Red Miner no. 14

THE RED MINER

NO.14 JAN/FEB 87

We se We Bulletin for miners and their families |Op

waner EDITORIAL

The New Year brings with it two certainties for miners. First, there will be a general election. Second, British

Coal's attacks will continue.

Regular readers will know Red Miner'’sanswer to the second certainty. We must not simply wait for an election. We

must fight BC's attacks with industrial

action. The recent victory by Manton miners, over water-money the management were refusing, shows this can be done successfully.

But what about the prospect of an election? Every newspaper is talking openly of when, not of. Red Miner, for once, agrees with the papers. What is our view of what miners should do faced with

Nearly every miner who struck in 1984/85 wants to get rid of the Tories. The handful who don’t are craven scabs, bosses men and likely to be fully paid up members of the UDM. In Nottingham the UDM will be doing its bit for the Tories by fielding candidates against pro-NUM Labour candidates. (See article.)

The real- question facing most of us though is how do we make sure that, in getting rid of the Tories we don't end up with a Labour government like the last (Wilson-Callaghan) one? It is a bit alarming that our official leadership doesn’t seem to worry about this prospect. It wants Labour in at any cost and is refusing to fight to improve union policy on the Labour Party so as not to embarrass Kinnock. In fact with good glasses you can see the gag that Rees, Taylor, McGahey and co. put in Scargill's mouth every time they are at a gathering of the labour movement bigwigs.

The Tories have been vicious. Wo two ways about it. But we forget at our cost the way - sometimes more subtle - Labour has carried out the bosses' work in the past at our expense. The 1974-79 Labour government carried through a massive closure programme that is only new just being surpassed by the Tories.

1974 STRIKE

large It was Heath

Wilson came to power, to a extent, thanks to our militancy. our strike in 1974 that sent scurrying to the polls. The Labour

government was frightened by that militancy. It conspired with Gormley and the then NCB boss Ezra to impose an area based productivity deal that would divide and weaken us. They did this in defiance of our baliot rejecting the deal. And, it was not only the right wing playing this game. Tony Benn as minister for Energy was a key figure in ramming through the productivity deal that revealed its real splitting purpose in 1984.

We do not want a re-run of this if we Manage to get rid of the Tories. How can we minimise this danger? In the first place we must get stuck into Labour's election work. We will pull out the stops to get a Labour vote. But at every meeting of every prospective M.P. we will demand something in return. And these demands should not be confined to speeches at meetings. We should formulate them now and pass them at every level, including national conferences of the union and the Labour Party.

We must do our best to tie Kinnock's hands. He showed that he was far from being a friend in need during our strike. He saved his praise for the police. He cannot be trusted to act on goodwill. We must demand, for starters, that a Labour government will:

# Release all miners stili in jail Reinstate all miners victimised by the state.

# Reimburse the NUM for every penny stolen from it by the judges and the repeal of the anti-union laws that allowed them to get away with it

# Guarantee not to close any pit unless unjon appointed and controlled specialists deem it exhausted or unworkable and introducem a massive investment campaign in the industry.

# Abolish the Area Investment Scheme and all local productivity deals agreed since. For a national agreement starting from a basic pay for all that is based on the highest bonus payments currently being received.

# Introduce a four day week with shorter shifts and the recognition of workers’ control of all aspects of production within British Coal.

# Nationalise the forty plus private

licensed coal producers ‘largely

opencast) with no compensation to their bosses and under workers control.

Withdraw all negotiating rights

from the UDM recognise an NUM

closed shop in the industry.

Sd

These demands will go a long way to meeting our basic needs and help the industry and union recover from the battering thay have taken. Thatcher has been ruthless on behalf of her class. We demand of Labour that it act equally ruthlesslessly but this time on behalf of the workimg class.

By fighting for these demands now we can go some way to preventing yet another Labour betrayal. But even if we get these demands won on paper there is n0 guarantee that Kinnock in Number 10 will meet them. That is why Red Miner says be wary of illusions in a Labour government. Vote Labour , yes, but organise to fight.

