Red Miner no. 7

THE ERED MINER

NO.7 FEB. 8&6

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42, EDITORIAL #e

Ever since the end of the strike most of the left leaders have been moving rapidly to the right. kemember Emlyn Williams saying he’d never talk to Neil Kinnock? Well that same Williams is now accepting closures, welcoming talks with Kinnock and telling miners to hold on until that same Kinnock gets into number 10. Kinnock’s entirely negative role in the strike and his open opposition to the reinstatement of the sacked men shows just how dangerous it would be to pin any serious hopes on Kinnock.

South Wales is not alone in the great march rightwards. In Scotland thousands of jobs have been lost. In Yorkshire Cortonwood is to close without a fight. Everywhere the left leaders are singing the same tune - take the money, don’t rock the boat because we’ve no hope until we get a labour government.

Similarily disturbing is the strengthening of localism and federalism in the union. During the great strike there was great pressure to break with the old federalism that divided the union along lines laid down by the NCB’s areas. All that is in reverse now. Left officials are falling over themselves to save their own skins by distancing themselves from the national union and the national leadership.

In a disgraceful outburst George Rees, the South Wales secretary, threatened to pull his area out of the NUM! How many militants in that area knew that their narrow minded leader was planning to aid the scab UDM by taking this action.

What the “left” leaders of Scotland, Yorkshire, and South Wales have got in common is that they’ve all got their Knives out for Arthur Scargill. Red Miner readers will know all too well that we have our own criticisms of Arthur. We don’t hide them. We state openly where we think Arthur has not advanced a clear, militant, rank and file based policy. We criticise him not for his militancy,- which we respect and support - but for the limitations of that militancy.

Vith Rees, Eric Clarke, Sammy Thompson, and Jack Taylor the opposite is the case. they are dishonest, and they attack militancy. They use their freinds in the bosses press to print their attacks on

Scargill and signal to the NCB that they

are out to militants.

resist the pressure of the

This was made abundantly clear at the end of last year when John Lloyd wrote an article in the bosses favourite paper, the Financial Times. In it he attacked Arthur Scargill and chronicled what he saw as the brave doings of the left leaders who are trying to check Scargill and the militants. Lloyd poses as a friend of the working class. In fact he’s even in the Labour Party. But his real role is to give full backing to thase who want to close the door on industrial militancy in the NUM. for ever.

Lloyd reported an NUM, meeting held in Scargill was

broad left Birmingham in December. bitterly attacked at this

meeting.

Sammy Thompson attacked Scargill for urging a fightback against ~ closures. In particular Thompson denounced Scargill for supporting "a new ultra left ‘rank and file’ miners group in Barnsley hostile to the Yorkshire Area leadership.... The accusation, in short, was that the NUM. president was organising an alternative left in Yorkshire." (F.T, 30/12/85)

Yorksnire’s

ns

PEACEFUL PARLIAMENTARISM

Taking his cue from Thompson, Ken Homer (Yorkshire) and George Rees (S.Wales), Lloyd attacked Scargili’s leadership and the great strike as exmples of "vanguardism”’. By this he means that militant miners were guilty of taking a lead in rousing the mass of their mates to action against Thatcher and Macgregor’s butchery. Against "vanguardism”

and on behalf of the NUM's broad left leaders, Lioyd espouses peaceful parliamentarism. He denounces what he calls "a twenty year embrace with new

_syndicalism”.

7S) SPARRO DL EST SUI TY TS

Thompson, Rees, McGahey, and the old broad left are united in their attack on militancy. Their ideas haven’t fallen from the sky either. The axact same ideas are being churned out by the Communist Party, and the Kinnockites in the Labour Party. They are ideas, They led to the return to work - and therefore the defeat - last year. They are leading to wore defeats for the labour movement, They mean a witchhunt of all who put the class sla above Kinnock's electoral ambitions

SUCUg

Militants in the RUE must organise a fight against ‘these and their practical results as a oc; urgency. There is no time to lose.

We do not believe that Arthur can substitute for the rank and file in this fight. He should ba calied on to support every rank and file initiative taken against the right wing traitors and the left wing backsliders in the NUM. he must be pressured to stand firm against his bureaucratic critics, But these initiatives will have to be organised. How? That is the question facing every militant miner.

STOP THE RETREAT

In the third issve of Rank and File Miner Yorkshire executive membar David Douglass. (writing in a personal capacity) calls for a new broad left to be formed. "By broad left I mean a united Marxist and militant platform’. Red__ ar. «Ss distrusts Broad Lefts. They have been respons sible for too many recent defeats for our liking - The NUM., the Post Office enginears, the NUR.,the civil servants. Still, if David Douglass and members like him are really talking about building a tighting, militant, movement then we should unite our endevours. Here is what we propose:

1) The National Kank and File Miners Movement should Jaunch a "stop the retreat campaign” in the union,

2) This should be with well publicised mestings - open to all NUM members - in every area on this theme, and, in areas like Notts, how to combine this with fighting the UDM.

