coalfield
By PAUL HUBERT
ALTHOUGH it is now nearly 9
months since the end of
miners' strike. in Yorkshire it
continues to reverberate. The
programme of pit closures about which Arthur Scargill warned has advanced, if not at the speed at which it would have done without the strike.
Unfortunately at Corton Wood, the pit where the strike began, the NUM lodge
became demoralised and the pit is now shut and at other pits miners have felt that it was impossible to avoid con-
ceding redundancies. It's no longer front page news - but every day more miners are gong out of the gate for the last time.
In this gloomy picture there are one or two bright spots. Darfield Main. one of the pits now threatened, Is at the centre of a strong campaign. Fryston in the North Yorkshire area have recently voted to contest the closure of their pit. And although the level of activity is by no means so high, some of the Women's Support Groups and other organisations which came out of the strike are still very active.
The Miners Campaign Group 85 Is one such organisation. Based in the North Yorkshire and Barnsley areas. it has been maintaining the links between militants in different pits which were forged during the strike. As many of the full-time officials have become secretive and bureaucratic since the decline of the strike. the flow of information between different pits and areas through such unofficial channels is vital and has enabled the rank and file to have an independent input into meetings and demonstrations through leailets. The Group leafletted the TÚC Congress over the amnesty issue.
it the present time even militant branches fighting the closure of their own pit can have few Illusions that an all-out strike could start in the same way it did before. This has led some to hope that it is possible to win something through the colliery review procedure. On the face of it a pit like Fryston would seem to have a good case, Men have been transferred there from other pits which have been closed. such Savile, with the promise that the pit has years of coal left.
However the reasons that the NCB choses to close one pit rather than another may have very little to do with coal. Just down the road from Fryston is another pit. Wheldale, where it has been accepted that the future is shorter. Yet Wheldale is not currently threatened with closure. The determination of the board to see Fryston closed means that the review procedure will be ig lored il that is all that stands betweer the pit and closure.
The reason for NCB hostility against Fryston is that it was a hotbed of
Reviving struggle in SOLIDA HIN * militancy during the strike. In many other pits even "left" leaders were a rein on militancy. For example. elsewhere in the North Yorkshire area is Kellingley, one of the largest pits in Europe. members in the branch leadership any has Communist by the end of the strike there were 1.000 men scabbing. part of the reason for which was that the officials gave the activists the runaround.
At Fryston the leadership really acted as a leadership. The branch president. Roy Wright, did time in jail for his pains as the victim of a nationally publicised frame-up.
A scab at Fryston called Michael Fletcher was beaten up. Twenty-eight miners from the branch faced charges and special measures designed to take them out of the struggle. First came time on remand in jail and then exile. Roy Wright was forced to live in Southport while others were sent to OUT NOW OXFORD & The MINERS STRIKE: an account of the work and political discussions of the Oxford Miners' Support Group. £3.50 plus postage from MSG publications, 35, Osler Road Headington, Oxford. Socialist Viewpoint No. 9 December 1985 p
places like Hull. Twenty-six of those people are now able to go back to what passes for a normal life after such a disruption.
As in many other "riot" trials the
charges collapsed for lack of evidence when finally brought before a court -but by then they had served the purpose of keeping militants out of the struggle until the strike was over. Even* the two who were found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm were only convicted on the basis of confessions and pleas of guilty.
In Leeds, four of us who were not miners were given a graphic insight into the pressures faced by the strikers. Socialist Viewpoint supporters manag ed to get the District Labour Party to organise pickets in support of the "friendly, tame" West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police treated these pickets with care but as the end of the strike neared they became more and more forceful in response.
At a rather subdued picket at Savile in February the four of us were arrested for no particular reason except that we were there and the police hoped that we were students. As one of them wittly. put it before driving us off to the police station. "Police 4 - Students NIl".
Before we were relased we were all charged with "threatening. insulting or abusive behaviour liable to cause a breach of the peace". In addition one of the others was charged with assault on a police officer in the course of his duty whille I was charged with 3 assaults and criminal damage to a police raincoat.
The police story was so fraudulent that Wetherby magistrates were unable to swallow it all and settled when the 3-day trial drew to an end for 3 convictions on the breach of the peace charges. With two ofthe others I was lined E125 and bound over for a year.
Hopefully few people in the Labour Party accept the case for pit closures. However, my own case has given me an even stronger feeling about the necessity for continuing to press the case for an amnesty and reimbursement of the miners and their union. MiNERS STRIKE OXFORD Oxford Miners Support Group