The Miners' Next Step

next step Revolutionary Communist Party strike special After four weeks the miners' strike has reached a critical stage. Direct action has spread the strike through most of the coalfields.

number of pits, especially in Nottinghamshire and the Midlands, remain open.

united and effective thetic action — we need to carry the mass of miners for an all-out national stoppage.

coalfield in the country. We need to channel their anger against the National Coal Board and the Government. To win mass support for all-out action we need • a national focus At present the strike is being conducted coalfield by coalfield, area by area. The result is that the action is badly coordinated and patchy in its effects. Often miners in one pit don't know what's going on at other pits nearby, never mind in other areas. A campaign for a centrally organised strike would mobilise the miners into a nation-wide fighting force and make the strike really bite.

national campaign would provide a focus fordiscussion and action at pit and area level. Mass meetings are vital to make all miners aware of the latest developments in the strike and to inthe miners' Unity must be won Yet a significant To make the strike - and to win broader sympa- We need to pull the miners together in every volve as many as possible in picketing and other activity.

A country-wide campaign could coordinate delegations of rank and file activists travelling through the coal- Taking control

NATIONAL RANK AND FILE MEETING ON

THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE MINERS STRIKE

Saturday 14 April 2pm Marcus Garvey Centre Lenton Boulevard Nottingham creche plus food fields to win the arguments for all-out action against the pit closures. The proposed miners march for jobs from Kent through London to the moderate Midlands areas is the sort of initiative that could be followed and linked up with otherareas activities.

• national leadership sions and move the strike forward leadership at national level is essential. As long as the strike is controlled at area level, militants in different areas will remain iso- They will not be able lated. MacGregor action against and the Tories. Winning the strike depends on rank and file activists the 1n miners' union persuading the more passive workers in every area to respond to a national strike call, whatever the of particular It also depends area leaders. on activists getting together with militants in other unions and organising to bring the nation's energy supplies to a halt. The NUM area leaders the prefer run strike through behind the scenes talks with other union leaders. But, as we have seen, agreements between union officials in distant offices cannot stop the movement and use of coal supplies. Cooperation between rank and file miners and the railway workers, lorry drivers and power workers who do on the ground work is the only guarantee of success. • national organisation The paramilitary police occupation of the coalfields in recent weeks shows the Carrying the arguments: a campaign for a national strike is vital to unite the miners extraordinary measures the Coal Board and the Government are prepared to adopt to win their battle against The extraordinthe miners. ary character of the bosses offensive demands an extra- We need ordinary response. a combined national campaign of striking, picketing and sympathetic action to Board to the Coal force back down over pit closures and mass redundancies. To be effective this campaign must be organised at national level and it must have the miners" full backing Given the divisions that exist in the miners' ranks, the only way to win the backing of the mass of miners is by winning a majority for all-out action in a national ballot. We need to stay out on strike and to step up the picketing We also need to use a campaign for a vote for a clear majority in favour of a national strike as a means of restoring and strengthening miners' unity.

There is a growing danger that the militant areas Yorkshire, Kent, Scotland South Wales - will become Even within the isolated. militant areas there is a risk that a minority of activists will become cut off from the rest of the workers on A campaign for out action would provide a tocus to unite the mass of miners behind the activists When the miners are united and fighting together - who then willbeableto stopthem?

It's them against us The British coal industry versus British miners When National Coal Board chairman Ian MacGregor announced 20 pit closures and 20 000 redundancies on 6 March he triggered off the biggest explosion of militancy in the coalfields for a decade.

The miners' strike exposes a basic conflict in our society. employers and the Government, the courts and the police have united to try to crush the miners' attempts to defend their jobs and livelihoods.

The imposition of virtual martial law in the coalfields shows that the

THEIR PROBLEM:

mining in Britain profitable The recession has brought a decline in the demand for coal from British industry growing competition from foreign coal, and increasing pressure to curb government expenditure on coal mining.

The result is stockpiles of unsold coal and mounting financial losses.

