"EDDIE:" "This was the battle ground." "Here, where we lived and worked, is where we fought the enemy." "And where those of us who remain on the blacklist continue to fight." "A drab town, with a population of over 100,000, where 61% of the houses are rented." "34% have no inside toilets." "29% no bathrooms." "An ugly town." "One book shop, two cinemas, pubs, betting shops and a rugby team." "A battered landscape, scarred by years of exploitation going back to the time when coal was king." "A company town dominated by a firm which has been run by the same family for 142 years, a family whose high moral purpose and paternalistic attitude is evidenced by the fact that every Christmas it offers to its pensioners a free bag of coal" "together with a contribution to their television licence." "Up in this part of the country, they've got it sewed up." "If you don't work with them, you might as well not work at all." "There hadn't been a strike here for 100 years." "And the union enjoyed the protection of a closed shop." "Their contributions were automatically deducted from the workers'pay packets." "And meetings were as rare as a sunny day on a wet weekend." "Then it happened." "(ALL CLAMOURING)" "BILLY:" "In the first place, it was our lads in the sheet works." "The walked out at 11:30 over some minor discrepancy in the payslip, which was something that they'd been complaining about for weeks." "But it just seemed to snowball, like, suddenly it burst like a carbuncle that had been left festering." "(BANGING GAVEL)" "Fellas." "I'd like to introduce you to Bill Hagan, the official of the union." "We're down here to discuss this discrepancy of 30 shillings a week in the pay package." "As far as I'm concerned, Mr Chairman, the discrepancies in the payslips is a triviality." "It's something which we can sort out quite easily." "What I want to know is what is Brother Hagan doing about our long outstanding claim for a two-and-sixpence an hour increase?" "(ALL AGREEING)" "HAGAN:" "Now, listen." "Half a crown an hour, you must be bloody joking." "Surely." "I've got..." "(ALL PROTESTING)" "Wait a minute." "Wait, wait." "Wait a minute." "Now, let me speak." "Now, I've been brought down here on one matter, which is the payslips." "And now you're throwing something at me which is entirely different, entirely different altogether." "And I can't, as a union representative..." "As a union official, I can't even discuss this with you at this level." "I'd like to ask Mr Hagan what has he been doing for the last eight months for this half a crown an hour?" "What progress have you made towards getting this half a crown an hour?" "I would like to convene a meeting of the shop stewards properly." "Officially and not unofficially." "And then if they declare a course of strike action, then we twist the arms of the National Executive and make it official properly." "(ALL PROTESTING)" "MAN:" "Mr Chairman, we convened a shop steward meeting and come out with sevenpence ha'penny in two parts." "Fourpence last November and thruppence ha'penny this May." "That's what they've been messing about with." "That rise has already gone on the rent increase of this year." "That's right." "Hear, hear!" "HAGAN:" "It's all very well to sit there and say, "What have you done?"" "We've done a lot." "We've done a lot." "(ALL SHOUTING)" "CHAIRMAN:" "One minute, now." "One at a time, now." "This is the kind of answer we expect of a clown official of a bloody clown union." "(ALL CHEERING)" "Mr Chairman." "You know perfectly well..." "Mr Chairman, please." "What are we arguing over half a crown for?" "I've been in this firm now for 11 years." "And do you know what my basic pay is?" "Thirteen pound, five and eight a week." "Yes, but you earn more than that." "A bloody tramp couldn't starve on it." "(MEN AGREEING)" "I say let's go the whole hog." "Twenty-five pound a week basic, without your overtime." "(ALL CHEERING)" "(INAUDIBLE)" "That was asked for eight months since, and the official's done nothing about it." "Added time was asked for Christmas day and nothing has been done about that." "How do you know we've done nothing..." "And nothing's been done about this." "So I propose, here and now, we strike." "HAGAN:" "How do you know..." "(ALL AGREEING)" "Mr Chairman, Mr..." "CHAIRMAN:" "Now we're getting personal, now, brothers." "Let's keep to the questions." "Don't get personal." "Never mind all the shouting and bothering, brothers, if we're going to come out, let's go out." "And let's make a good job of it." "No more arsing about like we did last time." "What are you talking about?" "You were back through the gate first last time." "Don't talk so bloody stupid, you." "Go on." "You're one of the biggest grabbers in the firm, you've got more Sundays in than a parish priest, you have." "(ALL LAUGHING)" "You listen to me now." "There's only one way and that is the proper way, the way, the orderly way, the union way." "Why shouldn't it go officially through this?" "We have tried and tried and tried again." "And the JIC is totally ineffective." "It has come up with no positive result." "And now we have to put the union in motion by getting pressure from the shop floor." "This is the only way it can be done." "We've lost faith in you completely." "ALL:" "Hear, hear." "Mr Chairman, I put a proposition to you before, for you to put to the floor." "You seem to be avoiding the issue." "(MEN AGREEING)" "I'm going to put the proposition to the floor meself." "Gentlemen, do you agree that we should all come out on strike for £25 and nothing less?" "(ALL AGREEING)" "EDDIE:" "In two days, all six factories were at a standstill." "And then all the other plants up and down the country in the Wilkinson Group came out in support." "It was great!" "I think we could have done anything." "We could have stopped the world." "BILLY:" "Well, what do you do when those who are supposed to be leading us, like, go out of their way to defeat it?" "Brother Hagan declared it official at plant's level." "Yet no attempt was made to prevent stuff coming in and out of the factory." "Likewise, nothing was done about gaining support from other unions." "And so the men got bitter and angry about it." "They began to suspect that he'd only made it official in order to sabotage us." "You know you're crossing picket lines?" "Come on, boy." "Fetch it back." "Go." "I hope you know you're crossing picket lines!" "If you weren't here, then we could do it." "Stand on the side, you." "(ARGUING, INDISTINCT)" "We want the same as you!" "Get your hands off!" "We have the right to ask for other workers' support." "This side of the gate, yes, but when he's on there, that's it." "You haven't got our troubles, brother." "We've been out here a fortnight." "Thanks, love." "Ta." "Thanks very much, love." "Very grateful." "Last cup." "Cor blimey, here he is." "Jam buttie-gob." "You can smell it a mile away." "You at it again, rat-face?" "Look, we've got pickets here on the gates and they're going in and out and they're laughing at us." "Look, I know it's frustrating and we can understand it, Les, but it's still no excuse for talking about throwing the towel in." "Oh, look, I didn't mean it that way." "Look, Hagan holds the reins." "And while he does hold the bloody reins, we're running around like bloody blind dogs in a butcher's shop." "Well, maybe we should have a go at him at the meeting tomorrow." "Brothers, I have some news for you." "MAN:" "Gobshite!" "Wait a minute." "I've just come back from London, where I had a meeting with the National Executive Committee on your behalf." "(MEN JEERING)" "Now, now, now, now." "Please." "And they, after very careful consideration, have decided that although they have great sympathy" "with what we say..." "(ALL SHOUTING)" "Please!" "They feel that