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From Militant, No. 717, 21 September 1984, p. 6.
Transcribed by Iain Dalton.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The LYPS held a protest picket outside Doncaster Magistrates court on Thursday 14 September. It was in protest at the vicious jail sentences imposed on two members of the LPYS in Armthorpe. These sentences were the first to be imposed by Thatcher’s ‘flying judges’, the stipendiary magistrates.
The stipendiary magistrate in question is James Barry. He is a barrister in London, but has been specially selected as one of the 40 to be sent up to the coal fields to deal out ‘justice’ to the miners.
The last time that stipendiary magistrates were used was in the 1930’s, to deal with the unemployed workers. At that time they were hated by the working class because of the harshness of the sentences they passed out. Today Thatcher is not only returning to the economic conditions of the 1930’s, but it returning to the judicial vengeance of that period.
However, the strength and solidarity of the NUM and the mining communities must stand out against these sentences.
The LPYS appeal to all branches around the country to send letters of support to the two young socialists concerned, Guy Bennet and Mark Camplin, care of Her Majesty’s Prison, Armley, Leeds. It will show these comrades that they are not isolated and that they have the support of the Young Socialists and the labour movement.
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Last updated: 24 September 2016