old woman who admitted to a lawyer that her testimony was perjured.
However, the trial went on - with "Hang Desmond' signs painted above the entry to the jury room and the entrance to the lounge where the, WIRE The Committee in Defence of Dessevere mond Trotter and Political Prisoners in Dominica urges that protests be sent to Prime Minister Patrick John, House of Assembly, Roseau, Dominica. Copies should be sent to the committee at P.O. Box 231, Roseau, Dominica. The Barnsley Chronicle beats the Institute of Journalists by 32 years. The former was established in 1858 and has never experienced a strike, while the loJ has never called one in its 90-year history. Small wonder, therefore, that the Barnsley branch of the National Union of UBBEA Journalists has asked the local labour movement 'to take appropriate action" ENTS to deal with the Chronicle's four loJ members (by not dealing with them!).
Three of the four joined the institute last year because they objected to the increasing left-wing militancy" of the NUJ - reinforcing the loJ's role as a strike-breakers haven. But it is of course the supposed challenge to "press freedom' which has caused Michael Foot and Harold Wilson to tell the NUJ executive to think again, after it congratulsted une barnsicy branen on uts acuon and advised other branches to do likewise -which Sheffield and East London have already done. HAPPY quite happy to think again. And Foot and Wilson have lined themselves up with the President of the Newspaper Society (the provincial bosses" group), who desdeplore' ough tary stages.
NUJ General Secretary Ken Morgan is ribes te rerusa or trace unionists e speak to non-union reporters as the sort of interference with the press we The sort of interference none of these gentlement deplores, needless to say, is the monopoly ownership and control o! the mass media which ensures that milHons oL WOrKers who Deuevca Caey wort voting for a government committed to cerenaing tnen mnerests now nave the pleasure of reading a press whose sole concern is wether the cuts are big enThe role played by Republica and Radio Renascensa in the Portuguese struggle vivialy demonstrates the unreat to the ruling class of any challenge to its hold on the mass media, and explains the anxiety of the press proprietors and editors over the closed shop clauses in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Am endment) Bill, now in its final parliamenBut the opposition of The Times to the Bill (or even to negotiating the socalea charter or Dress mrecdom probosec by Foot) has brought an excellent response from the paper's Father of the NUf Chapel, Jacob Ecclestone:
I suggest that opposition to the Bill derives from a fear that the present undemocratic control of the press might be put in jeopardy by a strong trade union whose members might one day insist on the reality of press freedom rather than the present sham.' us m aus context mat tre acron u Barnsley represents an important step forward. It is absolutely correct and necessary for workers to defend their organisations. Journalists who refuse to om une wus. are esoccatv mnose wno sign up with the anti-union Institute, not only undermine the economic interests of journalists but represent the nucleus of those who will fight tooth and nail for the proprietors' and editors' press freedom DEAD LETTER Unfortunately the NUJ's Code of Conduct, which supposedly obliges its members to strive to eliminate distortion, newS suDo esson ane consorsnD. Is a virtual dead letter A struggle for the anemenauon or wc code is now under way in the NUJ, but it is clear that the weight of the whole labour movement is necessary to back it up. That is why the anks estabasned witn orner workers orgar isations in Barnsley, Sheffield, and East London are a step towards the achievement of real press freedom The call for a labour movement confercrec un press Ireceom, wuics to De debated at the NUJ's annual conference Heal month, das to be laken up tarougn our uic labour movemeni Richard Brinsley
Red Weekly 18 March 1976 Lefts/Rail/Right to Work 3