A SERIES OF STRIKES by Social Services Department workers hit the London borough council of Tower Hamlets last week. The strikes were in defence of lan Davies, a Principal Area Officer with 12 years exemplary service. but lan Davies 1s a homosexual, and in October 1975 he was found guilty of 'gross indecency" and fined £25 for a trivial "offence" with which no heterosexual would have been charged.
lan informed his employers, and Tower Hamlets Disciplinary Panel imposed a second punishment by sacking him from his and demoting him to one DISCIL 00. where he had no contact with the public, Photo: MIKE TOMLINSON (IFL The campaign against the sacking of Tony Whitehead by British Home Stores this year, blazed the trail for the Tower Hamlets strike. and where he suffered a lower salary. After lengthy negotiations the case was considered by an Industrial Tribunal on They decided Ian had been wrongfully dismissed and recommended nis remstatement But when Tower Hamlets Administraton Committee mer on y August, it acc ided by eight votes to seven not to accept the Inbunal's recommendation. wnen te social workers, clerical workers, administration and youth workers from lan's area heard of the decision they voted unanimously to go on indelinite strike. A strike committee was elected, a fund es tablished, and a community petition launched.
Other areas in Social Services struck on vanious days. SuDDOIL grew amonEsI other departments in the council, and the Tower Hamlets Branch Executive of the National and Local Government Officers Association backed the workers in their demand for lan's reinstatement.
Since then support has flowed in from numerous NALGO branches and shop stewards committees as well as from the National Council for Civil Liberties. The Executive Committee of Hammersmith NALGO expressed its solidarity by donating E200 to the strike fund and promis ing to pressurise both its own and Tower Hamlets council with повали то шс ст ployment of ma and temale gays.
UNALEUSI extremely large, angry but sensiti NALGO branch meetME Was nod mower hamies win or servers from other NALGO branches and the NCCL, and passed by an overwhelming majority resolutions supporting the strike and demanding lan's reinstatement. The following day the Branch EC instrucco a 1s unon Teoresen suves to nolt departmental meetings to find out what future action the membership wished to take.
But already the action of the NALGO workers in Tower Hamlets represents a magnificent and unprecedented show of soldanty wim me nguis or gay workers It deserves the strongest support from all trade unionists determined to fight both for the right to work and against the vic timisation of homosexuals. Messages of support and donations to the strike fund should be sent to: Tower Hamlets NALGO, c/o 196 Cable Street, London E.l. The people of South Africa are the struggle against apartheid continues unabated. laughing meeting in Frankfort, near Johannesburg, say we shall overcome.' ISOLATE APARTHEID rising. Three months after the first demonstrations schoolchildren in the million-strong black township of Soweto, Over 250 people have already given their lives in these months. But despite the batons and the bullets which have led to the arrest of 1,800 and the detention of over 150 leaders of black organisations, the African masses refuse to be quelled. Even six of South Africa's eight main official tribal leaders, virtual stooges of the racist regime, have rejected Pretoria's plans for black homelands which would leave 87 per cent of all land in the hands of the white population.
The response of apartheid's organisers has been the mentality of the bunker. The curious v named Justice Minister. Mr James Kruger. last week told a that blacks and whites in South Africa knew each other well after 300 years: 'He (the black man) knows his place and, if not, I'll tell him his place.' As for the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa, whose entire leadership has been arrested by the security forces, Kruger said: 'They always say that "we shall overcome". but I
----- pull-quotes -----
[EQUAL RIGHTS FOR HOMOSEXUALS