Right wing gain in Yorkshire area NEC
Scargill - under fire an electoral machine. thing is that in this election it has put up two rival candidates for the same post - Clarke, and Sammy Thompson, who is also a member!
On policies, Eric Clarke has been making the running against Scargill. Like South Wales, he opposes forming a regional organisation of the Justice for Mineworkers campaign; Scotland and Wales are the only two NUM Areas not to build regional campaigns.
During the Strike, Clarke ported the calling of a ballot; though seats on the NUM's National Executive took place on the same day as the Vice Presidency ballot.
Twelve candidates put their names down to contest four seats - but large numbers of spoiled papers could be seen, with miners throwing their papers away in disgust or writing in the above".
The four elected we Area President Jack Taylor, Financial Secretary Ken Homer, sitting NEC member Brian Daking and Area Agent Johnny Walsh the most vociferously anti-Scargill those elected.
Walsh's win is a disappointment to the militant who campaigns vigorously against his right wing ticket. Except for sections within the local NUM. he had already been discredited in the labour and trade union movement.
The tour elected were Area President Jack Taylor, Financial Secretary Homer, sitting NEC member Brian Dak-
The strange of course he did not say so until afterwards! He worked
Wales leadership to sell out the strike in March 1985. Now he supports the
UDM rejoining the NUM, complete with leading
Prendergast.
despite the adamant opposition of the
Notts NUM rank and file who insist they should not and would not put up with such a move.
retrograde regional policies adopted by South Wales in relation to the six- day week and the nine hour day. How
ELECTIONS for Yorkshire Area elections
By H.M. GREENAWAY ing and Area Agent Johnny Walsh those elected.
the militants
"none of vigorously against his right wing ticket.
Except for sections within the
NUM. he had already been discredited
In the labour movement.
His right wing of
Glasshoughton
Sir Jack Smart (knighted by Thatcher)
and Bill O'Brien MP.
has since closed without opposition from Waish - but he is now turning his attentions to the Selby coalfield.
Hatfield Main to win election to the NEC
Is another setback
Ken
Yorkshire, though Douglass himself is a maverick figure.
Socialist Viewpoint No. 16 April 1987 p11
Yorkshire President Jack Taylor many with the South still
Lynk scabs and
He holds this view
So politically.
Broad the most vociferously anti-Scargill of
Stalinist
Walsh's win is a disappointment to who campaigned rank and local nominate and trade union base was the same
Involvement
Colliery that spawned
Glasshoughton
The failure of Dave Douglass from
Armthorpe for the left in years is it since Eric Clarke spent four hours down a pit - let alone nine hours on a shovel?
(Yes, we do still have shovels, and no toilets or basic washing facilities; we still only get a 20 minute meal break; even members on the surface only get the same 20 minute snap break: and what other heavy industrial workers only get an extra 25p per hour on night shift?)
what, then, of Sam, the "bread and butter" man?
He's our man, or so he's have us belive! He is supported by Scargill, Formerly the British leader of the bizarre Posadas current. Douglass still doesn't seem to know where he stands
He has worked with the Militant and SWP-dominated "Miners'
Left" (as distinct from the "Broad Left"). Recently he wrote in Workers Press supporting Sammy Thompson for Vice President - yet at the same time arguing the need for a file candidate like Terry French: so why didn't he get Hatfield to
Terry for election? Even worse. Douglass also did the left a real disservice by writing an attack on left in the Strike. entitled "Bores under the Floor".
Walsh's victory strengthens the right wing and Stalinist-led block ganging up against Scargill on the NEC, and brings the danger of demands for a reelection of the national President.
An NUM rank and file bulletin, the
Tannoy characterised Walsh as "a rat in our midst". Scargill will soon become even more painfully aware of his "enemies within" the NEC.