KKK KKK KKK KKK

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Acoress

National Organisation £50 Ch Regional Organisation £25 (CD Local Organisation £ 5 oO Cheques payable to “Natrona! Justice for Mineworkers Campaign” piease

Please return to Natrona! Justice for Mineworkers Campaign. c/o MUM Durham Mechanics Association, 26 The Avenue. Durham Owl 4€D

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WSLICE KBs

REGIONAL ROUND-UP

NORTH EAST SEA

she ivture of the campaign ’tc save Seaham Coiiiery iooks grim. In recent weess

Red Miner readers will be

saddened at the news of the death the campaign scored a number of successes, of Jack Collins. With the passing notably in getting the pit into the review of Jack miners have lost a true procedure.

and loyal class fighter.

The Area Coai Board management backed down on their decision not to consider the liery “rationalisation” as a closure. On

Throughout the Great Strike Jack Collins stuck to his guns

0 0 a et

oO

against all those in the ober 29th miners and mechanics leadership who wanted to climb officiais put a plan to the area review down or compromise. At the fatal meeting which involved separating E and ©

meeting that ended the strike he openly declared his opposition to the decision and support for Kent area’s attempt to keep the strike going. While others turned their backs Jack Collins continued to speak out for the victimised men left outside the gates.

seam coal to ensure the colliery could supply the money making household market.

Despite these proposals it seems ‘hat the NUM through branch votes at a iocal vel have given up the ghost and decided to fight the closure.

e not

ct

The Durham Mechanics have opposed

We had our political and are gnting to put the differences with Jack Collins but the review procedure. They we salute him ‘as”'a” fTehter for the Durham Miners st il opposed working class. We owe it ‘to him These NUM members are pushing to fight to keep the NUM out of Union to take up the campaign and the hands of those who could never Matter to a bdalilot. Unfortunately

stand knee high to hin.

ct

hat those who have given up the gho

And now for the GOOD NEWS

Ly 1930 8 At @ Meeting between the Area Coal

Board and December 19th (part of Haslams review: sacked miners were reinstated including 4 at Merton Colliery. :

CLASS FIGHTER

There has been no decision yet on how many sacked men from the Mechanics are to oe set on. The Mechanics executive is Sti. iiscussing with the Board.. In the meantime ‘he decision of the Mechanics Counci: has veen tc suspend industriai, action unti. it 5 l11@ar how many of the Mechanics tne

Oarad Wli.s Set on. = s Ss

ty; &

OO OO Ok og

As these negotiations went on the North East Justice For Mineworkers Campa launched a highly successful sacxed mine christmas appeal, this raised a massi £5,000 to help the victimised men and their families through the festive season. The response to the appeal from trade unionists in the N.East was magnificent, with engineering factories and CPSA, NALGO and NUPE members among others sending in their j¢heques and collections.

The response from shipyard workers was particularly impressive, with cheques for more than £500 coming in trom many trade sections in the yards. This solidarity is now being- repaid through the support the NUM and the Mechanics are giving to workers at Austin & Pickersgili shipyard in Sunderland, who have been on tsrik since mid December against redundancie and the threatened introduction of su contractors.

wm

i]

ub-

MESSAGES OF SUPPORT AND DONATION

wh b QO

AUSTIN & PICKERSGILL STRIKE APPEAL LYNAS HOUSE FREDERICK STREET SUNDERLAND SR1 iMA

CET SS ane WOMEN

canteen assistant at Merton Col the Ist women to be voted on to an NUM lodge committee.

WRONG- she is the 2nd.

iery was

Last RED MINER reported that Pat Curry,

The North East is leading the way for women’s rights in the union with not one but two women on lodge committees. The first women was Freda Dean voted onto the Philadelphia lodge in May.

