Statement from December 2 miners' solidarity conference in every workplace, collections, etc.,
This is a primeeting, high street, etc.
ority, with the collection of Christmas food supplies and toys essential in the remaining weeks before Christmas;
The following statement was adopted by the December 2 miners' soli-
It represents the common ground of agreement between all the political organisations at the conference and with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). be further discussed at a delegate meeting in January.
This conference recognises the current industrial action of the National Union of Mineworkers as an official strike, conducted in accordance with the union rule-book: it fully supports the union's demand that the National Coal Board and the government should withdraw the March 6 pitprogramme, keep open the five pits in line with previous agreements and define exhaustion of reserves in line with the Plan for Coal, the signed agreement between the government, Coal Board and the mining unions.
Conference condemns the Thatcher go state intimidation ted entere ton what began as a peaceful industrial dispute.
In particular, we condemn the outlawing of normal picketing practices through the use of baton-charges, riot shields, dogs, horses, curfews and armoured convoys on the part of the police.
We applaud the courage of those who have been defending themselves and their communities against such violence and we pledge ourselves to participate in, help coordinate and strengthen such defence — under the guidance of the NUM - by all necessary means.
We condemn those speeches made by leaders of our movement in which legitimate self-defence in support of the inviolability of the picketline has been shamefully equated with the deliberately planned and executed state violence of the Thatcher government and its illegally-constituted police force. International Viewpoint 24 December 1984
Amendments and additions will
Those who urge compliance with such violence thereby collude with it; conference reaffirms, with the miners, our re-
Conference recognises:
that the Tories and the NCB have set their sights on the total defeat of the miners, and are preparing to move coal from the pit-heads to power stations, b) that the future prospects for trade unionism in Britain, along with those for the GLC, Metropolitan Authorities, rate-capped local councils (1), the unemployed, women, black people and the labour movement generally, are indissolubly linked with the outcome of the miners' struggle;
that therefore the full industrial, financial and political resources at the disposal of our movement should be mobiliimmediately behind the National Union of Mineworkers, whose struggle must take priority over all other conuntil a successful conclusion is reached;
d) that responsibility for taking this action rests above all with the leaders of the TUC and Labour Party. We call upon them to implement to the letter their official policy of "total support" for the NUM. Meanwhile, we must be prepared to make the necessary moves ourselves.
therefore instructs the Mineworkers' Defence Committee, having organised this conference, to convene in January the first meeting of a delegatec) the winning of industrial action in support of the miners. This is vital, particularly in light of the legal attacks on the NUM, and with the possibility of attemps to move coal stocks. We should not wait for the TUC before campaigning for industrial action, including trying to win all workers in dispute into a joint fight with the miners against the Tories;
d) the organisation in every workplace of the mass circulation of The Miner, along with bulletins and leaflets to counteract the bosses' media lies. We support the demands of the NUM for free access to all forms of media, and call on media workers to ensure the NUM's right of reply;
the stopping of all movements of coal and substitute fuels in accordance with TUC guidelines, but without waiting for initiatives to come from the TUC before taking action ourselves: we request and expect full support in this from the Parliamentary Labour Party, including the presence of at least one MP on every picketline;
La massive national demonstration in support of the miners, to be organised at a date to be agreed with the NUM. We expect the leaders of the TUC and Labour Party to march at the head of this demonstration. 1.
authorities are to this parliamentary which for the most part are Labour controlled.
At the level of the local (borough) coun cils, the government is trying to restrict their spending powers on local services by delimiting the amount they are allowed to raise through local taxation i.e. rates. This is again leading confrontation with, for the part, Labour controlled authorities.
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INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY.