Greens federal delegate conference calls for solidarity with British miners tecting nuclear facilities from all sorts of spies and 'terrorists'].
Thatcher's so-called policies of cutting down to the bone, which favor new production methods and new technologies, mean simply writing off whole regions, sweeping away the historically evolved
The following resolution was introduced at the Federal Delegate conference of the Greens in Hamburg on December 2. While various problems blocked the motion being debated, it is being circulated among the Greens with the authority of the leaders and the leading bodies that signed it.
The Federal Delegate Conference rethat the media coverage of the British miners' strike in the Federal Republic has been either nil or false and one-sided; the Greens want to counter
- at the same time the Greens want to help alleviate the material want that the miners face owing to the length of the strike and the repressive measures taken by the Thatcher government; we want to express our admiration and sympathy for their courage and their tenacity.
finally, the Greens want to express their solidarity by actively participating in the miners' struggle.
The Federal Delegate Conference welcomes the solidarity initiatives already undertaken: the initiatives taken by the Nord-Rhein-Westfalen, Schleswig Holstein and Hamburg groups, GEW [Gewerkscaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft, the teachers' union], (the twosecretary, Peter Healthfield, during which he spoke at 12 solidarity rallies and the call was raised for donating a day's wages to the miners).
We also welcome the decisions of the BuVo [Bundesvorstand, National Committee] and the Green-Alternative European Alliance (at the urging of the Greens) to contribute respectively 20,000 and 10,000 German marks to support the
We instruct the BuVo, along with groups, to build two "Solidarity Weeks." During these weeks of action, at regional, transregional and local rallies, the KVs [Kreisvorstand, district leaderships] could hold discussion evenings, literature tables and other such
We instruct the BuVo, the federal and state parliamentary fractions, as International Viewpoint 24 December 1984 the European parliamentary group, before and during these Solidarity Weeks, to mount a truth campaign, by means of placing ads in publications, holding press conferences, issuing leaflets
The KVs should check to see how best they can organise local solidarity actions, based for example on already extwinning arrangements between cities (such as exchange visits, fund collections for specific purposes and so on.)
The Greens will send a combined delegation (BuVo, BHA [Bundeshauptausschuss, National Leadership Committee ], Green members in the federal, state and European parliaments) to Britain to participate on the picket lines alongside the British miners. This is to expose the police brutality (use of horses, dogs and clubs) and insofar as possible to deter it. Thus, the precise times and places of such participation will not be announced be-
The BuVo and the state groups, supported by the European group, will prepare two summer camps for miners'
The Federal Delegate Conference condemns the lack of solidarity shown by the IG Bergbau [West German miners' federation], and calls on this union to stop undermining the strike of the British miners by allowing increases in the exports of West German coal to Britain.
8. The Federal Delegate Conference urges the DGB [Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund, German Confederation of Labor] to support the striking miners by extending them special financial aid on an adequate scale, which means millions of
The British miners' strike against the mine closures forced by the Thatcher government has been going on for over nine months now. Their strike is not just structures of the mining communities. These plans have no regard for the problems of the health, human needs or dignity of the population. To the contrary, the Iron Lady is trying to crush the resistance to such antihuman schemes. this end, she is confiscating all the funds and property of the NUM, and has deprived the miners of most of the social benefits that they are entitled to. miners' family that takes part in picketing has to make do with some 244 German marks [£67] a month, and a weekly food packet.
It is clear that Thatcher's aim is to mount a head-on attack to weaken, cripple and demoralize independent, strong unions.
Given the 'forced marriage' character of the EEC, we Greens in the Federal Republic are affected not only indirectly by these developments, because of the call of solidarity. We are directly affected as a result of the pressures for economic integration fostered and exerted by
Supporting the British miners is also supporting our own struggle. not be so blind as IG Bergbau. union, in fact, has not only been conspicuous by its absence from the solidarity campaigns but it has also short-sightedly sought to feather its own nest in this case by going along with a 35% increase in coal exports from the Ruhrkohle company to Great Britain.
In the long run, such an means sawing off the branch on which IG Bergbau and all trade unionists are
We have to fight this with all our
Solidarity with the British miners is not just a moral question. It is our own interests, our own concerns, that are at stake.
Signed for the Greens European Group - Dorothee Piermont, Wilfried Telkaemper, Frank Schwalba-Hoth, F. O. Wolf - and the Bonn Kreisvorstand.
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