Both women are pledged to take up the fight for equal status for canteen workers and to fighting for the reinstatement of sacked miners. The position is a major breakthrough for the 2,000 women in the NUM who feel (and quite rightly) they have been ignored by the union.

wt .

oid oy management.

s@Q0Ii, iike ail the others sacked 1: Notts must be defended. His muSt oe€ won. And in Notts this will aS part cr a fight to smash the UL

SOUTH WALES

It seems that the massive closur programme carried out by British Coai in South Waies has come to a halt, at least temporarily. The Area Director announced in

@m

ry

early December that the coalfield was toa receive another £9 million investment, around i100 jobs for 18 year olds, no

further ciosures, and that all remaining collieries were expected to be in profit by next March. Even the longpromised Margam development is now likely to get the go-ahead. All the indications are that the coalfield is about to begin a period of relative stability.

p QR TITTY

The new investment will go to three pits: Cynheidre, Deep Navigation and Merthyr Vale, mainly on new working equipment. = out of 14 pits are now making profits. with the other 6 targetted for profit the end of the financial year, or before. This turnaround has been achieved because of a 70% increase in productivity since the end of the strike - due mainiy to the loss of around 6,906 jot Productivity is now at an averaz tons/manshift and was expected to feay tons by Christmas. At the sa "sleeping giant” power station ccai Deep Navigation, Taff Merthyr, z Drift, Penallta, Blaenant, and Lady Windsor

fa) 1a

wroductivity is well over 4 tons/manshift some of the highest output figures in 3ritain. ¥

The coalfield now produces more coal han it did before the strike, with half of ‘he pits! There are now 13 high tech. faces n operation (with more planned) compared 70 only one before the strike. The most iramatic change has come at Oakdale, which s now in profit after losing £7 million ast year, although this has cost over 100 jabs. ,

The mining problems at Tower seem to ave been overcome following the atroduction of a new high tech. face. However the future of the linked Mardy cQlliery will only be secured after a vote Ly the workforce following problems with ine main coalface. Six Bells colliery in Gwent has now been fully merged with rearby Marine, securing its immediate suture. The fears expressed in the last :3ssue of Red Miner about further closures tave therefore not been reaiised as yet.

hedundancies However, Tredegar workshops are to close efter all. The offer by BL to keep them cpen with a reduced workforce was accepted ty only 90 men (the rest took redundancy). F.C. then decided they would not be kept coen with only 90 willing to stay on. Furthermore, Of the 1,323 men offered transfers in the wake of the closure of Cwm and Nantgarw collieries, less than 200 have opted to transfer to other pits. This was not surprising given the lure of high redundancy payments and the general uacertainty over the future of the cvalfield.

NUM area President Des Dutfield hoped to retain Cwm as a development pit, based ca the massive resrves remaining. However, b.s sole reliance on Welsh Labour MP.s to persuade Peter Walker to keep open the pit was always doomed to failure only strike a tion would have done that.

cee B Called Of Tae four month long overtime ban on coal p oduction in South Wales was called off in early December. A delegate conference ted strongly in favour of the NUM Area ecutive recommendation that the ban quld be lifted. The ban resulted in »500- tons of lost output and 43.44 -llion in lost revenue for BC.

The only real gain won by the ban was te £360 average in back pay (‘conceded by B°’ nationally) covering the period between § ovember 1985 and September. 1966. However, even this money was paid only ater the NUM leaders (‘except Scargill) a cepted that any future strike action of o ar one week would no longer qualify for c atributions to the pension scheme.

HAH <

he o*her main reasons for *ne ivar* ime

pan Spposition to further ..0sures ana hardiine Management methods - have now been ‘onvenientiy torgotten. During the pai Nantgarw and wwm collieries. tczetaer with Nantgarw coke ovens ai. ..95e0 Despite tnis, according to ves intfieia

"the key reason for the coalfield action has deen soived”!

