The appeal by the NUM executive to other workers to join them in strike action on 2 April could not be more timely. Over the last few months a long battle has taken place inside the Tory cabinet over what concessions to make on pit closures. All the signs are that the concessions to the miners will be absolutely minimal - a handful of pits from the original 31 kept open.
In the present context of huge attack on the public sector, of wage freeze and mass redundancy, it is vital that workers in other areas join the miners on 2 April.
The political situation in Britain is characterised by a deep contradiction which only industrial action can begin to shift. On the one hand the economy is in deep crisis, and the Tories are in deep trouble over Maastricht and pit closures. There are also signs, with the London bus workers' strikes, the Time struggle and the miners' strike, that the industrial mood is shifting But on the other hand, attacks by the bosses and the Tories are deepening all the time - they are literally getting away with murder.
As we report elsewhere, the Child Support Act, a massive assault on single mothers, is just about to become law. Lamont's VAT on domestic fuel bills next year is a classic of taking it out on the poor and the aged.
More than 100,000 public sector workers, especially in local government, will lose their obs in the next year. Over a vast range of issues, from school exclusions, to teacher sackings, to the destruction of the NHS and rail privatisation, the Tory steamroller continues.
with so much. Sweeping changes in the class struggle Despite Tory political turmoil, the level of resistance, while rising, nowhere meets the level of the attacks; never has such a weak and rudderless government been able to get away What lies behind this situation is of course the craven cowardice of the Labour and union leaders, combined with the atmosphere of fear which is generated by mass unemployment. This is of the course a situation in which bureaucratic inertia and obstructionism thrive. Nothing is simpler for the union bureaucrats than the tired old refrain 'you know you can't get your members out, you know they won't vote for action'.
This is reinforced by the stunning sleepwalking philistinism of the Labour leadership; it takes real buffoonery of almost genius proportions for John Smith to think the way to values'. get a response. but the trend is there. - has to be hammered home. fight the Tories is to hit them with 'religious But there are two new factors in the situation. There is at least one union leadership, the NUM, which is prepared to fight and to give a lead. That is an immense step forward. The response to their ballot for strike action shows the basic truth, that if you give a lead then you Then there is the issue of the 1.5 per cent pay freeze. Pay freezes are always difficult to hold; historical experience shows that pay norms are much easier to combat than redundancy or attacks on the wellare state. The Fire Brigades Union appears willing to mount the first concerted challenge on this front; they were the union that defeated Labour's say laws in 1977-78 so union militants have to prepare for a summer of discontent, starting with 2 April. That is the key to halting the Tory attacks in their tracks, and of shifting the relationship of forces inside the labour movement as a whole. The Smith-Blair-Brown agenda inside the Labour Party is one whose logical end-point is the destruction of the party as an expression of working class politics. That may be a far-off conclusion, To generate a culture and dynamic of resistance it is necessary that the activists take the lead for action now. Time is short; but in every sector of the working class movement, espe cially among public sector workers, the message - that striking with the miners is the best way to defend your own jobs and conditions We want the paper to be politically sharper and to look better. There is just one small matter with which you can help us. We need to rapidly complete our relaunch fund. Send any donation you can to: Socialist Outlook PO Box 1109 London N4 2UU, cheques made payable to 'Computer Fund'. No. 40 April, 1993