3) These meetings should be a stepping stone to a national “stop the Retreat” conference which ali rank and file organisations and papers ~ the NREMM, the Barnsley rank and file grouv, the Durham

Broad Left, the Kent Area, pit bulletins Like the Armthorpe Tannoy, individual branches, Loages etc, shaujd be called on to sponsor and send delegates to. This meeting should set up an expanded Kank and File committee to run the campaign. The campaign should be based around limited goals:

%* Oppose bureaucratic moves to oust Scargill ; Support the regular election of all officials.

* Stand Rank and File candidates on a ‘Stop the Retreat’ plattorm in every election possible.

% Support direct action against pit closures ana any form of NCB attack - invite strikers to branch/lodge meetings. Fight for physical and financial support for all local strikes, spread strikes against closures throughout and across areas. .

* Produce a national rank and tile miners paper that reports on, supports and intervenes in all miners struggles, That paper Shall have an openly elected editoriai policy and commit itself to leading the national battle to stop the retreat.

Red Miner firmly believes that a vigorous campaign along these lines can stop the retreat and help rebuild the NUM. As communist miners we will support every move made in the direction of such a campaign. We will use the Red Miner to help organise such a campaign - through publicity, public meetings, and articles. We will also be open and honest about our own programme - we will argue for it, without trying to bureaucratically or deceitfully impose it on rank and file militants.

We appeal to all militants who agree with our proposals to work with us so, tagether, we can set about turning our words into ideas, And our ideas into action.

Ky below and receive the next 4 issues of Red Miner. Make cheques payable to 'workers Qe : ; = Power' and send to: 138 Crookesmoor kd Sheffield 10,

OY VOC Wp Fk re Send £1 to the address DU BSCRIBE !

NAME. ... ; -

ADORESS.

REGIONAL ne ND: UP

YORKSHIRE

Yorkshire from the beginning of the Great Strike was the bastion of hardline militancy within the British coalfield. For militants in the scab areas it maintained their confidence in the strike. While Yorkshire was out the strike remained national.

Yet what has happened to this community based militancy since the end of the strike ? If the figures are anything to go by it has all but disappeared. To date, seven pits have closed: Cortonwood, Buicliffe, Emley Moor, Brookehouse, Yorkshire Main, Acton Hall and Saville, Fryston colliery has recently voted to close and Kinsley Drift are fighting the Boards closure plans. The pits North Gawber and Wooley have merged as have Wath, Kilnhurst and Manvers Main. Qn top of this three workshops have been shut down: Carcroft,Elsecar and Birdwell. In all the NUM has lost some 11,000 members from the Yorkshire Area which now has a membership of only about 44,000,

Out of this butchery only Darfield Main survived the threat of closure. Whilst Red Miner welcomes the resistance shown by Darfield we must point out the limitations of this campaign. Darfield was fought on the basis that it could be run “aconomically”. A plan drawn up by its supporters was finally accepted by the Board, This entailed increased production with a cut in the workforce - 100 jobs are to go.

It is not difficult to see that Darfield's strategy was not only playing the Boards game on the Boards terms but was giving it ample room to write and rewrite the rules accordingly. Economics are the NCB’s and the government's argument. _ Accepting the merits of the

argument ‘from the start allows the Board to achieve its ultimate goal-a rationalised, highly productive industry primed for privatisation.

To combat the Board militants will need to spearhead a campaign to unite pits throughout the area against any further closures.

On the question of reinstatement Jack Taylor wili bend over backwards to continue negotiating the issue with the voa: Board. In fact he will even " step up negotiations '" and is prepared to " fight on for ever “ And this is how long it will take for the 140 men who remain sacked in Yorkshire if they are leit to rely on Taylors armchair efforts.

The necessary war against the UDM the need tor active campaigning around the pits likewise suffer from the same lack lustre leadership.

Yet despite this apparent general submission of Yorkshire to the NCB’'s attacks there have in fact been strikes breaking out throughout the area, showing the wiilingness of the rank and file to fight back. But these initiatives have not been coordinated and built on by the Area ieadership...quite the opposite as rank and file action has been deliberately isolated.

Taylor’s bureaucratic preference for continued negotiation thrives on _ these strikes petering out and exhausting members enthusiasm for further action. It will be up to the militants themselves to burst out of this bureaucratic straightjacket, upset the cosy applecart of constant negotiating and link up with militants from other pits to stop this headlong retreat.

