No coal to Britain!
Victory to the miners!
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITYAs the miners' strike enters its ninth month the question of international solidarity begins to play a decisive role in its outcome. Not just on the level of financial support which has started to come in from all over the world, but most importantly in terms of industrial action to stop coal getting into Britain. Most of this coal is getting in via the port of Rotterdam as we ex-
At a rally for miners in Sheffield, Yorkshire, miners' leader Arthur Scargill denounced the Polish authorities for continuing to export coal. In a letter to the official Polish trade-union federation, he stated, 'My advice to you is to stop behaving hypocritically and in that can only be described as anti-socialist. The Polish government has dramatically increased the amount of coal being imported. And you've ignored repeated requests to stop exporting coal....
In the following examples of the type of solidarity that is building up around the world, we demonstrate the extent to which rank-and-file trade unionists internationally identify with the miners and their fight against the Tory government. The examples here of the Polish workers in Solidarnose and of the action of French workers are eloquent testimony to this. actions must be stepped-up in order to bring about a victory for the miners and for the working class as Solidarity from supporters of Solidarnosc
The following article was taken from the August 24 edition of Front Robotniczy, an underground Polish bulletin.
I. Should the striking British miners be helped and for what purpose? Borer most chare being let bon, agent foand
Would we have the right to expect the help we need so much from them if we remained indifferent today to the tragedy they are suffering?
Unless we go beyond statements of support, which are necessary but in themselves have no practical effect, will these not be just empty courtesies? The political bosses of the British monopoly bourgeoisie and the Polish totalitarian bureaucracy -the Thatcher and Jaruzelski governments - have rediscovered the antiworking-class language that is traditionally common to ruling groups.
The counterrevolutionary junta in Poland is exploiting the "situation" of the British miners' strike to step up its export of coal, and with that honorable pretext to increase the exploitation of Polish miners. On the other hand, the antiworking-class Conservative government is eagerly taking advantage of this help to get out from under the economic pressure put on by the British miners' strike in order to be able to force the miners to their knees and carry through economic measures in the interests of big international capital at the expense of the working class.
Despite surface appearances, this is not the first time that capital and the Nomenklatura have joined hands. They gen-
10 erally vie with each other in exploiting wage labor. But that in no way interferes with solidarity between competing exploit-
What about labor? Is there any effective weapon against the solidarity of the rulers other than the international solidarity of the working people? "When Thatcher is in league with Jaruzelski, it is time to draw some conclusions from that." (Robotnik, No 68.)
That's right! The British miners' strike has been going on already for 25 weeks. For all that time they have continued to use the labor of the Polish miners to break the resistance of their strike. We should not forget also that in Great Britain wage workers supported the campaign "Solidarity with Solidarnose." So, can we now deny them our solidarity? The need for practical action in solidarity with the British miners is clear, in our opinion. There remains the question of ways and means.
II. How and by what means can we give such aid?
Internationalism - international workers' solidarity - will remain only a slogan, and with it our freedom will remain only a slogan, as long as we cannot build a practical bridge connecting our common struggles, connecting the various national detachments of the working class. If we want to really help the striking British miners, we can do so effectively in only one way -by stopping or at least reducing the deliveries of Polish coal to Great Britain for as long as the miners' strike goes on.
The Thatcher regime would not be so unyielding if the strike started to seriously weaken the capitalist economy and hit the pockets of big capital, which is closely linked to the state economic bureaucracy in Great Britain. This regime, which is so indifferent to the wrongs of labor, is quite anxious about the welfare of the rich.
Thus, the basic objective is the following: to force the government of the Polish People's Republic to declare and observe an embargo on deliveries of coal to Great Britain until the miners' strike is over. The fundamental method is a workers' block. ade of coal exports to Britain. In this regard, a special role falls to the miners, transport workers and dockers. The miners could reduce the production of coal by avoiding work on our free Saturdays [no work on Saturdays was one of the principles of Solidarnosc].
