TRIBUTE was paid to the Shrewsbury 24 Campaign at an emotional fringe meeting today.

Speakers called for campaign researcher Eileen Turnbull’s book on the pickets, A Very British Conspiracy, to be given the widest publicity.

The story of the 24 building workers framed after peacefully picketing in Shrewsbury and Telford on September 6 1972, six of whom went to jail, is one that shows “the very best of our movement and the very worst of the British state,” PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said.

TUC leader Frances O’Grady said everyone should know a tale of “working-class solidarity and bloody-minded determination never to give up,” as speaker after speaker praised Ms Turnbull’s dogged work over “hours, days, weeks and years” to untangle the evidence from the 50-year-old trial and overturn the pickets’ convictions, a victory finally won just last year.

Ms Turnbull said nothing could have prepared her for the journey that uncovered the conspiracy involving construction companies, Tory ministers, the police and the courts to avenge the success of the building workers’ strike of 1972.

She paid tribute to the support and solidarity of trade unions and Ms O’Grady, the “only paper that supported the pickets in 1972 and supports them now — the Morning Star” and the achievement of the pickets themselves.

And Unite’s Jim Mowatt praised a “belting read” that should be thrust into the hands of young trade unionists.

Labour MP John McDonnell warned that “draconian powers attacking basic civil liberties” forced through by Home Secretary Suella Braverman this week would make the persecution of innocent trade unionists even more likely in the future.