one of the country's leading judges, Lord Justice Lindley, effectively took away the right of picketing from the working class movement in 1896.
Today the same right is again under attack. any particular situation, Very reactionary laws can he applied leniently, or put on tbe shelf (as in the case of the Industrial Relations Act), and present, supposediy "progressive' laws can he rigorously HANDS TIED interpreted and enforced, according to whatever suits the strategy of the ruling class at a particu Of course different representatives of the ruling class - for example, the judges and the governmay disagree at a particular point in time on what is the best strategy for dealing with the working class. Or a spate of harsh court sentences may touch off a mass movement which strengthens the hand of the work ing class, It is under these circumstances that new laws may be passed to try and compensate for the reactionary decisions of the courts (as, for example, the Trades Dispute Act in 1906). stop The point is, the working clas movement can never count on the written word of the law or the supposed 'neutrality" of the courts of the