8.3. No. 1 (Plain) Special Report} SUBJECT Grunwicks Dispute._Assess? ment of 11 July demonstration. Reference to Papers "numu. METROPOLITAN sauce SPECIAL BRANCH 30 June 77 1. The industrial dispute involving the photograph processing firm of Grunwicks in north west London is now in its eleventh month. The last three weeks of the dispute have attracted nation-wide publicity as the daily arrival of workers at Grunwicks factory has been attended by scenes of violence and angry confrontati? between 'pickets' and police. These unpleasant incidents reached a peak towards the end of last week when about police were confronted by over 2,000 demonstrators. During the first two weeks of this mass picketing nearly 300 arrests were made and many police were injured in their efforts to control the crowds. The third week of escalated picketing has seen the return of a more stable atmosphere although the daily turn-out of demonstrators has still reached figures of between 300-800 persons. Hewever, the emergence of the more moderate Communist Party as opposed to'the Trotskyist Socialist workers Party as the dominant influence on the pickets, coupled with firm police handling of the situation has kept disorder to a minimum. In fact only one arrest has bien made this week. ,p 2. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the varidus factions supporting the Grunwick strikers are girding their loins for an all-out demonstration of solidarity with the strikers on 11.7.77. This is the day on which Arthur SCARGILL, Communist leader of the Yorkshire miners has called for.a day of action, although it should be pointed ont""?thet his appea (which was passed by his own Yorkshire area council of the by 67 votes to 11) has yet to be officially endorsed by the National Union of Mineworkers at their Annual Conference which opens on A July. 3. From articles in the 'Morning Star' this week it is evident however hat whatever the outcome of the vote at he RUM conference a massive demonstration is being planned to take place at Grunwicks on 11 July. h. It is abundantly evident that the dispute has ceased to be a purely local disagreement between management and APEX and is now seen by the Trade Union MOvement as a further step in their struggle to impose compulsory union membership on private firms. To achieve their objective they will doubtless be prepared to call on their members to support any call for a mass turn-out on 11 July and there are already some indications of the numbers likely to respond to the call. 5. The following organisations have indicated their intended support for the "Day of Action? (the source is shown in parentheses): .. Page No. 2 . No.26 Divisional Council of Ti 8, staff section?of?h??w has recommended its 5,000 members in West London to support the picket ('Morning Star'). The executive of the Scottish miners has decided to send one delegate from each of its 25 branches and extra representatives will be sent from the pits. ('Rbrning Star'). Miners from Kent, Yorkshire and will bring the total mining representation to 3,000 ('Mbrning Star?), Hanchester_and Sheffield engineering workers are expected to arrive by coach ('Morning Star'). 9 6. The above is only an indication of what might be expected in a mass turnout. These are, of course, only trade union delegations and as will be seen the main source of the information is the Communist Party's own newspaper the"Mbrning Star'." I The date in question is still some 11 days away and the extreme left, from which the worst trouble can be expected have not decided on their course of action. Hewever, they will almost certainly call for a national turnnout from their own supporters which could result in some 2,000 potentially violent Trotskyists and the like _augmenting an indeterminate but massive number of trade unionists, Communist Party members and other less extreme demonstrators. 7. It is impossible at this stage to predict with any hope of accuracy what numbers can be expected on the day. Two factors which will undoubtedly have a significant bearing on the turn? out are the course of the Grunwicks strike itself and (ii) the spread of related industrial action, eg the postal ban. At the moment it seems feasible that this could develop into one of the largest and potentially/violent demonstrations ever seen in this country. Detective Superintendent /most