In so doing, Polish miners would lose a part of their wages, but British miners would keep their jobs. "We will not let them buy us off with 'G' booklets or coupons for automobiles, or any other hard-to-come-by goods." (Wolny Robotnik, No 20.) The editors of WR are right. In this fight for power and freedom, the working class cannot avoid sacrifices. make sure that they serve the cause of their emancipation rather than strengthen their enemies.
A blockade has to be well prepared by groundwork. A) People have to be convinced of the point of solidarity ac tions. B) Means have to be provided for gauging the state of opinion and for making the organizational preparations. C) We have to use the most secure means of actions. This includes the
Petitions, leaflets, articles, posters demanding that the party that calls itself the workers' party [the Polish United Workers Party, the official Communist Party] declare where it stands. And, to put up a good front, we should demand an immediate embargo on coal deliveries to Great Britain and even breaking diplomatic relations with Mrs Thatcher's governmen (on the grounds that it is persecuting the trade-union movement
We should respond in Poland to the appeal of the Na tional Union of Miners published in a special issue of its news
International Viewpoint 10 December 198
paper, The Miner, of July 31, 1984, by increasing the use of electricity in homes and workplaces (in that way, we will use more coal at home and less will go for export to Great Britain).
3. Trying a symbolic solidarity strike, in all workplaces every day until the end of the British miners' strike, stopping all work for one minute on the stroke of noon. These 'minutes of workers' solidarity' will give a practical expression on a mass scale to the simple understanding of the fact that without international solidarity, there is not going to be any Solidarnosc. We await constructive criticism of our proposals.
Workers of the World, Unite, For your Freedom and Ours! [The second part of this call repeats the slogan of the Polish fighters for an independent, united Polish republic in the nineteenth century.] and elsewhere...
In Belgium ...every day coal is being taken to Britain from the ports of Antwerp and Ghent. The POS/SAP (Socialist Workers Party, Belgian section of the Fourth International) have produced a leaflet addressed to workers in the Ghent dockyards calling on them to stop all transport of coal. The leaflet names the boats involved in transporting the coal.
They are the Brendonia (British); the Union Arrow (Irish); the Finlandia (Danish); the Rein (British); the Wib (British); the Contact (British); and the Stability (British). The shipownand Ghentrading.
In France ...one thousand tons of coal destined for Great Britain were poured out onto the railway tracks in the marshalling yard at Calais on the night of Saturday November 24, by belonging to the CGT (Communist Party-led union). The miners issued a statement demanding that 'the export of coal to Great Britain for the purpose of breaking the miners'
About a dozen people were held and later
A similar action had been taken the week before by miners from Gardanne, near Marseille in the province of Bouches-duRhone. One thousand six hundred tons were tipped onto the track, again in the marshalling yard, at Miramas.
Between November 5 and 7, miners Dennis Pennington and Colin Hiscock and miners' wife Susan Gannon all from Bold colliery in Lancashire had spoken with Gardanne miners during a tour organised by the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League, French section of the Fourth International). In Lorraine, in the northwest of the country a welcome committee had been set up for the miners' visit which organised a discussion between them and miners in the CFDT (the Socialist Party-led union) and the CGT. They visited an iron mine with CGT militants who agreed to send parcels over for Christmas.
In Lyon they were welcomed by the regional section of the CFDT who took them to meet hospital workers and organised a creche. Susan met women from the women's commission of the regional union and from women's groups.
Lille, in the extreme north of the country, was the last stop on their three-week tour in which they raised 90,000 French francs (about £10,000), not including pledges of future support for Christmas. The CGT nationally has produced a lively dossier issued to members with suggestions on what kind of gifts to send and where.
In the Netherlands ...from the November 21 issue of Klassenstrijd, paper of the Dutch section of the Fourth International.
Is there or is there not a move afoot to stop the shipment of coal to Britain?
