The daily routine of orderly repres- in. preparation for the big industrial sion in Walton jail, Liverpool, has been interrupted in the last week by mass picketing outside the gates.
The pickets have been protesting at the fact that Brian Owen, a rent striker arrested in a dawn raid by bailiffs, is being held in the jail.
Another rent striker, Larry Doyle, has been released, but ten more tenants face imprisonment for contempt in ignoring court orders attaching their earnings.
The raid was the latest move in the attempt to break the 14 month rent strike at Tower Hill, Kirkuy. strike, against the Labour Council's operation of the Housing Finance Act, contrasts with the struggle at Clay Cross, where the Council has led a fight against the Act. At Kirkby Labour Party supports Parliamentary Law and Order right down to the last brick in Brian Owen's cell.
The fact that Brian Owen is a building workers' shop steward emphasises the fact that his arrest, like the trial of the Shrewsbury building workers, is part of a generalised state offensive Support Red Weekly -SUBSCRIBE!
Special Xmas offer: 1 year for £3 (normally f4) - expires 4 Jan. Foreign fo per year, £9 airmail Introductory offer: 12 issues for 50p Name Please send cash with order to: Red Weekly, 182 Pentonville rd, London N1 Red Weekly 14 December 1973 Page 8 confrontations that lie ahead. message is clear-the repression will not stop at the factory or building site, but will strike at workers in their housing estates and homes.
The arrests at Tower Hill were well planned. They occurred just before Christmas, a time of great personal vulnerability for the arrested men and of financial pressure on those who live in this area of high unemployment.
There has, however, been some limIted industrial action. Three local factories came out on a one day strike in protest, but further action of this kind has been put into cold storage until after New Year. In the meantime pickets and demonstrations outside (and inside) the jail continue, to keep up the while further action is prepared, and in order to attract the attention of the la bour and tenants movement across the country to this new attack. The Tower Hill Rent Action Committee needs money and messages of support. Send these to: Tower Hill RA Committee, A12 Ravenscroft, Tower Hill, Kirkby, Lancashire.