PIiGHTBACK WITH RED MINER Supporters of RED MINER will ve holding a national discussion meeting in Sheffield on March Ist. The aims of tme meeting are to start organising the fightback against the NCE and the UDM, and to plan how we stop the retreat in our own union.

The meeting is open to any miners fed up with the way the majority of our leadership have given up the fight against pit closures, and who don’t think it's much good just waiting for the next labour governient,

FOR DETAILS RING (0742) 6606208

WHY THE CHRISTMAS CARD TED? Putting pitmen in the picture reads the headiines in an article in the N.C.B.’s rag € Goal Wews > It goes on to. gay communications with pitmen in N. Derbyshire are being boosted by the introduction of new schemes to improve the flow of information at all levels i.e.

* Monthly newsletters to be produced at each colliery.

* Team briefing sessions, already carried out at ail pits to continue on a monthly basis.

* Video facilities to be introduced at ail pits.

* Quality Circles ~ usually a group of up to fifteen men who meet regularly sometimes as often as once a week, The group tries to find solutions to work related problens and makes recommendations, but has no authority for implementing changes.

* Attitude Surveys.Questionaires circulated to the workers, to establish their opinions on a range of issues, often centring on the quality of communications from management, and questions on union organisation and feelings about pay and conditions. Area director Ted Horton says " It became apparent during the dispute that information systems between men _ and management were inadequate. I have written several letters to everyman during the past months and now we plan to implement the above schemes. But I must emphasise that this attempt to improve communications is not aimed at by passing the trade union. ”

" CAN YOU IMAGINE A FACTORY WITH NO STRIKES WHERE THE MANAGEMENT DRESS LIKE THE SHOPFLOOR WORKERS.” Yes you've heard it all before. These techniques are widespread in Japan and the U.S.A. and are ways of getting workers to ally themselves with management rather than the trade union. Obviously management are keen for us to go along with these "new ideas Their reasons include:

Japanese ‘‘job for life’’ myth

1, Wanting to improve productivity by making better use of the ingenuity of the wordtiorce, ce. Strengthening management control by reducing the independence of union activity, including creating the circumstances in which workers feel they just do not need a union.

S. Tying the core workers to the pit creating a cian atmosphere based on the company rather than an independent trade union or working class outlook, 4, Cementing this by strengthening the role of first line supervision. 9. Changes are more acceptable to workers who are regularly informed as to managements view of the business, 6. These " communications " make low or zero percentage pay increases more difficult to resist, along with redundancies or the closure of the pit.

WE KNOW WHAT TOU ARE UP TO TED

We should ail tell management where to shove their latest proposals. Cuddly relations with them will only lead us into the situation American car workers are in.- "giveback” wage reductions! If there’s one thing we should have learned during 12 months of strike it is that the pit management and the government wili go to any lengths to stop us having any power or control in the pit.

We do want to have a say in the running

of the pit, in fact we would make a much better job of it as we are the one’s who set the coai out. BUT if we are going to have any reai control then we will have to fight tor it and build up our strength. We must fight for rank and file workers control not be conned into collaboration with management. imagine a pit with no strikes? Imagine a coal industry with one third of the workforce and few safety measures. This is the stuff af bosses dreams not the futre for workers and their families.

ree

The myth of the ‘‘job for life’’ worker is prevalent when talking about Japan. Many UK workers are led to believe that in return for loyalty to their firm Japanese workers benefit from guaranteed employment. In fact only a minority of workers do. They are the ‘core’ of Japanese employees — all other workers are on temporary contracts. It is this work pattern that has interested a number of employers like Thorn EMI, who have recently visited Japan.

Women workers are the largest section of temporary workers and

along with older workers and peasants form what is described as a ‘‘floating reserve’? — the 54% of the population that is not in a job for life. Many work in the service sector as shop assistants, cleaners, delivery persons and teachers where between a third and over half of the workforce might be temporary. The delegation from Thorn EMI, writing of their visit to Japan in the Department of Employment Gazette, described the workers as nonunionised, with inferior wages and conditions, on contracts of three to 12 months and normally performing the most menial of tasks.

The fignt against the ULM in the midiancs coalfield must be stepped up. Management and scans are working together to weaken the NUM, and the scabs are stupid enough to think that this will do them some good! Since the report in the last issue of Red Miner, the UDM went to management at Ansley workshops and together they arranged a ballot - management paid for the ballot forms, paid the wages of men supervising the voting, and supervised the count. Num members boycotted the ballot, and office staff and COSA members took part. Even so 64 votes were for remaining in the NUM though in these circumstances the majority voted for the UDM while NUM loyalists demonstrated with their banner outside. Andrew Smith, the NUM president says some have been drifting back to the NUM already.

