Tories gave them no jobs, Labour gave them no h

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LAST WEEK, unemployment figures were officially cut by two.

Graeme Rathbone and Sean Grant from Widnes are not on the dole any more because they are dead. The youths, aged 18 and 19, stole a car, fixed a hose-pope to its exhaust and sat together waiting to die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The note they left for their parents said 'What have we got to live for now there is no work for anyone?' The coroner, John Hilbert, refused to duck the implications. 'It is not for me to get into a political discussion," he said. "But this is a clear result of the economic situation in this country."

'It looks to me as if we are going to get more cases like this. These two boys had the courage to take their own lives. It is not an easy thing to do but they felt the world didn't hold a future for them."

Both were out Patrick Both complained of police harassment. Both faced court cases for "criminal damage" - the serious crime of spraying their names on a public wall.

A friend told the Daily Mirror "I am not saying they were saints. They were just typical. That's all."

There are dangers in drawing general lessons from particular cases.

But if it was Thatcher and the Tories who provided the material oppression on these two young men, then it was the Labour leadership and the TUC who provided the despair itself.

These youth could have been soldiers in the class battle against Thatcher and her system. They could have been filled with the hope that comes to those who are fighting to change the system. tial streets with SPG vans at But what hope did they have? Where could they go to fight? What role can unemployed youth play when the only strategs of the official leaders of the labour movement is to call on Thatcher to have a heart.

The coroner is not typical of his breed. For his outspoken comments he came under sharp attack.

The youths' former head. master was dragged onto television to speculate on less worthy motives for their deaths. There were wild accusations that the parents faked the suicide note.

The police joined in the smear campaign. One officer said •'They were well known in the area as layabouts. There was constant trouble with these two.' But nothing can aiter the fact that Graeme and Sean are martyrs to a barbaric system and to those who will not lead a fight to overthrow it.

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