Catalogue Number
NMLH.2012.31
Object Name
Drape
Title
'Workers Socialist League London Branch. Free The Shrewsbury Two. General Strike To Repeal Anti-Working Class Laws.'
Place
Shrewsbury, London
People
Workers Socialist League, Shrewsbury Two, Ricky Tomlinson, Des Warren, Union of Construction Allied Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT), Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), General and Municipal Workers' Union (GMWU)
Events
1972 Builders Strike
Date
c.1972
Description
A large white cloth banner. In red lettering 'Workers Socialist League London Branch.' In black lettering below: 'Free The Shrewsbury Two. General strike to repeal anti-working class laws.'
The Shrewsbury Two, Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson, were builders and union organisers who were arrested on charges of "conspiracy to intimidate" following the 1972 construction workers strike. The strike had been called by several unions in the construction trade to fight for construction workers to have a minimum wage of £30 a week, an end to cash-in-hand pay, and access to employment rights that casual labourers didn't have. Tomlinson and Warren were arrested months after the strike, along with other builders who had participated in picketing. None had been charged with misconduct or criminal activity during the strike itself, and so this round of criminalisation was viewed as an attempt to suppress labour organising. Warren was jailed for three years, and Tomlinson for two, and this was viewed as political persecution by some union members.
Des Warren died in 2004, which Tomlinson attributed in part to the impacts of medication he was given while being held in solitary confinement in prison. Ricky Tomlinson, who is now a prominent actor, campaigned for decades to have their convictions overturned, a campaign which was eventually successful in March 2021, almost 50 years after the strike.