this is the wrong way to go about things and that this is not an official strike." "It's a non-official strike." "The strike is unofficial." "(ALL PROTESTING)" "(ANGRY SHOUTING)" "Get out of it!" "Listen." "Now, it's no use you getting onto me now." "Whose bleeding side are you on?" "What are you doing?" "Leave him alone." "(CROWD CHANTING)" "(ALL CHEERING)" "Eddie Martin, Southside." "I don't have to tell you how I feel about this, lads, because the anger that drove me up here now, that represents your anger." "(ALL AGREEING)" "Before this day is out," "I want some criticism at the platform on how this strike's being run or not being run." "But he's been down to London." "He promised you official support." "At least listen to him." "Listen to him!" "You want to know what you're up against." "Give him a hearing." "Give him a hearing." "All right, Brother Hagan." "Well, I'd like to take Eddie up on a point or two here, you know." "Some of the things he said." "(SHOUTING)" "I know, the response has been magnificent from the floor." "It's been wonderful." "And now you've got this strength." "Why don't you use it?" "Why don't you let us negotiate for you?" "(ANGRY SHOUTING)" "And it's completely wrong." "Make it official!" "This is senseless." "Really it is." "All right." "Well, with this in view, your next National Executive have decided on a secret ballot." "(ALL DISAGREEING)" "Listen, listen, listen, listen." "You're cutting your own throats." "HAGAN:" "Oh, the meeting's over." "(CROWD SHOUTING)" "(CROWD BOOING)" "(ALL CHEERING)" "Now, let's stop out till we get our £25 for a fortnight." "And take some action now!" "(CHEERING)" "Well, now you see what we got to put up with, lads." "MAN:" "They're rubbish!" "You just sacked the sell-out merchants." "MAN 2:" "It's about time." "What are you going to do now?" "We'll elect our own committee." "EDDIE:" "All right, boys." "Can we have those stewards who are prepared to back the rank and file and lead the strike?" "Those who are coming forward, will you give your department in and your name so that the lads can identify you?" "All right, let's have those stewards, then, boys." "Come on, Billy." "(ALL APPLAUDING)" "By the way, if you come off the shop floor as well, boys, be prepared to serve on the committee or will you gamble this strike?" "(CHEERING)" "Les Sanders, Civil Works." "(CHEERING)" "Jerry Smith, Flat Iron." "(CHEERING)" "Frank Johnson, Main Plant." "(CHEERING)" "Mike Reilly, Tower Head." "(CHEERING)" "I think that's good representation, boys, but I believe that you want a few more on." "It's not top-heavy." "All right, John?" "(PATRONS CHATTING, INDISTINCT)" "By God, that's not coming in here." "Get that out." "EDDIE:" "It's a fine start to your first meeting." "Can't help it, mate, if you can't get on the bus, can you?" "I was there in time." "Take a seat." "There's another one there." "Is he excused?" "Long as he doesn't make a habit of it." "We were discussing ways and means of getting organised." "And getting things down on paper form on the agenda." "We'll make an agenda out." "Uh, the lads...we're in the middle of talking about this... the ballot the lads were waiting for." "Well, I can't see us cracking this one until first we give it a bit more thought." "And if the unions don't publish the results of the ballots, well, what can we do about it?" "It seems to me as if it's been an abortive ballot anyway, because I would say that if the result was for a return to work it would have been all over The Echo and the local paper," "on the television and everything." "I would think that the result of the ballot has been for the stay-out, to support us, and they haven't been prepared to publish it." "Well, that's the first step." "Now, what about..." "JERRY:" "There was something you said, or was mentioned before, Eddie, about..." "For a bulletin, you know." "Like a news sheet." "That was an idea, someone raised that before." "EDDIE:" "A bulletin?" "Propaganda?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "I'll tell you what, Eddie." "I'm might be able to get hold of a duplicator for you." "I don't really know." "My missus, she's in the Children of Mary." "You know, she's never away from church and she's well in with the parish priest, Father Garnett." "And he uses this for these church bulletins." "You know, for births, marriages, deaths and all that malarkey." "And I think if I twist her arm hard enough..." "I won't tell him what it's for, of course." "I'm sure she'll get it." "Will she get it for nothing?" "My wife's mate's got a typewriter." "I can borrow that." "FRANK:" "Can you type?" "No, but there's nothing to it." "It's just like playing the piano." "(ALL LAUGHING)" "EDDIE:" "I'll put it down." "So, you seem to be the main spokesman on the pickets, Les." "Yeah." "What you want is good, big, hard-looking fellows." "There's no use having a ruddy little fellow." "You want a good big fellow, just to explain, you give them the instructions and send them forward and they know what to do." "Stop the men from going through and stop the wagons from going through." "This is the main thing." "Stop them from going in and if they don't go in, they cannot bloody go out, either." "So that's the main thing." "Stop them from going in and we'll win." "EDDIE:" "What about this question, you know..." "You start stopping wagons, you're going to have the police involved." "JOHN:" "There's going to be violence." "LES:" "Look, the police will be involved anyway." "Well, you want a captain at the picket." "What about you, Les?" "LES:" "Yeah, I would do it." "I mean, you're a small fellow." "(ALL LAUGHING)" "And Bert." "LES:" "Yeah." "That'd be a good idea." "EDDIE:" "Right." "Well, that's two points." "What about these hardship cases you're hearing all about?" "Some terrible..." "JERRY:" "Yeah." "Lads in terrible trouble." "I know six fellows thrown out their digs 'cause they got no money." "Single lads, you see." "LES:" "Ain't it about time after 100 years that we had a war?" "That's the thing." "A hundred years, nothing's gone on." "This is it now." "We're going to have a good go." "(GROANS)" "Hello, Charlie." "Hello, Mae." "How are you?" "Oh, all right." "Baby's sick again." "Oh, it's very cold today." "Very." "Very cold." "Hello." "Where you been?" "For a nice little walk?" "Eh?" "Yes." "How are you?" "I wonder if you could help us here, Charlie?" "How's this, Mae?" "Well, it's one of them forms that the Rank and File Committee dished out." ""I am at the present time unemployed due to a dispute at my place of work." ""I am therefore unable to send my usual payment." ""However, as soon as the dispute is settled," ""I shall resume my payments" ""and make arrangements with you to clear my arrears that might be outstanding."" "Now, I had one of them final warning notices that day, you know." "Pay-up-or-else kind of style." "I know." "Do you think that'll do the trick?" "It should do the trick." "It explains enough there, doesn't it?" "Yeah, I hope it does." "You can't get blood out of a stone, you know." "You helped us out when we was on the lump and when they was trying to get rid of these lump men, so we have to give you some support." "You did everything you could for us, didn't you?" "The first thing that The Grocer, Heath, did when he formed his government, he fetches in businessmen from outside industry..." "His super cabinet, you know." "Davis, CBI..." "He's a hatchet man." "And they've got the audacity to tell us that we shouldn't organise ourselves." "What they want is docile sheep to be herded into the pen, led by a few handpicked Judas goats." "Like TUC leaders and trade union leaders and the Harold Wilsons of this world and the Barbara Castles and all the phoney left." "What paper are you from, then?" "Well, I'm from The