In the aftermath of the miners' vote against strike action, a major debate has opened in the pits. Socialist Challenge opens its columns to three views on this. secretary, North Derbyshire NUM Why do you think the executive lost the ballot?
were disappointed with the result of the ballot atter particularly enand down the country and thusiastic campaign what appeared to be good support members. it seems to me that one of the factors in delivering the hostile vote wa campaign prop ne the calivalsil tabloids especially conducted.
I can't recall an occasion when papers like the Sun, Mail, Express have devoted pages to persuade trade union. propaganda war was won by our enemies and hopetully we will bear that in mind Some NUM members have argued that the campaign was a bit lop-sided. At the top level it was good. the big rallies did a lot for the morale of those who attended them but it was very variable al a local level.
I'm not a believer in instant militancy. You have and make members aware over a prolonged period. 1972 and 1974 were slightly different. We were trying to correct an injustice over a declining wage. This time There wast tony a lurcar to wages, there was also a jobs.
ENTe Li There were areas of the Area Council spoke to Socialist Challenge Wast ISSUC prepared Ine Boare's ofter rather than de into what they believed would be a long strike.
the campaign by the press and the media did have its eftect saying all along that jobs and pay were connected' Just playing words because they never unere s. But they were tryinit pit people into thinking closure issue' This does not mean miners cosure.
closures were on the cards at this We've that months Yorkshire miners to save pits.
For instance, it's signifi.
cant that after the ›allot Socialist Challenge NUM, where some people pronounced their support to the union, but privately expressed their tions and made some pretty awful statements publicly about the campaign.
But nationally it was a Dren extensive canvalzil Whether could intensified, I don't OCCI know. I don't really think so. I think more realistically we would have to look at prolonged campaign, giving officials the opportunity to meet smaller groups of men in localities, rather than at the mass rallies. So at the end of the day, probably met through this medium one in five of the members. isn't enough.
Returning to the future and the Board's attitude. I think it's going to be a particularly difficult period, mostly because OlI knowledge of the likelihood of a substantial number pit There will continue to be campaigns against pit The vote did not give the leave discuss pit ad nauseum. will resis and fight every closure as it arises.
The most likely pits the NCB will try to close in the short term are Snowdown (nem, amnew scorand and Brittania (South Wales. Has the union got resistance dia these cases? immediate plan At the moment the NUM NCB walling Ken Capstick, Parkhill NUM delegate to the Yorks mire all satergewat the Board miners interviewee TV they can now That's a battle still to be fought. - a battle miners are always going to be fighting had one of the best nstory. Mayoc lic response were one me dia and the rest of the media throwing smokęscreen ana issue attacks on scargill unc political czare c co do v Mass unempimate the eroduced Miners the same as everyone else ULliCI cen dovedea resolac I think the miners could move meat ith rade. that trade union When Derek Lucy SCO sacked are wial nabocnca di 20 November 1982 Our own mining engineers nave Coromcted very detailed survey with some posilve resulls been submitted to the Board. We're waiting for a response. Kinneil another ditticult one tha The NUM in Scotland will be pursuing that initially. I think it's necessary to add more to the list.
The terms of reference have Dee determined mainly by the Government who will seek to ride industy othe industry. normal capitalist yardproducing SLUCK considerably more than they are consuming.
So you don't think the new pits at Vale of Belvoir or Selby will increase coal producing capacity and be the promised land' for miners?
Certainly not. Selby will be manned pits that will be closed in neighbouring coalfields. Vale of Belvoir is a long way away. I've always maintained that Heseltine's delay in announcing the development at Belvoir was based on their intentions to privatise This is a threat and certainly Tory Government, God forbid, they will talk about privatisation of important sectors ORIe dustry. That means those where the capitalists make a profit, like the Vale of Belvoir and Selby. British Levand since: WIICH see people nke Weighell accepting job losses on British Rail with no str gle when they the aralist anarche this miners too.
the traindrivers They'd got their MACHOOS the railways won the support oI a lo But we all knew that when were the TUC leadership 1 ones - the miners would be ine next largel Many expected a fight muc didn't the would they back must nave deet minds many miners. We failed to them of their obability to win.
There are some lessons for the left in the NUM. We have Miners private interests, I don't think they will hesitate unless we as a trade union and labour movement as a whole are able to raise a realistic campaign against On the NUM Conference has issued a call for a national trade union conference of unions threatened Telecom looks like being the first for the axe. What are your thoughts on that? Although the TUC has declared its opposition to don't know of any individual trade union in the public that has done anything about it. Our attempts in coal. rail and steel to launch a rebirth of the Triple Alliance, has not really taken off.
