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Des Warren's Funeral Today

Kai Andersen | 05.05.2004 16:23 | Culture | Repression | Social Struggles | Liverpool

Des Warren - Shrewsbury Picket 1972
The key to my cell

A real working class hero and Socialist
10-10-1937 to 24-04-2004

NUM banner (centre) Billy Kelly NW NUM and Arthur Scargill miners' leader '84/85
NUM banner (centre) Billy Kelly NW NUM and Arthur Scargill miners' leader '84/85

Arthur Scargill SLP leader and Ricky Tomlinson one of the Shrewsbury two.
Arthur Scargill SLP leader and Ricky Tomlinson one of the Shrewsbury two.

Des Warren, working class hero and Socialist.
Des Warren, working class hero and Socialist.

The funeral service, at Chester Crematorium, standing room only.
The funeral service, at Chester Crematorium, standing room only.


The crematorium service was extremely very well attended, though the media attendance was minimal. It was standing room at the back of the service which was two rows standing, Ricky Tomlinson's tribute to Des was heartfelt and tearful at times, while Ricky's politics in the 1970's were to the right, Des' politics were most definitely to the left said Ricky. The dispute brought them together in friendship, while Des became a Christian in his final years, Ricky's tribute upheld the memory of Des as a class fighter and committed socialist. Also attending was a strong contingent from the National Union of Miners with Billy Kelly and Paul Hardman in attendance, the banner message appropriately read "The Past We Inherent - The Future We Build". Many from the left of politics were in attendence including a sizeable contingent from the Socialist Labour Party, including Ian Johnson NW regional secretary and party leader Arthur Scargill former NUM leader in the 1984/85 miners strike and close friend of Des Warren.

The following is taken from a booklet given to the people who attended the service today.

Des the person
As a teenager, he was conscripted into the armed forces for two years and served in the Middle East. He witnessed the suppression of the people by his own imperialistic government. When he came out of the forces he joined the union, to fight for a decent standard of living for his family and his class – for this reason the ‘ruling’ class collaborated together and charged him with conspiracy and threw him in jail for 3 years. The trade union and labour leaders left him there.
(AT THEIR PERIL)

Feb 1974. The conspiracy against us continues in jail, but I believe our time in prison will not have been in vain and I look forward to the day when I can rejoin the struggle, not with feelings of bitterness or revenge, but with a strengthened resolve to help bring about a Socialist Britain.
[My emphasis – D.W.]

DES.


SHEWSBURY PICKET

So this is the country where speech can be free,
But I spoke out now look at me.
A sentence to jail is what I received,
How many more like me are deceived?
Is this the land where bias is rare
Where the law is just, and judgement is fair?
I didn’t take anything that wasn’t mine,
Or hurt anyone, or give any sign…
That I was prepared to break the law
So why am I here? Tell me, what for?
If I was guilty of committing a crime
I wouldn’t protest at doing my time.
But I am here for speaking my mind
That’s the only reason I have been confined.
There’s an age old writing on a wall
It say’s “Pride goeth before a fall”
Well I was proud and I fell, and landed in this prison cell.
I still have my pride, and I still have my voice.
But most important of all my freedom of choice.
No man can dictate what another should say.
My mine is my own, and my own it will stay.

Poem by Jill
Des’s sister.


To all my family,
My friends and comrades
Who stuck by me
Who fought with me
And for me
Over the past years

Keep up the fight for justice
Thanks Des.

Kai Andersen
- e-mail: aokai@tiscali.co.uk
- Homepage: http://groups.msn.com/SocialistLabourPartyLiverpool

Comments

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Des Warren's speech from the dock - January 1974

07.05.2004 10:40

I have spent a week in prison now. The convicts and others in there told me that a speech from the dock would get me trouble. But I must speak out.
It has been said in this court that this trial has nothing to do with politics. Among the ten million trade unionists in this country I doubt if you would find one who agreed with this statement.
It is a fact of life that due entirely to acts of parliament every strike is now regarded as a political act. It therefore follows that every action taken in furtherance of an industrial dispute also becomes a political act.
There are those who even describe it as a challenge to the law of the land when men decide to work beyond the agreed week and ban overtime.
The building employers by their contempt of the laws governing safety regulation are guilty of causing the deaths and maiming of workers. Yet they are not dealt with by the court.
The law is quite clearly an instrument of a tiny minority against a majority. The law is biased. It is a class law and nowhere has this been demonstrated more than in the prosecution case at this trial. Was there a conspiracy? Yes there was. But not by the pickets.
The conspiracy was one between the Home Secretary, the employers and the police. It was conceived under pressure from Tory MPs, who demanded changes in picketing laws.
I am innocent of the charges and I will appeal. But there is a more important appeal to the entire trade union movement.
Nobody must think they can walk away from here and forget was has happened here. We are all part of something bigger that what has taken place here.
The trade union and working class movement cannot accept this verdict.

Andy
- Homepage: http://www.socialistunitynetwork.co.uk