Courier." "It's an East Lancashire paper, you know." "It prints the local news, like." "The Courier." "From The Courier." "What did they send you here for?" "Well, they've sent me here, but I mean, basically I'm a gardening correspondent." "I don't know anything about strikes." "They sent me here to follow up this strike of yours." "I don't know anything about it." "Somebody told me you're a reporter from the Beano." "All right, boys." "Can you settle down there?" "Brothers and sisters." "(PEOPLE SPEAKING)" "And comrades." "And all our supporters." "Uh, I must thank the boys who've laid on this do tonight." "You all know them, the Prickeys." "Peter's over there." "And his mates." "But he never only laid on this place, they laid on the committee rooms and paid for the place over here that launched your Rank and File Committee a week ago." "And they've also organised the collections among other building workers." "He's also brought along tonight one of his members to sing a few ditties." "So it's only left for me to tell you to drink up and listen to Jerry Fox." "FOX:" "I'd like you fellows to sing a song that's a great old Irish rebel song." "It's calledThe Jolly Ploughboy." "ALL: # Well, I am a jolly ploughboy" "#And I plough the fields all day" "# Till a sudden thought came to my mind" "# That I should roam away" "#And we're off to Dublin, in the green, in the green" "# Where the helmets glisten in the sun" "# Up your bum" "# Where the bayonets flash and the rifles crash" "# To the echo of a Thompson gun" "# I'll leave behind my Mary" "# She's the girl I do adore" "#And I wonder will she think of me" "# When she hears them cannons roar #" "Have you tried this new fertiliser?" "This stuff, they're importing it from Tibet." "Manure you mean?" "Well, it's like a sort of manure." "You know." "It's..." "Yak shite, is it?" "Well, if you like to put it that way, yes." "# Oh Paddy dear, and did you hear the awful things they say" "# Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden, they have joined the IRA #" "(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)" "# They are drilling in the mountains to the sounds of the fife and drum" "# Young Tony's taking snapshots while young Maggie fires the gun" "# While young Maggie fires the gun, while young Maggie fires the gun" "# Young Tony's taking snapshots while young Maggie fires the gun # ...job we go to. (LAUGHING)" "Anyway, Billy, freedom of the press." "Thank you very much, lad." "God bless you and all that sail in you." "(SIGHS)" "Les, are you going to bed or what?" "Oh, shit." "I keep hitting the wrong bloody key." "I hardly wonder." "You leave it too late." "Can't it wait till in the morning?" "Whoever wrote this must have wrote it with a bloody yard brush." "Oh, I don't care." ""Sophistry."" "What's that supposed to mean?" "I'm sick of you." "I wouldn't know." "I'm not very interested in them sodding letters." "It's that what's keeping you awake." "It's got to be done." "Anyway, you've changed your mind since you've come home from the pub, haven't you?" "Look, love, go on upstairs and I'll follow you up." "I thought me luck was in when you made a fuss of me." "Go on, I promise." "Oh, no, you say that." "You'll nod off asleep, then." "And you sit up typing, well..." "I think I'll make meself a nice cup of tea." "You want one?" "Yes, go ahead, yeah." "Signed herself "Pericles"." "(CUP KNOCKS ON COUNTER)" "Who's there?" "It's all right, it's only me." "You want a sandwich?" "No." "Sophistry." "I'll go and get the lads' dictionary." "Shh!" "Don't make a noise." "You'll wake the kids." "(BANGING)" "Johnny?" "Is that you?" "Johnny?" "Les!" "There's someone in the yard." "What's all the shouting about?" "There's someone in that yard." "Are you sure?" "Face just at the window." "Are you sure?" "Yeah." "(GLASS SHATTERING)" "LES:" "You stay there!" "Oh!" "Watch it!" "(DOG BARKING)" "You lousy bastard!" "All right, boys, the next thing on the agenda is the lobby." "It's been suggested when we're in London that we should go down to see the..." "lobby the Labour Ministers," "Constituency Members, go down to the Head of the Social Security." "Well, you can stuff that." "MIKE:" "Why?" "Well, we're out of town lobbying MPs in London, right?" "The way is clear here for the union to do a deal behind our backs." "Look, the strike from beginning to end is one of politics." "We must send a delegation down to the Houses of Parliament." "We've got to lobby the MPs." "There's no need to leave the front at home bare." "We can send a delegation of maybe two, three or four members." "And we can still leave people at home." "You're acting very small about this." "Hang on." "Mate, who do we..." "Frank Malone, Stan Holme, Eric Heffer..." "People like them, you mean, don't you?" "Yeah." "(LAUGHING)" "MIKE:" "Look the thing is if you don't pin them down, if you don't nail them..." "JERRY:" "It's all about going down on spec." "To possibly see somebody who'll give you a cup of tea and say," ""All right, lads." "I've heard it." "Go back home."" "EDDIE:" "And something good could result from this." "JERRY:" "Name me a time any good's come of it." "All you'll get if you go down there is a lot of sympathy." "A lot of sympathy and nothing." "You won't get a thing, not a thing." "I'm telling you, you go down there they'll say they are very sorry, have a cup of tea, "Okay, boys, very good."" "And they'll send you back and what will you get?" "Nothing." "They keep their mouths shut!" "MIKE:" "That's if we accept that." "They keep their mouths shut because it's exactly what Frank said, it's politics and they don't want to know." "(ALL ARGUING)" "Someone's bound to fight our cause." "To make a name for himself." "JERRY:" "Name one!" "They don't make names by fighting about strikes." "Of course they do." "This is going to be..." "JERRY:" "They make names by talking about blood sport." "This has developed into a big issue." "Never mind the blood sports." "EDDIE:" "They say that at the top you shouldn't handle glass." "That's worth more than all the people speaking in the Houses of Parliament for us." "Could this come about?" "Don't you think there is the remotest possibility?" "Not a chance in hell." "Political battles were never fought taking tea" "on the terrace at House Of Commons." "Right." "Now you know Labour MPs." "Labour MPs have always had one job." "And that job is never to offer support to any strike." "That's right." "They will never..." "You go down to see them, right?" "They'll take..." "If they see you." "Send telegrams." "Get there to see them." "If they see you, they'll offer sympathy." "They might make a few speeches in Parliament about the hardship" "the women are going through." "Yeah." "But what will they do to mobilise support for us?" "What will they do to organise?" "What will they do to help us with funds?" "What will they do to help us with the strike?" "Win the strike?" "Nothing." "And that's been the role of Labour MPs throughout history." "(TELEPHONE RINGING)" "What will we do..." "They jump off the working class train when they get to Westminster and they can never get back on it." "BILLY:" "The first thing you learn in politics is that there's no such thing as a fair hearing." "(PHONE RINGING)" "EDDIE:" "You've got to pressurise them." "Hello, Buckingham Palace." "I mean..." "Who?" "Yeah, he's here." "Hang on." "Hey, Bert." "For you." "JERRY:" "You see, Bert..." "BERT:" "Who is it?" "Newspaper fellow." "He said he spoke to you last week." "(ALL TALKING IN BACKGROUND)" "Hello?" "Yeah, speaking." "Shh!" "Hang on, fellows." "Shh." "EDDIE:" "Hold on, boys, hold it." "Yeah?" "Well, we haven't heard nothing about it." "No, no." "No, no comment to make." "Not till we find out what's involved." "Yeah, well, I can ring you back, can't I?" "Yeah, well, just