International solidarity with British miners
Klassekampen, paper of the Danish ing day the two miners participated in a demonstration in sup-
In Denmark ...From section of the Fourth International, November 8, 1984.
"The government will use every means against the miners, including the army? This was what miners' union president Arthur Scargill said in an interview in his office in Sheffield given to our correspondent, Finn Jensen, at the end of October.
• Do you think that the government is going to port of the peoples of Central America in Berne. Altogether they collected the equivalent of about £1,000. In the Netherlands ...from October 7 to 14 Nigel Bevan from Penrhiwceiber NUM and Hazel Jones from Mountain Ash women's support group (both in South Wales) toured the con-
It was a big success and by the time they returned, the Dutch trade-union confederation, the FNV, had
Question. try to take the 21 million tons of coal stored at the pit heads while the strike is going on?
Answer. Yes, of course the government will do that. It up a support committee in the locality. may be difficult to declare a state of emergency in these areas. But the government will do anything to get coal.
Will this lead to a general strike?
A. We will continue to get support for our policies, with the help of pickets we will try to stop the transport of coal, and we will demand that all the unions follow the guidelines laid down by the TUC.
Q. If they take all the NUM's money, how can the union go on functioning?
A. Our forefathers who founded the union had no money. It doesn't matter how much money the courts take from us, we will go on fighting based on our members' support.
Q. Will you get support from the TUC in the coming months?
A. Both the TUC and the international trade-union movement will support us generously as they have for the last eight months.
Q. Is there any danger that the money sent to you, from Denmark for example, will be seized by the courts?
A. Not if the money is sent to the Miners' Hardship Fund, which is independent of the NUM. Monies from this fund are used exclusively to relieve want in the mining communities. It is not used for union work.
Q. Have you considered calling an international day of action in support of the miners?
A. We welcome all support from the international trade-union movement, especially economic support. We are working with the TUC to get more physical support for the pickets, for example, at the power stations, steelworks and in the transport system.
We would also like to thank everyone for the incredible support we have received internationally. Our need is very great. So all economic contributions help us to meet the needs of the people who are taking part in this strike, which is a historic one in Britain and certainly also in Europe.
Q. So far, we have collected over a hundred thousand pounds in Denmark.
We know that. And we are very grateful to the Danish working class and the Danish people. We hope that they will do everything they can to help us. We will never forget it. In Switzerland ...two miners and a miner's wife from the Lancashire pits went to Switzerland at the invitation of the PSO (Socialist Workers Party), Swiss section of the Fourth International on November 2 and 3. At a meeting organised by the PSO they raised 1,600 Swiss francs (£500). The follow12 committed itself to launch an official solidarity campaign. every meeting they attended there was a decision taken to set
Nigel and Hazel discussed with miners in Limburg, with members of the unemployed union and with the Turkish solidarity movement in the Netherlands. In the USA and Canada ...miner Steve Shukla, who had just completed a successful tour of Canada was denied the right to enter the United States when he tried to leave Montrea airport on November 5. Shukla was stopped by three US customs agents as he was returning for the second time to the USA after a previous tour there. After learning that he was a British miner, the agents subjected him to nearly an hour of political interrogation and harassment. They demanded to know his views on the strike, who had financed his tour, who he spoke to while on tour and whether he had a police record in Britain. The customs agents claimed that the grounds for excluding him were that he did not have a sufficient amount of money on him to establish that he would be able to leave the US. But the real motive was clearly political, an example of the US government trying to block international solidarity among trade unionists. It is important for miners, other unionists and all supporters of democratic rights to protest this attack.
### Miners' solidarity conference
The mineworkers defence committee in Great Britain has called the first national solidarity conference in the miners' dispute for Sunday Ken Livingstone (Leader of the Greater December 2 in London. The secretary of the committee,
London Council), is calling upon all trade unionists, Labour
Party members and all supporters of the strike to attend the conference and help to map out future solidarity work
Tony Benn (the leader of Labour's left) and Arthur
Scargill, NUM president, will be on the platform. International guests will be very welcome at the conference and, in fact, will be a vital component as they have been to the strike itself.
Why not get your trade union or labour movement organisation to send you as an observer to the conference?
Or send greetings from your organisation? The miners are still desperate for money and presents for the children for
Christmas. You could take collections and bring donations and greetings to the conference.
