British miner: Thatcher is trying
Barnsley rally, took up the questions of sexism head when she criticised on to batter us and to starve us demonstrating miners who had called on women in the streets to 'get their tits out for the boys'. Pointing out that women had to be won to support the miners even if they did not live in mining areas she
British miners have been on strike since March 12, this year. Over 2,000 said, Don't insult the women you see miners have been arrested and brought to court, some of them on charges here, who support you whole-heartedly, by shouting crude and insulting remarks ilies are now facing destitution and hunger.
to other women on the streets.'
However, many thousands of strikers continue to mount daily picket lines and the British transport unions have decided to mount a blockade
Miners' leader Arthur Scargill received rapturous applause at the Barnsley rally
Women are playing an increasingly decisive part in the dispute - colwhen he paid tribute to the determinalecting food and money, organising distribution in the mining communtion of the women and recognised their contribution to the struggle.
ities and replacing arrested strikers on the picket lines.
demonstration is making history, he said,
Colin and Sandra Lenton appeared on the platform of the recent
'Rally against Austerity' organised by the LCR (French section of the
'No longer are the media able to go to a
Fourth International). Both are striking members of the National Union mining village to get a woman to speak out against the strike....Our women are
Colin, an official of the Bold branch of the NUM in not just helping the men in the kitchens north west England, spoke about the lessons of the strike so far.
- they're with the men on the picket lines... Every single striking miner — and his wife — must be at Mansfield on Monday. On behalf of the NUM I'd like to offer any of the women's support groups here the use of NUM funds if they want transport on May 14.
6 which could mean years in prison.
of all fuel destined for power stations.
the most directly it is the government
At the same time many miners' famdecision to deduct £15 from the social security benefit paid to miners' families.
The government is making this deduction on the basis that miners are being paid
£15 strike pay. But our union is not paying strike pay. It would wipe out our
International Viewpoint 18 June 1984
RS DOL COAL - NOT • DOLE assets in a matter of weeks. So the result of Thatcher's decision is that we are facing real hardship; families are now going hungry.
But the strike is now biting. Coal stocks are rapidly dwindling. We have had reports from trade unionists who work in power stations that the mounds of coal in the power station yards have been hollowed out, so it appears that there is a lot of coal still there, but in fact there is very little left.
There are problems of course, particularly in relation to the steel industry. Steelworkers should have joined us since they have personal experience of MacGregor's policies when he headed the plan to close down the steel industry and was opposed by the steelworkers strike in 1980. We made an alliance then with the steelworkers and railworkers — the Triple Alliance. But this pact was only as good as its leadership. Bill Sirs, the steelworkers leader, is responsible for his members not joining us.
Other unions have come forward however. The transport union, the dockers, the two rail unions have all provided magnificent support in refusing to move coal. The bakers' union has provided mining communities with free bread.
Q. How is the situation with international movement of coal?
A. Small amounts of coal are coming into the country. Certain ships will bring coal stocks to non-union docks. happens on the east coast and coal has come into Glassen, a port in Lancashire too. But we have had commitments from miners in West Germany, Australia and Poland that they will not produce coal to break our strike. The National Union of Seamen are making sure that no coal comes in from abroad that does that.
Q. Has the Labour Party supported the strike?
A. It was a big step forward for the national executive to decide to levy 50p per week from Labour Party members. The money goes straight to the national office so we don't know yet how successful it is. There are problems in some International Viewpoint 18 June 1984
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Miners' wives at Barnsley rally (DR)
areas where the local organisations of the party aren't pushing for it. At the level of the leadership there are big problems.
Although Neil Kinnock is the son of a miner he certainly hasn't shown it so far, particularly was joining the
Tories and the media in pressing for us to hold a national ballot. I think that he expected that the miners' strike would have a bad effect on Labour's electoral
What rubbish! The local elections in May showed that the reverse was true. Only Tony Benn and Denis Skinner among Labour members of parliament have really come out strongly for the miners, going on picket lines and organising support for us.
Q. What has been the role of the TUC and general secretary Len Murray?
The TUC itself has given us no support. This isn't surprising. out the train drivers, they sold out the printworkers, they sold out the GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) workers. They would sell us out if they had a chance. TUC is just a talking shop. Len Murray has tried his best to stop solidarity action
Q. How have the miners organised themselves in the dispute? How have the flying pickets been organised?
The flying pickets have been organised by the local strike committees. I would say the level of participation is higher than the 1974 strike for example. On an average day I would guess that 40,000 to 50,000 miners are out on
The Tories response to this is clear: to batter us and starve us back to work. The police have all the rank and file leaders under continuous surveillance. know my telephone is tapped and that whenever they spot my car registration number they will stop me. They'll know that I'm in France now, and so will the National Coal Board.
Another thing we suspect is that the army is being used to reinforce the police. A number of miners have recognised relatives who are in the army in police uniform. One miner walked up to a relative who was in police uniform and said 'Hey! You're meant to be in Northern Ireland!'
How have the miners been able to answer the Tories' case for closures?
We've explained that the idea that the National Coal Board will close 'un-
' pits is a nonsense.
Board fiddles the figures so that they can say that 'this pit is making a loss' or
'this pit is making a profit' as they wish.
They could close every pit in the country if they wanted to on this basis. There is a real danger of privatisation. The Board aims to develop the so-called 'super-pits' and sell them off. And it's the government that stands behind the National
Coal Board. It's for this reason that the dispute is really about getting rid of
Thatcher. I've travelled all over my area in Lancashire and the message is the same; 'Get rid of Thatcher and replace her with a Labour government with proper socialist views. In the first place that means Labour sticking to its manifesto
At the last general election people didn't want to hear these kinds of arguments. Tony Benn got bumped out of
Left-wing views were very unpopular. Things have begun to change with the miners' strike. Benn's getting a hearing again.
Q. How has this swing to the left Well, in the first place it's reflected in the large amounts of money and food we're getting from big cities like Liverpool and Manchester. In this the far left organisations have been fantastic. So has the Communist Party in Liverpool.
It showed itself in the miners' wives committees formed by the wives in most
Of course the main task of the committee is organising to fight the hardship inflicted on the communities, feeding families, collecting food, etc. At the beginning of the strike there was a back movement promoted by the media amongst a few wives. We've never heard of them since.
In our area we have an agreement with the St. Helen's Labour council that they would take measures to prevent hardship among miners. So, for example, they've kept the schools open during the holidays to provide free school meals for miners' children.
Q. How do you see the divisions among miners being overcome?
It all boils down to the question of leadership. The Nottingham leaders, like Ray Chadburn, vacillated backwards and forwards before finally saying that they supported the strike. Of course the fact that the miners have better pay and securer conditions is relevant, but they needed strong leadership. Now we have to face the fact that we are dealing with scabs who are trying to break the strike. Picketing is the only way you can stop
to their demand for regional autonomy, which was charcterized as "separatism."
After the raids on their villages carried out by the military, a lot of Indians were disillusioned and turned against the Sandinista government. For the FSLN as a liberation movement and later as the ruling party, the demands of the Indian