give us your number." "Yeah." "Okay, fair enough." "I'll ring you back later." "Ta-ra." "Well, that's it, lads." "Oh, dear." "You can forget about your London bloody trip." "That's redundant." "That's the reporter." "They've had a meeting this morning, the management and the bloody union." "And the management have offered £3, and the union's accepted it." "Bloody hell." "What right do they got to accept?" "MIKE:" "Hey, it's better than a kick in the arse, isn't it?" "EDDIE:" "Look, that depends on the deal." "Let's be rational, boys." "But that meeting ended hours ago." "Why have they kept it secret?" "There's only one reason." "They must be waiting for us to get out of town, then they'll go and spring it on the lads." "Will they put that to a meeting of the men, like?" "Not likely." "No, I don't think so." "He'll probably line up a couple of tame shop stewards, put it to them, they'll agree, he'll have it on the leaflets, democratically, and give it back to us next morning." "We got to get out and get those posted." "Better get on the phone to Hagan and find out what strokes he's pulling now." "Listen, Bert, what exactly did the reporter have to say?" "He told me enough to know that it's not a straight deal." "That they've been offered £3, he said, and there's a lot of strings attached to it." "What are we sat here gassing about?" "Let's get the posters out and get our own bloody meeting organised." "You got the posters?" "Pick us up in about 10 minutes." "See you in about in 10 minutes." "Here, grab that." "Get on me back, come on." "Get right on." "Are you all right?" "Yeah." "All right." "You all right?" "Yes, go on." "Come on, John, hurry up." "Okay." "You all right down there?" "Come on, Jesus Christ." "It's gone in my eye and everything." "What the hell are you doing up there?" "The bloody thing keeps blowing away." "I feel like the bleeding Hunchback of Notre-Dame here." "Hurry up, will ya?" "I'll have to let you go in a minute." "All right, I'm coming in a minute." "Hang on." "Just hold your horses." "I'm going." "Hold your horses!" "I'm going!" "(BOTH GRUNTING)" "(ALL CHATTERING, INDISTINCT)" "These are the facts as we see them, lads." "You'll be given the opportunity to vote." "So read it." "I hope you can all understand it." "What if we work overtime, then, Eddie?" "If you work overtime, you don't get a sausage." "Not a bloody thing?" "You get the bare thing and that's all." "All right, lad?" "Who's the queer fellow over there?" "Here, toots." "Give them out." "Yeah, all right." "Made a good job of this, Eddie." "Makes good reading." "We never invented the sell-out." "Who's this?" "Another reporter?" "Now, now, Eddie, there's no need to be like that." "This is Mr Ogby, our National Officer." "Hello, Eddie." "Morning, brother." "I've been looking at your pamphlet here." "It's not very well worked out is it?" "I mean, it's a bit skimpy." "You've not got all the details there." "You trying to say it hasn't got all the true facts in it?" "Come on, Eddie." "I mean, you know as well as I do, you can make a pamphlet like this look like anything you need to." "It's either true or it's a lie." "Yes." "But I mean it doesn't take any account of the employer's offer against the complex background in this case." "I mean, you can't get that in a pamphlet like this." "I mean, I ought to know." "I have been dealing with employers" "for years now, haven't I?" "That's right, Eddie." "He's had them tied up for years." "Who?" "The employers, who else?" "Well, look, here's the lads." "We've got a mass meeting on now, brother." "Here's a chance to do your job." "I'm offering you the platform." "Well, I've spoken to the stewards already." "They've accepted." "Aye, some of the stewards you have." "But the stewards are here and the rank and file's here." "And I'm offering Brother Ogby the platform." "You know that Brother Ogby cannot address that meeting." "Certainly he can." "Look, let's be less constitutional and more democratic." "That's what he's getting paid for." "(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)" "Thank you!" "Good morning, brothers." "Good morning." "Look." "We are sorry we're late, boys." "But we were delayed at the start." "We have two National Officers here." "One National Officer rather, you know the other boy." "Brother Altmere..." "(BOOING) ...and Brother Hagan." "Now we've invited them..." "(BOOING)" "We've invited them along to the platform because we have heard at 9:00 last night when we were prepared to go to London, we heard via a newspaper reporter that the employers had offered an interim bonus of £3." "But it's not even a straightforward offer." "It's got all kind of clauses in it." "One is a punctuality one." "So that any illusion that it was £3 straight on top of your £ 13-8, that's completely false." "(ANGRY SHOUTING)" "Now look, boys." "We've got nothing to hide." "That's why we've invited, your committee have invited Brother Ogby, the National Officer, to come and explain to you his justification for the agreement." "So I'm asking you now, boys, give him as fair a hearing as you did me." "All right, brothers?" "Brother Ogby." "MAN:" "Let's hear what he's got to say." "MAN 2:" "We don't want it!" "We just don't want it." "Thank you." "Thank you, Eddie." "Now, I know you men are in no mood to beat around the bush so I'll keep this thing very short." "I'll just limit it to three points." "Now the first thing is, I'm Joe Ogby." "I'm the National Industrial Officer for your union, as Eddie just told you." "Now, secondly," "I consider that this agreement which I've negotiated" "on your behalf, is a good one." "MAN 3:" "Rubbish!" "(CROWD SHOUTING ANGRILY)" "I am convinced it is a good offer." "(SHOUTING CONTINUES)" "And I would advise you very strongly to grab it with both hands." "(SHOUTING AND JEERING)" "That..." "That is the key to this." "Now, you've made your point." "You've made your protest." "And you've hit him where it hurts most." "Now." "All I'm asking you to do is to allow me, on your behalf, to go back and make further negotiations with the employers." "(ANGRY SHOUTING)" "I can't do that, I can't do that" "unless you accept this offer." "(SHOUTING CONTINUES)" "If you don't accept the offer, it's not on." "(CHANTING) Off!" "Off!" "Off!" "Off!" "Your union has done as much as it can." "Off!" "Off!" "Off!" "Off!" "You..." "(CHANTING CONTINUES)" "All right, boys." "All right, boys." "All right, lads." "I think that you've answered the National Executive on the 3 quid." "(CROWD CHEERING)" "All right." "Simmer down, then, lads." "We'll put it to a straight vote." "Those in favour of the £3 offer, those in favour, show their hands." "Those in favour, boys." "I hope that the press are here" "and take note of that." "They'll be here." "Those against the £3, brothers." "(ALL CHEERING)" "BOY:" "Do you know Ena Sharples?" "(KIDS LAUGHING)" "(ALL CLAMOURING)" "Come on." "Come on, give him chance." "I'd just like to say one thing... (MEN SHOUTING ANGRILY)" "I'd just like to say one thing." "One thing and then I'm finished." "That this meeting today was in no way representative of the working force... (ANGRY SHOUTING)" "Is in no way representative of the working force at Wilkinson." "Why have you failed to get it put on the basic rate?" "This is what we want to know." "This is something that can be gone into at a future date," "but this is not the way to go about it." "(ANGRY SHOUTING)" "Are you worried about reports in the press about Communist infiltration in the strike?" "All right, yeah?" "CAMERAMAN:" "Yes, fine." "REPORTER:" "All right?" "All right?" "Now, can I ask you if any of the members of the Communist Party are active in this strike?" "No, no chance." "No." "ALL:" "No." "No." "Not at all." "We all come to the meetings." "Everybody