Welcome

ESSENTIAL, please sign our ‘paper petition’ NOW; this is calling for the government to release documents that pertain to the Shrewsbury trial in 1972. A request to release these documents has been denied on grounds of “national security” and this decision is not due to be reviewed until 2021.

This paper petition replaces the e-petition which is now closed and will be presented at Downing Street in October 2013.

You can now find us on Facebook and Twitter

Download and print an information sheet about the campaign here.

Our campaign committee was set up by several of the convicted Shrewsbury pickets with local trade union activists following a meeting in Liverpool in 2006. We are supported by many national trade unions, local branches and trades council as well as by individuals. We welcome further affiliations and support.

Our campaign is seeking to overturn the unjust prosecution of 24 building workers who were charged following the first ever national building workers strike in 1972. They picketed building sites in Shrewsbury during the dispute and were prosecuted in Shrewsbury Crown Court in 1973. They became known as the “Shrewsbury 24”.

The main focus of the campaign at present is an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to have the cases of the 24 referred to the Court of Appeal and for these miscarriages of justice to be overturned. It was submitted on the 3rd April 2012. Watch this site for further news on the progress of the application.

Des Warren Poster
Six of the pickets were imprisoned. Their crime was to be part of a trade union campaign to get a decent rate of pay and safer working conditions for all building workers. This brought them into conflict with some of the most powerful and influential employers in the construction industry in Britain including Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons and members of the National Federation of Building Trade Employers.

For more information about the campaign and to contact us please follow the links at the top.

Des Warren on the Grunwick picket line, July 1977, after his release from prison.

Members of the committee and pickets, Liverpool November 2011. Back row (L-R) John Bohanna, Terry Renshaw, Kevin O’Hagan and Harry Chadwick. Front Row (L-R): Eddie Roberts, Eileen Turnbull and Ricky Tomlinson.

Members of the committee and pickets, Ewloe, North Wales November 2011. Back row (L-R) John Bohanna, Terry Renshaw, Kevin O’Hagan and Harry Chadwick. Front Row (L-R): John McKinsie Jones, Eileen Turnbull and Kevin Butcher.