Given the large increases in produc vivity mentioned above, its time that iners gained the benefits from their pits becoming profitable. This year must see the NUM in South Wales and nati -naily fight for a substantial pay rise that

e changes.

the high productivivy is paid fo y miners in the tora of increased accidents and Management pressure - this must be changed now - the

threat oi: privatisation is a very rea. one

YORKSHIRE ===

The voai Board continue their attacw; in Yorkshire Their attempts to overturn agreements are becoming everyday iacts One of the latest examples at Goldtlorpe shows what hypercrits our managers are

Before Christmas, as you might aave read in the Yorkshire Miner or the Jwoal News if you were desperate, men from Goldthorpe worked 10 days solidly raundc the clock to save a coal face. They hac hit a water pocket and had to get throug... it as quickly as possible. The Board vere obviously pleased judging by the write up and pictures in the Coal News..

P.T CG. 2-9

1 Ik kk ok kok

eee

During the deputies strike soon after Wben the NUM sot

men were unable to work in the ‘pit and tnere, they were told they cou.an* meet were either given work above ground (120 the men on the premises, so they met in of them) or sent to other pits. On the the ciub When the Birch men got to law Tuesday the other pits WACODS members Mi... taney were interviewed one “by one and refused to take extra men and they lost 4 told a condition of their getting a job at days work. The usual ex gratia payment Daw Mi-. was tc join the UDM! Loca. JDM given in such circumstances was not ‘officials’ always deny this in the press ' forthcoming. Instead the management offered 30 -hey joined the UDM, left the managers them £7 a day. This was refused and the office and went and signed up again as NUM issue was taken into procedure with a new members! So mucn tor “freedom ana and equally unacceptable offer following democracy © the UDM are aiways teliing i5 from management of £10 about! The iocal UDM are also trying to

Other pits with men in similar persuace the Wabour Party to recognise circumstances are reported to have been then, oy threatening to stana an paid less than the usual amount but not independent UDM-packed candidate...aaven't anywhere near as little as that offered to we beara this somewhere before’. in ‘ais the men at Goldthorpe. Obviously all that Marginai area in the next General E.ection: can be expected if we do the management a4 Of course if the Labour Party had oacked favour isa kick in the teeth. the strikers properly in the first piace, SACKED MEN the UDM wouldn’t exist to come up with There is still no movement on getting any this pathetic blackmail. No deais with tne jobs back in Yorks. Rossington still have UDM! Keep scab orgainsers out of the [UL 24 men demanding reinstatement. Although and Labour Party.

it seems that Scargill and Heathfield are ta donate their own backpay to the sacked e

miners fund an example that those on the Lotn, amnounced ‘Pitmen dig way to top 21 executive who haven’t done so would do well the pay table’ and led all its readers +c

Sgetaiow_ believe that Coventry was surrounded by

pits fuil of well-paid miners earning £300

a week! Whet it really meant was ‘hat in

: RE— one particular week, top grade tace men at On Monday i2th Jan. the power group at oe 2 of oe oo ee ee Coventry Colliery struck in support of the What it doesn’t say 16 ‘hat many “<net® demand to re-instate Clive Ham, one af wake home less than £100 a week tor their members sacked in the strike. dangerous and unhealthy work eg. 4 miner Although the management have been told by wits many years exper sence Laan. Hew an industrial_tribunal to take him back, entrants to the job travelling <0" mi.e: “« they continue to refuse. The strike was ane. SERS wore dally ‘takes saad bsisks = successful with only 50 men crossing ee SEae Eee Givisie ROMS SGAGReS ee picket lines (mainly surface workers), out under attack and was Gone away WitA #5At of the 3 shifts of 1200 workers. NUM about the record breaking ‘netances @ members joined the picket only to see their accidents, increased strain and sickness branch President scab! There will now be a ee ae less sicaigsali produce moves to get rid of him by union members more coal. The dole queucs §8* eg 1 SOE disgusted by his ‘action. Power Group ae aE at eres pickets on the picket told RED MINER how electricity prices rise. For whose denerit’ their union officials had tried to sabotage the action by ‘loosing’ the letter informing them of the proposed ballot etc. They kicked up a fuss and the letter mysteriously re-appeared. They intend to continue the campaign for re-instatement and want to sée the involvement of the lecal and national NUM in industrial action on these types of issue.

bh on wee

Miners transferring from Birch Coppice, now closed, to the notorious UDM stronghold Daw Mill, were given a taste of the way management tries to build the scabby bosses’ union at the expense of the NUM. NUM officials from Daw Mill arranged with Birch Coppice management to go and see men before the move.

