Women Against Pit Closures, for all its problems of establishing a functioning democratic structure, showed that the movement is still there and can be mobilised on the issues facing the movement.
The response to the Conference of support groups called by a number of groups for October 12 also shows that the support groups are still there if
Scan establish a means of coordinating the campaign.
Scargill spelled out the Socialist Viewpoint, No. 7. September 1985. Page 17
Fighting For The Minin Communit ТІЛІ importance of the Support Groups very well in the Morning Star when talking about the campaigning to defend the victimised miners.
"The organisations to carry that message forward are already in country abroad) women's organisations.
If the TUC decision is to boost the campaign tor the victimised and imprisoned miners this must mean a new attitude to the two cases which are by far the most important in this
Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland. They were convicted of murder following the death of a taxi driver in South Wales and are now serving life sentences.
No date has been published yet for the special conference of the NUM called to discuss the campaign to defend the victimised miners. It is understood to be early October. That Conference has a responsibility to build on the TUC decisions, and begin to take some direct action on the issue.
There should be a one day NUM strike on that day. And there must be a full scale official mobilisation by the NUM and support groups for a mass picket of the court on the day of
appeals by Shankland and Hancock.
Women Against Pit Closures: Fighting for our futures
By JENNY FISHER QUESTION: If you had to decide the structure of a working class women's movement. which would you see as the more democratic body to make the decisions: 468 women from around the country. women from specific areas?
That was the question which was discussed for most of the morning session of the Women Against Pit Closures national Sheffield on August 17. The answer? The 17-women National Committee said 17: many of the 468 women said 468: in practice, 17 won the day.
Coming as delegates to the tirst national Conference of Women Against Pit Closures to be called since the return to work, many women expected to have a say in how the organisation was to from now on. Some had received written proposals from the National
Chad discussed and submitted amendments, and expected to be part of a vote on the issues.
But the National Committee had different ideas. Have a say: yes; but no voting. The meeting was to be kept
Consultative Conference: delegates could speak, but then they would have to rely on the National Committee to take account of the
they'd heard expressed and formulate the proposals. The proposals would be put to a further national gathering for a vote: but no guarantees on what kind of national meeting that would be.
The National Committee argued that any woman from the Women's
Support Groups who wanted to come
had been able to attend as a delegate, Le. with speaking rights. Some areas were underrepresented: if delegates voted as well as spoke, it wouldn't be
It was true that some areas were
underrepresented: Scotland, for ex-
ample, had only been able to bring 22 women, with the cost of travel a
big factor. But for many women, this
was the first national Women Against
Pit Closures meeting they'd heard
about and been invited to come to.
they didn't have their say now,
might be their last chance.
Back and forth the debate went all
morning, with the Chair seeming un-
willing to clear it all up by attempting
to discover the majority wish of the
meting and stick to it.
The situation was resolved only by the arrival of the three fraternal speakers from the NUM: Mick McGahey, Peter Heathfield and Arthur Scargill. Their speeches took the Conference up to the lunchbreak. The National Committee used the respite of the lunchbreak to agree on how to deal with the sifation (with a show of hands being spotted by those
speakers had started the afternoon session, the platform announced that as the Conterence was so concerned to hear everyone's opinions, there would be one speaker from each area.
Despite the anger felt by many delegates, much came out to show that the gains women made in the temselves as political - have bastong. I vul be dilcile to judge
Tissue women felt strongest about, but issues taken up were:
• The sacked and imprisoned
Women share the outrage of the whole labour movement af the way in which miners have been selectively sacked by the Coal Board and imprisoned by the state for taking part, with their union, in industrial action. But, as they did during the strike, women are bearing the brunt of the
Women at the Conference saw support for the sacked and imprisoned miners and their families as a very major issue: and from the reports
given it was clear that women are leading the collecting and campaigning to help this hardship. Liz French from Kent, whose husband is in jail
summed up the telings by sayıng. "It's not justice" we want: il's total
amnesty for every sacked and jailed
This issue came up in two ways.
there was the question of should be participate in Women
Against Pit Closures. It would have
been easy to disown them, but there
Othe point that women judged by their Various
possibilities were suggested, in-
cluding exploring the differences
between "scab" and "superscab"
wives; and leaving it up to local
groups to decide whether to work
with scab wives. Socialist Viewpoint, No. 7, September 1965. Poge 18
The platform was not so keen on this issue being discussed at all, feeling that it was potentially divisive. But one delegate pointed out that she'd had to make up her mind. Her husband was the only striking miner in the whole of their village: now the question of a scab union was being liscussed, and she was working with "scab wives" on this issue because where others supported the national NUM, it was important that they should all campaign together.
Notts. women appealed to other women to come down to Notts. and work with them; stressing how important it was to win the battle for one national NUM.
• "Other" issues
"Your fight is our fight" was commonly seen on placards during the strike. Women at the Conference were keen to turn the slogan round now, aswell. "Your fight is our fight" was the sentiment behind the strong support expressed for rallworkers, who were then heading for confrontation with the Tories. the miners hadn't stopped the Tories (yet), any possible continuation ot that struggle by other workers was going to be fully supported.
The banner on the platform reminded us of women's