La coal stocks plete disapnonths. The economics n importing ment cannot be A ban on warc uld result in be taking the claim going ie le coal uniform:
pen bring tears tell uS the i our claim n told me, oks if you sno good I told him, ly what they e'd believed have had a A trade union ieader has obligation above all else to put the members nist.irs ine miners wno gel the coal. Machinery and interest pay allowed to overnae Licicasts The Coal Boare should meet the full claim and if that dustry is in debt, the Board should go means at the end of the vcal • the in. While pits close, Britain becomes dependent on imported oil 50,000 new jobs and be a step in the direction of a shorter working week.
I want to say where I stand on the is test the othere interested e in the long term interests of the miners to have a strong, vigorous and democratic union which quickly ana erecuvery to le wisnes of the members. The shirk its responsibilities. this business to compromise.
I'm here to fight for my members, board say, I wilFight to the end for my members' interests. I want to say that it the price of the Presidency is compromising on my beliefs, then don't want the job job if you agree with the policies I stand for.
I will fight for a democratic union whose Icaucts are accountabie regular intervals, whose leaders The press, the Mail, Sun and Miror, are prepang a lllassive campaign against me. They want anyone but me as president of the National Union of Mineworkers. The Coal Thatcher wall anvole Dul Scargill.
Keir Hardie once said that if the press and the ¡ories attack vou ther you must be doing something right. The reason they oppose me is because they know I'll fight.
Someone once asked me what I thought was the finest achievement of my career. I told them that one week after the end of the standing on the street when an old man in his eighties came up to me with tears in his held out his hand and said he wanted to thank me and the miners for wiping out the bitter memory of 1926. That was the finest moment in my life.
If you want a president who won't compromise, who'll stand and fight the Coal Board and the government whatever its colour, vote tor me. I stand bv my record a the only candidate who sistently fought for better wages and k. conditions, the only candidate who has consistently fought to defend jobs alu our maasily.
responds union cannot The major candidate, Coal ly right wing council I only want the jority The do Tories to back Since then, Wing Board and offer.
Scargill's Led pamphlet, Eighties, '72 strike I was widely out the miners union.
Barnsley eyes. He defend jobs.
offensive to fight for a 35 hour week and programme of investment to create thousands of new jobs. Such policies then you should sent a complete contrast to has con- the policies leadership which has allowed thousands of jobs to be destroyed.
The AT THE beginning of December, 250,000 miners will elect a new president. paign to stop Arthur Scargill is in disarray. in branches on the nomination for the president is running heavily in Scargill's favour.
right wing Ray Chadburn, president of the traditional Nottingham- hillicks shire area, received a major setback when his own are voted to nominate Scargill by a two to one maminers' strike earlier this year forced the off their threat to close 23 pits.
, seven pits have been closed and 6,000 jobs lost. The Tories are plannTogether with the National Coal Board, they are sticking firm on a 6 per cent pay policies combat this threat are contained in a recently publishMiners in the e ciniulas thon. she which is being executive argues for industrial action against pit closures and to system Miners should go on the La massive mand • repredemand for of the current Leyland workers question.
The right wing camVoting were left to fight alone, thus weakening the fight for the when agreement was reached to a month long adjournment of pay negotiations.
The policies put forward by Scargill represent a real challenge to the bankrupt policies of Gormley, Chad burn and their supporters Scargill stands for a leadership that will mobilise the strength of the rank and file to defend jobs and living standards, instead of accep. ting that miners should bear the burden of the economic The election of Scargill will not be the end of the fight against the right wing in the NUM. The right is hoping to control Scargill through its majority on the which favours small areas and sections.
For this reason Scargill places great stress on the in- on troduction of a block vote on the executive which would give the majority to the left wing areas who represent the majorit of NUM members The defor a representative NEC has to be linked to a regular elections of full time officials.
At the moment they are elected for life. Miners in the Eighties is silent on this Many NUM members feel that the officials say one thing before they are elected and another when they have their jobs for The demand for periodic strengthens the left's fight against the policies the right wing The biggest weakness of Scargill's programme support for import controls. This demand plays into the hands of the right wing. It puts the blame for the crisis on American and Polish workers and where it belongs - on the Tories and the parasitic private suppliers and conSupport for import controls undermines the fight to stop pit and job losses. When the Bedlay pi in Scotland was faced witł closure Mick McGahey, Communist Party member and a leading supporter of import controls refused organise a fight. When the Bedlay miners came out on strike to keep their pit open, McGahey refused to back them.
Despite such differences policy, Socialist Challenge supports Scargill against Ray Chadburn and the other • right wing candidates. The miners strike in February 1981 showed that it is possible to take on and defeat the Tories A victory for Scargill will be a step forward in the tight to get rid of officials like Boyd and Duffy have scabbed on the fight to defend • jobs and to kick out the Tories.
Socialist Challenge 12 November 1981