LABOUR

Super scabs in the UDM are planning to stand their own ‘independent labour' candidates against Labour in the next

election. This could pose a serious threat to Labour, especially in the key seat of Mansfield where the Labour

majority is, small. By standing in such marginal constituencies the UDM threaten to split the Labour vote and pave the way for a Tory or SDP/Liberal Alliance victory. '

Matters came to a head recently in Mansfield where the sitting Labour MP, Don Concannon, is resigning at the next election. His place as official Labour candidate is to be taken by Alan Meale, who supports Scargill and is associated with the ieft wing Campaign Group of MPs.

Meale's selection has upset the UDM who believe that he is going to be less sympathetic to their scabbing operations than was Concannon. To some extent they are probably correct ~ Meale is unlikely to be so supportive. Ever since the Great Strike Concannon has been at the forefront of moves to get the UDM treated on equal ~ and sometimes superior! - grounds to the NUM.

Like Kinnock and Willis he has consisitently .overlooked the scabby nature of the UDM, preferring to speak of the need to “heal the wounds" and rebuild “unity". Red Miner readers will know that we have always argued for the greatest unity amongst workers and for the unification of ail miners in one strong union. Yet we have always made clear that this “unity” should not be unity at all costs - we need unity on the basis of fighting together against the bosses not unity with traitors who sell out and betray.

This is something the Labour leadership don't understand - or don't want to understand! Kinnock,

Hattersley, Concannon etc. have over the last few months been making repeated overtures to the UDM to try and get them

Tae Mine? FIGHT!

is R Fic \

,, SCABS TRY TOBLACKIVAIL

have been

fold. Supported by other Nottinghamshire MPs

to re-join the They

such as Joe Ashton in Bassetlaw and Frank Haynes in Ashfield.

Stan Orme, Labour's chief energy spokesperson, is travelling to the East Midlands coalfield on January 27th for talks about ‘healing the rift' between the local Labour Party and the UDM.

Some of these moves by the Labour leadership towards acceptance of the UDM have been successfully stopped by NUM and Labour Party members. Yet all attempts must be stopped in their tracks. We must have no truck whatsoever with the scab-herders in the UDM.

As the events in Mansfield are showing, Lynk, Prendergast and the other arch scabs will stop at nothing to spread their poison. The longer they are allowed to get away with it the stronger they become. That is why Red

Miner has consisitently argued ever Since the founding of the UDM that all UDM members should be expelled from the Labour Party and only the NUM _ be recognised by the Party and the TUC.

All those who ar expulsion of UDM member

ue against the heip strenghen

i) Og

the scabs. By giving m credibility, confidence, and the opportunity to organise within the official channels of the labour movement their cancer spreads. Like a cancer, to be stopped they must be cut out and discarded. Labour Party members must link closely with the NUM to smash the UDM. There is no time to lose # No to scabs in the Labour Party expel UDM members! * No recognition of the UDM - force Labour leaders to drop the scabs! # No to scab unionism - smash the UDM! * For a fighting nati

onal union - full support to the NUM!

the other print bosses to step up the

them have lost some 14,000 jobs

to transfer to Wapping.

