The refusal of the coal and rail unions meeting on 6 January to take any action to defend the miners was a disaster. Their decision to go back to their own executives to consider a work 'stay away' (possibly on 15 February), and meet again on 12 January, dangerous foot-dragging little sign that action is being seriously contemplated.
The danger now is that all the possibilities contained in the great popular movement generated by the original Closures - rented in the a two mass demonstrations of 100,00 and 200,000 - will S be frittered away.
That movement deepened the crisis of the Tory government, began to change the political situation and gave real hope that the years for retreat could be reversed at last.
It was a chance for the unions to begin to turn the tide. The left was right to demand that the next logi cal step should be for the TUC to call a one-day general strike to build the movement towards more sustained action. A late call by the TUC got 200,000 people on the streets under banners of the trade unions and Labour Party.
The NUM has done well in the courts and closing the pits to be illegal. But this battle SO GEORGE Bush, as his has the hallmark of a exercise with campaign. refuse to examine elementary cannot be won in the courts alone. Nor can the government-controlled review procedure be The recommendations it makes will be based on political criteria, not economic or industrial ones. They will close as many pits as they can get away with.
Stayaway
A major new impetus is now needed in the An officially-backed work 'stayaway' by the mining and rail unions would be a big step forward, but it would have to be seen as, and organised for as, a day of collective strike action and not left to inAny authoritative call would response, whether it was in solidarity with the miners, or in defence of the public sector more generally. The anti-union laws can be chaiweekday NUM demonstration. the die is cast and pits are closed. imposed by the Tory government. lenged, as they were on the day of the big The public sector unions have talked of coordinated strike ballots and strike action. Such action would get a massive response, and would rock the Tory government to its founThe TUC should stop its vague talk about 'rolling campaigns', and lead and co-ordinate such a strike movement. We need a fight in every public sector union for joint action - in defence of jobs and against the pay freeze.
The mining industry cannot be separated from the public sector as a whole, and if the miners are to win a convincing victory they are unable to be able to do it alone. A militant public sector fightback is there a direct way of defending mining jobs as well. The solidarity movement which has sprung up since the announcement of the pit closures is very important and kept the issue alive with countless demonstrations, events and meetings at local as well as national level. This campaigning energy however must also be turned in to the unions to ensure that effective action is taken before A stay away, if it is agreed, should be fully supported as a minimum step. But the movement is going to have to face the reality that only strike action will save jobs in the pits and in the public sector, or confront the wage freeze big, but not really mass. The