BRITAIN-
Arthur Scargill addresses Labour Party conference (DR)
The first point of the electoral program-
"A leadership me published by the FSLN was titled
People's Power and stated:
"The Sandinista Front undertakes to that stands and fights"
strengthen the power of the people and to maintain arms in the people's hands to support and defend this power. The San-
Arthur Scargill speaks dinista Front will guarantee unions of workers and rural workers, the organisations of neighbourhoods, women
'If it's contempt we're talking about, then I plead guilty. But the only and young people, the unions of smallcontempt I've committed is to fight for mv class.' These were the words and medium-agricultural producers, of of Arthur Scargill, president of the British National Union of Mineworkers tradespeople and small industrialists, of
- NUM, when served with a high court writ [instruction] during Labour journalists, of technicians and specialists,
Party conference at the beginning of October.
of intellectuals and artists, of religious to appear in court charged with contempt of a previous order which ruled groups, remain the unquenchable source that the miners' strike must not be described as 'official'.
of revolutionary power.'
The future breaking miners had brought the original action which claimed that the assembly, within which the FSLN will rules of the union had been broken by the refusal to call a ballot.
have a majority, and will have legislative union leadership claimed that a delegate conference was sufficient to and constitutional powers, and will act on the basis of these principles.'
The miners have made it plain that they will not be starved into sub-
The November 4 elections are the
The use of the courts is a sign of the weakness of the govern-
FSLN's response to the present stage of the revolutionary process. They will
Arthur Scargill and the miners' union are now threatened with massive lead to a new phase in the transition fines for continuing to disobey the court ruling and declaring the strike that Nicaraguan society is presently official. If the money is not paid, the union's assets will be seized.
experiencing, while the question of
This is a crucial time for the seven-month-old strike and now, more state power was successfully resolved five than ever, the backing of the entire labour movement will be needed to years ago. The celebration on July 19, prevent the seizure of the union's assets and the attack on trade-union
1984, of the fifth anniversary of the revolution's triumph, was the first public
Arthur Scargill spoke to a Labour Briefing (1) fringe meeting at Labour demonstration organised by the FLN
Party conference, shortly after the writ had been served, expressing the since its candidates were named. It drew defiance and determination of the union and its supporters around the
300,000 people, although only the incountry. Here we reprint a major part of his speech.
habitants of the Managua region, which has a population of only about a million, were asked to attend.
This example confirms that the FSLN's capacity to mobilise has remained intact, despite the increasing difficulties weighing on the country.
It is also a reminder that, at a time when Nicaragua is facing an increasingly clear danger of direct imperialist intervention, and given the distrust with which the bourgeois press internationally is treating the elections, it is a vital task for the international solidarity movement to throw all its forces into the defence of the Nicaraguan revolution.
International Viewpoint 29 October 1984 make the strike official. ment and the establishment. rights which it signifies. Chairman, colleagues,
I must confess that last night must have been a worrying time for some people, listening to that worker Lord Denning [a now-retired leading judge] giving forth on television when he said: It will have to be the use of the law against these trade unionists.'
And of course we've got a whole series of unelected judges dispensing not justice but class law against our people who are involved in a struggle to maintain jobs, and to maintain the communities in which they live.
The writ ordered Scargill Two strike-
There's been a gauntlet thrown down. That gauntlet is being picked up. The - miners' union has been told after seven months of official strike action that the strike is no longer legal or official. What utter nonsense!
In 1981 there was an unofficial strike of the miners' union and the president of the union was Joe Gormley. There was 1. Labour Briefing is a journal in the Labour Party which organises sections of the left wing. It is sponsored by, among others, Socialist Action, a revolutionary Marxist newspaper.
11
no action at that time, no suggestion that there should have been a ballot. media that the High Court today has been hearing an action brought against the Na-
Union of Mineworkers, and the NUM President, seeking the sequestration of the union's funds and seeking to commit the president of the NUM to Penton-
We're aiso advised by reports in the media that the case has been adjourned allegedly in order that the union and its president can reconsider the position. In order to get clarity that we were aware of the decision of the High Court I thought we'd made our position clear. But if there's any ambiguity or any doubt on the part of the BBC or ITV [the main television stations], then in order to dispel it let's specifically state the union's position.
The national executive committee of the NUM meeting on Monday October 1, 1984 were told that a writ had been issued against the NUM. Following a full the national executive committee unamimously agreed the follow-
One, to fully endorse and support the views and comments expressed by the national president during the interview on Channel 4 news on Friday, September irrespective of the High Court decision, the executive unanimously reaffirmed its determination to continue to deal with the mineworkers' internal affairs in accordance with the rules and constitution of the NUM - as befits an independent and free trade union.