On Janua ; have been in Strikers have Murdoch’s co

and determination

The first year ot the print union leaders towards victory. Insteaa they have advisec caution and the ‘ Opinion”, and the y 4 ; boycott campaign. Even worse, at a time

when the whole of Fleet Street faces attacks on jobs, no serious steps have been taken to get a national print strike

Meanwhile the conspicous by resolutions at the , tt na 2h done to build mass pickets and effective solidarity action, and nothing done to deal with Hammond's operation in Wapping.

foundry

WHAT IT HAS COST

The refusal of the trade unions 1,800 out of 3,300 at the Tele

to mount a determined fight graph, this includes 50% of the against Murdoch has enouraged NGA compositors and 84% of

workers, SOGAT lose 400 out

their own attacks on jobs. Since machine shop will 1981 SOGAT and NGA between of its previous total of 550,

known that Murdoch was about gone at the Guardian,

have gone in the last year. Apart at the Express were signed from #500 at News coarantased away in the Spring. the other major cuts have inclu- 400 out of a workforce of 1,500 ded: have gone from the Financial 2,000 i widnacins at Times, half of them NGA the Mirror Group last December compositors, when it was already widely 200, 20% of the total, have

m ww

ul

BLOODY SUNDAY

* MARCH *

Qn Sunday January 30th 1972 British paratroopers shot dead. 14 unarmed nationalist demonstraters in Derry. These innocent people were demanding civil liberties, jobs and a future denied them by the Northern Irish state. Their demands were answered by a hail of British army bullets.

Every year since, commemoration marches have been held in Ireland and in Britain. This year’s march in Britain will be held in Sheffield on Saturday S3ist January. ”

Every day since ‘Bloody Sunday’ the British army has continued a policy of repression of the nationalist community in the north with house-to-house searches, plastic bullets, strip searches of women, CS gas and a web of ‘supergrass’ informers.

The British presence in Ireland has always been opposed by a majority of Irish people. Britain’s partition of Ireland in 1921 was Britain’s way of preventing the people of Ireland from deciding their own future. Until Britain goes this democratic right remains denied.

That's why the Bloody Sunday march is more than a commemoration of the slaughter. We need to use the march to say - as long as. Britain occupies Ireland there will always be repression and slaughter of the nationalists. British troops should get out now.

The British labour movement has a particular duty to support the march. Miners know ‘only too well from the strike what British state repression means. The police occupation of pit villages, arbitrary arrests, police brutality and the rest - these are all tactics perfected by the British state during its occupation of Ireland since 1969. British workers and Irish nationalists have ‘a common enemy - the British state.

When Thatcher Gnimmicked by Kinnock) talks about "protecting the national interest” she means protecting the profits and prestiege of her class - not workers’ interests. The same goes for foreign policy - what do British workers’ gain by British ruling class repression in Ireland?

By supporting the Bloody Sunday march miners will be saying to the nationalists in Ireland and to other British workers that we all have a common cause - a defeat

for the British state in Ireland will be a victory for us all!

Red Miner urges the maximum gttendance of miners and their families at this year’s Bloody Sunday march, Pass this model resolution at your NUM branch:

1. This branch supports the Bloody Sunday march on Saturday 31st January in Sheffield on the basis of:

- Troops Out Now - Self Determination for the Irish

People as a whole.

<¢. This branch therefore agrees organise transport march.

Bloody Sunday March: Assemble 1 pm Caborn Corner, Sheffield. March to rally at City Hall. Saturday 31st January.

~ WORKERS’ SANCTIONS

———

i oe a \

AGAINST APARTHEID

ine vampaign t stop tne import of scouts Cty sp African coal 1s gathering momentum

In November a Doncaster bra Hatfield Main took a picket of the Coai i South Humberside. Aithough this action was initiaily a it was to designed to hammer nome the need

Dave Douglass of explained the aim

meeting ot the cam Sanctions against

London on Sunday the .ith January. it was not a chauvinist action another country, it wa a call by the South Afric of Mineworkers who wanted the pressure exerted against the i regime and the South African Mineowners.

Caiiec Lor the majorit

The Apartheid bosses cost cutting practices cause the deaths of hundreds of South African miners every year. It is in the interests of miners everywhere the downfail of apartheid, the a of cheap apartheid coal drives and conditions worldwide.

