After the miners - the sell-outs begin
Editorial THE lesson of the miners strike, it must never be forgotten, was that the miners could have won if they had had the support to which they were entitled from the rest of the trade union movement, in particular the TUC.
Now the strike is over there are two distinct interpretations being put on the defeat of the NUM. Those who want to fight the employers and the government point to the unique example of Scargill and the miners in making a principle of jobs, rejecting the "profitability" argument of the employers and mounting the first great challenge to the creation of mass unemployment. On the other hand those who want to avoid a fight ask "If the miners were defeated, who can win?"' Maybe, they argue, it is better to compromise. They are the same people who ensured that the miners were defeated.
Those who hold the sway of course are those who seek compromise. The anti-union laws are now being complied with right across the trade union movement. The TUC is preparing by a decision of the General Council to overturn the decisions of the April 1982 Conference of Executives which adopted the policy of opposition to the anti-union laws. Nor is it just a matter of complying with the law. When Tuffin and the UCW leadership ordered the Mount Pleasant workers back to work for a ballot it also involved a decision to capitulate to the Post Office management; Tuffin is now to seek a fundamental policy change at the UCW conference in May on the operation of part time workers.
Nor are the "'left" led unions any better. The NUR and ASLEF have accepted a 4.85% wage settlement which is less than the rate of inflation. And the retreat has also been reflected in many of the concils facing rate-capping. The employers of course have learned their lessons well. The management response to the occupation of Yarrow shipbuilders has been immediately to discipline the shop stewards for organising it. The GPO - encouraged by Tuffin's capitulation - now have a completely hard line on new technology. Terry Duffy is doing his bit to help the bosses by organising a new right-wing campaign group in the trade unions.
The Government is moving just as fast. The rightwing campaign for a fresh election for General Secretary of the TGWU, by alleging ballot irregularities has prduced statements in Parliament calling for compulsory postal ballots for all trade union positions. There has been the budget, with further attacks on youth and the unemployed. We have
BIMINEYOUR DRY AT VK.. 15 YOUR DRY OF SHAME
Those miners who argued "our fight is your fight" were more accurate than many workers believed. Their defeat has brought a bosses' offensive against the whole movement. seen a range of fresh attacks on the Health Service. Now Thatcher is pushing proposals for new legislation on public order offences, using football violence as an excuse, which would give sentences of up to 10 years for "riotous assembly"' and other offences.
Inside the NUM the situation is not much better. The declaration that "the fight will continue'' has never got off the ground. NUM members at Furnacite in South Wales were advised back to work by a majority decision of the South Wales Area Executive when they struck over new victimisations at the site.
The National Executive has successfully moved to end the national overtime ban through a delegate conference on the grounds that it was an obstacle to national negotiations over the victimised people. Yet it will not save the jobs of the victimised miners but simply allow the Board to replenish their stocks quicker and bring forwards their closure programme.
No one can deny that the NUM is in a desperate situation. There are between 700 and 800 miners Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 1
sacked and over 150 in prison. Their bargaining power is very weak. But retreats will only worsen the situation and strengthen the resolve of NCB management. Arthur Scargill himself clearly sees this, since he fought against calling off the overtime ban and was clearly shaken when the decision was taken.
lan MacGregor has begun the implementation of both the first stages of his pit closure programme and his reorganisation of NCB management. Hardline managers "proven" in the strike are being promoted, and already the closure of St. John's Colliery in Bedwas, South Wales, has been announced.
It should be no surprise that NUM members at Bedwas have voted to accept the closure. Miners face a very difficult situation. Since the union has been defeated in a national strike, they see no effective way of confronting the Board on local level. But every retreat made by the NUM makes the situation worse. If a turn is to be made, and opposition to closures revived, then a hard line has to be taken by the NUM wherever that is possible - and maintaining the overtime ban was one example.
In Bedwas, NACODS members have made more fuss than the NUM, although there cannot be the slightest confidence that anything will come of it, given NACODS's past record. Peter McNestry has said that the NCB has now "torn up the agreement they made during the strike" as part of an attempt to pull the NUM into a shabby deal. He now says NACODS was "hoodwinked" by the NCB - very perceptive of him!
Nor is this the only closure in the offing. Well-founded rumours circulate of impending closures in the Scottish Area, and 800 redundancies have already been announced in Kent.
Despite the difficult conditions, the fighting capacity of the NUM has to be rebuilt if the coal in. dustry is to be saved in any recognisable form. Arthur Scargill has to be defended against any moves against him from within the union and a fighting left wing consolidated which can learn the lessons of the strike in order that the obstacles on which this strike foundered can be surmounted in the future.
The role of the Communist Party, one of the most conservative influences in the strike, needs to be analysed in detail. But most importantly, the problems of the role of the rest of the trade union movement and the TUC in particular have to be tackled. What happened in the miners' strike must not be allowed to recur in the future. The TUC has tremendous authority within the trade union movement. If they had wanted to mobilise action in support of the miners, they could have done so. The fact is that they were actually opposed to spreading the strike. When NACODS looked as if they might take action, the TUC urged them not to "escalate the situation".
It is true that it is very difficult to press the TUC into action. But the trade union movement belongs to the working class, not to a few more or less self appointed bureaucrats at the top. They have no right to deprive the movement of united action when it becomes so urgent as it was in the miners strike. The bureaucratic apparatus which protects them from the rank and file has to be broken down and the movement democratised. Even more, the movement must learn how to mobilise effectively against the bureaucracy under conditions such as the miners strike. To compromise with the bureaucrats is to hand them the intiative. What is necessary is a fight for control of the movement hi-jacked by them. That is the lesson of the miners strike. That problem was not resolved but the miners strike did expose the problem for all to see. We must ensure it is tackled more NO VICTIMISATIONE effectively in the future. Scargill: opposed lifting of overtime ban; retreats now will make it harder to defend those victimised.
Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 2
Fight on for the class
By ALAN THORNETT OVER 700 miners have been sacked and over 150 are in prison serving sentences of up to 5 years. 'These miners have been victimised or imprisoned for supporting the strike, supporting the policy of the NUM and for fighting against pit closures. Every single one of them must be