A Triple Alliance is not really going to succeed if about trade union pontificating London. A Triple Alliance will succeed when trade unionists grass roots level decide to act collectively to defend their industry and their jobs.
think Scotland is perhaps an example where it has worked. The threat to Ravenscraig has drawn miners and steel There's a fear, too. that in the railwav in dustry there are going to be cutbacks and loss , in Scotland, there seems to be a Alliance that is capable of actually doing things. Regrettably England that is not the case. simple wages militancy is.
have to raise the political conminers. feel strongly about a lot •uner wes - Ic a ou ca week, early retirement, a rate protection hehnological and job losses.
Then, as Scargill said in campaign stee Triple have to the Alliance something rooted in depots. It's no good having an WILl those whose main Interest is a seal 1n in House of Lords If we got to the point when workers in all three industries were prepared SLIK TODs. we would also be building a wider movement which really threatens the government. Pat Hickey (Socialist Challenge)
THE LETTER (12 from Dick Hall and Mark Hunger is a little hard Challenge. The article Miners can defeat the Tories' was no doubt over optimistic, dramatically rades suggest. It was intended to take sides in the ballot, not merely to comment on it. It therefore pointed the miners' strike in turning the situation round against the Tories.
mal Result in the Balance Mitten in Campaign' collaboration with comrades in the mine and mining areas showed an equal degre 'For the first time since 1935 a united (my emphasis) NUM Executive coalfields stantle ovations, Dartil the Tories ment to 39 reject • rejection? was that it would be a close vote, A-level. in oscar norwastanding.
We cannot accept the comrades assess situation in the toralist approach COM GN AGAT A O BARO best camonde mo by any seco• or unt trade union bureaucracy for many years. Every doubt there bels ave been man! improvements. But we do not belleve that more leaflets. more copies of The Miner or even more pit meetings would have substantially altered the vote. The fact of the matter is that miners were not prepared to take the offensive against the Tories in a struggle. The trike, the NUR strike, the undermining o the health strike sive on the witch-hunt all contributed t LIS Clearly, miners felt that union derst wow academ camoral the kind of class-wide support that would be needed.
whose attitudes to the actions was, to say the least, lukewarm was that the class as a whole the then lory Government
November)
Socialist tions and so on Moreover, were scanion. but incorrect compotential of bonuca broolen The articles inside, 'Scargills BarnstorCelia Tories, Tories.
The former, in particular, spoke ot touring the that ho and referred enthusiastically to Arthur etC., Our eagerness for a fight-back against no doubt clouded our judge- Tories But then who predicted a 61 main obstacle. The general assessment simply We think that the cam workers facing.
applies TalLy MUSL must and the right-wing offer une neal the trade In 1972 and 1974 the miners went into leauersnID We now challenges.
The decisive factor • were fightin been a whole series of actions against the Industrial Relations Act, over 200 occupathe dominant figures in the the lett leaders, unen. as now. ll was lne overal situation in the class that was the decisive Failure to take this into account leads to a sectarian attitude to Scargill, similar to that taken by the SWP While the points made about the need for a campaigning union are well taken they are not sufficient their own the une pollica orovem is neenershi of the labour movement as a whole. lee ships, and has actrey salto aged une mall obstacc wu a lizil azalls lik Scargill's failure was not mainly tha he did not lead the fight in the NUM, but did not fight the right wing across the labour movement. This failure is comDurcaulialy albiesch winin ce working cass Inere is strong minority which does want to fight the and who see the right wing as the Scargill, Buckton and Benn have so far ¡allea to organise inese forces at tne bas‹ to settle accounts with the right wing. In confine themselves to • Nues, ors to sectoral within the bureaucracy existence organised left across the unions fighting the right would be an enormous boost in confidence to , the Tories' attacks organisation to dealing with the betrayals of the right The adage. 'Don't Mourn — Organise across ine movemeni cross sectoral campaigns against this. W every step that takes us such cross-sectoral organisation It is by linking up with the left across the unions and the LP that • we call Usu unions into the campaigning unions that Lumn une um and ole In the fight to prepare the NUM for the dead. It is a thing of the past.
. Understanding that the right need li raci wing leadership of the movement is a pr lem affecting every sector is a precond
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