" This is not the end it's only the beginning their system against the demand of a union and of a movement that sought only the right to work. This is a stain that the next Labour government has got to wipe clean. It's a stain that they have got to take on board.
And I appeal to all of our parliamentarians, I appeal to all those in the trade
Stamping feet, clapping, singing and chanting ran through the football at Chesterfield, stadium
Derbyshire on March 9, at one of the most memorable celebrations of International Women's Day ever. Thousands of women and men had descended on the town from every pit village in the country.
held only a few days after the miners' strike
The success of the rally, had been called off, was testimony to the determination of the women of the mining communities to continue their struggle.
Arthur Scargill, addressed the rally and below we
Miners leader, reproduce the text of his speech.
Comrades and friends, I want to bring warm fraternal greetings from the national committee of the National executive
Union of Mineworkers, to this international women's rally. I have never felt as proud to be bringing greetings as I have today to women who have stamped their mark indelibly on history, and certainly on this dispute over the past twelve months.
My friends in the media have got a problem. They can't attack Tony Benn.
They'll try. And they're having a problem with me. But they're having a bigger problem with you.
You see, these journalists don't go to
They go to these new normal schools.
computer schools which programme them.
And they've been told by Mrs Thatcher, and Mr Walker, to put it out that they have won.
They don't find that a big problem because they've been saying that for 12 months.
But the problem that they find is the fantastic sight of miners, members of the women's support groups, families and workers from other industries marching to work in victory.
I participated in the march at Barrow
When I colliery near my own home.
arrived at the gates of Barrow, there was a handful of pickets. We turned away.
The assembled motley crew of journalists said 'Mr Scargill why did you turn away?'
I said: 'Because I reacted as any decent trades unionist should, and so should you.
You don't cross picket lines!'
You see, there have been historians already comparing the 1984/85 dispute
They've been pontificating with 1926.
from their Fleet Street desks or offices, about what is right and what is wrong, about the lessons to be drawn, and the
They don't conclusions to be drawn.
know what they are talking about.
In 1926, miners didn't go out on
In 1984 strike, they were locked out.
they took strike action. In 1926, they were fighting to stop a decrease in wages and an increase in hours.
After seven months, they were starved back to work with longer hours and lower wages.
10
In 1985, at the end of the most historic strike in history, Britain's miners marched back to work on Tuesday having seen the 1984 closure programe not implemented, the five pits still open, a new procedure keeping an appeals body intact, and above all, this union refusing to acquiesce to the closure of pits on so-called economic grounds. That's a victory.
There have been casualties in this dispute. We have just paid tribute to those that paid the ultimate price. They died not only for the fight to save jobs and pits. They died, because they believed in their trade union.
And if there's any individual in the miners' union or elsewhere, who still asks the question of why they should have supported the fight of the National Union of Mineworkers, its because people like Joe Green and David Jones gave their lives for the British trade union movement and the right to work. That's why they all should have supported us.
There were those unions affiliated to the Trades Union Congress, particularly those in the power industry, that should hang their heads in eternal shame for what they have done during the course of this dispute. They can come forward with whatever arguments they wish. But they will never be able to erase the fact that when the chips were down, they supported Margaret Thatcher and turned their backs on the NUM. For that they'll be stained until the end of time.
Of course, something approaching a thousand of our members have been dismissed for the most trivial of reasons during the course of this dispute. This government, and its American appointee, now seek to impose the Americanism that we have seen deployed in the mining areas of the United States here in Britain.
This union has got a responsibility. Those men who have been arrested and jailed are, as far as I'm concered, political prisoners. They've been jailed because they fought for this union. And we should all stand up and say straightforwardly what we mean.
union movement - when this union talks about amnesty, for god's sake stop the equivocation. our members who've been sacked in the course of this dispute. They've a right to their jobs back. fighting for the right to work.
A women's movement was established during the course of the 1984/5 strike in the mining areas. It not only transformed the lives of the women who, until that time, had had a narrow their role was and should be. It transformed our lives in the union.
And if there's one thing the union's got to do its to say to the women's support groups: this is not the end, its the beginning. Because you're part of this union and must remain in existence. I want the women's groups to go away from rallies like this and rededicate themselves to the struggle. Government's war of attrition
This dispute has not ended. The strike has come to an end, as the government wants to fight a war of attrition. miners' union and the women's groups, together with those sections of the labour movement who have supported us consistently, have now got to tactics. That means an increase in determination on the part of the women's movement to defend the NUM. It's your movement. You've made yourselves part and parcel of the strike movement.
All of us in this stadium have got a responsibility to those that have been sacked during the course of this dispute. We've got to collect in every town and village throughout the British Isles in order that none of those sacked suffer as a consequence of what has occured. We've got to take this fight forward and step up the campaign.
The women's support groups have got to take on a broader role. You must become involved in the wider issues. Learn and understand the fact that rate-capping effects each and every one of us. And that the peace movement is of absolute importance to every man, woman and child.