According to the Guardian (British daily newspaper) of November 10, Norman Willis, the general secretary of the TUC is coming to the Netherlands with a delegation of union leaders to get the unions to black coal to Britain. International Viewpoint 10 December 1984
Such an effort is supposed to have been made by Mick McGahey, vice president of the NUM, at the time of the meeting of the transport unions. They wanted a total embargo on all coal, according to the Guardian.
But neither the FNV [the country's biggest trade-union confederation] nor the Transport Union have yet made any official attempt to get a boycott. What is going on?
Obviously the NUM wants a boycott of coal shipments. It seems at the same time that the TUC has not transmitted the NUM's request to the FNV. There is an explanation for this. The leadership of the TUC - and of the Labour Party - wants to isolate Scargill. Scargill is out for a total victory against Margaret Thatcher. And she is out for a total victory over the NUM. There is no unclarity about that.
But nothing would be more of a kick in the pants to the TUC than a victory for Scargill and the miners over Thatcher, because then the members of other unions would start asking, NUM can beat Thatcher, why can't our leaders do it?"
The present leadership of the TUC naturally does not want the NUM beaten either. Their strategy is rather to take the thing to the negotiating table. They know that Scargill is not inclined to compromise, and so he has to be isolated.
The TUC leadership is closely linked to the Labour Party. And they want to make Labour an acceptable government party for the ruling class, a party it can negotiate with. So, the TUO and the Labour leadership are playing to the bourgeoisie, which is saying "we can't do anything with Scargill and the ranks of the NUM." It is trying to go around the NUM and Scargill to
So, reports about a delegation coming to the Netherlands probably came from the NUM as a means of putting the TUO
There were, according to a representative of the Transport Union, contacts with the NUM and the TUC and also contacts on the European level for a common approach.
The reason that the Transport Union does not have to wait for an official declaration is that it has got an awful lot of encouragement to act. It has come from innumerable workplaces.
Coal destined for Britain is thrown on the tracks at Calais (DR)
For example, in Eindhoven on October 15 at the FNV meeting, the following resolution was adopted with "The FNV-Eindhoven annual general meeting which has come out for support to the striking miners in word and deed, is anxiously following developments in Britain. And it is following with interest the discussions between the TUC and the NUM on one side and the Transport Union [Vervoersbond] and the FNV on the other regarding a blacking of coal transport to Britain. It expresses the sincere hope that these discussions will soon lead to the best possible result.
The meeting decided to send memoranda to the FNV-Amsterdam, the Confederation Council, to the VervoersbondUtrecht and to the Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Vlissingen branches of the Transport Union.
The motion was put to the meeting by the Eindhoven FNV "Support the British Miners" group, and was also supported by the executive of the Eindhoven FNV. On that same evening at an Industriebond shop stewards meeting in Eindhoven, 235 guilders were collected.
11
Also at the Amsterdam ADM and Fokker factories motions were adopted. The executive meeting of the shop stewards at the Amsterdam Dry Dock Company sent a letter to the FNV Confederation Council, the Transport Union and the national executive of the Industriebond. The burden of the motion was that the Transport Union should organize a real boycott of coal shipments to Britain. The miners called for this through the NUM. All of this outweighs the formal argument about having to wait for a call by the TUC or the International Transport Federation (ITF).
The shop stewards group at Fokker sent the following letter:
"We are very concerned about the reports in Vrij Nederland that coal is being shipped out of the Amsterdam harbor to Britain, from South Africa, among other sources. miners have been waging a struggle for seven months to save the
We in the FNV have offered solidarity in various forms. Refusing to handle tainted cargo also seems to us to be one of the most important tasks for us in the FNV. We hope, therefore, that you will do everything possible in this respect."
The Rotterdam support committee is organizing a big official Christmas collection to be held from December 20 to December 22. At least a hundred collectors will go out with collection boxes and sandwich boards through the city. In the neighborhoods, there will be house-to-house collections, at bus, tram and metro stations, and on the Christmas shopping evenings in the big shopping centers.
