We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1979
500 jobs are set to be lost
UNLESS Peter Pan bakeries can get a stay of execution from the Ministry of Commerce today (Thursday) 500 workers will lose their jobs in the next couple of weeks.
The fate of the Springfield Road Bakery has been in the balance for a number of years following the Gibson Report on the bakery industry, which disovered that the bakeries here were over producing by some 20 per cent and, proposed that one major bakery should close to provide a healthy market for the rest.
Peter Pan controls approximately 17 per cent of the market, and is financially weak. Some people feel that the economists would like it to close and leave the densely populated West Belfast market open to its competitors.
The amalgamation of the old Hughes and Kennedy’s bakeries in 1973 did not prove to be the life-saver that both firms had hoped for, and in spite of management restructuring and some help from public funds, the firm still remains in a weak financial position, and it is estimated that debts in the region of £500,000 are outstanding on flour alone.
This debt, although substantial, is only chicken feed compared to the massive injections of public money into the shipyard, Strathearn, De Lorean etc and the workers feel that the Department of Commerce will be failing in its duty if it doesn’t come forward with some money to safeguard 500 jobs in this high unemployment blackspot.
They also feel that the present management have not the will, nor the capacity, for the hard work to get over this present difficulty. It has also been hinted to the workers that if they don’t kick up too much of a fuss about the closure, that they will be ‘well looked after’ financially when they are made redundant.
Some of them feel that this is a way of preventing any questions being asked about Ormeau Bakery, which is in equally as bad a financial position, but which has not the same trading potential.
Some workers in Peter Pan feel that if a major bakery has to be closed, there is no reason why Peter Pan should be the first to go. The workers are determined to fight this threatened closure even if it means setting up a co-operative.
It is not too late yet for the people of West Belfast to rally round and help boost the sales of Peter Pan products in order to retain this essential service in West Belfast.
CELEBRATIONS: Dominic and Kathleen Rush celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at the Crescent Community Centre with their children Barbara, Denise, Billy, Elizabeth, Tracy, Paula, Stephanie and Justin
Editorial
THERE can’t be many people who can boast of having Fitt and Paisley attack him at the same time! It looks as though Mason has finally lost all semblance of sanity, or how could he accuse the SDLP of taking a ‘green’ stance?
Lately they have been pushed into admitting that nothing is coming, or going to come, from their slavish co-operation with any Labour Government. Slowly they have been forced to recognise that they no longer represent the people; the cynicism of British politics has finally got through, even to Fitt.
He voted to keep a Labour Government in power many a time; and what did he get for it? A kick in the teeth from the Yorkshire man.
For a long time now, the SDLP have not been relevant ‘at grass-roots level’. Local politics has been moving too fast for them; too many innocent people have been imprisoned, tortured, murdered, with no reaction from the SDLP, for the people to have any confidence in them as representatives. They have been involved in Westminster politics for too long.
Fitt is too late in refusing to have any more dealings with Mason. Of course, Fitt is not alone in ignoring local events for what seems to him a wider horizon. Hume would probably have to be dragged back from Brussels to remind him that the SDLP still officially exists.
There are, of course, exceptions to every rule; some SDLP members have spoken out against British terrorism. The question arises why are they still members of the SDLP? Have they no other platform on which they can present their views? Why not follow the example of Frank Maguire (Ind), who treats Westminster with the contempt it deserves? Why don’t they all realise that extra seats at Westminster are not the problem; the people do not wish to be represented at Westminster – they want representation at Westminster to stop. In other words, there is no place for the SDLP as long as they continue to form part of the Westminster character.
The most ominous note in Fitt’s attack on Mason was that he wasn’t too worried, because he thought Mason ‘wouldn’t be there too long anyway’. Does this mean that he would consider dealing with the next British Secretary of State? When will they learn that there will be no settlement of affairs in Ireland till we see the end of these little men, these men of small ability sent here to tell us what we can and can not do.
Some of the competitors who took part in a squash tournament at Beechmount Leisure Centre
Short Strand march
THE Short Strand Relatives Action Committee organised a march and rally in the Short Strand area on Sunday February 4. This march is one of a series that is being held in local areas of Belfast to show that the PoWs have popular support among the nationalist minority in all areas.
A rally was held at the end of the march, the meeting was addressed by representatives of the Short Strand RAC and the Belfast Central Relatives Action Committee. The speaker for the Short Strand RAC said that it was of utmost importance that we publicly show our support for the Republican Socialist PoWs fighting to defend political status.
In marching through the streets of our area we are showing our solidarity with the men on the ‘Blanket’ in the H-Blocks, and the women on ‘protest’ in Armagh Jail, those in attendance were told.
The speaker warned that the British Government had adopted a new tactic against new PoWs going into the H-Blocks. The PoWs were being sent into cells which were in a filfthy condition. This has caused the prisoners to be violently sick. This is obviously an attempt to break the morale of the politicial prisoners at the very beginning.
The speaker for the Belfast Central Relatives Action Committee said that the British Government was now publicly showing how damaging the image that the H-Blocks had created. They had been forced into producing a news sheet for foreign consumption, that attempted to whitewash their treatment of the political prisioners.
The Gort na Móna team that beat St Paul's to win the Butler Cup back in February 1979