turns up to the meetings." "Everybody works for the company." "They're all workers of that company." "And you're on about outside infiltration." "I haven't mentioned outside infiltration." "Why are you so sensitive about that?" "The Communist Party?" "Even if they are prepared to help us, why shouldn't they?" "The CBI help their employees, don't they?" "Have you seen any evidence of outside infiltration?" "No, we've not." "But don't you feel left-wing militants are trying to wreck British industry by their strike actions?" "All we want is a fare wage for a fair week's work." "Is anybody here a member of the Communist Party?" "No." "We're just workers." "MAN:" "Does it matter?" "REPORTER:" "If you were a member of the Communist Party," "would you admit it to me on television?" "MAN:" "I would admit it if I was." "All right?" "Brothers." "Hello, boys." "All right, Mike?" "Hello, Eddie." "I had to come late." "It's a card school going on in here." "Oh, aye?" "All right, lads?" "How are you?" "All right, mate?" "Who's winning?" "I won a bottle Champagne, the Queen Mary, and a night out on the town with Brigitte Bardot." "Have a fag, yeah?" "Oh, ta." "Have the cops bothered you at all?" "No." "No, they was mooching round last night with the dogs and that, but they don't know we're here, like, you know." "EDDIE:" "I saw plenty of lads here." "Well, plenty of lads here." "There's a crowd of them, yeah." "You know." "You know, they change each day, sometimes they go up to the park if the weather's all right, they don't bother coming down here." "EDDIE:" "Do you get scared down here, in case you get nabbed?" "Yeah." "Well, I think, um, Eddie, there's something else I'd like you to see." "Just come this way, will you?" "Okay, lads." "See you again." "Ta-ra." "How about that?" "Jesus wept." "What's she doing here?" "She's been on strike a fortnight, no cash, thrown out of her digs, her and the kid." "EDDIE:" "How long's she been here?" "She come in at about 9:00 tonight." "She was crying her bloody eyes out." "She's from Geordieland." "And where's the husband?" "She's not married." "Poor kid, eh?" "What about the welfare, Sally Army, Social Security, somebody like that?" "Yeah." "I'm in agreement with you." "But that poor kid, she's frightened in case they take the baby off her." "She won't take no notice." "You can tell her if you want, she thinks they'll take the kid off her, so she won't go." "She needn't stay there a minute longer." "My missus will look after her and the baby." "MAN:" "Hagan!" "STRIKERS:" "Out!" "MAN:" "Hagan!" "Out!" "MAN:" "Rank and file!" "In!" "GMW!" "Out!" "Hagan!" "Out!" "Hagan!" "Out!" "Hagan!" "Out!" "Rank and file!" "In!" "GMW!" "Out!" "Rank and file!" "In!" "GMW!" "Out!" "Rank and file!" "In!" "Hagan!" "Out!" "Hagan!" "Out!" "Hagan!" "Out!" "Rank and File!" "In!" "GMW!" "Out!" "GMW!" "Out!" "GMW!" "Out!" "Rank and File!" "In!" "Rank and file!" "In!" "Rank and file!" "In!" "GMW!" "Out!" "I wouldn't take too long over that, if I were you." "Well, I appreciate that, but of course you understand there's some very important documents here." "I must get rid of these, I'm afraid." "(CHANTING CONTINUES OUTSIDE)" "GMW!" "Out!" "GMW!" "Out!" "Hagan!" "Resign!" "Hagan!" "Resign!" "Hagan!" "Resign!" "Hagan!" "Resign!" "GMW!" "Out!" "GMW!" "Out!" "Rank and file!" "In!" "Rank and file!" "In!" "(CLAMOURING)" "Hey, lads." "Come and get this bleeding thing off." "(ALL SHOUTING)" "Take it easy, now." "Lads, lads!" "Don't you realise there's no chance of you getting hardship money?" "You're not entitled to hardship money." "We've got bloody lads been kicked out their bloody lodgings here, Hagan." "It's unoffical and you have no right at all to hardship money." "(ANGRY SHOUTING)" "Be a bloody man and resign, then!" "Resign!" "Resign!" "MEN: (SHOUTING) Resign!" "Resign!" "(ANGRY SHOUTING)" "Listen." "You can't run away from everything." "Look, all these fellows been on the lines all this time, but you just can't do it to them no more." "(POLICEMEN SHOUTING)" "Just one minute, I only want to talk to him." "Look, just let me go, please!" "Hey up, look." "Watch that ceiling." "The bloody ceiling's falling in." "Steady." "Steady." "Looks like it's dropping." "Steady on, lads." "Steady on." "Easy." "Right, take it outside." "Drop it here, lads." "It's an old banner." "Aye." "Get it out." "It hasn't been used since 1926." "MAN:" "Must have had it hidden under the floor boards." "Oh, it's a nice one." "Open it out." "Let's have it open." "There's some work in that, isn't there?" "Not too bad, it's not too bad." "Carefully, lads." "Hey, watch it now." "Watch it." "MAN:" "Like the bloody union, it's been dead for 50 years." "(CHEERING)" "# Solidarity forever" "# Solidarity forever" "# Solidarity forever" "# And the workers of the world unite #" "MAN:" "All together now!" "# Solidarity forever" "# Solidarity forever" "# The union's got to live" "# And the workers of the world unite #" "Hello, sweetie." "I should have had that half an hour ago." "Is your mum in?" "What?" "Is your mum in?" "Yes." "You there, Joan?" "There you are, Judy." "Is your mum at the back?" "Hello, Joan." "What do you want?" "I mean, what have you come for?" "I thought if there was owt I could do." "John told me you were packing up and going round to your ma's with the kids." "Well, I've got to, haven't I?" "I can't stay here and let this happen again." "I doubt if they'll come back, though." "I'm not taking the chance." "You'll be better off at your ma's." "I will." "I'm just about fed up." "Come on, now, Joan." "You've got to bear up, think of the kids." "We'll have him out in a day or two on bail." "He's in jail, isn't he?" "Why wasn't it you never got arrested?" "How was it you kept clear of them?" "Look, they got the taps on us all." "It could have been Bert." "It could have been Billy." "It could have been meself." "I'm sick of the lot of it." "You and all the other buggers, you got us into this mess." "(CRYING) I hope when it's all over that you steer clear of us." "Never want to see you again." "You want to get back to Russia, where you come from, where you belong." "You and your communist ideas." "Looks like you've been reading the paper, Joan, like the rest." "I've known Les for, what, 11 years." "I've worked with him." "I've only met you the last couple of days." "But Les has known me, what, 11, 12 years." "You've got some kind of a hold over him now." "No." "The firm had a hold on him." "He's not even the same husband he used to be." "There's 8,000 men have changed here." "The 8,000 feel like Les but the 8,000..." "The 8000's not in jail like Les." "It's 8,000 wage earners who are fighting for their rights." "Oh..." "Now, look." "It's no picnic." "I know what it's all about..." "I've got to consider the kids now." "They've got no father now." "He'll only be there a day or two." "He'll be out on bail." "No father." "No job." "No nowt." "No money." "No love." "Do you want a bit of a hand to pack your gear?" "Could we get a taxi to take you and the kids round?" "No." "I'll get the bus." "I'm asking no one for nothing." "Well, look, I'll take you..." "I've never asked you yet for anything and I'm buggered if I'll ask you." "Well, I could take your case off you, couldn't I?" "That's going to be heavy." "I'll carry it." "Come on." "Put the case down." "No, leave me." "I just don't want to see you any more." "Yeah." "But I must have the typewriter, Joan." "I must have that." "Take your bloody typewriter." "Just leave me and my kids and get out of my life." "All right, Joan." "I'll shove off now." "I won't take the typewriter now." "Would it be asking you too much to ask you for the key?" "And I'll come and get it." "Get the paper." "We need that." "I don't know what I've done with it." "I think he's got it." "I