1985: the miners fight on happen now?
TS. I don't know what the future holds now. I used to know exactly what my life would be like and now everything is uncertain. But I can't see anyone going
The miners' strike is now entering its tenth month and the miners are still determined to continue.
International Viewpoint spoke to Alan
Suteliffe, a Kent miner and Tricia, his wife, a member of the Aylesham miners' wives support group, shortly after the Christmas and New Year festivities had subsided, about the prospects for the strike.
What has the support been
Question.
like over Christmas?
Tricia Sutcliffe.
The support has been tremendous and has given a real boost to the strike.
SOGAT [the printworkers' union] sent 200 turkeys to Kent so every family
They also sent all 13 to 16 had a turkey.
year olds a £10 gift voucher. The children all got presents named and wrapped from the local support committee.
Food came from various places like
Holland, France, Belgium and Germany.
There was a constant flow in the weeks
A member of the German delegation was telling me that the mineworkers and other unions in Germany don't support the strike because they are more aligned
TUC and the right wing, some are still giving money on humani-
The Coal Board tried to offer us a Christmas bribe. A letter went out on December 31 offering holiday money and tax concessions. But only one person has gone back since Christmas. We're still solid here.
Over the holiday period there has been back to work until we get what we want. I think they will have to bring the army in. This village already seems as if it's occupied. There are constant police patrols morning, noon and night. I dread it but I wouldn't give in.
Q. How do you think the strike can
The most important thing is the power cuts. If we had power the government would be dis-
Some people are calling for a general strike. But you can't just switch on and say we're going to have a general strike. We should be trying to develop a general strike. We're appealing to, and educating, the rest of the trade-union movement every week when we go round
Most of these leading up to Christmas.
visitors have been staying with us.
Picture from the French CT's Christmas appeal to support the miners (DR)
SOLIDARITI a Dutch band here - about twenty of them - and they've been down on the
TORY the workplaces. But we're not calling a general strike. We're building up to it.
Whenever I go and speak I always make a strong appeal for people to come and help us on the picket lines. Giving money and presents is great but it's not enough. We have to build up the pickets at the pits and the power stations.
Neil Kinnock [leader of the Labour Party] and Norman Willis [TUC general secretary ] - their positions are a myth. It is us, through this strike who can make the trade-union movement into an effective instrument. They will have to step aside.
We've been to every country in the world to get support for this strike, and then Kinnock goes to Russia and says there is no hardship among miners. He complains about violence on the picket lines, but it is the likes of him and what they have done in the last ten years that make this fight so hard for us and have made violence a part of the struggle.
If this strike crumbles, it won't be because of the miners leadership. The other alternative to all this is a revolution - when we could sweep the whole lot away. I would like that to happen, but I can't think that far ahead.
Q. What has the international support been like?
AS. Fantastic. Because we're in Kent we've received a lot of the international supporters. The CT in France came over with a convoy. We've had meetings here with Turkish, Nicaraguan, Zimbabwean and other European visitors. It appears that in Belgium they're stop ping the shipment of coal. That's the sort of action we need.
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