The NCB's response to the crisis of the coal industry is to attempt to create and sustain a high-volume, low-cost industry: 'It does not take a ruthless capitalist to THEIR SOLUTION: all-out attack miners' jobs, on and working conditions To make the British coal industry a going capitalist concern requires • the concentration of production in a small number of efficient modern pits and the closure of the rest, with large scale redundancies; MacGregor has not denied Arthur Scargill's claim that his ultimate target is to reduce the number of pits trom 170 to 100 and the number miners from 184 000 to 100 000 • the reduction of labour costs by holding down wages in the industry; last cent pay offer means a year's 5.2 per continuing decline in real income • an increase in productivity by establishing precise area and pit financial and output targets and tightening up managerial control. *The sooner it is done, the quicker we shall balance output stability? Ian bring about announcing his latest package of cuts and closures to the miners

THEIR

METHODS:

measures necessary to break miners' resistance The have mobilised the full employers resources of the state to miners' backing of the Government, the Board used •the courts; the judges immediate injunction to the Coal Board Yorkshire miners' block the pickets and to threaten union funds; they immediately rejected the appeal against being prevented by police from leaving the county to picket 200 miles away police; once the strike class. of them against us. now The divisions to weaken Party making coal low-priced ruthless capitalist and living standards of and demand and MacGregor, The boss: ruthless attack whatever road blocks, phones, try to smash With the full and file activists Coal • the press; granted flying Kent miners bosses recognise that they are fighting to assert their power as a MacGregor and Thatcher have made it clear that it is a matter Where does that leave us? Up to our movement has lacked the unity and clarity of our class enemies. We have allowed regional our ranks. And while the Tories have solidly backed the Coal Board, the Labour and the TUC have yet to stand up for the miners. work out what Mr MacGregor and the Coal Board should be doing. The 1974 Plan for Coal, the shocking Monopoly Commission report, the House of Lords select committee on European Community coal policy, successive Commons select committees, ministers and Coal Board managers have all concluded that the Board should invest in new low cost pits and close old uneconomic ones.' (The Times, 13 March) Nevertheless the Government appointed a MacGregor. Last in September he embarked on a programme of closures and redundancies, austerity discioline to improve the market performance of British coal mining.

officers into the coalfields; they set up intimidated pickets with vastly superior numbers and arrested hundreds of miners; they also launched a massive intelligence operation, tapping and interrogating prisoners building up their computer files on rank the mass media is always at the disposal of the employers in an industrial dispute and the miners' strike has proved no exception; the gutter press has worked day and night to publicise the views and actions of any miners who oppose the strike, to play up divisions among the miners and to try to discredit the strike in the eyes of the public: 1 believe the overwhelming majority of the : in this country are behind the police in work they are doing.' Margaret he House of Commons, 30 March Our movement is undermined by flaw. a political assumed responsibility not only for defending their own livelihoods.

but also for strengthening the industry. The identification of the interests of miners with the fate of their industry has paralysed miners' resistance to a long series of productivity deals, pit closures and manpower these have been justified by the Coal Board's concern to make OUR PROBLEM: preserving miners' livelihoods The recession has brought mass unemployment living and stagnating Since 1979 around 50 000 miners' jobs have disappeared and 50 pits have been closed down, while the total number on the dole has swelled from just over one million than to more Unemployment in many mining areas is now around 20 per cent. Miners' wages have fallen steadily behind - they have received no increase at all since November 1982. Productivity has increased by nine The miner: fighting to survive OUR METHODS: whatever thods are necessary pit closures and save jobs While the employers can call immense powers of the Tory ment and the state machine, the miners thrown back on the resources of are class. working Bule are enormous if we can mobilise them •to make the strike bite: by bringing all coal mining to a halt, all coal movements to a standstill and cutting off all energy supplies to British industry; the actual involvement of miners, women in the mining communities and ordinary workers in fighting the Coal Board and the is vital to success •to defy the courts and the police: asserting our right to fight for our Miners have protecting and British coal even worse. All reductions. Caster standards. Macuregors seen to that. million. three when you leave school. nothing else but mining. and conditions • fighting jobs must be transferred • maintaining against attempts to miners suffered lost their their profits -mewhich to prevent • to publicise the on the Govern- Yet our resources miners livelihoods, the mass Government British mining competitive.