Management have asked for 40 redundancies of men 50 years and over and the UDM has no agreement on redundancy payments. As from late march the night shift will finish altogether. A march and rally is being planned for march in Birmingham, to gather NUM loyalists and show the UDM that they don’t have the midlands to themselves.

Militants urgently need to link up the pits in the area, not just to stand firm against the UDM but to strengthen the NUM at rank and file level to fight the redundancies and victimisations that are

going on.

COVENTRY

At Coventry colliery the NUM branch is considering their strategy concerning a planned new superpit at either nearby Kenilworth, or Berkswell. The NCB probably hopes a new pit will be started and wiil be worked by hand picked scabs. However it the existing underground workings are extende from Coventry to the new seams at Kenilworth, the existing workforce, many of whom stood firm right through the strike, would be in a stronger position. Meantime the middle-class citizens of Kenilworth are worried that their "olde worlde” charm will be disturbed by having to actually rub shoulders with some real workers,so they are not keen on the new superpit plans!

SOUTH WALE:&s

wince the mass pit closures of October and November and the election of Des Duttield as Area President in December, things have been pretty quiet in the coalfield. However despite the fact NCB Area Director Cliff Davies has already achieved his target of waking the coalfieid break even, at least two more pits are under threat. Production levels at Nantgarw and Cwm-Coedely have been ' disappointing "” according to the Board - a statement that usually means imminent ciosure. Tais would be the first test for Dutfield and a chance to see how Militant he really is.

Praductivity levels in the coalfield have risen trom 1.65 to @.i tonnes/manshift since the end of the strike, the NCB hope to increase the figure to 3 tonnes by the end oi the year. The most profitable pits continue to get the lion’s share of new investment - Merthyr Vale and Marine both received £3.5m. recently. This selected investwent increases fears ot South Wales veing reduced to half a dozen "super~-pits” in the tuture.

scab unionism is not an issue at the moment, with apparently not a single UDM member in South Wales. Militants must not become complacent about their chances and in the meantime should get invoived in campaigning against the UDM in the weaker areas.

Cc OFFICIAL FrrackeSricKS PICKET € . port? wits

BLOODY SUNDAY

- INTERNATIONAL -

The demonstration, on Sunday end of February in london, is cailed annually to remember the deaths of 14 people who were

| on a peaceful demonstration in berry, when

freedoms in their

it was fired on by the British army. [he demonstration in 1972, was against the british army policy of internment without trial, without even being charged, of anybody they fancied. As you can imagine, the vast majority were catholics - eg. in August 1971, the figures were 340 catholics and 2 protestants interned.

attend the

It's vitaily important to

| "Bloody Sunday” demo on February 2nd, and | to argue for NUM. branches to support it.

The working class in britain has no interest in helping the army and the police - the same forces used to attack our strike - to repress Irish nationalists who only demand the right to democratic own country, free of persecution. Surely we can’t believe that the British state is concerned about finding "peaceful solutions” and "stopping a bloodbath” in Northern Ireland. It wasn't exactly interested in finding a "peaceful solution” to miners and their families demanding jobs and no pit closures, or "stopping a bloodbath” at Orgreave and Mansfield.

TROOPS OUT NOW

Anybody in this country who speaks out in favour of freedom for the lrish people is liable to be attacked by the police army and British fascists. The fascists in fact have had long established iinks with the Ulster Unionists. It is likely that this years march will be attacked as well.

Send a contingent on the march, be prepared and organised when you get there,get your union branch to call a halt to the repression of the nationalist people in Ireland and demand the immediate withdrawl of British troops.

British workers wiil never be free while we let the British army carry on BE repression and violence inf lreiand and elsewhere with our money and our consent. it there’s no money to keep pits | open. why is there money tof keep the British army in the north of Ireland propping up a & fake repressive state. fae

Over ¢¥,000 striking black miners trom the impala platinium mine in the Bophasnatswana homeiand were sacked in the early part of January. The miners had been on strike for improvements in wages and conditions and for the right ot Trade Union recognition. The South African N.U.M is not iegally recognised in aii parts of South Africa. In the ” homelands " those parts oi South Africa supposed to be independant, the labour laws mean it is outlawed.

The South African NUM also reports that 26 men were admitted to hospitai suffering from plastic bullet wounds. The shots were fired by security personell policing the enforced bussing home of strikers.

The firm which sacked the miners, GEMUOR may be familiar to some militants, during the strike it tried to recruit in Nottinghamshire. Assuming that someone who is prepared to scab on their mates. would do quite well in racist South Africa scabbing on black workers. White miners in South Africa have actually taken action to keep black miners in the worst jobs.Despite not being recognised at the Impaia mine the South African N.U.M. is doing ail it

can to aid the struggle of not only platinum miners but all miners tighting the most foul regime in the worid. [hey need as much support as possibie trom British miners.