mean, we miss Les as much as we miss you, although he can only type with his two fingers." "And we got to scout around now for someone that can do what he was doing." "Well, do that." "Do that, 'cause he's done it long enough." "And he'll have nothing more to do with you when he comes out." "He's going to start learning to be a father again." "You took that away from him with your rotten typewriter." "Les is only learning now that he's got to fight." "He wasn't interested in unions or anything till you came on the scene." "You've turned his head, he's moody and he's got no time for nobody but you." "Your wife might like that kind of thing, but we don't." "They'll do anything to drive us back to work, you know that, Joan." "They'll arrest a lot of us." "It can go on for a long time, yes." "They don't give in that easy." "That's the test." "If they can lose the profits or if we can tighten our belt more." "That's why we got to stick together." "(MEN CHATTERING)" "Get back in line." "This is the outside interference, lads." "The bobbies." "These are the outside men." "Oh, lads, here's the bloody Judases here." "(ALL SHOUTING)" "PROTESTORS: (CHANTING) Scabs!" "Scabs!" "Scabs!" "Scabs!" "(CHANTING CONTINUES)" "(CHANTING CONTINUES)" "(CLAMOURING)" "Don't let them in, lads!" "MAN:" "Scabs!" "Dirty scabs!" "Dirty scabs!" "MAN:" "We're going in!" "MAN 2:" "Go on, you scabs!" "OFFICER:" "Get in the bloody van!" "(CLAMOURING)" "(GRUNTING)" "Oh, yeah." "It's not much." "It's one of those swine." "Do you think that looks all right?" "Want a lift mate?" "Yeah." "Thanks very much." "Bloody lot of skin flew back there, oh." "What a bloody ding-dong that was." "Showed those scab-herders a thing or two." "Drop us off anywhere here, lads." "Wood Street will do." "What department do you fellows work in?" "MAN:" "Turn right here." "Where are we going to?" "(GRUNTING)" "(EXCLAIMS)" "MAN:" "Get in." "Come on." "(CAR DOORS SLAMMING)" "(ENGINE STARTING)" "(CAR DRIVING AWAY)" "Their advert's in again." "A sprat to catch a mackerel." ""To all glass workers on strike." ""Ring this number at any time and I will arrange a meeting." ""General Secretary, Trade Union Congress."" "And there's a number here." "The same one that was in the other day." "What do you say we give him a tinkle?" "A lot of good that will do us." "It's worth a try, you know." "TUC, the magic words." "Probably might help us get a fair crack of the whip." "Look, I told you." "They're all tarred with one brush." "Maybe so, but we don't lose anything by giving them a ring." "I don't think so." "The strike's going downhill, you know." "Some of them are drifting back." "Les is in the nick." "Joey's in there getting stitched up." "Things are going worse you know, Eddie." "You'll still get no help from the TUC." "Yeah, but they've made a move in the right direction" "by putting this out." "I think so." "They're showing a bit of interest." "Give us that number." "I'll ring them." "Look, just be careful how you handle it." "What do you think I am?" "Leave it to me." "Yeah, but be careful." "(TALKING QUIETLY)" "Oh." "How is he, doctor?" "Nothing very serious." "Bruised his ribs." "A few lacerations on his face and body." "Not too much harm done." "Hello?" "Is that the TUC?" "Well, I'm one of the glass workers on strike and I've just been reading your advert in the..." "Oh, I'm sorry love." "Yeah, okay." "Hello?" "Is that the general..." "(PHONE DISCONNECTED)" "Hello?" "Hello?" "Bastard." "How did you get on?" "The bleeding' pips went." "Have you got any change, any of you?" "Look who it is!" "(ALL LAUGHING)" "Sod off, you stupid bastards." "Keep you out of mischief, anyway." "You all right, John?" "About bloody time." "You all right, son?" "They haven't half made a mess of him." "What's this?" "You been in the wars?" "Look at the state of him." "What's that?" "Bloody ponce of a doctor." "What'd he do to you?" "Here you are, mate, taxi and everything." "Steady on, steady on." "They've stuck about half a dozen needles up me arse." "(EXCLAIMING IN AGONY)" "That's a big help." "(EDDIE SINGING)" "Behave your bloody self." "Hey?" "With mates like you, I don't need any bloody enemies." "(GROANING)" "(EDDIE CONTINUES SINGING)" "(INAUDIBLE)" "Well, before we discuss anything, lads, I think it's fair to read the telegram from the TUC so that everything will be understood in the discussion." "You know where it's from." ""Confirming our telephone conversation today," ""I give you undertaking following the resumption of work." ""Arrangements will be put in hand immediately" ""for you and strike committee representatives" ""to meet here, TUC headquarters" ""to thrash out all differences and difficulties that have arisen" ""with a view of ensuring this kind of situation will never occur again." "Stop." ""Statements made yesterday at the TUC General Purpose Committee." ""Hope everybody concerned will give every assistance" ""in getting a resumption."" "That's the telegram, lads." "Well, the way I see that, Eddie, is that we've got no choice." "You know, at least we've got nothing to lose by going and talking to the guy." "Look, I'm not against talking to anybody." "But I'm definitely against going cap in hand to the TUC." "All we've got here is a message that they will convene a meeting once we get the men back to work." "That's all." "Yeah, but I don't see it that way." "We are not going down to talk to just to anybody or another union." "This is the Trade Union Congress." "The Houses of Parliament that represent all unions." "And I don't think they'd get us." "I mean, they're too big for that." "I think you can't see the wood from the trees." "If you read that telegram," ""get you back to work"," ""ensuring that this will never happen again"." "That telegram was the very first steps to put the General Municipal back in the saddle with the authority over the men." "How can you get any kind of support off the General Secretary of the TUC?" "That will embarrass his sidekick, Hooper." "BERT:" "Eddie, you're talking like a defeatist." "JERRY:" "Listen." "Eddie's right." "The role of the TUC is broker for the government." "Any government, Labour or Conservative." "They're there to break strikes." "They're there to nego..." "To what they call negotiate an industry." "To reach satisfactory agreements that won't... that won't knock their position." "Yeah, but let's get this clear." "I've got implicit faith in the TUC, right." "Never mind bloody laughing." "EDDIE:" "Let the man have his say." "And I firmly believe that wording in that telegram," ""this sort of thing won't happen again"," "I am taking that, I don't know about you, but I'm taking that as meaning that the bloody executive of the General Municipal Workers won't be able to cock us up again like they have this time." "They won't have the bloody firm collecting the subscriptions that the unions use and things like this." "That's how I see it." "Well, I agree with Mike." "EDDIE:" "Well, Mike, can I ask you one question?" "If there's nothing categoric comes out of this, that there's nothing signed that we know we're going to get before we go to work, if we go to work only on the promises and we lead in this energy that's just been accumulated after 100 years," "except for 1926, what shall we do then?" "Well, you've had it." "Not as simple as that." "Let me qualify what defeatism means." "The best strength that we've got here, and after 100 and odd years, we've got our strength here solidly out on strike." "I believe that those are the men that can win the struggle." "Could win it much quicker only if we can get help from other workers." "I do regard that if we go to the TUC, that that will be the first step to defeat of this committee if we accept the things willy-nilly." "(ALL ARGUING)" "If we don't go down to see the