International solidarity with British miners
In Poland ...several statements in support of the British miners have been published in the journals of Solidarnose. We reprint here an open letter to Arthur Scargill from three groups of Solidarnos members in the Warsaw region, and a resolution from the Inter-Factory Workers Committee Solidarnosc in the Warsaw region (MRKS). The open letter was first printed in the clandestine journal Robotnik, No 63, July 23, 1984 and the second in the journal CDN - Glos Wolnego Robotnika, June 26, 1984.
Dear Mr Scargill,
Over the last few months, we and thousands of our trade-union comrades have been anxiously following your struggle for the right to work. We know that, in its present stage, your struggle takes on a new importance, that it is in fact a struggle for survival of the British trade-union movement. We have already condemned, and we vigorously reiterate our condemnation of, the export of coal to Britain by the Jaru-
Given that Thatcher gets on so well with Jaruzelski, we think that it is time to draw some lessons. We hope, therefore, that, in the cause of workers' solidarity, you will modify your negative attitude towards our movement. Please make known to the British miners, and all trade unionists, our solidarity and our support.
'Robotnik' Political Group Editorial team of Robotnik (journal of activists of MRKS, the Inter-Factory Workers Committee of Soldiarnosc in the Warsaw region) Emmanuel Goldstein Group
For four months the British miners have been on strike against a programme of mass closures of mines for economic reasons. The miners are threatened with unemployment. The government has rejected compromise solutions and has resorted to severe police methods against the strikers. Thousands of miners have been arrested; hundreds have been hospitalised and one has been killed.
The government of the Polish People's Republic, despite hypocritical condemnations of the activities of the British police in the columns of the regime's press and by the regime's pseudo-trade unionists, is profitting from the export of coal to Britain. It sells dirt cheap coal which has been mined in scandalously neglected working conditions and with reckless exploitation of the labour force and the coal field. The slave labour of the Polish miner serves to break the resistance of the British miner.
British miners! The true sentiments of Polish trade unionists towards the authorities of the Polish People's Republic and their practices was shown in the recent electoral farce which was boycotted by the workers. In the prevailing conditions of terror, the Polish workers' movement is at present not in a position to undertake protest actions. But you may be certain that as you have supported and are supporting our struggle, so we are in solidarity with you. We strongly oppose every case where force is used against workers struggling for their rights and interests.
Long live Trade Union Solidarity!
Warsaw, June 26, 1984 International Viewpoint 1 October 1984
In Brazil ..the first congress of the Central Unica dos
Trabalhadores (CUT - United Confederation of Workers)
adopted the following solidarity declaration:
At this its first congress the Brazilian CUT expresses its total solidarity with the struggle of the 150,000 brothers and sisters, British miners, who have already been on strike for 168 days against the destruction of their industry, their jobs and their communities by Mrs Thatcher's Conservative government.
Once again, as in its aggression against the Argentinian people, as in its passivity before the deaths on hunger strike of
Irish nationalists, this government has shown itself ready to resort to the most brutal methods in its efforts to defend the capitalist and imperialist interests which it represents.
strike has already seen the biggest police operation ever seen in Britain, with more than 1,500 miners pickets arrested, and
We Brazilian workers are familiar with this sort of repression, and worse; many times it has been exercised against us in defence of those same interests, including those of British multinational firms operating in Brazil.
We know that for our brother miners, and for those other trade unionists supporting them, this confrontation is decisive, capable of deciding for many years to come the future of the workers' movement in Britain, and even that of British imperialism itself.
In this struggle we have a common interest with the British miners. We give them all our support, and wish them every
Long live international solidarity! Sao Paulo, August 28, 1984 In West Germany ...Was Tun, newspaper of the GIM,
German section of the Fourth International, has established a special bank account for solidarity funds as a follow up to the successful tour the GIM organised for British miners.
Peter Bartelheimer, PSchA Frankfurt/Main, No 349
445-603, Federal Republic of Germany.
In the United States...the International Executive Board of the United Mineworkers Association agreed to support the British miners and send a donation of 25,000 US dollars to the NUM. The August issue of the union journal United Mineworkers Journal carried a full report of the IEB's discussion and decisions and called on the union membership to support their "brothers on strike'. The decision was taken after hearing a report and appeal for solidarity from a local union president of the NUM, who was also interviewed in the journal. The UMWA will send a fact-finding commission to see the British situation at first hand.
For further information contact Socialist Action, 328
Upper Street, London N1 2XP, telephone (01) 359-8180, or directly contact the National Union of Mineworkers, James House, Vicar Lane, Sheffield, telephone (0742) 700-
388.
in the Eastern Cape were visited by ed a test of strength, seeing this as an shop stewards and organisers of Fosatu who argued around the Fosatu slogans,
•Workers unite, don't vote. To vote is to vote for racism, to vote will only beneaccept an undemocratic constitution.'
Mass