by Keith Richmond
CAMPAIGNERS took their fight for Justice for the Shrewsbury Pickets to Westminster as Jeremy Corbyn, Dennis Skinner and John McDonnell tabled an early day motion calling for an investigation into the dubious convictions of 24 building workers in 1973.
They were tried – under the obscure Conspiracy Act of 1875 – and sentenced at Shrewsbury after the national building workers’ strike of 1972.
Six of them – Des Warren, Ricky Tomlinson, McKinsie Jones, John Llarch, Ken O’Shea and Arthur Murray – were jailed for terms of up to three years and the rest given suspended sentences.
Mr Tomlinson, a building site plasterer who later became an actor and is best known for his role in The Royle Family, said they were the victims of a conspiracy by the Conservative Government working hand in hand with construction bosses and the police.
He said: “Justice my arse! We want a pardon and a public inquiry into the prosecution and the trials. We were the victims of a state conspiracy. I have tried, using the Freedom of Information Act, to see documents connected to the case, but the Home Office has blocked their release. Why?”