SUPPORT NEEDED

RKenishaw Park North Derbyshire N.U.M. have

sent ¢20u to C.0.S.A.T.U. the black Traae Union federation, and Coventry Trades Vouncii: are committed to building a4 speakers tour with some black Souta African trade unionists. We must spreaa

examples such as this throughout the N..M and the rest of the labour movement. Money and messages of support should be sent tc

NU.M Sth Floor, LEKTON HOUSE, ©. WANLunnn JUCHANNSSBURG 2001

wLREE.,

KENTUCKY MINERS STRIKE

Macgregor’s job at the NCB. was to break the NUM. and pave the way for privatisation of the profitable pits. His credentials for this job were his long and filthy career as a strike buster in the American mining industry. In his home

country, - which he can afford to visit every weekend, while many miners cannot afford a holiday once a year - mines are

all privately owned.

In the last year there has been a big drive by the bosses to cripple the United Mineworkers of America (UMW). Spearheading the fight was A.T.Massey, the fifth biggest coal operator in the US. (with a big interest in South African mines too, which they are also trying to keep "union free”).

With 30% of all miners non-unionised and with over 50,000 of the UMW’'s 250,000 members out of work, the bosses figured the time was ripe to take the union on again.

12 MONTHS ON STRIKE

So Massey, along with a number of smaller companies, refused to renew the contracts of a thousand or so UMW. members in the West Virginia/Kentucky hill country, an area where mining is the only industry and more than half the unionised men are unemployed.

But if Massey thought he’d have an easy fight, he was wrong. The men stayed out for over 15 months for union recognition and job security. their determination was summed up by striking miner Ken Fry who, after 14 months on strike, went on TV. to say "No doubt in my mind if it takes another 14 months we will be out to get our contract". In the end the strike was not a complete victory, it was a compromise. But they got a contract, and the bosses anti-union plans were, albeit only for the time being, thwarted.

SUPPORT FOR RED MINER FROM FRANCE,

the French coalfields,

REDMINER has received a £20 donation from a of France, J. an ex-miner, who worked in the mines near the German border, organised solidarity for the strike in his own area. He committee in Rouen bringing over striking mine

French militant from Rouen, in the West

set up and organised a miners support rs and railworkers to speak,

In fact some of our readers will be familiar with J. from his visits to Doncaster and Keresley and will know of his hard work in Support of their struggle.

RED MINER editorial board would like to thank J. for his generous donation which has helped us with the continued production of the bulletin and are pleased to hear

we have enthusiastic readers abroad. We would welcome any news of developments in

| DIRIKER SHOT

During ‘the strike the bosses threw everything at the workers, court orders restricting pickets, police protection of scab convoys, and all the other familiar anti-union tactics. In typical American fashion though, Massey went one further. He hired 200 thugs armed with pump action shotguns and semi-automatic rifles to intimidate and shoot the union men. One striker was shot dead. Many others were wounded. Shopkeepers, mostly retired miners, supporting the strikers, were threatened in their shops by gangs of Massey’s goons.

Of course the miners didn’t let these outrages go unanswered. After the cops had stopped them picketing, the lads resorted to guerilla tactics, ambushing scab lorries in the hills. Now there's a scab or two who won't be trailing tonesome pines in the Blue’ Ridge Mountains anymore!

The union lives to fight another day because the men stood firm and the women stood shoulder to shoulder with them. The strike became another fine chapter in American miner’s history, along with that other heroic strike at Harlan County.

If miners the world over are going to win victories they will need more than determination, They will need fighting organisations and fighting policies. And a high priority must be strengthening the international links between the unions. The bosses want to divide and rule. They carry on the attack on an international scale, - today in South Africa and Bolivia, yesterday in Britain and America. We need to meet that challenge and beat it internationally. We should start organising for that today.

rhe i072 strike was wo \ mobviligation ci the rank and file for mass picketting and by winning active, golidarity backing frow decisive groups of. workers, The 1974 strike was ai very differant kettle of fish. From the very ;gtart the NUM. leadership set out to make) sure that rank and file initiative was to -be kept to an absolute minimum, Solidarity wae now to be arranged through bureaucratié deals with top officials in other untong, ‘The prospect of re-electing a Labour governinent was used to persuade the majority of miners to simply sit tight at home and wait for labour to come:;to power.

