technical material for Radio Zwyciezymy was donated to Upper Silesia
Solidarnose by West European Solidarity with Solidarnsoc Committees, as a result of collections made among workers and in the trade unions.
BRITAIN.
The government resigned itself to the prospect of a long strike.
Its tactics have since developed into a combination of the ferocious police repression, an attempt to literally starve the miners back to work by the reduction of state benefits for their families, and
Miners actions trigger Tory crisis the creation of what amounts to a split from the miners' union in the coal fields of Nottingham and elsewhere.
The police campaign reached its high point with the battles at the Orgreave coke depot in South Yorkshire. Millions of startled TV viewers saw riot police
Margaret Thatcher's government faces its gravest crisis since it was first elected in 1979.
The national miners' strike is bringing increasing pressure for a settlement, although the situation has been slightly eased by the ending of the dockers' strike. Action banning union organisation has been declared illegal by the courts.
Attacks on Labour-controlled local government authorities have encountered increasing opposition and bringing the Conservative Party serious electoral defeats. A new political situation is beginning to open up in Britain. Can the workers movement
The extent of ruling class unease was expressed by the Economist magazine, previously a faithful Thatcher supporter, in forthright terms.
"Mrs Thatcher's second government is stepping out to become Britain's most inept since the war.
The mishaps, mistakes and omissions which have characterised its first full year now have ministers in difficulty with farmers, miners, peers, local authorities, EEC allies, even City finanernment and the whole British establishment foeused their campaign against the strike around the demand for a national ballot on the action to be held by the miners' union.
The rejection of this call by a full conference of the NUM, the reduction by that conference of the margin by which strikes could be approved by the union -to a simple 50 per cent rather than the previous 55 per cent majority opinion polls showing that 68 per cent of the miners were in favour of the strike, make repeated cavalry charges at miners' picket lines while North of Ireland-style 'snatch squads' added more miners to the 3,500 arrested since the strike began. Since these clashes in May, police reinforcements drafted into the coal field have reached a total of 20,000 veritable army of occupation, stiffened by the presence of army personnel, some dressed in police uniform.
However, there are signs that the police operation has overreached itself. Not only has there been considerable unease in liberal circles at the erosion of democratic rights inflicted by courts who demand that miners on bail do not travel around the country on pain of imprisonment, but there have been attacks on police stations in mining communities, mainly involving young people.
Neither has the attempt to starve the miners back to work succeeded. Instead the campaign against the miners families ciers.
*Nothing seems to be going right and what goes wrong is increasingly portrayed
Solidarnosc supports as somebody else's fault — a sign of ministers losing their grip.
Mrs Thatcher, apostle of strong government and emphatstriking British miners ic leadership, still holds the helm, but the rudder is taking on a life of its own.'
At 10 am on June 17, 1984, the underground radio station Zwyciezymy (We
(July 7, 1984)
The miners strike, now in its 18th visional Coordinating Committee of Solidarnosc miners in Upper Silesia, the counweek, has proved the most enduring of try's main coal mining centre. Among other points, the 8 minute broadcast criticthe government's problems.
The fourth ised the Jaruselski regime's coal marketing policy and deciared its solidarity with round of peace talks in the dispute colthe striking British miners. Here is the complete text of the relevant parts of the lapsed on July 19 with Arthur Scargill, first published in Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, (Vol. 7, No 2, the president of the 180,000 strong Na-
"The underground Provisional Coordinating Committee of Solidarnose miners tional Union of Mineworkers, blaming vigorously protests against the present policy of the Polish People's Republic on the
Thatcher for preventing the coal employmanagement of our major source of wealth, coal. Selling it on foreign markets at ers from negotiating a settlement.
competitive prices (i.e. at less than world market prices) is first of all a violation of
It is true that the Tories cannot afford the Jastrzebie agreements (August 1980) in which it was clearly established that coal is a national resource which must be used rationally.
problem which faced Thatcher on her pricing policy transforms investment in the mines into a straight economic loss.
election to office in 1979 was how to
*Secondly, the Polish government's policy blatantly contradicts official propaavoid repeating the mistakes of Edward ganda that declares respect for the miners' dignity and endeavour.
Heath - the Conservative prime minister distribution and trade is organised outside of any social control. The Polish governkicked out of office by the miners in ment has no right to behave like a mine owner and to dispose of the national wealth as it pleases. Only the damned capitalists and dictators act in this way.
the Polish government's policy in this field affects the basic interests of brother
Careful preparations were made to miners from other countries who lose their jobs as a result of it.
confront the miners. (See International
•We hope the party authorities and parliament - who say they represent the
Viewpoint, No 50, April 9, 1984.) The strike was provoked by the government
*To the striking miners of Great Britain: The underground Provisional Coordinaby their announcement of a pit closure, ting Committee of Solidarnose miners sends you fraternal greetings and our support without consultation, as the first of 20 and solidarity for your struggle for the right to work.
experience what it means to lose a job. For this reason we will do everything pos closures, with a loss of 20,000 jobs in the sible to support your struggle, including in action. The protest we have sent to the next year. Demand for coal was declin-
Polish government and parliament is an initial measure taken in support of your ing with the beginning of warmer weather.
Coal stocks were still high despite an overtime ban in force for 19 weeks before the strike began on March 12.
In the first weeks of the strike the gov-
International Viewpoint 30 July 1984 quickly brought this campaign to a close.
Will Win) put out its third broadcast.
Summer 1984, London).
people — explain what is really going on.
The has produced a major new factor in la-
This radio station is the voice of the Pro
Thirdly, coal
We know from our own
3
bour and women's movement politics with the rise of the miners mittees in every mining community. (See International Viewpoint, No 55, June 18,
With the promotion of a 'back to work' movement the government has had limit-
While National Coal Board and NUM estimates vary widely, at least 20 per cent of miners are still at work. The government has exploited the fact that the Nottingham miners, with more geologically favourable conditions for mining, have felt themselves safer from
While a minority of the Nottingham miners support the strike, the majority have broken with the union, failing to even attend the last special conference of
However, their withdrawal from the union has had little impact on the determination of the union's activists. At the same conference Scargill prepared the
This latter course would have been Tory politicians because radical actions against the unions have been discredited following the finding by the High Court that Thatcher's ban on trade unions in the GCHQ, the government's intelligence gathering centre is illegal. The finding of the court, the first of its type against a British prime minister, has had the effect of discrediting the whole array of anti-union laws that the government has con-
Political problems have also combined with the recent rise in interest rates and weakening of the pound which have seriously damaged the government's projected hopes of a more prolonged upturn in the economy. More and more people, even in ruling class circles, now seriously doubt the government's ability to hold
At the same time, it is feared that an out and out surrender by the government issued on July 18 points this out. It says that a settlement with the miners at this stage would force interest rates still higher and that a 'victory for Mr Scargill would irreparably damage the credibility of the government's dustrial policies and indeed the govern-
Despite the ending of the dock strike are still very high on both Arthur Scargill has pointed out that similar action to that of the dockers earlier on in the dispute would have releaders of the TUC (Trades Union Congress) and the steel unions in particular, have tried unsuccessfully to stab the dis-
The unity achieved during the dockers' action has exposed how vulnerable the situation of the government now is. Such unity in action has boosted the courage and determination of rank and file miners ranks of the unions for a struggle lasting could well bring about its downfall. An and must continue to be built on a naanxious Institute of Directors statement tional and international level.
till the winter.
Government shaken
The prospect of a speedier conclusion to the strike came closer with the na-