How we launched the march

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THE demonstration and rally in Nottingham on Saturday, 14th, is set to be very big, with miners and other trade unions coming from around the country, and with Tony Benn MP and Yorkshire NUM President Jack Taylor speaking.

Yet it started as a modest idea only two weeks ago in inauspicious circumstances.

First of all when Steve Battlemuch, a Socialist Organiser supporter and EC member of Nottingham Trades Council proposed that the Trades Council set up a sub-committee to support the miners, he couldn't even find a seconder amongst other EC members. Some said it would cause problems for the Notts NUM; others said it would be "substitutionalism"

Secondiy, Ivan Wels, also a Socialist Organiser supporter and secretary of Sherwood Branch Labour Party, proposed an emergency resolution against police activity in North Notts at the March meeting of East Nottingham GC. This motion condemned the police committee for its unanimous vote of confidence in the Chief Constable and called on the County Labour Party to hold an emergency meeting on the issue and press the County Council to make the Chief Constable withdraw all police from other forces and make him Ivan Wels explain his activities. It also said that the County Council should not pay a penny towards the costs.

This resolution gave rank and file Labour Party members and trade unionists nothing to actually do straight away. In any case we were not sure how effective a special County Labour Party meeting would be (especially since the Labour Group usually takes no notice of it).

From the GC meeting we were given the name of the secretary of Newark Labour Party, Sue Rolestone and her husband, Chris Taylor, who live in the thick of the police state in North Nottinghamshire.

Both these comrades had extensive contacts with Yorkshire NUM, since many of them lived locally.

It was decided that speed was essential and that to get things moving we would ourselves have to cal! an ad-hoc "Co-ordinating Committee Against the Police Presence", within four days, even if was only to organise a few activities and perhaps a march on April 14.

Expecting oniy a few to turn up, we were amazed when over 80 people came - Labour Party members, County Councillors, Trades Council members, miners and other trade unionists and unemployed.

The small organising meeting had turned into a public meeting. It was decided that we would build for a demonstration on Saturday 14th; lobby the County Council; have a fund-raising disco; and put out a leaflet entitled "The Hard Facts" , about gross violation of civil liberties by the police.

Chris Taylor found out later through his contacts with the Yorkshire NUM that if he could get a formal invitation from an official Nottingham body, the NUM would make the demonstration and rally a national mobilisation.

The fight was now on to get the Executive of the Trades Council to agree to make a formal invitation. Many of them were worried about being outflanked by the Coordinating Committee and had changed their minds since the Tuesday meeting.

A special EC meeting was called last Sunday and the members of the Coordinating Committee attended as well, outnumbering the EC members. And surprisngly, this time, the leading lights of the Trades Council were bending over backwards to show how militant they were.

The formal invitation went out to the national NUM and the fight is now on to make this the biggest march that Nottingham has ever seen. tum the state will feel more and more threatened and will employ even tougher tactics against the miners. That should bring a lot of sympathy from other sections of the working class, and it could very well develop into a general strike situation.

I have no doubt that if the police can't cope, the army will be called in.

The Tory government will be seriously threatened, and perhaps a lot more than that. This is what it's coming to. People can only take the failings of the present economic system for so long.

Siobhan has been accused of being a member of the Workers Revolutionary Party (she isn't, but so what?); of being seven months pregnant and ready to leave (she obviously isn't). NALGO are being portrayed as obstinate and unwilling to negotiate, which is not true.

The Council have even admitted to using an amendment in Tory legislation under the Employment "Protection" Act which makes it easier for employers to dismiss workers quicker.

Some members of the council have set up a campaign against Siobhan and NALGO, so vitriolic as to be unbelievable. Management and some councillors have