The miners' commitment to the coal industry leads to difficulties for militants trying to unite miners in support of strike action.

Preventing pit closures will certainly make the Coal Board's problems of competitiveness and profitability Only a commitment to fight for the interests of British minersregardless of the consequences for the British mining industry can unite the miners against the Coal Board and the Government.

percent over the past five years, bringing harder work in worse conditions.

Wilf Moore, a miner at Hatfield Main, Donsummed up the grim situation facing miners in Yorkshire: If our pit shuts there's nothing round here.

There used to be the steel industry but Most people here, the whole community, depends on the pit.

You grow up expecting to go down the pit Most miners know That's why for us it's a fight to the end against pit closures.'

Miners have been forced to fight to maintain jobs and living standards.

OUR SOLUTION: an all-out national fightback in defence of jobs To save miners' livelihoods requires all redundancies and pit closures; in the event of pit exhaustion all and increasing wages; miners cannot afford to let their hard won earnings decline again •defending existing working conditions make labour even more intensive; in 1982 more than 800 serious injuries and 38 lives in Britain's pits we cannot let them sacrifice our safety for If the Coal Board and the Government get away with this attack on the miners we 'll all be back in our bare feet, like after 1926. Branch committee member Alan Bailey, Armthorpe, Yorkshire class against the forces of the state stops at Houst the Coal Board's right to destroy miners' jobs and miners' communities miners' case: the miners need propaganda that can educate.

agitate and organise their own resistance and the solidarity of other workers; the central theme must be the necessity for the miners and the labour movement to take whatever action is necessary to save regardless of state restrictions or the consequences for the Coal Board's account books: I believe that if we can take our case about our fight for jobs and a decent living to the miners in the moderate areas and to the wider working class movement, we can beat Mac Gregor and this Tory government'. Yorkshire miner Maurice Vanstone, at a Revolutionary Communist Party public meeting, 30 March

Whose strike is it anyway?

Only rank and file initiative and can make the miners' strike united and effective.

'NOW WE'RE OUT, we're not going back until we've forced this closure programme, declared a Kent miner on picket duty in the Midlands.

His attitude summed up the determination of thousands of rank and file miners.

The problem facing militant miners as they travel around the country is how to draw the mass of miners - and other into action alongside them.

workers To achieve the unity and coherence the miners' strike desperately needs, a radical change in the approach of the miners union is required. Accountability full Open meetings, democratic decision making are essential ensure the of the largest possible number of workers running any strike. meetings are also a vital way of making sure that union wishes of their members. Mass meetings ensure that the rank and file is fully of the informed decisions about different courses of action. They also guarantee the accountability of the leadership to the rank and file. The leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers however work behind the scenes, through official union channels. The NUM leaders entered the current dispute, not by campaigning for an all-out strike at mass meetings around the coalfields, but by endorsing action in the militant areas in the hope that it would spread. action may be in accord with the union but it has had the effect consulunon, of fragmenting the miners forces and isolating the militant areas.

In a battle in which success depends on winning active support of rank and file workers, behind the scenes manoeuvres are simply ineffective. leaders cannot unite the miners by agreethe militant area leaders ment among behind closed doors. inghamshire leaders members out, this is no guarantee that the miners will respond. approach win wider sympathy action. The leaders of the railway unions agreed with the NUM leaders that the movement of coal by rail would be stopped. But because nobody had of ordinary majority railway to take this course of action many coal wagons are still moving. Much of the behind the scenes work carried out by the miners leaders leads them further away from the rank and file into cooperation with the employers.

The recent meeting of the top standing committee between the NUM and the Coal Board, at which MacGregor announced his concluded with agreement between both sides a whole series of projects.

the strike the NUM has not withdrawn from network The which it meets management day in, day out. The net result of the NUM leaders bureaucratic style of leadership and close relationship with the Coal Board is that they tend to become able to the employers than they are to their own rank and file. War not peace The success of the miners' strike depends on bringing the British economy to a standstill. The miners' express the militant miners' clear grasp of the seriousness of the situation. Miners urgently need to make the strike solid coalfields and then move outin the wards to the power stations.

Board and its big customers have their stockpiles and their fat bank accounts.

