Democratic Palestine : 7 (ص 21)
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- Democratic Palestine : 7 (ص 21)
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Britain
Miners’ Strike
We were very pleased to receive the following article from Bill
James, member of the National Union of Mineworkers, writing in his
personal capacity. In printing it, we heartily echo the closing words
To overseas observers of the politi-
cal and industrial situation in Britain, par-
ticularly in regards to the epic struggle of
the miners, circumstances may not
appear quite as clear as they should. |
think a very brief history will be of great
help to readers of this article.
Shortly after the last war, the coal
industry consisted of about a thousand
pits and employed nearly a million men;
it was taken into public ownership by the
pre-war Labour administration in recog-
nition of the fact that it was an important
national asset and that under previous
private ownership continual demands
for subsidies were being made to com-
pensate for bad management and lost
profits. Since that time the industry has
been run by an appointed board in the
interests of monopoly capitalism; in fact,
it has on many occasions been referred
to as «state monopoly capitalism», like
other so-called nationalised industries
designed to serve the interests of private
profit.
Since that time and particularly with
the increase in world oil production,
which was available to «the West» at
very low prices, and the vastly increased
use of oil-based fuel for the production of
energy and motive transport power, the
coal industry has been subject to enorm-
ous cutbacks in the number of pits and
therefore also in the number of men
working in them. These facts together
with the vastly improved technology,
which in turn has increased productivity
to unprecedented levels, has reduced
our industry to less than 200 pits and
employing less than 200,000 men.
Much of this closure programme
was carried out during the 1960s under
the chairmanship of Lord Robens and
against the advice of the National Union
of Mineworkers, who warned of the folly
of closing pits in favour of cheap oil, for
they had the foresight to see that one
day the oil-producing states would
demand a greater cut of the cake. This
as we all know has indeed happened,
making oil at this time up to fifty percent
more expensive than coal. During this
:
Put the hat around ManEAG? WEALS
time miners’ incomes were eroded to a
totally unacceptable level which eventu-
ally resulted in the strikes of 1972 and
1974.
Since 1974, when the miners won
substantial increases in wages and
helped to bring about the downfall of the
Tory Government under the leadership
of Edward Heath, once again their
wages have been and are being eroded,
their basic grade rates being substituted
by divisive incentive bonus schemes
introduced by back-door methods and
the use of the High Courts by right-wing
leaders. .
With the further threatened closure
programmes of the Tory Government
and the election of a progressive leader-
ship in the National Union of Minewor-
kers, we are once again in the position of
having to take industrial action, not only
to save jobs but our communities and
our industry. The President of our union,
Mr. Arthur Scargill, warned before being
elected of a massive closure prog-
ramme amidst shouts of «lies», «rub-
bish», «it doesn’t exist» from our
enemies, but time and events have
proved him correct.
Today the British miners and
indeed the British working class are
faced with a far more sinister attack on
their well being, the enemy being the
same, but the stakes very much higher.
Today we are faced by a vindictive right-
wing extremist administration who have
made all possible preparations for con-
frontation with the working people and
their elected representatives for the pur-
pose of propping up their outdated and
ailing system.
The coal miners’ strike has been
going on since 11th March of this year. A
vicious attack has been waged by the
media against the National Union of
Mineworkers, its leadership and the
strike itself. This has affected support
from other unions, but a majority of the
miners have supported the strike. Picket
line violence was provoked by the police
who were sent out in enormous force. As
a result, 6000 miners have been
arrested; five miners are still in hospital
in life-supporting machines; quite a few
others have suffered broken limbs. The
financial loss caused by the strike to
date is £20 million weekly from using gas
instead of coal as fuel, and £400-500
weekly in the cost of policing.
The Political Significance
It will be common knowledge to
many people, particularly those active in
the labour and trade union movement,
that the Tories and their backers have no
regard for the organised working class
and have an age long desire to render
them impotent and unable to represent
the people that elected them. With the
deepening crisis of | monopoly
Capitalism, the need to expedite this
onslaught has become more and more
urgent as far as the Tories are con-
cerned. It is in this context that we must
observe the titanic struggle being waged
by the miners and their supporters, and
attach the political significance that it so
richly deserves.
It is worthy of note, and much to
their everlasting shame, that previous
Labour administrations have _partici-
pated in these attacks whether it was in
the form of Barbara Castles «In Place of
Strife» or attempts to hamstring free col-
lective bargaining by so-called «Social
Contracts» etc., based on the assump-
tion that high wages are the cause of
inflation and therefore responsible for
unemployment.
Many people will agree that this
hatred, particularly of the miners, has
magnified itself as a result of the historic
victories in 1972 and 1974; as a result
the Tories and their backers have
schemed to seek revenge on the miners
and in the process to pave the way for
the destruction of the whole trade union
movement, the only opposition to the
draconian economic measures that they
wish to impose on the ordinary working
people, to enable them to ride out the
crisis that is inherent in their system to a
lesser or greater degree at all times.
The Heath Government's attempts |
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