The strike was a clash wit jory government's incomes policy and it" & trade union laws, Heath's government was committed to an incomes policy that pegged wage increases at 7% or #2127 whichever was the larger, It trying to hold the line for it's “anti-union Industrial Reiations Act which made unregistered untons Mable for damages for industrial action against employers. The NUM. had refused to register with%¢he Heath government's agencies. In €: Tories and the bosses were

at the defeat they had eutter 2 in 197, and were set on patting revenge! on the RUN,

On the igth november i973 .sthe NUM.

introduced an overtime ban in purevit of the 1975 conference tlaim that. exceeded Heath's Incomes Policy limit. That overtime ban cut production by 40%. The Tory government replied with a major propaganda campaign aimed against the left. in the NUM, and with the declaration of A state af emergency. Telly was closed down.at 10:50 every hnight,and a three day ‘week was introduced in industry, Heath hoped’ that if his government stood firm {the NUM, executive would buckle, :

in reality it was only when the government refused to budge that the executive began moves to organise strike action, Both the right and the left an the executive had been united in the. vain hope that an overtime ban in and of itselt would be enough to win "speoial case” treatment for the miners once again, Left and right were both involved in:desperate manoeuveres to allow Heath off the: hook by offering a deal whereby Heath could keep his incomes policy intact while the miners could get a bonus pay offer,

WORKERS HISTORY

iQ7d Demonstration against Industrial Relations bial

Before the overtime ban Gormiey aad secret talks un the garden of Nowy with Ted Heath and Sir William Armstrong wao was head ot the Civil Service..He sugwested “Peating a special loophole for the miners them mace than other warkers within the incomes Policy. Heath affactively dbiocked fiat making 1t possible within aie incomes poigicy for aii workers to get additicna: rises for hours worked between Sp.m. and a.m, This slammed the door on Gormiev's hope ot « special case way out of action. As he put it in his autobiography “i must say 1 wasn't best pleased. I had gOhe there to try ta saive our problem,nat to give the) help in running the country as a whole, Whether it was through stupiaity or deliberate policy 1] wever knew, cut t hac. effectively blocked a jagphole oy : Our position, relative to the rest of industry, could have deen restored”.

But it was not just the right wriggling and squirming to Showdown with the government's | Policy, ana offering & dea. which oto workers would not have been advantage of, Unoe the overtime ban etarted Mick MeGatey joined Gormie y im beer laced talks with William Waitelaw aime sailing off the action an extra cash ror “washing and it waS the government's

the miners to have any specia ~ase dispensation that forced the lett an. right

on the executive to so tor a strike

PENTONVILLE FIVE

The strike ballot was held in January 1974. The overwhelming scale of support tor action surprised the NEC. as well as the Tories. Over 80% of the membership voted for strike action. Now was the time for a decisive showdown to destroy not enly Heath’s Incomes Policy but also his Industrial Relations Act, The anti union laws had taken a heavy battering after eolidarity strikes had secured the release of improsoned dockers from Pentonville jail.

The government was in an extremely weak position. In reply to the strike ballot they called a General Election and mounted a red-baiting "who rules?” election campaign against the NUM.

In it's turn however the NUM. leadership had no intention of their "special case” campaigning becoming the spearhead for for a generalised working class attack on the government and the class it represented, Equally they had no intention of initiating any of the rank and file militancy that had proved so crucial in keeping the 1972 strike together. Pressure from the Labour Party and the TUC, to keep the miners quiet so as not to "alienate public opinion” and upset Labours electoral chances set the seal on the executive’s plans. The left did ast independently to stop Gormley calling the strike off. But it also did all in it’s power to stop the rank and file members dzepening and extending the action.

Before the strikes planned starting date aud Heath’s announcement of a general e.ection the NEC. had made carefully laid pians to keep a firm bureaucratic grip on every aspect of the action. This time round there were ta be no pit based liaison committees in order ta mobilise for the dispute. liaison was to be organised at an oificial area level. In turn all area initiatives were to be strictly under the control of the Central National Strike Committee. Mass picketing and a rank and file drive to win effective industrial solidarity action were to be positively discouraged. Even where pickets were to be authorised they were never to be comprised of more than six members, All national officials were put under strict orders to prevent all actions that might attract adverse media publicity for the NUM. and fer the Labour Party. Dr Kim Howells would

have been in his element in the NUM. leadership. V.L.Allens reports in "The Militancy Of Pritish Miners” that “Arthur Scargill intervened at Grimethorpe in Yorkshire at the end of February in order to prevent miners from harrassing office staff who were going to work at the NCB. area offices”.

FATAL FLAWS

Two fatal traditional flaws in the history of miners led rank and file militants to go along with this way of running the strike. The first was their beleif that the miners were so strong that they could go it alone, even sitting on their hands, and still win. The second was the belief that itwas best to hold back on the action so as to pave the way for a Labour Government, As a result the vast majority of miners were left to sit idly in the sidelines waiting for the results of the general election.

