destroyed initial witness statements, with the knowledge of the prosecution barristers and DPP, but concealed this from the defence, the trial judge and the jury.  On 23rd March 2021 three appeal court judges concluded that the pickets had been denied a fair trial and all the convictions had to be quashed.

The book tells the story of the Shrewsbury 24 Campaign but it has also given me the opportunity to present publicly, for the first time, all the background information that I discovered during my decade of researching. It includes the full details of the 1972 strike, the background to the trials at both Mold and Shrewsbury Crown Courts in 1973-74, the appeals and the campaigning to get the jailed pickets released.

 If we are to successfully challenge the austerity policies of the Conservatives today, we need to know about our yesterdays.

A Very British Conspiracy: the Shrewsbury 24 and the Campaign for Justice by Eileen Turnbull is published by Verso and is available at its website. During September there is 40% off all their titles.