Des Warren (10 October 1937 – 24 April 2004) was a British

construction worker A construction worker is a worker employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure. Definition By some definitions, workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers; they may be sk ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

activist and – with

Ricky Tomlinson Eric "Ricky" Tomlinson (born 26 September 1939) is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Bobby Grant in ''Brookside'', DCI Charlie Wise in '' Cracker'' and Jim Royle in ''The Royle Family'', and playing the titular char ...

– one of the

Shrewsbury Two The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) was a British and Irish trade union, operating in the construction industry. It was founded in 1971, and merged into Unite on 1 January 2017. It was affiliated to the Trades Un ...

imprisoned for "conspiracy to intimidate" whilst picketing in

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in 1972. His autobiography, ''The Key To My Cell'', put forward his version of events, and what he considered "the real conspiracy" — that the arrests were part of a plan to intimidate the trade union movement. Warren was regarded as an energetic strike leader. As well as his work setting up pickets and speaking at union rallies and conferences, he demanded a minimum wage (of £1 an hour) and campaigned to put an end to "the lump" — a practice prevalent on non-unionised building sites, whereby the employee surrendered their employment rights in return for a cash lump sum with no tax or insurance deducted. His death in 2004 from Parkinson's Disease has been linked with the long-term effects of the treatment he received during his incarceration, in particular the " liquid cosh" – a cocktail of tranquillisers administered to inmates. On 4 July 2009, a march was organised in Shrewsbury, by the local trades council and the Justice for Pickets campaign, starting from the Abbey, and finishing at the

Lord Hill's Column Lord Hill's Column is a monument located outside of Shropshire Council's headquarters, Shirehall, in the town of Shrewsbury, Shropshire. It is a column of the Doric order and measures in height making it the tallest Doric column in England. I ...

, where the demonstrators were addressed by several speakers. As of 2013, Ricky Tomlinson continues to campaign for Warren's name to be posthumously cleared, along with his own. He campaigned against the convictions at the

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in July 2013. The convictions were put aside by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday 23 March 2021 following new evidence unearthed at the National Archives that showed that Police officers had destroyed witness statements in support of the convicted Trade Unionists that would have exonerated them.

References

External links

* Extract from Warren's autobiography
Marxist analysis of Warren's case entitled 'The Road to Pentonville'

Article on Shrewsbury Pickets from Liverpool's 'Nerve' magazine

Review of The Key To My Cell from Liverpool's 'Nerve' magazine

A transcript of Des Warren's speech from the dock at his trial on the Shrewsbury 24 Campaign website.
* 1937 births 2004 deaths British trade unionists Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) members 20th-century British businesspeople {{UK-trade-unionist-bio-stub