The flying pickets - Dave Ayre

In 1972, tens of thousands of building workers won the first national strike in the industry for nearly 50 years. 'Flying Pickets' left the contractors reeling. The Tory government and big contractors wanted revenge and 32 North Wales flying pickets, including the Shrewsbury 24, were put on trial. The unsafe verdicts and savage sentences helped prepare the ground for Thatcher's eventual defeat. This new history uses veterans' memories and a mass of previously unpublished sources to tell the full story of the strike, the trials and the campaign to free the pickets.