Time is on their side. Ordinary miners have been on basic wages for five months, MacGregor to drop reserves. curike Share the employers offensive. onslaught and Board. valllare up the coming and discussion areas, forward. While involvement national executive Regular national mass officials carry out the the behind the strike. make and can prefers to closures and large ened industrial action of Ins course Gregor's harsh The miners' Even if the Nottmilitants to agree to call their and go all-out to win. Nor can this persuaded the

WOTKOS

level latest closure package, nen collaboration Despite of committees more accountflying pickets The Coal control at pit, area and national level they get no strike pay and have scant That's why miners need to to repulse strike tast anel Rather than face up to MacGregor's all-out for go victory, the NUM leadership has tried to avoid the inevitable showdown with the Coal While the Coal Board took adof the overtime ban to build stocks and prepare for battle, the NUM made no urgent preparations for strike contlict. Since the began the national leadership has provided no clear strategy or direction. It has simply followed behind the militant holding back rather than pushing right wingers the Ull have pulled out all the stops to prevent a national strike, leadership made no has serious attempt to heal the divisions in and unite the membership The NUM leadership prefers to play safe with limited industrial action rather than risk a call for an all-out national This is because it is more concerned to press the Coal Board to change its wider policies for the industry and to modify its aggressive attitude towards the union than it is to force a stop to After all, redundancies. the union leaders have accepted both in numbers for many years. Before the strike began Arthur Scargill threat- *to make Mac- Gregor see reason' and to make him 'return to the negotiating table.

But Maccapitalist logic sees no reason beyond the necessity for closures and redundancies to make British coal mining profitable. He has made it clear that he no longer wants to talk. He wants action now, to shake out jobs and crush the NUM into submission to his dictates.

The miners face two choices. They can follow their leaders strategy and delay, allow the divisions to deepen and the Or they become isolated. can take over the running of the dispute A campaigning vote MacGregor, the media and the right wingers on the NUM executive want a national ballot because they think they can win.

Their confidence has grown as the divisions in the NUM have deepened and the

FREE

national leadership has allowed them to all the running. make judge the determination of the miners to fight for their livelihoods. They underestimate the miners' anger at the smears of the gutter press, oeuvres of the right-wing area leaders and the wave of police terror in the coalfields. The Revolutionary Communist Party is in favour of a national ballot because it can become a focus for stepping up the strike action. Campaigning for support for an all-out national stoppage can go hand in hand with extending picketing andsympatheticaction. A campaign around a national ballot is the only way to ensure and file control over the dispute Tank There is a long established tradition of holding national ballots in the NUM.

The only way to make a national strike legitimate in the miners - and the rest of the working class - is by winning a majority for all-out action in a ballot. clear majority for the strike then miners who are reluctant to come out will have a They will say pertect excuse. should 1 go on strike when we haven't had a ballot. And officials and members of other unions who are heartedly behind the easy cop out when asked to take sympathetic action. They are already saying if you can't get yourselves together behind a national strike, why should we support you?. The national leadership of the NUM is opposed to calling a national ballot.

It fears that it will not be able to deliver the support of the majority of miners for a national strike. The union leaders present their reluctance conduct of the strike to the judgement of the membership as a lack of confidence in the militancy of the rank and file. In fact the NUM leaders fear of putting their strategy to the vote exposes their lack of confidence in their own strategy. A problem of strategy Indeed the NUM's strategy cannot unite the The miners. stantly present the interests of British coal miners and the British coal industry as though they were one and the same Yet the entire dispute (see arises out of a basic conflict of interests between the miners and the coal industry.

The miners need their jobs to survive; the coal industry needs to Lobbying the council: Labour authorities must provide funds and facilities and make services available to the miners But they mis- When the NUM the shabby price, manal any LU Board. The Government for strike eves of the mass of Until we have won a industry which can only 'why not wholeminers have an Miners in to reter the national financial hardship, queues, state miners" leaders conwin the put it, opposite) shed jobs

STIONARY

in order to remain viable leaders present the strike as 'the miners' battle for Britain they expose the weakness of their case.