TUC, they'll go back and we could lose anyway." "We lose the leadership." "We lose the lot, do you know what I mean, Bert?" "Now, I suggest this, as Frank says and agrees with me as well, that we lead the men back but we tell the men why we're leading them back, that we go down to the TUC" "but we may even come back and pull them out again if it's not to our satisfaction." "That's what I think." "And another thing that..." "Well, I don't suppose any of you have overlooked it, it's all round us." "The women and the kids are suffering." "And all through the ages, this is how all strikes have been broken." "This is how the bosses look at it, "Starve the bastards."" "And it's getting to that stage with us, you know." "But you can't stop for halftime in a struggle like this." "This is precisely what you're saying, Bill." "My head's bloody killing me." "I wish you could make some sort of a decision." "JERRY:" "Okay, we'll make one." "Seven weeks ago, this strike started." "Five weeks ago, we met with one thing in common and one thing only," "£25 for a 40-hour week." "EDDIE:" "That's the..." "Now, we were thrown up as the leadership." "We only had that one thing in common." "And we found that it changed from just that struggle for that until we were taking on all-comers." "Now, we have a responsibility to the rank and file." "We cannot shirk that responsibility." "We are the leadership, and we're immature and out of our depth and all that, but we are the only leadership they've got." "EDDIE:" "Now, the resolution you're having put forward to you tonight," "I was against it." "The first time that this committee has been at loggerheads." "But at the same time," "I and the rest of the committee will abide by whatever you say and how you vote." "That this meeting of the rank and file accept the terms laid down by the TUC and agrees to the strike committee's recommendation for an immediate return to work..." "(ALL PROTESTING)" "After which members of the committee will attend a special meeting at Congress House convened by the Trade Union Congress." "That, brothers, is the resolution." "(ALL PROTESTING)" "I don't hold with that!" "Bloody promises!" "We're not going back on bloody promises, Eddie, after seven weeks." "Get the brothers on strike!" "(ALL SHOUTING)" "EDDIE:" "All right, brothers." "This meeting is democratic." "Come and say your piece." "(ALL CHEERING)" "(ALL APPLAUDING)" "Promises, Eddie, we're not going back on promises!" "All right, brother, put it to the meeting, it's democratic." "I'm all against going back on promises." "(ALL AGREEING)" "I vote that we kick this resolution into touch." "(ALL AGREEING)" "Where it belongs." "And I move that we send this committee to London to get something in writing, and then we might go back, when we've got something on paper." "(ALL CHEERING)" "EDDIE:" "And there'll be no return to work until that's done." "(ALL AGREEING)" "All right, brothers." "I declare the meeting closed, then, boys." "You've got to go back." "BERT:" "Well, you can't think of everything at once." "(ALL LAUGHING)" "Cor blimey." "It's a good job I'm hungry." "Oh, hey, that'll be enough food now." "I'm going to the sanitations, John." "Just watch my money." "All right." "How's the kids, Jerry?" "All right." "(INAUDIBLE)" "What are you mooching round outside here for?" "I'm in lumber, Eddie." "Lumber?" "Why?" "Trying to dodge the ticket collector." "Blew the fare in on the gee-gees yesterday." "Jesus Christ." "You pillock." "Well, that's the way it goes." "I'm a bloody bonehead and stupid, I know." "It's engaged." "But if you get caught, don't drag us into it, you know." "No." "We got enough on our plates already." "Tickets, please." "That's all right, sir." "Put it under the door." "(KNOCKS ON DOOR)" "Keep your hands off." "We're nearly there, love." "EDDIE:" "Where'd you get that from?" "(MEN CHATTERING)" "BILLY:" "It was the top brass of the TUC, our chief, in fact, you name it, they were all there." "I was surprised at how smoothly it went." "I mean, let's face it." "We were all a bit cagey." "But I've got to take me hat off to the big fellow." "He lowered the temperature a bit and got things moving." "He's a gentleman, that bloke." "He leaned over backwards, and I must say that without him" "I don't think there'd have been an agreement." "As it was, we ended up with a document signed by himself, us and the General Secretary of the General and Municipal Workers." "And this stated that there'd be no victimisation." "As far as we were concerned, that was it." "I think even Eddie was satisfied." "EDDIE:" "We went back on the understanding that there would be no victimisation." "And in terms of pounds, shillings and pence, we got the three quid with a promise of more to follow." "(ALL CHATTERING)" "BILLY:" "If I live to be 100," "I'll never forget that first day back." "We knew as soon as we went in there'd be trouble." "You could smell it a mile off." "The leaders, of course, they were singled out from the rest of us," "Eddie in particular." "Not satisfied with keeping him separated from everyone, they even had the foreman and production manager stood by as guards." "No one was allowed to even approach him." "And everywhere he went, they went." "All that was missing was a number on his back." "(MACHINERY WHIRRING)" "(INAUDIBLE)" "Well, we couldn't swallow this, so we went back to the TUC." "When I went back to work, they sent me to a school." "Now, I'd been on the job for seven years prior to this, right?" "They sent me to school and put me on a job £7 less." "I think the same thing has happened to John." "JOHN:" "Now I'm sticking labels on bottles with women for less money." "And I think to Jerry." "Now, I believe that they're trying to promote some kind of action and bringing this about so that we possibly might cease work." "And then other actions will follow." "And we've come here today to ask you what are you going to do about it?" "TUC SECRETARY:" "Well, I'm very sorry to hear this." "But they told us there'd be no victimisation and they've flung everything at us bar the kitchen sink." "We wouldn't have gone back otherwise." "SECRETARY:" "The TUC can't intervene at all." "All we can do is to advise." "Look, we don't want bother." "Hmm." "We've been out seven weeks." "We could have called a meeting this morning and had those lads out again." "We took 'em back." "We've come down here on our own expenses for you to do something, to stop it blowing up." "We don't want bother." "That's what we want you to do, to do something." "Don't tell us you're here to advise." "We want you to do something." "Use your power as the head of the TUC." "A word from you goes an awful long way." "But are you prepared to do this?" "You promised you would, you know." "You did intervene, you know." "You intervened to break the strike." "You intervened and got us down here to a meeting where this document was signed." "And you signed it along with us and the General Secretary of the Union." "I'll read it out to you and acquaint you with what it says." "Paragraph A:" ""All the parties concerned agree" ""that there will be no victimisation of any individual" ""or any group of individuals," ""and that every endeavour will be made" ""to remove present tension in the company."" "Now, I've told you that this exists." "It's been substantiated, or will be, by the lads round the table and I want to know what you're going to do to eliminate this tension and help us get back in the spirit of the agreement that you signed?" "SECRETARY:" "I signed that, well, as chairman of the meeting." "In all good faith, I merely acted as an honest broker, you know, to bring both parties together." "I've got in touch with your union, invited them to come to the meeting." "Where is he?" "Where is the General Secretary