Sure enough the Tories lost the election. But this does not mean the miners won it or, even less, that the miners drove Heath from office. The miners sat out an election campaign in which Harold Wilson won the vote in that he could deal with the unions more effectively than the Tories could. The miners gave him that ticket. Labour repaid the miners for their loyalty. Their wages were to be increased only for the gains to be clawed’ back by inflation. Labour trusted on the NUM’s loyal service to increase the tempo of pit closures and shackle the union with the profoundly divisive productivity deal. The same Labourism that claimed a victory in 1974 reaped serious defeat at the hands of Wilson and Benn in the following years.

The 1974 strike bad the potential to cripple a system that was still reeling under the impact of the miners 1972 strike and the release of the Pentonville >. Instead sectional trade unionism - which saw the issues as solely concerning the wages of NUM. members,- and loyalty io Labour which wanted to manage, not avolish capitalismrobbed the entire working ciass, as well as the NUM’s membership, or a lasting and real victory over our enemies.

STRIKE STILL SOLID

FORGEMASTERS FIGHT OW 7

The strike at Forgemaster’s, the Sheffield steel plant continues. The strike has now spread ta the other site at Forgemaster’s-River Don works, The strike is in its fourth month, with no sign that the bosses are ready to back down. The main issue is still union recognition. Forgemasters continues to refuse to recognise the shop stewards committee’s negotiating rights.

A number of the wives of Forgemasters workers have got together to see how they can help support the fight. They have found it much more difficult to organise than the miners wives as they live so far from each other, Nevertheless the few who have got together have already been down to the picket lines and have been on the local radio speaking up in support of the strikers. Miners wives from the Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures have also been on the picket lines and had a lot of advice for the strikers. about how to deal with scabs.

The strike remains solid, determined to carry on - but they need help. Having made it through Christmas and into the New Year, the strikers need all the finance they can get. Regular collections are urgently needed. Try to get one established at your pit and send it to the following address.

Messages of support, money etc,to; Forgemaster Atlas Strike Committee, c/o AUEW House,

Arundel Gate,

Sheffield S1 Tel. 79042,

FORGE MASTERS STFWA Pig COMMITTEE

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Strikers from Forgemasters marching through Sheffield with marchers from Scotland’s Gartcosh steel plant

POOR BASTARDS!

An item in a South Yorkshire reported the following.

" Duty during the year-long miners strike in Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire has made police officers ill.

Stanley Crump, Chief Constable of Lincolnshire says in a report to the Police Committee that pressure of work could partly account for the 15,591 days lost through il] health last year. ”

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CLASS WAR

We must never forget the men still behind bars. They are guilty only of fighting in the interests of the working class during the great strike,

This month sees Tony Benn’s "Justice for Mineworkers” bill gsoing before parliament. Any demonstrations and events supporting the bill ,{a lobby and march are being planned for sometime in March) should be built for by all militants.

But the National Justice For Miners Campaign, which is backing the bill and the planned events should not be supported by militants. While we should build for particular events that it calls, we should not, affiliate NUM branches, support committees, etc. Why? Because this campaign

has decided NOT to support all imprisoned miners, but. only those who acted in "s00d faith".

Yhis is a terrible betrayal of the class war prisoners, every one of whom should be released unconditionaly. To affiliate to the campaign would be to support it’s selective approach. This approach will mean abandoning, men it believes acted in bad faith, - whatever that may mean!

The slogans we should be raising on every demo, picket, and rally that is organised are:

REINSTATE ALL SACKED MINERS FREE ALL JAILED MINERS

RELEASE THE JAILED MINERS

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NORTHUMBERLAND

WILLIAM SMITH: Whittle -- 2'!2-year sentence from February 1985 E44975. Durham Jail. Old Elvet. Durham DH1 3HU

DURHAM

JOHN MATTERSON: Murton - Two years and three months youth custody from December 1985

JOHN HEMINGWAY: Murton — One year and three months from December 1985.

JOHN ROBSON: Murton — One year and three months from December 1985.

YORKSHIRE

MARTIN HODGSON: Wakefield — Three-year sentence from November 1985. Armley Jail, Leeds.

NIGEL HODGSON: Wakefield — Three-year sentence from November 1985. Armley Jail, Leeds.

PAUL WRIGHT: Saville — 18-month sentence. G76424 Kirkham Jail, Freckleton Road, Preston, Lancs.

CLIVE THOMPSON: Frickley — Three-year sentence from April 1985. G79348, Ackington Jail, Morpeth, Northumberland, NE65 9XF.

