Mineworkers carry on their
BRITAIN of a comeback in Nottinghamshire. Recently about 100 NUM members led a walkout of NUM and UDM members for NUM recognition at Bevercotes colliery and recruited many UDM members back into the NUM despite management harassment.
fight for justice
Despite the UDM being clearly a scab outfit with NCB and Tory Party connections the TUC has equivocated over whether to recognise the new formation or not. This is in line with its general capitulation to
THE FIGHTING SPIRIT of the miners and their supporters has not abated since their year-long fight for jobs. As we reported in our last issue (No. 95) the National Justice for Mineworkers Campaign is still active in defending miners sacked or imprisoned during the dispute and is looking for international support.
Peter Cooper, an activist in the campaign, examines the situation in the coalfields and explains what the campaign aims to achieve.
PETER COOPER
The campaign in defence of the mineworkers was originally launched at a 1985 Labour Party conference fringe meeting, jointly called by the left-wing Campaign Group of Labour
MPs (Members of Parliament) and
Trade Union Briefing ( a group of trade unionists active in the left of the Labour Party and within the journal Labour Briefing).
The campaign based itself on a resolution carried at the 1985 TUC
(Trades Union Congress - the main union confederation)
and Labour
Party conferences against the vehopposition of the Labour ement
Party leader Neil Kinnock, calling on this government and a future Labour government to reinstate miners sacked the strike; to reimburse the during funds of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), sequestrated during the strike; and to review all cases of miners jailed as a result of activities carried out in good faith during the strike (about 12 such miners are currently serving sentences).
Kinnock and
Neil the centre- right of the Labour Party and trade unions effectively scabbed on the miners during their year-long strike.
They now claim that retrospective legislation indemnifying miners for funds seized by the courts undermines the rule of law (that is of course, capitalist law). This ignores the fact that the current Tory government retrospectively legislated to give
Ian Smith and his cronies immunity from prosecution for his crimes against the Zimbabwean people as part of the
1979 Lancaster House agreement.
The current situation in the coalfields is inevitably demoralizing.
Over
30,000 jobs have already been lost and at least another 20,000 are in the pipeline.
International Viewpoint 7 April 1986
The National Coal Board (NCB) is using the situation to put more and pressure on the NUM. For example, it is closing pits not on grounds of "economic viability" but as punishment for militancy during the strike. This is the case with the proposed closure of Kinsley which only opened in 1980!
Many of those sacked are union and the Coal Board has systematically refused to reinstate them even when their cases are supported by Industrial Tribunals. This especially true Scotland and Kent areas.
One of the main attempts to smash the NUM has been the formation of the breakaway cratic Mineworkers (UDM) based on the Nottinghamshire area, where the triumphant press predictions that a majority of miners would leave the NUM to join the scab outfit, it has been unable to recruit significantly outside of the Nottinghamshire area. In fact the NUM has made something
French workers solidarity
OVER 250 activists attended a gala evening to raise money for sacked and imprisoned British
Paris, France, on March 22.
The gala was organized by the
French collectif d'information et de aux mineurs britanniques which is sponsored by several trade union branches in the Paris area.
Those present at the gala were Terry Harrison of
Kent NUM, Liz French, wife of a gaoled Kent miner and member of
Women Against Pit Closures and involved in the workers' dispute.
the EETPU (electricians union) -led, pro-business-unionism right wing in the trade union movement. The EETPU has clearly developed links with the UDM. Its leader, Eric Hammond, is actively collaborating in the smashing of the print unions in their fight with Rupert Murdoch's News International group at Wapping in London.
Also, despite the fact that being a member of a TUC-affiliated union is a condition of Labour Party membership some right-wing Nottinghamshire Labour MPs have open links with the UDM and there are UDM local Labour councillors. The Labour Party National Executive Committee has not lifted a finger against them. This is a far cry from its witch-hunting of socialists in the Party.
The National Justice for Mineworkers Campaign has therefore added the demand that the TUC or Labour Party does not recognise or have any dealings with the UDM. Trade Union Briefing supporters in the campaign are therefore arguing for the Campaign to organize a march in the summer in the Nottinghamshire area in support of the beleaguered NUM
The campaign has also proposed the launch of a petition to the TUC the Labour Party NEC to implement and campaign for the poliinitiatives a way in which the left within the labour movement can express active opposition to the EETPU-led right.
Such a perspective of mass action combined with pressure on the TUC and Labour Party leaderships will meet opposition from many quarters, not least from the Communist Party/ Kinnockite alliance which now dominates the NUM National Executive. The campaign works closely with the NUM, however, and in particular with the rank and file of the union. Its supporters believe that it can play an important role, not only in stemming the inevitable demoralization in the coalfields, but in rallying the forces of the left nationwide. Trade Union groups and political organizations wishing to affiliate internationally should send donations to 49 Milner Square, London N.1.
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ISRAELI STATE