International solidarity with NOT
DOLE
British miners Currently, entering its eleventh month the British miners' strike is now the longest in the country's history. At the same time it has also sparked off the largest movement of international solidarity for any industrial dispute at least since the Second World War.
Rank-and-file trade unionists from all over the globe have been sending in donations of food and money. In Denmark there are now 125 miners' support committees across the country. Australian dockers claim to have stopped all shipment of coal to Britain over the last ten months. Support has even arrived from trade unionists in Afghanistan who sent £10,000 and 10 tons of dried fruit!
However, coal continues to arrive in Britain from Germany, Poland, Russia, South Africa and even China, to the extent that coal imports have more than doubled in the last year. If even the narrow guidelines of the TUC to maintain coal exports at levels before the strike were adhered to, the situation could change dramatically.
The solidarity shown for the miners so far illustrates that it is possible on an international level to get the kind of support needed.
In Belgium, for example, support for a blockade is now very strong. Dockers in Ghent, Antwerp and Zeebrugge have agreed not to load extra shipments of coal. As one port workers' leader explained to a BBC interviewer: '...this is not a normal, simple strike. It is a social struggle and we have met these situations in Belgium and we are maybe going to meet them in the future. We have a strong feeling of solidarity for people who are fighting to save their jobs.'
In Australia the miners' federation has a 10 dollar per month levy on each of its 13,000 members. Schoolteachers, building workers and longshoremen have all contributed to the estimated 800,000 dollars (about £570,000) so far forwarded to the NUM. The Seamen's union and the Waterside Workers Federation have banned the shipment of coal to Britain. According to miners' leader, Arthur Scargill, 6,000 Australian workers have been laid off at one time or another as a result of this action.
The USSR has provided more than any other country in donations and money. By last November, Russian aid had reached the £1 million mark. Soviet miners in particular have shown support with anything up to three quarters of a million roubles being raised in some regions. This kind of support has not been matched at the level of concrete action, for Soviet coal is still going to Britain despite initial statements to the contrary. The refusal of both the Soviet and the Polish authorities to stop coal exports to Britain flies in the face of the solidarity shown by rank-and-file workers the world over in support of the miners.
The bourgeois press in Britain has chosen to ignore this widespread solidarity and concentrate instead on money supposedly coming from Libya. The National Union of Mineworkers has effectively countered this propaganda campaign, declaring that they welcome international support and solidarity from all quarters. Such action must be stepped up in this, the most crucial, stage of the strike.
International solidarity meeting called - February 16 The second international miners' solidarity meeting organised by Socialist Action will take place on Saturday February 16 in South Wales. The meeting will be held in the Miners' Welfare Hall of Penrhiwceiber Lodge of the National Union of Mineworkers. The meeting will be addressed by leading figures in South Wales NUM and will be attended by miners and miners' wives from all over the British coalfields.
International trade unionists and those involved in solidarity with the British miners will be very welcome. For details phone Jude or Redmond at (44) (1) 359-8371.
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