Second miners international solidarity meeting
On March 3, a special delegate conference of the National Union of
Mineworkers voted to return to work without a settlement after nearly one year on strike. As we go to press it is clear that some sections are in
Whatever the results of this, in the course of their strike the miners have clearly demonstrated that they will not surrender to the Tories and that they are ready and willing to resume the battle.
This fighting spirit was very much in evidence at the second Socialist
Action International Miners solidarity meeting, held before the decision
Held in Penrhiwceiber, South Wales, the meeting was attended by over 400 people, the majority of whom were and miners' wives. It was also supported by international guests from the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Sweden, to fight with the women's support com- and repressive regime which we in Ireland
BRITAIN favour of continuing the strike. was taken, on February miners Denmark and Japan.
The meeting took place in a rather different context from the first one, held in Bold, Lancashire in October 1984. Unlike in October, this meeting was held in the context of the Coal Board's vicious attempts to humiliate the miners in what will probably turn out to be the final phase of the dispute. was also held in the heart of the South Wales mining area where the vast majority of miners have been solid since day one of the strike.
As one speaker from Leicestershire pointed out, South Wales is a 'scab-free zone. If the government and the Coal Board are able to implement pit closures in this area, the whole community would be devastated with the loss of 100,000 mining and related jobs. This has spurred the determination and resolve that the communities in this area have shown.
This determination was shared by everyone at the meeting in unanimous support for the NUM leadership's attempts to get an 'honourable settlement' to the
Kent miners' wives leader, Kay Sutcliffe, pointed out that in this context the miners did not need Norman Willis or the TUC to negotiate on their behalf. She added that miners were not intimidated by the Coal Board's offensive or the media's exaggeration of the 'back to work'
(For full text of speech see page
Dai Davies from the South Wales executive committee of theunion scotched one myth that the Coal Board keep trying to re-raise, and that is the possibility of South Wales or any other region of the NUM trying to make a unilateral return to work without a national call to do so. He explained the conditions under which he thought the miners could return to work with 'their heads held high': 'One of the options put forward on the media last week was the option that the South Wales miners want to unilaterally return to work. Totally untrue. This would mean that we would isolate ourselves from the rest of our comrades in the International Viewpoint 11 March 1985 coalfields, and there is no way we will go up that road. Also, we were told that if we were to return to work we could walk to the pitgates with our heads held high. Total untruth. What about the 600 lads who've been dismissed during this strike? As far as the South Wales area are concerned, we totally reject that option.
'Option two is that the Coal Board has said we must sign a piece of paper saying we will cooperate with pit closures. No way will we do this.
*Option three,which the South Wales area has adopted, is that we stand firm.
People here were saying earlier that what this government wants is Scargill's head on a plate. But they don't really want Arthur Scargill, what they want is As far as we're concerned, no surrender. The only time we'll return to work is with an honourable settlement, that is acceptable to all rank-and-file members.' endorsed by speaker after speaker, with a recognition that whatever the outcome, there were other battles ahead that had to be mapped out right away.
Alongside of the need to fight the right wing across the labour movement, many alternatives that the miners' pointed towards and which can be built on after the strike, whatever the outcome.
Frank Elvey from the Labour Campaign for Gay Rights for example, got a rousing reception. By a very courageous speech about the need for the whole labour movement to fight for gay rights and about the harassment he has faced at times within that movement, Elvey demonstrated how the miners' strike has encouraged all oppressed groups in society to come forward with their demands.
Pat Hickey, from the Socialist Action Editorial Board explained the paper's policy in relation to this: 'Socialist Action wants to fight with the miners in this struggle, but we also want to fight with the miners beyond this struggle. We want mittees and with the tens of thousands across the country who have supported
We have the task of building a new leadership in the labour movement, leadership which is equal to that which the miners have produced in the NUM.
'We don't need the likes of Kinnock and Willis. Building an alternative leadership is a big task and Socialist Action wants to be with you in achieving that. We want you to join with us in fighting
Finally, the international speakers all explained how rank-and-file workers across the world were also looking to the miners in Britain for a way forward
Representatives from Germany and Sweden explained how they would be receiving miners' wives in tours organised around International Women's Day on
The most enthusiastic response of the day was reserved for Fergus O'Hare, of People's Democracy in Ireland who drew out the similarities between the struggle of the Irish communities and that of miners and their families in Britain.
Beginning his speech in Irish, O'Hare pointed out that in Belfast this would have been illegal, since the British government has even denied the Irish people the right to speak their own language in the part of Ireland it rules directly.
He continued: I would like to say how honoured I am to speak to people who are struggling here against a vicious
have our own country, united and undi- ist struggle they are now in a stronger would not happen if the boycott were called officially by the
Marges offered another argument: "We didn't hear anything International Transport Federation.
On October 12, Peter Heathfield exist. The ITF supports the call for boycotting extra coal shipsecretary of the NUM wrote directly to Wim Kok, [head of the ments. According to a letter from the federation leadership of
FNV]. In his letter, he expressed his concern that nothing had the FNV to the secretaries and district leaders (dated December yet been done about the shipment of coal and oil out of Dutch 13, 1984), the ITF is calling on all affiliated organisations to do
Marges said (in the same interview with Solidariteit), everything possible to achieve that aim.
have been fighting against for the last 16
*Like us in Ireland, you are fighting for the survival of your communities ... It is very important that we learn from one another. There are a lot of lessons that we can learn from you about organising in the labour movement. There are a lot of lessons the miners can learn from the struggle in Ireland.
*We started off in Ireland with peaceful demonstrations and we were met with
Only last week in Belfast, two young lads were shot dead by the army for joy-riding. summary execution for taking a car is what you get in Belfast with the army there.
'Margaret Thatcher is always lecturing people about democracy ... she doesn't know what democracy is. In Ireland she has deliberately gone against the wishes of 80% of the Irish people that we should vided; So when Margaret Thatcher tells us that the miners should have a ballot she's not really talking about democracy she's talking about getting her own
'Democracy is a facade for her in order to get her own way. Bobby Sands MP for Fermanagh and
Fifty thousand people came out and voted for him. She ignored the expressed wishes of the went on to explain other similarities in the struggle of the two communities: the role of the women, for example. Northern Ireland has the male population in prison in Europe, and this fact amongst other things has forced the women to organ-
The women led the hunger-strike campaign, and by fighting the nationalposition to take forward their own demands, just as the miners' wives will be able to do.
He explained that in the nationalist community they too have their scabs, like the cowardly supergrasses currently sending hundreds to jail through their lying testimonies in the courts. But the most important thing to come out of the Irish struggle and the struggle of the mining communities was an understanding of the need and possibility to organise all sections to fight the British state. whole meeting was of the strength that lies in unity of the oppressed and of the way in which the miners' strike and the grim determination of the miners and their families can point the way forward fight against oppression and exploitation.
"The letter was a joke - a wild west story" Marges resumed contact with the national leadership of the NUM, "but they could not clear it up for me...."