There’s an agitprop play on in Peckham called United We Stand. It’s about the Shrewsbury Three – the building workers jailed in the aftermath of the 1972 national building strike. More than 40 years on this case is remembered by the public – if at all – because one of those jailed was a young Eric Tomlinson, known now as the actor Ricky Tomlinson famous for playing national treasure Jim Royle in The Royle Family.
Within the labour movement there has been a dogged campaign over the last 40 years to have all the papers on the case published and the convicted men cleared retrospectively. A campaign that is backed by Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, who was there in Peckham for the first night. As was Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour Party. They were there in an official capacity. I was there too, not with them obviously, but Peckham is my manor. After the play finished both Tom and Len got to speak. Watson was polished and professional, backing the case for full disclosure of documents and tying it into his concerns about proposals by the government to restrict Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. McCluskey, in contrast, addressed the audience as if we were a mass meeting in a car park in the 1970s. Which was appropriate, as the politics he espoused was a return to the 70s.
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