The Campaign for Trade held it’s first conference Birminghan. Delegates represen Labour Movement bodies resolv:

2pm—-4om

the fight for reaily effective action in the workplaces to boycott goeods and services to and from South

Africa. They for further details contact Bronwen Handyside

publish a newsletter which will build r 17 Porden Road Brixton |

future boycott actions including further . attempts to stop coal. London SW2 554 |

FRENCH WORKERS HIT BACK

France's Thatcherite government under Prime Minister Uhirac are preparing to do battie with the French miners. Their intended onslaught is part and parcel of a massive package of attacks on the French working class which the French railworkers are .eading resistance to.

The government intends to slash every single job in the North French coalfieid and concentrate all mining in Lorraine. All miners over 45 will be compulsorily retired. The workforce will be cut to 30,000.

British miners owe a historic debt to the French miners for their solidarity in the great strike. As the french miners brace themselves for struggle every lodge mus: pass motions of support and immediately re-activate the oonds of solidarity that were forged in 1984-85. Chirac must not be allowed to do to the French miners what Thatcher did to the British coalfields.

Let it be a warning to all miners about who the executive are choosing to speak for

them that the NUM decided to send arch scab Jack Jones to the recent AGM of the Anti Apartheid Movement. Not only was he their delegate but he was sent to propose a resolution on trade union action to boycott South African goods.

This man scabbed all the way through his own members strike. The South African

workers are dependant on workers all over the world taking boycotting action. The miners in Britain have a vital role to play to take action against the import of South African coal and other goods.

All NUM branches must send resolutions to the executive condemning their decision *o

send Jack Jones moreover this protest should be sent to the leadership of the AAM

yours

Jane Bruton (Secretary of Leicester Trades Council Miners Support Committee)

WORKERS HISTORY

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

PART 5 ALL POWER TO.THE SOVIETS!

The first time in history political power from the bosses .1T CAN HAPPEN AGAIN!

General Kornilov’s defeat at the of the Petrograd workers opened the phase of the Russian Revoiution. The workers were in arms once again. The ranks of the Red Guards had grown dramatically. A new confidence was given voice in factory meetings throughout the capital city. Factory after factory replaced their Menshevik or Socialist Revolutionary delegates with Bolsheviks. Resoiution after resolution passed at mass meetings in early September took up the Boishevik call for all power to pass to the soviets and

hanas finai

challenged: the soviet leadership's collaboration with the Kerensky government. The workers of iLangezipen told those leaders

"we suppose that the Korniiov rebellion has washed your sleepy eyes clear and enabled you to see the situation in its true light. ;

We declare that you for us, but not our views,

have long spoken and we demand

that you begin to speak the language of

the proletariat or else we reserve for

ourselves freedom of action.” Bolsheviks —s_y. It was the growing identitication of the most active workers with the Bolshevik party that marked the most important change in the mood of the working class. Tireless agitation and propaganda t expose the treachery of the soviet leadership had initially falien on stoney ground. It was now beginning to bear fruit. By October Bolshevik party membership stood at 250,000 compared to around 30,000

at the beginning of the year. The bulk of its members were workers who were increasingly being chosen to take leading

positions as soviet delegates, on factory committees, in the Red Guards because they had proved their politics to their workmates.

This is the concluding part of the history of that

the The

the Russian Revolution working ‘class took compiete

Lesson >.uear.

Votes

On September ist

the Petrograd soviet passec its first distintiveiy Boisnevik resolution calling for a government oz ‘the revolutionary proletariat and peasantry in Opposition the Mensheviks ould only delegates in FOES Ea) Government ' The passed a Bolsnevik

” ee later. LOC. elections in Moscow in uate the Boisheviks received 51% of I Pike contenders for hip either whithered anda the case with the

votes out of a 1,000 the sovie lution + nment

Tn i

y were gripped by spits

y The Sociai

party split with t

g the call for

ex leaders. The bull

organisation backed mood of Red Petrograd.

ot = Revolutionary

rtin

ao a a

the

Leaders

the Bolshevik party was of revolutionary leaders. it was not only workers who were flocking to the banner of Bolshevism. More and more revolutionary militants who had previousiy opposed joined the party that was now committed to the programme oi socialist revolution. In late July Trotsxy’s loose inter-district organisation the Mezhraiontsi) fused with the Boisheviks immeasurably strengthening the party's laeding cadre. The party leadership was by September standing at the head of a S party whose militants were the acknowledged leaders areas oc proletariat struggle.

