secretary of Tower Lodge NUM and member of the South Wales Area Executive. The scale of the opposition to the pit closure announcement has been remarkable. How do you think this has affected the mood amongst the miners? It came as a shock to me, and to everyone in the industry. The immediate response of the public and other trade unions, in particular the two big demonstrations in London, has lifted our spirits, especially in the 21 pits originally named to close. In the ten pits that are still listed for immediate closure the miners are still wary of the response and may feel that it has come too late. Eight of those ten pits have stopped producing coal and many people in them have felt a need for action within three weeks and not in three months. What is needed to raise the confidence of the miners in these pits in order to fight back? At Taff Merthyr, for example, the men are not convinced that they can save the pit; only that it's worth the fight, even in adverse conditions. What are needed are major resolutions into the TUC calling for industrial action if these pits close, there should be a general strike or at least a day of action before Christmas. There was a report in the Financial Times last week about a further seven pits to close in June 1993, including your own pit at Tower. What is your response to that? Well, I don't respond. The battle for our future will have been won or lost well before next June. I don't know anyone in Britain who has a sure future further than next June, whatever job they've got. How do you think the NUM has conducted the campaign since the closure announcement? I think the NUM have approached the campaign correctly, by going into the field and seeking out a response from other people. As this response builds up I think you will see the NUM asking for more demands and forcing the issue of a HOO: Andrew Wiard Action needed for the ten pits on the list none of this can come quick enough for the ten pits now on the closure list. You support Scargill's call for a day of action if there is no response from the government? I think people need to see the support that exists for us, not just by turning out on a Sunday in London, which was excellent, but actually coming out of work and giving a day up. We are fighting to stop the rise of unemployment in Britain today and force a reversal on the government, if not more than that. The leader of the UDM, Roy Lynk, has been completely discredited by these developments. What do you think the approach should be to the UDM and its structures? It's simple. If any of the UDM wish to rejoin the NUM then they should do so and abide by the rule book of the NUM. What do you think about the TUC tactic of maintaining a broad front and having the CBI, Liberals and church-people on their platforms? If the TUC organise meetings, they can pick the platform. As long as miners don t give control or the aispute to the TUC, I don't think it can do any harm. At present they are running a campaign alongside us, and that will only change when they call their membership to action. This will only come about through the unions, from the bottom up, pushing for that action.
I don't think the NUM can do it on their own. It's people like the railwavmen, who will be affected, and the workers at the 16 power stations that will close, that need to take resolutions to their unions and then into the TUC. Saying, look we're going out with the miners and we're expecting you people to support us.
I don't think going around the streets shouting for a general strike is going to do it. We need to address this in every meeting we hold, but it's not a rallying call that can be immediately carried out. I do think that it may eventually come to that and that we're a lot nearer to it than we were in 1972, in 1974 or in 1984-5. I think the country is ready for it, provided the work is done at the A hero in the country - Scargill vindicated with the railworkers and the workers. If we can get them calling for industrial action on the TUC, then we're halfway there. Its clear that a whole series of workers, particularly the public sector, are now under direct threat. Yes. I've noticed in the last week that the Tories are not backing off on job losses. In fact they are putting more and more into the pool, as if they are saying that this is the big one. Defeat the miners this time and we can do what we like for the next five years. If we haven't built the bridges by January, then the miners and all of the other unions are going to be in trouble. What is your opinion of the Wales TUC Campaign for Jobs and Recovery', which they launched in response to recent events? They have made the issue so broad that I don't think people will respond. Their leaflets don't'even mention the miners. What is your approach to linking up with activists in other unions? I really can't go chasing after them, they have to get in touch with me. There is no better time for people to take action. Arthur Scargill is a 'hero in the country today, even the word socialist is acceptable again. Women from the mining communities played a key role in the 84-5 strike but most of the structures they established at the time have since folded. How do you think women will get involved in this struggle? The only way they can get back in is to re-establish support groups. Some people are arguing in the NUM that you don'tneed support groups at the present TUC - General Strike H time. But it's only by having support groups that people can register their support. If you want people to become active you should set up miners support groups and women against pit closures groups. Only when people are part of an organisation can they be of any benefit. We need support groups, and not only for the miners. Peter Hain, now Labour MP for Neath, said he was proud to be a secondary picket during the recent one day strike by the CPSA against the privatisation of the DVLA in Swansea. This is obviously not the attitude of the Labour Party leadership. How can we use the new situation to popularise these ideas in the Labour Party? I think the Labour Party has moved a long way in the past week, just by saying it's going to vote against Maastricht. There is now room in the party for people to speak out where they didn't lave a platform before. If we can get to work on people like Peter Hain and the rest of the so-called 'soft-left', then we could carry through the whole of the Labour Party. I have said previously that Labour should vote against Maastricht and that they should be socialists. They let us down last time, they must do something about it this time. What is your response to the appointment of Peter Walker, formerly Secretary of State for Wales, to oversee the relief funds for areas affected by closures? Only this: money is not the answer. All that Peter Walker did in Wales was cosmetic exercises. He never created a job of any merit in South Wales. What we need in South Wales and in Britain is for the mines to say working, not low paid jobs to replace them when the mines have closed.
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