On Saturday afternoon, December 22, there will be a final demonstration, with speakers, music and the announcement of the amount collected.
Many political groups, unions and humanitarian organizations have been asked to endorse this campaign. The first responses have been received. The FNV is supporting the action. A special poster is coming out that will be displayed on a wide scale. This collection and the publicity for it is the committee's chief activity up until the end of December.
Moreover, the committee is trying to get more information about the transport of coal. Contacts have been made with the FNV transport union. But this work is proving difficult. There 12 is unclarity over an attempt to institute a boycott through the International Transport Federation. A real boycott remains a problem because there is no official attempt to do this and there is a problem of employment in the transport business.
Collections were also held during the FNV week of action. On the opening evening of the action, three hundred guilders were collected A special pamphlet is to be distributed about the NUM's alternative.
In Ireland..a special campaign in solidarity with the miners is being organised in the north to collect money, food and toys for miners' families at Christmas. Collections are held regularly among union members and some have been paying a
One union, NIPSA (Northern Ireland Public Services Association) has agreed to match pound for pound the donations made by members from their own pockets and has already handed over £3,050 from its central funds to the NUM.
"Irish workers are affected in no small way by the miners' strike', Ben Hearney, President of Dublin Council of Trades Unions told a thousand-strong audience at a recent miners' solidarity concert. Evocative memories were recalled of the solidarity from British workers during the 1913 Dublin Lockout. The atmosphere was electrifying and the audience rose to give a prolonged standing ovation to the two guest miners: John Burrowes from Yorkshire and the National Treasurer of the NUM, and Dan Evans from Derbyshire. It was a marvellous occasion of solidarity from Irish trade unionists who have collected over $100,000 in the 26 counties.
A support group has been set up in Limerick (in the southwest of the country) and in the space of a few short weeks it has raised £1,100 for miners in South Wales. Already several South Wales miners have visited Limerick and spoken to workers explaining their struggle and asking for support. One group of workers at Shannon have managed to get their company, GAC, to check off contributions to NUM at source. Many shop stewards from Limerick workplaces have participated in the group. Busworkers have been especially generous. Other actions such as a 'Rock for the miners' concert were also planned.
Solidarity work will be aided by the opening of an office in Cork staffed by two South Wales miners. The above information was taken from Socialist Republic, the paper of People's Democracy, Irish section of the Fourth International.
In Italy ..solidarity with the miners is finally getting off the ground. Collections are being organised in the factories and on the streets. Meetings have been held in factories in Milan, Brescia and Mantua.
In Milan there has been a promise to set up a permanent solidarity committee. A Lombardy-wide committee representing engineering workers, building, textile and food workers recently invited miner Alan Jones from South Wales to the region to get support. Amongst other things he spoke to a meeting of workers in the Alfa Romeo factory near Milan.
In Austria...the president of the Kent branch of the NUM, Joe Holmes, spoke to 500 persons in Vienna on November 15.
In Austria also solidarity actions with the miners are multi-
Miners children have been invited to the country for holidays by the Rote Falken [Red Falcons], the Catholic Worker Youth and the Trade-Union Left Block. The Austrian Trade-Union Confederation [OeGB] has given the miners 100,000 schillings [about £4,000]; the GPA (union of private employees), 200,000 schillings; the Gewerkschaft Metall-Bergbau-Energie [Engineering, Mining and Energy union] has also given 100,000 schillings.
In a meeting recently held in Vienna, 65,000 schillings was collected in one stroke. The Austrian Trade-Union Youth [OeG] is planning a postcard campaign direct at the workers' chambers (state body to which workers elect delegates). Solidarity committees are being founded in Vienna and Linz. The international secretary of the OeGB, Karl-Heinz Nachtnebel, made an appeal to the Vienna rally, saying: "We must increase our efforts so that there will be a change in consciousness and effective solidarity with the miners will develop throughout the workers' movement."
International Viewpoint 10 December 1984