Instead of uniting miners to defend jobs NUM Urges miners shoulder the burdens of the Coal But the Coal Board's problems can only be solved in the midst of a recession through a programme of pit closures and redundancies that sets miner against miner in every pit and every area.

NUM leadership tries to justify industrial action as a means of putting on the Coa Board and th to change their policies industry. But many miners especially in areas such as Nottinghamshire where most pits are not immediately under threat, cannot see the point in which they believe may jeopardise the economic security of their pits. And militant leaders who proclaim their commitment to the British coal convince such cannot miners why they should join a national strike damage the industry. Hence their fear of a national ballot.

The only strategy that can persuade miners in every area to join a national stoppage is one that rejects any concern for the problems of the industry. If we put the interests of miners to the fore then there is a solid basis for unity.

both Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire need jobs and decent wages and conditions whatever the prospects for the coalfields. Food, housing, clothing and everything else costs about the same Barnsley, whether Manstield as in the local pits make a profit or a loss All out for victory Whatever the outcome of a ballot, the risk of consulting the miners is much less than the risk of ignoring them strike then the pressures fear of the dole repression and media prejudice will inevitably bear down heavily on the miners and leave the militants isolated. But if we combine campaigning for mass support with seizing control of the whole direction of the strike then we can win a majority and As a Yorkshire strike. miner This is our strike, and if we can forward together can beat MacGregor and Thatcher'. Mike Freeman

BUNE

nam

Supporting the miners Mobilising the women Building solidarity the miners' Since WHEN THE MEDIA tried to stir up an anti-strike protest by a few miners wives in Nottinghamshire they made sure that thousands of women in mining communities behind the would rally strike. Yet the sexist atthave itudes many miners displayed on picket lines are a barrier to the active participation of women in the strike. Overcoming these barriers is vital to unite the working class movement in the battle against the Coal Board. Women's action committees at Edlington and Hatfield in Yorkshire, at and at Staveley in Derbybeen actively shire supported by local RCP Our supporters Didenes. joined the protest march organised by women from Kent through Coalville in Leicester to challenge woof men's strike breaking in the area.

We participated in the picket by Yorkshire women of the Coal Board offices in Doncaster, where NUM clerical workers continued to work during the dispute. Women's role in the strike cannot be simply that of wives providing tea and sympathy from We have argued for lines. • women's involvement in the committees where the decisions about the course of the strike taken. Women need to be drawn meetings into and Illass collective decisions just as file much as rank and miners. At present women tend to come under greater pressure in greater isolation the But once they are involved, and the leaders of the strike become accountable to them, then they will be eager to join in the action • the efficient organisation miners in Yorkshire and Derbyshire: Hatfield Main Colliery: £344.82 Hatfield womens' support group: £102.71 Armthorpe Colliery: £132.08 Edlington womens' support group: £25.00 Staveley miners' welfare: €170.00 next step Revolutionary Communist Party strike special the miners strike began Revolutionary have been actively mobilising solidarity with the miners. In South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire, where the next step has been sold regularly over the past couple of years, we have been closely involved in the strike itself. We have joined the picket lines, helped to make sure the miners get the benefits they are entitled to, helped to rally local women behind the strike and generally

MEN IN

THE MLM

All out for victory: Kent miners' wives hit the Midlands of benefits. Financial hardship is a serious problem for miners families and it bears down most heavily on women. We need to squeeze as much as we can from the for every miner's family and make sure that the collection and distribution of funds is properly organised • all day nurseries. If women are to play an active part in the dispute it is more important than ever that the burden of childcare 1s relieved. Labour councils in the mining areas can play providing a useful role in full nursery facilities. Our contribution has been welcomed by women in the mining areas - even if not always by the union bureaucrats. When officials in the Staveley womens' support group tried to order RCP activists 'back to Yorkshire' because we were influencing 'gullible women', the majority voted that we should stay. Union officials have long proclaimed that a woman s place is in nei union'. Now is a good time

SUPPORTING THE MINERS

After four weeks on strike many miners and their families are already suffering real hardship. Miners get no strike pay, but still have £15 a week deducted by the social security. The miners are relying on the solidarity of the labour movement. Supporters of the RCP have been collecting money and food as a crucial practical expression of support for the strike. By the end of March the following funds had been passed on to Contributions for the miners can be given to sellers of the next step or sent to us by post and they will be passed on to rank and file miners' organisations.