Not minerbut sentenced m connection with the miners strike DAVID TEASDALE: Student — Nine-month sentence from April 1985 HMYCC York Road. Wetherby West Yorks LS22 5ED

N. DERBYSHIRE

PAUL BROTHWELL. |2-month sentence

DAVID GAUNT: Shirebrook 2'4-year sentence from December 1984 E71037 A Wing. Millers Park Youth Custody Centre Doddington Road Wellingborough

KENT

MARK BEST Two-year sentence from April 1985 B74749 Spring Hill Jail Aylesbury Bucks

TERRY FRENCH: Betteshanger - Four-year sentence from January 1985 B73383 Weald Wing. Maidstone Jail, Kent

GARRY NEWELL. Two-year sentence from April 1985 B574745 Eastchurch Jail Stampford Hill Sheerness CHRIS TAZEY: Betteshanger - Three-year sentence from January 1985 A29398 Youth Detention Centre. Springfield Road Chelmsford

JAMES WADDELL, Two-year sentence from April 1985 B574747, Eastchurch Jaul Stampford Hill, Sheerness EMLYN DAVIES: Two-year sentence from April 1985 B774746. Spring Hill Jail, Aylesbury Bucks

BRIAN DAY: Two-year sentence from April 1985 B74748, Spring Hill Jail. Aylesbury, Bucks

_ SOUTH WALES

DEAN HANCOCK: Oakdale — Eight-year sentence. Gartree maximum security prison, nr Market Harborough, Leicester.

RUSSELL SHANKLAND: Taff Merthyr — Eight-year sentence. Gartree maximum security prison, Leicester.

We would welcome further information about miners in

jail. Please ring A. Robe: 03023-844446

RGERAAR SEAM EAEH STOP PRESS 6 eA RE

DEMONSTRATION

MARCH 2nd

1:30 JUBILEE GARDENS

COUNTY

HALL

LONDON Speakers at rally include Liz French and Peter Heathfield

WHERE WE STAND

RED MINER

The Red Miner is produced by members and supporters of Workers Power. Workers Power is a revolutionary organisation fighting to build a new revolutionary party to overthrow capitalism - at home and abroad.

WORKERS" STRUGGLES

We support all workers’ struggles against the bosses. We fight to turn all struggles into conscious anti-capitalist struggles.

REFORMISA

Tha trade union and Labour leaders believe capitalfom can be reformed, made better, but they do not aim to overthrow capitalism. They act as go-betweens for the bosses with the workers. Even militant leaders limit their strugles to the fight for gains within capitalism. For this reason we are for building rank and file movements politically independant of the bureaucracy and committed to transforming the unions into democratic, class struggle unions.

REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

A revolutionary party will te a workers' party, e party that, built in struggle, can learn and pass om the lessons of the 1984-85 strike and other struggles. We stand for miners taking their place in the front ranks of building such a party as they did in the 1920s. Only by building a new revolutionary party can we create the class army that can fight and destroy the stinking capitalist system that threatens us with always having to fight to protect our jobs, conditions and organisations.

INTERNATIONAL ISM

We are committed to fighting capitalism internationally. We strive to build an international organisation of revolutionary parties. (Workers Power works with Irish, German, French and Chilean revolutionaries in the Movement for a Revolutionary Internatfonal). In particular we fight nationalist solutions to the crisis put forward by reformists like calls for import controls. Such demands merely divide the working class.

DIVISIONS

We fight all divisions in the working class. Niv isions are fostered by the bosses to weaken us. We are implacably opposed to racism immigration

controls, fascism, discrimination against and oppression of women, gays or black people.

THE OPPRESSED

We support all struggles by People oppressed by the bosses of Britain, America, France, Italy and the ather capitalist (imperialist) countries. Immediately in Britain this meams we support the right of the Irish people as a whole (not just those in the marth) to datrmine the fate of their country. We unconditionally support the republicans and socialists in Ireland fighting for this right and demand the immediate withdrawal of all British troops from Ireland.

WORKERS’ STATES

The USSR, Eastern Europe, etc are workers! states. Capitalism has been abolished. However, in each of thase states a bureaucracy, based on the Stalinist Communist Parties, holds political power. This situation arase out of the international isolation of the Russian Revolution in the 1920s. The revolution degenerated at the hands of the bureaucracy headed hy Stalin. The other workers’ states were degenerate From birth in that they were created in the bureau- “ratic image of the USSR.

Therefore we call for a political revolution in all of these states to overthrow the bureaucracy and realise the full potential of these non-capitalist economies thruogh democratic planning. At the same time, in order to preserve the gain for the working class represented by these economies, we defend the USSR and degenerate workers' states unconditionally against imperialism which, through war, will seek to re-introduce capitalism in these countries.

OVERTHROW CAPITALISM

The revolutionary party we seek to build will have as its strategic goal the overthrow of capitalism by workers organised into workers’ councils and armed so as to defeat the police and army that the hosses have used, and will use again, against us. We are for a socialist society in which all property is in the hands of the workers' state and all production is directed towards meeting human need - not satisfying the profit greed of the capitalists. We stand on the old slogan of Karl Marx:

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS, AND A WORLD, TO WIN.