Details and registration forms can be obtained from Jane
Stockton, 31 Cranwich Road, London N 16, England.
Or phone (1) 981-3289. In Belgium ...the Socialist Workers Party (POS/SAP), Belgian section of the Fourth International, has been organizing delegations to visit the striking coal miners in Britain. In its November 2 issue, La Gauche, French-language paper of the POS/SAP, interviewed some trade unionists from Liege just back from St. Helens in Lancashire.
International Viewpoint 26 November 1984
MAGGIES POLiCE REALLY DO
LOVE STRiKiNG
MINERS
Albert, a shop steward in a big factory said: 'I had expected to find people sad, starving and shivering with cold, looking forward to a grim future. In reality, there were social activities for the people of the neighbourhood in the 'club', which is sort of a People's House comanaged by the union and mine administration. In the kitchen, a group of miners were counting the that they had collected that day in a working-class neighbourhood in Liverpool.'
Josiane, a public worker, said: 'My first impression was of an "easy-going strike". But you soon realise that this is because of the extraordinary agreement among the people, the strong cohesion of the community, and the absolute conviction that they will win.'
Albert noted: "It really got under my skin to see how the mine...was was occupied by the cops. At Valfil [in Liege] the steelworkers were masters of the factory during the strike. could see the cameras and spotlights behind the gate. It was a Chile in a "democratic country". I wonder if we won't see more of the same sort of repression soon in Belgium.
Josiane said: 'When you see here in Belgium that the Socialist Party has no alternative and is basically for nuclear power and that the FTB [the SP-dominated union confederation] has only a parody of an alternative...what a difference from the miners' fight.'
Andre picked up the point:
"Here the outcome of struggles is often a foregone conclusion. You know beforehand that the leaders are going to negotiate and capitulate because they don't have an alternative. So, you are defeated from the start.
*In Britain, they are not playing that game. They are fighting to the finish.' In Ireland ...the following editorial was published in the November 8, 1984 issue of An Phoblacht/Republican News, a weekly paper published in Dublin that reflects the views of the Irish republican movement. The editorial comments on a Dublin High Court ruling, freezing British National Union of Mineworkers' funds in an Irish bank, at the request of British sequestrators. It was in the Irish language under the title "Cloch chora' [Stepping Stone]. The translation is by International Viewpoint.
During the dispute in 1922 that arose over the treaty that set up the 26-County state [that is, partitioned Ireland, giving limited independence to the major part of it ], this state was said to be a stepping stone to the republic [that is, a united Ireland International Viewpoint 26 November 1984
Miners' rally in London (DR) completely independent of Britain]. It is now clear of course that there was no basis for this argument.
Republicans know very well how the state operates to maintain the status quo. It has been quick enough to put republicans in prison, to intern them, and to put them to death. At the same time, it has proclaimed its independence of Britain.
But with every year that goes by, it is harder for them to maintain this claim. A hundred million pounds are being spent every year to maintain the border [for 'security' on the border]. As usual, they have republican prisoners. [the old word for 'war chief' that is now used as a title of the Irish prime minister] is a lackey. That was clear when Garret went on the plane with Thatcher recently.
The legal system here is no longer anything but part of the British legal system. This was shown when they started extraditing republicans [for trial under British jurisdiction]. We got a further confirmation of this when they froze the NUM funds at a bank in the 26 Counties.
The coalminers in Britain have been on strike for long months. It is an extremely sharp conflict between the British Coal Board and the miners. Workers in Ireland have given a lot of support to their fellow workers [in Britain].
So far, the High Court in Dublin has gone along with the British High Court, which is acting for the British government. There is every likelihood that it will continue to do so.
The 26-County state is a stepping stone, all right. It is a stepping stone to re-establishing British rule over the whole of In Luxembourg ...the Luxembourg section of the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), has produced a pamphlet and a poster for distribution in the factories. On October 25, Jeff Gregory and Diane Gregory, from the NUM and the miners' wives support group in Bold, Lancashire, began a tour of the country, meeting with trade unionists in steel, rail and in the Good Year company. Many organisations have opened bank accounts for the miners, including the Women's Liberation Movement.
Send donations to the NUM to: Miners' Solidarity Fund Co-op Bank PLC, West Street, Sheffield, Sorting code 08 9075, Account No 30000009
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could be described as 'freedom on probation' and to fix the elections for the end of 1984, as had been envisaged immediately following the