Three, to reaffirm as official the strike action in the British coalfields, including Yorkshire and Derbyshire, which has been sanctioned in accordance national Rule No 41 by a national delegate conference - the governing body of our union which gives instructions to all members of the national executive including the national officials, the president, the general secretary and the vice
I want to make it clear the NUM will continue to do all in its power to win support for the miners' official strike in order to force the Coal Board back to the negotiating table. This dispute can only be resolved provided the pit closure proannounced by the National Coal Board [NCB] on March 6, is withthreatened with are kept open, and the Coal Board honours the Plan for Coal signed by the government, the National Coal Board and the trade unions. (3) must withdraw their insistence that pits should be closed on economic grounds, which is a clear violation of the Plan for
I'm not someone who wishes to go to Pentonville prison. I'm not someone who relishes the thought of being committed in that way. But I want to make it absolutely clear that if the choice facing me - and I would hope facing any other responsible trade-union leader — is to be
WELL
EAT
GRASS
BEFORE
WE
GIVE
IN Miners' wives put their point (DR) committed by a high court to Pentonville or any other jail for standing by this trade union or our class, or alternatively having to live with the imprisonment of one's mind for betraying one's class, then there is no choice as far as I'm concerned. I stand by my class.
There seems to be a blind spot on the part of the judiciary, the government and the Coal Board. The miners' union did not go out on strike on Friday, we've been on strike for seven months. suffered appalling hardship during the space of that time. We've come too far, we've suffered too much, for there to
On the basis of the NCB official figures of the 43,141 miners made redundant over the past two years, only 72 two per cent) have found alternaIt's nonsense to suggest that miners would be in a position to have an alternative job, particularly with four and a half million people unemployed.
The figures show quite clearly that for one miner to be made redundant, with all the factors to be taken into consideration, such as the redundancy payments scheme, the loss of tax, the state benefits, the unemployment benefit for his son or daughter who cannot have a job, the total cost at the end of seven years is over £91,000. To keep that person employed, to keep that job available for his son or his daughter as well, would only cost $48,000.
It doesn't make economic sense, let alone social, political or moral sense, to create redundancy in this or any other
The cost of the strike described by
[leader of the Labour speech on Tuesday as approximately £2 billion, has been made to look infinitesimal according to the study by Andrew Glyn for the NUM. By September, irrespective of what Nigel Lawson [finance minister] has said, £3.5 billion has been the cost to the British taxpayers of this damaging and costly dispute. billion or more in lost production. Fifty four million tons of coal have been lost in the space of this dispute.
The Coal Board claim they wanted to take only four million tons of capacity out of this industry. They wanted to bring supply in line with demand - the capitalists' maxim of the market concept.
Even if one were to accept this approach, rather than the social and sensible one of the NUM, even on that basis the current dispute with the Board, and the fact that they are now prolonging it -with the government aiding and abetting them - does not make sense.
They've got 14 times the capacity reduction that they themselves claim they required. They themselves suggested they wanted a total coal output by 1989 of 497 million tons. That programme would have included pit closure, a programme of about 70 pits and 70,000 jobs.
The Coal Board themselves now concede that due to five million tons of lost production, the maximum coal output can achieve in the next five years, by 1989, is no longer 497 million tons. It is only 480 million tons. And that can only be achieved with not one single pit closure on any count.
We are entitled to ask therefore why have the government and the NCB still determined to press ahead with their proposals announced in March of this year? Ill tell you why. It is not about closing a few pits, it goes to the very heart of the economic philosophy of this government.
You can either choose the balance sheet mentality of this government - of producing a political and economic solution that considers profits rather than people — or you can accept the social and sensible approach from the NUM and the labour and trade-union movement that puts at the very centre of its argument the benefit of human beings rather than statistics in the balance sheet of the Coal Board or the balance sheet mentality of Ian MaeGregor [chairperson of the Coal
They can tell us there is insufficient money for investment, but then they that Scargill reasserted that the strike was of for Coal was drawn up first in between the unions, and the government to radically increase coal
International Viewpoint 29 October 1984
should stop the cruise and Trident missiles programme.
This fellow MacGregor, he really takes
I remember during the negotiations, one Saturday evening, Mick MeGahey [Scottish NUM leader], Peter Heathfield [NUM General Secretary ] and I thought we were on our way to settlement. We'd reached a point where we thought seriously that the Board were going to concede, and we adjourned for the night.
We began to drink a cup of tea in the Coal Board office. Mick MeGahey says to MacGregor: I went to the Soviet Union in 1954 and the pits had been devastated, but development was their aim, and the people were regarded as the most important thing. Today the industry has been developed in a most unbelievable way.
MacGregor says: 'You known, Michael, I was there in 1956, and I agree with you. Those Russians have done a great job. Not as well as I would have liked, but pretty good, pretty good.
Peter Heathfield then says: I'll tell you what, I went to China. have got coal where previously there were only paddy fields. Terrific. Marvellous.'
