Saturday’s mammoth demo in Birmingham had two strong points. First, the Rover workers themselves were prepared to turn out en masse, and drew support from a very wide section of the trade union movement. Second, when a concrete proposal for physical action was eventually put to them, the rally erupted.

At the outset, the marchers who poured in from around the country were stretched along 3 levels of roadway while helicopters circled overhead. The demo’s tail was at least a mile behind. Its head stayed out of sight, and when we arrived the park was already half full. The Observer headline mentioned 100,000.

Though the photos and TV images may suggest this was an SWP event, with the sea of placards, that was just a marketing ploy. The whole of the left put together could not - on their own - produce a march a quarter this size. Workers wearing Rover jackets were everywhere.

A group of Asian workers from Longbridge explained “We’re not going to just lie down and let them do everything they’re doing to the company. And we will fight all the way until the final decision’s been signed. What we want to do is keep the whole company together, not split it up. Because as soon as it splits, nobody can support each other and BMW will succeed in their aim to close the company down. That’s another competitor for them out of the way.

“Unless the Government steps in, we’ve got no hope. That’s the main purpose of this rally, to get them to support us. In Germany, if they have to close a plant down, they have to give 2 years warning to the workers, whereas we’ve got no such legislation, and that’s why they’ve done this.”

Ford Dagenham turned out in force. Vauxhall Ellesmere Port and Luton were there. So were Yorkshire Area NUM, Unison branches, ASLEF, Pensioners. . . The sacked Liverpool dockers’ banner drew cheers.

But marketing ploy or not, I was glad that the most popular placard read “Save Our Jobs. Occupy, Nationalise”. The alternatives ranged from the T&GWU’s “no entry” sign for BMW, to MSF’s invitation to “Defend British Manufacturing”, to the occasional Union Jack, the Birmingham Evening Mail’s red white and blue banner and a sprinkling of explicit anti-German slogans and symbols.

Leaving the City Center we passed a pub blaring out the World War II song “Who do you think you’re kidding Mr. Hitler?” though the beer advert over the doorway was for Holsten Pils.

Around the corner they were playing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, an emblem of Liverpool. T&GWU General Secretary Bill Morris took up the theme in his speech. The trouble was, his notorious oration to the Dockers four years ago ended on the identical phrase. Morris’ performance on Saturday was, by comparison, very low key. It was the National Automotive Secretary Tony Woodley who held the ring for the T&GWU, despite a sometimes hostile reception.

Woodley told the German media to report the anger they could see here, but also declared that Rover’s sudden death would be impossible if Britain had the German legal framework. He was also cheered when he highlighted the solidarity message from the BMW Motorcycle plant in Berlin. “Sometimes we believe that the actions of a multinational company are supported by every German or indeed European trade unionist. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have a message from the German workers at BMW in Berlin, who are actively seeking to give assistance to you, and to say they are behind your struggle.”

Woodley accused BMW of breaking up forever a great British institution. Thirty thousand jobs are associated with Longbridge. The BMW-Alchemy plan would eradicate the design and development studios at Gaydon, while some jobs would transfer to Ford. Swindon would lose hundreds if not thousands of jobs and might be sold off. At Cowley, despite “the perceived future of the Mini”, more jobs would be lost if the R75 is moved. Longbridge itself faces the “complete destruction of the largest car plant in this country”.

Venture capitalists Alchemy will get £500m from BMW, who expect to sell Land Rover to Ford for “billions of pounds when they paid £800m for the whole of the company in 1994”. On top of which BMW will profit from land deals and manipulate the tax system to fund the Alchemy deal which would, at best, provide 2,000 jobs in two and a half years’ time.

The T&GWU is still trying to find a new deal before time runs out around May 4, an interesting date for London voters as well. “We’re talking to BMW through the world’s press here: you’ve got to negotiate a deal that we and British workers are prepared to accept. Not the sell-off that’s presently on the table. Until we get that, there will be no peace for you and your company in this country.”

Woodley asked the Government to play a “pro-active and positive role, to assist us at this very difficult time” and appealed for the personal intervention of Tony Blair. That got a few laughs.

And what would be the price of any new deal and Government assistance? Amidst heckling, Woodley concluded

“We’ve got a responsibility as Joint Trade Unions to give no false hopes of what we can and can’t achieve. There will be many many thousands of job losses, irrespective of how successful we can be. But we’ve got to fight to reduce the losses, to maintain the fabric of Rover for our members, their families, and their kids. They would expect no less of us as British trades unions.”

Woodley didn’t say whether this meant compulsory redundancies, but it’s hard to imagine that scale of volunteers.

Many of the other union leaders and politicians warned the Government they had to intervene or pay a heavy political price in the West Midlands. Several said the artificial strength of sterling was disastrous for manufacturing exports.

According to MSF General Secretary Roger Lyons “the Bank of England have allowed an appreciation of sterling against Euro-currency of 30%. Sterling is so overpriced that it is impossible to sell a car in Germany and make a profit if it’s made in Britain. Eddie George and the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England: you’re reaping the whirlwind you have sown.”

But the platform speakers could not bring themselves to mention nationalisation. GMB General Secretary John Edmunds repeatedly stated “What we want from the Government is support.”

And no-one suggested any role for Rover workers and their supporters beyond turning up on demos and declining to buy BMW’s, until at the end of the afternoon local historian and media personality Carl Chinn took the stage.

Chinn’s speech pressed many buttons, and gave some mixed messages. He told us that “this is not about class, it is about people” and his style was somewhere between nationalism and local populism. You could imagine him saying “Birmingham is right and Birmingham will fight. . .” But he also said the Rover workers now found themselves alongside Ford Dagenham and the textile industry.

What counts is how the rally reacted. It exploded when Chinn declared “They will not take the Mini from Longbridge, because if they try we will be at the gates to stop them.”

With layoffs due before and after Easter, BMW might make their move at 3 a. m. in the midst of the holidays. Whether or not a mass picket could then be mobilised and manage to stop the company moving its machinery - protected by the police who hovered overhead and behind the trees on Saturday - is an open question. Perhaps the alternatives - occupation?, strike? - will be debated on the shop floor and in the stewards committees as people reflect on Saturday’s event. There’s also talk of a march on London.

But the massive response to Chinn’s phrase means that Rover workers could turn this into an industrial fight, if they get the chance. And if they do, everyone who was there on Saturday should be back to support them.