makes do as the strike HQ for the strikers, now Supreme Quilting. recognition and members but it has become about much more.
industry and beyond who are bearing such a sweatshops up and down the country.
Jiti, a 27 year old Asian woman who came to Britain in 1968, has described -ACI WORK Y earlier in the week. 'I had 10 0 2 trousers day;
for each trouser. would often work 6 days a week and only take home £40 ог f45 рет week. I've taken home as little as E25. If the machine's not working you're with no work to do and you get no pay.
The room at the temple is packed full, Asian men and half with women. As on the picket lines the sexes choose to sit together but the workforce is fully united in its cause to force PS Riandi to back down and recognise the T&G.
Avtar Jowl, the President IWA is adarcosing tae meeung. over the few days the houses ot scab labourers have been picketed. On Monday 10 workers were turned back. On Tuesday five. On Wednesday three. Despite no strike pay these strikeers are even more solid than when the strike began. The local labour movement is beginning to recognise the importance spiration it is giving to workers in general. Slaves Bob Badham, a Sandwell Councillor, has put a lot of work into the He brings £50 from his union branch and makes a speech which well recieved. The biggest round applause reserved for his attack on PS Raindi who has put an IT IS 4.30 on a Wednesday evening. The room at the Sikh Temple in Smethwick High Street in their seventh week, from Raindi textiles and The strike is over union victimisation of union The strike is quickly becoming a symbol of resistance for all black workers in the Textile huge burden of the recession in unemployment and the the awful wages paid in slave labour Had in the Sandwell Evening Mail to try and convince the general public that he is a good employer' the strikers are He pays good wages he says, good tood. in a good canteen. 'He ain't gonna his public UIL side', says Bob, *because the whole labour movement in Sandwell is united in telling the public that he's exploiting you for slave labour wages. Petition He can afford to pay a security guard, he can af Tora to pay for a huge advert in the paper to tr and intluence public opiWhy can't he HUH. the money to pay you a decent wage?' Bob promises that if PS Raindi or any of his riends apply to Sandwell for planning permission to sell the factory or to buy a new one he would ensure the Labour councillors would be as obstructive as possible. This is quite a different approach to one of the Ladywood Asian councillors who has signed Raindi's petition and condemned the strike for pitting blacks against each other.
An Asian refers S&K's speech. clear Raindi's is not seen as an case but Asian militants throughout the area are getting involved because of their own experiences of trying to fight against sweated labour in tories. The Asian community as a whole is watching the strike to way it goes. More and more workers understand the need for militancy to be channelled through The T&G speaker captures this mood, making a ery radical speec given T&G S&K's they encouraged the workforce to accept only partial reenstatement of the original workforce. "The T&G is 100% behind this dispute because you're 100% right morally and in every other and they re 100% wrong. This dispute has LaKe significance. Some people have called it the second Grunwick's but I prefer to call it the first Raindi's. The brothers and sisters here are -UH a mora crusade. Together you will win. The workers united can never be defeated'.
The strikers clap at the end of each speech and at the end of each translation. They are not only polite but very patient as some of them have been on the picket line all day and the room is very hot. Every gesture of practical st enthusiastically DUEL welcomed Busy Socialist Challenge and Revolution Youth supBirmingham DULLCIS have been busy not only on the picket lines but raising the issue in the Labour Party and the Labour ParSocialists and regions T&G Broad Left. We now plan to persuade the strike comof the labour movement in the West Midlands in sup has been astride.
been called this week. Let's hope PS Raindi gives in sooner rather than later because if feelings here are anything to go by he's bitten off more than he can chew and he's going to have to give in somewhere along the line. MORE STAFF DECEMBER 3rd WE'RE ON STRIKE FOR YOUR BENERT Society
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D.H.S.S. MORE STAFF NOW