This dispute has cost this government, and as a consequence the tax payers, £7 billion. Now for the benefit of the Daily Star and the Daily Express [British daily newspapers] - that's a lot of
International Viewpoint 8 April 1985
----- photo credits and running heads -----
"
money. At a time when they can't even find the money to keep a kidney machine operating to save a man's life, they're prepared to spend 50% of the annual expenditure of the health service on try-
They're spending millions upon millions of pounds on weapons of death and government really meant that it doesn't want to deal in uneconomic ventures, let them close down the cruise missiles programme and end the missiles programme in Scotland.
I'm sure that remark will have got my
I'll tell you what, they'll have some cracking conversations to listen to. I can just imagine them listening to Arthur Scargill
'Hello Tony? "Hi, Arth.'
"Tony, I'm wanting to keep the pits open.' 'Great.' "I also want to retain jobs.' (My
God!), 'And I want to have peace in the world rather than war' ('Goodness me!'), "And I want to see a better quality of life for human beings' ('Great Scott! Heseltine get your flak jacket!').
They'll be absolutely
They just haven't come to terms with the fact: they don't have to tap our 'phones. We'll tell them what we want. We want a better life, a better world. We want the right to work. that's what we
Of course, there have been those that have said: •What have been the positive achievements of the miners' dispute?' Well, this rally is one of them. We've more here than Chesterfield football club can get.
We've developed friends throughout the world. Not only with trades unionists but with ordinary men and women who are not prepared to stand idly by whilst the miners were ground into the dust. Example after example can be cited to demonstrate what real internationalism is. The ship worker, the port workers, the miners and the seamen didn't move a ton of coal for the entire twelve months of the dispute. That's real internationalism.
And in a lesson to those trade union leaders who are apparently more interested in getting a seat in the House of Lords - as Tony Benn pointed out on Question Time [television programme] the other night — we had the best display of internationalism we've ever seen on Tuesday.
The Australian government contacted the seamans union of Australia and said: *Now the strike is over, will you now release the coal and let it be transported overseas?' The Australian seamens union cabled the NUM in Sheffield and said that they would only release coal when the NUM told them that the strike was at an end. Only then would they transport it abroad. That's internationalism, that's trade unionism,....
I've come to this rally today to talk in the most optimistic way about the next step in our campaign. The fight goes on to save our pits, our jobs and our industry. International Viewpoint 8 April 1985
It goes on with the total involvement of the whole wider movement to preserve our communities. To preserve a culture and a way of life. To enable us to further tap the marvellous latent talent and ability, that we've all seen released during the course of this dispute. marvellous actions of the women's action groups to dissipate, it would be an act of criminality.
Each of us today has got to dedicate ouselves to a public campaign to save the mining industry, to develop and expand the industry in line with the Plan for Coal. There must be no pit closures. must be no reduction in manpower levels. There must be no victimisation. above all, from this day forward, each and every one of us should say that we owe it to all who participated in the dispute to take it one step further.
We've got to do things in a tangible
And I've already made, together with Peter Heathfield and Mick MeGahey, one of the first steps to show that we think about the efforts that have been made. I'm sure you'll agree with us.
The miners' headquarters in Sheffield will be built, hopefully, within the next period - if we're not sequestrated too long. In the entrance hall of the major trade unions in Britian - indeed the major institutions of Britain - there are normally plaques to those who have led the union or to the worthies of the trade union or labour movement.
Well, as far as I'm concerned - as far as I or Peter or Mick are concerned - we dont believe that we or any decessors belong in there. We believe that there should be three plaques erected in the entrance hall of the new headquarters in Sheffield. And I hope that you'll agree that we've made the right choice.
The first will be a plaque to honour the memory of David Jones. The second is for Joe Green. [miners who died on the picket lines] And the other will be dedicated to the achievements of the magnificent women's support during the course of this dispute.
I want to say from the bottom of my heart how grateful I am for the efforts that you put in during the course of the past twelve months. But I also want to plead for some more effort -to direct every penny that's raised to the miners' solidarity fund in order that every penny shall go to those who hare been victimised until we can re-instate them in the industry. I want each and every one of you become part of the peace campaign..?
I want each and every one of you to raise your eyes and to take the struggle forward. To become part and parcel of the peace campaign. To become part and parcel of the campaign to stop attacks on local government and upon your communities and your way of life.
I believe that this movement has transformed Britain in a way that was unthinkable only 18 months ago. You've changed of British politics. You've demonstrated what you can do provided stand and fight. You've proved to be a glowing example not only to those who created and built our movement, but also to those in the trade union movement who stood to one side during the course of this campaign.
We should ensure that in the days, the weeks and months that lie ahead, that we lift this struggle onto a new plane. That we translate into action the kind of views that have been expressed at this rally today. If we do that, we shall not only march to victory, and save the pits and the jobs of those that we are privileged to represent.
In the process of doing that, we shall lay the conditions for transforming forever the kind of society in which we live. - We shall transform it from one that preached war to one that preaches peace. - We shall transform it from one that preaches greed to one that preaches care
We shall translate it from a capitalist system to a socialist system of society•