"You know, Peter, I too have been to China. those Chinese are doing better than those
And I thought, I'm not going to be
'Do you know the country I think's the best I've seen? Cuba. Do you know, I said, I've visited the mines in Cuba, in the Oriente province, and to compare those mines today, under the socialist system, with the divisions and the problems they had under the private owners before the revolution was fantastic. Did you ever see them?'
There was then what's called a pregnant pause. And finally it wasn't 'Michael'
'Mr Scargill I was the owner,' says MacGregor. And he said: friend Castro, Fidel Castro, took them woman got up and said: We want to make it clear no matter what anyone says it's no longer a question of whether the miners feel that this or that can be ne-
You're not negotiating for the future of your pits, you're negotiating for the future of our livelihood, our comresolve this until the Board withdraw their pit closure programme?
I don't know what's going to happen. I do know that since the announcement of the writ being issued on Monday there has been the full meeting of the NUM executive committee. It declared that its intention is to continue to declare this
And the Yorkshire area NUM council have also unanimously agreed that the strike must continue to be declared official. They too are refusing to accept a decision of the High Court....
Make no mistake, this national executive of the NUM is not prepared to betray its members. Often in the past workers and trade-union members have pointed to leaders and said: us out. They betrayed us. They said one thing before they another thing once they got their nice job as a full-time trade-union leader.'
When I campaigned for the job of national president of my union I made clear that if the members of the NUM wanted a president who was intent on becoming a lord, then don't vote for me. I said it was more important not to prostitute one's principles, or to compromise the policies of the national conference of my union than to have a seat in the House of Lords. I gave a pledge that throughout my trade-union career I would do everything I could to take forward the aims and aspirations of the members of my union....
We are facing a crunch. We are facing
Cent that is becoming increasing ly fearfu. nd angry. And the twin effects of anger and fear are showing themselves in the wild hysteria of their attacks upon our class and in their attacks upon this people don't understand, they should go
We've had public service buses turned back on the public highway because 10 We've had football teams turned back because they might have been pickets in disguise. We've had people arrested while they were travelling to court. Civil liberties and human rights are systematically being dismantled.
Those of us who do not take warning at what is taking place will do so at our peril. They've come today for the National Union of Mineworkers, and they I! come tomorrow for the rest of the move-
We are going to resist with all the power we can muster. And if that means that we have to suffer, if I am sent to jail, that is something we will have to accept. We will accept the consequences of our actions because it is more important to stand by one's class, and one's members, than to cave in and accept the decisions either of an unelected judge, or the diktat of a government that can't even spell the word democracy.
Over the next period we're going to be involved in possibly the most major confrontation that we have witnessed. We're now facing the full might of the judiciary. We've got so many writs we could paper two rooms the size of this
We've got the South Wales area that's had all their funds sequestrated. got an action against the South Wales NUM, North Wales area, Durham area, Yorkshire area, Lancashire area. had actions pursued against the Scottish
And no doubt writs to come against all the other sections that are involved in this historic dispute.
There are two options available. We can either accept the imposition of the organised might of the state. Or we can stand firmly by the policies not merely of our union but the policies of the Trade Union Congress, and the policies of this
Let me remind you that the TUC are
It's no accident that thousands of on record demanding that there should
What kind of a head of the National Coal Board is it who has no concept of the British labour and trade-union move-
A man who, in the USA, was head of a mining company which quite openly in association with the development of mines that employed non-union labour. I have no doubt that this will be the kind of policy and philosophy which he will attempt to pursue here in Britain today.
The miners' union today are fighting for their jobs. They're fighting for their communities. They're fighting for a way of life, for a culture.
Someone said to me 'do you believe the resolve of miners is beginning to weaken?' But there is one phenomenon over all others which in this dispute has made mineworkers absolutely determined to win. The involvement of women.
I went to a meeting in South Wales, and in the course of that meeting one International Viewpoint 29 October 1984
This party is on record arguing against redundancies. The TUC is on record arguing against the anti-trade-union legislation in all its forms. And so is our party.
Now is the time to turn those words
I speak not for myself. I am not speaking for the executive of the miners' union. I believe that I'm speaking for the entire trade-union and labour movement when I say that there is an obligation on each and every one of you to stand up and be counted.
Time and time again people have said we need leadership. If we had proper leadership, we could win. Well, you've got leadership. Leadership that is prepared to stand and fight, whatever the consequences. Comrades, given that leadership, we too have the right to demand your support.
Given that support we are invincible.
13
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
police have been drafted in from all over to turn our villages into places where people can't enter without a passport. If YOU COULD SE NEXT
GREECE
As can easily be imagined, these arms purchases amount to billions of dollars. The total seems to be around 15 billion. The PASOK government has not given any official figures. There have only been "leaks," which continually lead to re-