of the Municipal General?" "JOHN:" "He should be here by now, shouldn't he?" "JERRY:" "If I may remind you, we're asking for help before the bloody thing blows up." "SECRETARY:" "Now, don't try to tell me my job as well as you know yours." "I'm not telling you your job." "I'm asking you what you're going to do." "(TELEPHONE RINGING)" "I'm doing the best that I possibly can." "JERRY:" "Well, it's not good enough!" "BILLY:" "It's not good enough." "SECRETARY:" "Just a moment, please." "Hello?" "Excuse me." "(MEN TALKING AMONGST THEMSELVES)" "Shh." "SECRETARY:" "Oh." "Oh, I see." "Well, I've got your lads here now at the moment." "Can't they?" "Yeah, well..." "He should have been here for the start." "SECRETARY:" "All right, I'll give them your message." "Well, I don't suppose that you..." "No." "All right." "Well, thanks very much for ringing." "I'm sorry, lads, but it's off." "ALL:" "What's off?" "SECRETARY:" "The whole meeting." "Well, now it does smell." "JERRY:" "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie... (ALL ARGUING)" "SECRETARY:" "It is off because..." "Cor blimey, I'll explode." "That was your General Secretary on the phone, advising you to go back to your jobs." "Advising us?" "Over the phone?" "He should be here!" "Because if the strike is over, there's no point in pursuing it any further." "And as far as we're concerned, there's nothing we can do." "You have taken us to the cleaners, you have." "You didn't know about this before we sat down, then?" "Of course I didn't." "You knew all about it, bloody liar." "SECRETARY:" "I did not know!" "I don't believe one word of it." "Listen, it's very difficult for us to believe that a top man in the TUC had no knowledge that that phone call was going to come and that he wouldn't be here." "What you've done here is destroyed the whole faith of 8,000 men and this must be surely watched from other workers, dockers, car workers and so on." "But I knew what was happening here, because that's what your bureaucracy does." "To get control of the struggle and lead it to defeat." "It's always the barrier between the worker and the boss." "Well, you won't do it no more." "Because you won't fool all the Trade Union Movement all the time." "The Trade Union Movement are becoming aware of people like you." "Because you're bloody traitors!" "You're Tories masquerading as socialists and leaders of the Trade Union Movement." "And one day, we'll sort the bleeding lot of yous out!" "Those 8,000 men back there sent us down to see you because they had faith in the TUC." "And when this comes out, every bloody trade union is going to want to know what you're doing." "I want to ask you one last question." "We've proved here that there's victimisation." "You've agreed." "Now, we know that it's going to blow up further because your pal that's just been on the phone wants the status quo and the control over the workers." "Now, if when we go back and one of us is sacked, what're you going to do about it?" "Well, that's a very hypothetical question." "Don't keep ramming the union down my throat!" "They're your union." "Don't keep ramming them down my throat." "I want my man to represent me." "It doesn't matter what you believe in." "It doesn't matter what you believe in." "Look, the negotiating rights in this firm are taken up by the GMW." "Forget it." "Forget it, mate." "FOREMAN:" "Have you got" "an accredited shop steward or not?" "Forget it, mate." "Bugger the lot of you." "Right, you go ahead and go home." "BILLY:" "This was the spark that set it off." "Eric wanted the Rank and File Committee to represent him in his dispute with the foreman." "The management, of course, refused point blank." "And they'd only recognise the old union." "When this fellow insisted, he was suspended indefinitely." "Then the balloon really went up." "We held a meeting outside the factory and voted for a 3-day token strike." "We wanted the right for the Rank and File Committee to represent the men on the shop floor." "MAN:" "Ah, we never should have gone back in the first place." "EDDIE:" "In my opinion, they provoked the 3-day strike in order to deal with us, the hardcore." "Within hours of the vote being taken, we all received letters saying unless we went back, we'd be sacked." "Those who did go back were each given a yellow card." "They had to show this before they were let in." "But if you didn't have that card, then you weren't on, you weren't allowed in." "(ALL ARGUING)" "You're bloody well finished, mate." "You're finished." "Joe, Joe, come on." "Come on, we'll only end up in bloody jail again." "(ARGUING CONTINUES)" "MAN:" "Come on out!" "EDDIE:" "They also drew up two lists." "A blacklist, which included names of fellows like meself," "Billy, Frankie and Johnny and the rest." "All, under no circumstances, would ever be employed again by the firm or any other firm locally, if it come to that." "Also, the whitelist." "This was for the likes of old Charlie and others, who were being given a chance to mend their ways." "MAN:" "Your name, please?" "Uh, Charles Greenall." "Department?" "Fibreglass." "What's your number?" "3246388." "Sit down, Charles." "Thank you." "You've been with the firm 4 3 years, I see." "Yes, sir, I'm going to retire next month." "That's a long time." "Well, look, Charlie, I'm awfully sorry about this, but in line with company policy," "I can offer you reemployment, but not reinstatement." "How do you mean by that?" "How do you mean by that, like?" "Well, it boils down to this." "That we can set you on, but it'll be as a new starter and that means you lose all your pension rights and so on." "No pension after 4 3 years, sir?" "I'm afraid so, yes." "This is company policy and I'm bound by it." "So it means that you do lose your pension rights and so on." "You understand that, if we start you again?" "CHARLIE:" "Hmm." "Well, you would go on strike, wouldn't you?" "Well, I had to follow the boys, didn't I?" "You see, if I didn't go out, they'd all call me black leg or summat like that." "I just followed them out, like the silly old fool I was." "Yes, if you'd taken the advice of the company letter, you wouldn't have been in this position now, would you?" "No, sir." "I suppose you regret it." "Yes." "Well, I'm terribly sorry, Charlie, but there's nothing else I can do." "I can offer you a job here, but as a new starter and it isn't reinstatement." "I suppose I'll have to take it 'cause I can't get a job anywhere now at my age, can I?" "No." "Well, then, we'll leave it at that, then." "And I'll see you, or you'll be in at the firm the next shift." "Right." "Good." "Thank you, sir." "EDDIE:" "The Industrial Relations Bill is being introduced to help curb the activity on the shop floor." "Now, this bill is designed to prevent any worker going through the kind of struggle that we went through." "Once there had been one move, they would have said," ""Your agreements have been signed as sacrosanct." ""Undertakings have been given that there'll be no rank and file action. "" "If we had've come out then, meself, the committee would have ended up inside, because we couldn't have paid any fines." "I think that we're already treading the same ground as the German worker did under Hitler and Mussolini's Italy." "I mean, this is the first step." "Surely to God we've seen the futility of rank and file-ism, that blind militancy will get us nowhere." "The only question is one of political leadership and a foundation or the founding of a party that will lead the workers to power." "I mean, the cry of a kiddie, the hungry kiddie, that means much more to me than all the laws and all the prisons in creation." "I go along with Trotsky, that life is beautiful." "Let the future generation cleanse it of all the oppression, violence and evil and enjoy it to the full."