Communist Party supporters

SUPPORT YOUR

for the NUM to show that it can fight for the whole of the mining community. Miner speaks Yorkshire miner Maurice Vanstone appealing for solidarity with the miners at

RCP

meeting public London. We have also held meetings in Sheffield, Coventry Bradford and well Brimington in al and Dunscroft Derbyshire in Yorkshire. (The 1912) Sheffield •On 4 April, 30 miners joined RCP supporters for a lobby of the city's Labour council, whose population includes 2000 miners, calling for: • a freeze on miners' rent and rates payments • transport for miners' pickets • funds, facilities and nur- Sees on coll- • no restrictions ecting money • a halt to the council's the police while martial law conditions for Yorkshire miners persist.

The council's response was 'deep express concerni for the miners but provide no practical assistance. The council declared that would inform local people of the importance of the coal industry to the local and national advised council committees to provide 'appropriate assistance but made no spec- While it ific commitments. upheld peaceful picketing, it provided no vehicles to replace the cars im pounded by the police that miners could continue picketing. It deplored all violence but made no suggestions how miners could through road blocks and talk to other miners

BOLSOVER

FIGHTING DIVISIONS

YORKSHIRE MINERS SPEAK!

the miners' ranks. Saturday 7 April 1pm Carr Vale Hotel Bolsover

GLASGOW

Tuesday 10 April 7.30pm Partick Burgh Hall Burgh Hall Street, off Dunbarton Road (Partick Underground) "The old policy of identity of interest between employers and ourselves (should) be abolished, and a policy of open hostility installed.?

miners' next step, unofficial committee, South Wales Miners Federation, discussed the direction of the dispute in the mining communities.

Around the country RCP branches have organised public meetings on the miners strike, arranged for delegations of miners to and conducted collections of money and food. Our aim has been to win the widest and most active working class support for frontation with the Coal Board and the Government.

through the massed ranks of police. On the day the council turned down an application for a licence collect funds in Sheffield behalf of the striking miners • During the first week Yorkshire of April miners toured hospitals depots in the Sheffield area, arguing for support for the strike and collecting money Manchester •On 4 April RCP local election candidate Dave Hal- Isworth took Yorkshire miners on a series of visits around local engineering factories ] Student supporters the RCP at the Polytechnic supported call vide union facilities and transport for the strike Birmingham • On April the RCP organised delegation of hospital workers to support miners on strike at Keresley pit near Coventry; nurses at Dudley Road hospital recalled the local miners had come out in support of their strike in 1982 • Kent miners picketing in the Midlands took part in a public discussion of the way forward for the strike

MORE MEETINGS FOR THE MINERS

Bolsover colliery is in the North Derbyshire area of the Coal Board, but its miners are members of the Nottinghamshire NUM. It is a focal point of the divisions in Victoria Hall Chapel Walk the next step monthly review of the Revolutionary Communist Party £5 for 12 months - from the address below the miners next step Revolutionary Communist Party strike special We would welcome comments and criticisms from miners and others on the RCP's strategy for the miners' strike.

Please write to The Editor, the next step, BCM JP LTD, London WCIN 3XX p&p Junius Publications Ltd April 1984 reform visit local workplaces the miners in their con- Bradford •On 30 March miners joined an RCP organised protest against the visit of Tory Party chairman John Selwyn Gummer to the city to attend the annual dinner the engin- O1 eering employers' his face bummers slapped and two people were arrested Scotland • On 24 March Scottish supporters of the RCP joined Fife miners on the march in Dunfermline • In Glasgow we organised street meetings and tours of the hospitals, factories and docks in support of the miners • Miners at Polmaise pit, threatened with closure received £30 from the RCP for their strike fund Wales • On 31 March Cardiff

RCP

supporters Joined a demonstration in solidarity with the miners and organised collections on their London •Over weekend • the firs of April Yorkshire miners took part in street meetings and collections around London shopping centres

SHEFFIELD

Thursday 12 April 7.30pm