After over 50 years of fighting to clear their names, founding member of the Shrewsbury 24 movement Terry Renshaw spoke to Fix Radio about how he felt when his conviction was overturned recently. Following a series of trials beginning in October 1973, six of the pickets were sent to prison, with the remainder receiving non-custodial sentences. Recently, the convictions of the 24 were overturned, bringing justice to those who had fought so long for it.
The 24 Shrewsbury pickets, including Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson and founding member Terry Renshaw, were arrested and charged with more than 200 offences including unlawful assembly, affray, intimidation and conspiracy to intimidate. The charges were brought five months after the ending of the 1972 national building strike where miners, steelworkers, car workers and dockers were protesting for fair pay and conditions to work in.
Terry Renshaw joined Clive Holland on The Clive Holland Show last Tuesday, and he started out by explaining what the picketing was about 49 years ago:
“Well, the picket in the 1972 was primarily about the conditions on site because on average, one person every day was killed on a building site. That's what we were campaigning for, better conditions on site, as well as more money.”
“You could get more money stacking shelves in Tesco in 1972 than you could work on a building site. And [society] will always need construction work. If you want good houses, you need the construction worker, if you want schools, if you own factories, if you own hospitals - you need the construction worker.”
Terry went on to open up to Clive about how it felt when the news came through that they had been acquitted of all charges, he said:
“It's a tremendous relief. And I will openly admit on radio that when I received a phone call a week ago to say that all charges have been quashed, the case had been overturned - I wept. I cried. It was 47 years of pent-up emotion of being called a criminal. People would call [me] it jokingly but it's definitely not a joke to me.”
With the talk topic on the day being tradespeople who took matters in to their own hands, Terry had this advice for those who feel like they’re facing injustice and think change is needed:
“I believe passionately that if you believe in injustice is being done, if you passionately believe that, then you will fight. If you believe passionately that it's an injustice - you will fight to prove it right.”
You can catch more first hand interviews as well as some great tunes on the Clive Holland Show, Monday – Thursday between 2 and 4pm.
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