At the helm of brilliant array

venin

most

in

The days of the Prov were humbered While desperately to shuffle coalition it was

D Artetkh + no ha at either at th bandas of

Or at the hands of the revolutionary workers KOrniiov's

initiative to the workxer

of thé bourgeoisie +

down continued Petr

industrialists attempt

management evacuation. movement arviainen vacuation

oO rd

"found that fourteen structures had deen factories and even t laid, Littie houses the workers that yo an iron rod.”

So

Bither the bosses production to their starve the workers into i factory committees wouid have to take the Maintenance of production directly into their own hands.

"There are two extreme wings, and if the revolutionary parties were to draw back from Civil War now, .the right wing would all the same carry out its attack on the revolution and all- its achievements. Desertion by the parties would not avert civil war. It would mérely unfold in an unorganised form, in a haphazard and scattered. manner and, one ‘may assume, to the benefit of ‘the propertied classes. Civil War is imposed on us by the economic situation and by -the course of our history.”

The armed insurrection was planned with military precision to coincide with the opening of the second all-Russianm Congress of Soviets on October 26th. The rising was to make ,it possible for that congress to declare itself to be the power in Russia and elect a government responsible to it. Planning was primarily the responsibility of the Petrograd Soviet’s Military Revolutionary Committee whose leading

bureau was presided over by Trotsky. At its command were the key naval detachments and infantry regiments in the vicinity of Petrograd.

LEWIS

During Octover it stepped up the training and arming of the workers Red Guards as well as increasing recruitment. It was organised in battalions which were in turn ordered into companies and squads of ten. The commanding staff were elected. The guards received compensation for any loss of pay from their factory committees and functioned with strict military discipline.

Behind these ordered and drilled ranks chosen to do the business of toppling the Provisional Government stood a working class that had, in the main, been won to support for the Bolshevik programne.

Only one factory in Petrograd seems to have passed a resolution counter to the intension of the Soviets taking power,

S.R. later

mood One

described the mood in the factory meetings with the words “our Speeches seemed doomed to us”. on October ecnd mass meetings were held throughout Petrograd as a "Day of the Soviet” 30,000 workers packed the Central People’s House to hear Bolshevik orators explain their call to take power. The same SR reported

"The day of the Soviet took place amidst a tremendous upsurge of spirit. Trotsky so electrified the crowd with his speech that thousands of hands rose in a single outburst of emotion at his call, Swearing loyalty to the revolution, to struggle for it -to the mortal end."

A similiar pattern was being repeated at mass workers meetings the length and breadth of Petrograd.

During the early -morning of October 25th the Red Guards took the key bridges, telegraphs and stations with next to no resistance. By that night the Provisional Government was arrested cowering in the Winter Palace.

For the first time in history state power was in the hands of the organised revolutionary working class. The Saviet Congress enthusiastically declared itself to be the source of power and showed its commitmnet to the goals that the working people of Russia had set themselves , - bread, peace and land, for all power to the

Soviets and for the construction of a socialist order on a world scale.

Party

70 years ago the Bolsheviks led the Russian workers to power. Much was to happen later to isolate and eventually to betray the revolution. Yet in remembering the epic battles of the Russian workers of 1917 certain lessons and examples are as relevant today as they were then. The working class showed that it can organise itself to take power and overthrow capitalism = its soviets, factory committees and Red Guards showed that. And the Bolshevik Party of Lenin and Trotsky showed that in order to win that final victory the most advanced workers must be organised in a party that can think for and lead the working class. In remembering the Russian Revolution miners steeled in the battles of the Great Strike myst remember that lesson and support Red Miner and Workers Power's fight to lay the foundations for just such a revolutionary

party. *