THE MINERS are now locked in a life or death struggle with the Tory government and Thatcher’s henchman at the NCB. The Tories are thirsting for revenge on the miners. They have never forgotten or forgiven the humiliation and defeat inflicted on Heath in 1972 and 1974. But their hatred is not blind. They know that the miners are the most militant, best organised and most politically aware section of the whole British Labour Movement.
For four years Thatcher avoided a head on confrontation. First she attacked the steelworkers, then the health workers. [Thatcher’s three consecutive Employment Ministers, James] Prior, [Norman] Tebbit and [Tom] King have pushed through Parliament a law that loaded trade unionism with chains such as it had not worn for over a hundred years, in private industry the bosses were encouraged to ‘rationalise’, i.e. to throw millions onto the streets. Militants were victimised, union organisation weakened. Instead of leading a fight back the TUC has begged, pleaded and humiliated itself before Thatcher. Anyone who has seen Murray entering Downing St., cap in hand, or emerging with Thatcher’s boot marks stamped on his forlorn face, must feel sick to the pit of their stomachs.
When Murray and Co. knifed the NGA in the back hoping by this sacrifice to warm Thatcher to them, she went for the very right to union membership at GCHQ. Ironically it was the right to organise of the CPSA [precursor to the PCS] whose leader, Alastair Graham, was the loudest advocate of total surrender to Thatcher. Instead of summoning the whole trade union movement to an all-out battle, the TUC forces carried out a ‘battle for public opinion’ that centred on wooing the Tory backbenchers MPs. Their ‘day of protest’ was too little, too late. These easy victories for the Iron Maiden have emboldened her to go for the miners at long last. She knows that a defeat for the miners will cave-in the whole frontline of resistance to the next round of Tory attacks.
The Tories need to smash effective trade unionism. They want a low wage economy. They want to turn the whole country into a ‘free enterprise zone’ where employers are free of any trade union restrictions on their ability to exploit at will. They want to be ‘free’ of the rates and taxes that go to support the health service, the education system and public transport even at their present bare minimum level of decency. Thatcher wants to finally turn the welfare state into a Poor Law State—that is what ‘Victorian Values’ really means.
The unbroken strength of the miners stands in the way of this. Yet this strength rests on two things: the united mass mobilisation of the whole strength of the NUM itself; and the active support of the whole trade union movement. These two tasks, both to unite the NUM in an all-out battle and how to win the sort of support from other trade unions that the NUM got in 1972 and 1974—hold the key to victory.
None of us should underestimate how hard a battle it will take. The Tories have at their disposal laws which make solidarity unlawful—which allow every judge to indulge his hatred of the unions to the full by seizing their funds and resources. They can give the police anti-picket squads the legal go-ahead to put the boot in.
We need the mass rank and file involvement of 1972—the active involvement of the overwhelming majority of miners, not only in picketing but in delegations to the power stations, factories, offices, hospitals, fire-stations, etc. to put the case for solidarity. We need Saltley Gate repeated 100 times up and down the country. We also need the solid blacking the NUM won from the unions in 1974.
In the early 1970s the miners’ strikes meant a battle with the government—one which called Heath’s militantly anti-working class government into question. Today this is a hundred times more so and both the miners and millions of workers suffering the Tory attacks are aware of it. There are cities whose councils are threatened with abolition for resisting the massive cuts in services and jobs, like in Liverpool. The health service where the axe hangs over hundreds of wards and whole hospitals, where nurses, porters and cleaners’ jobs will go while the patients wait longer for treatment. The millions of unemployed—the kids that have never had a job and have no hope of getting one. All look with expectation to the miners.
To them we have to say—don’t stand back and wait. Help the miners win now. Do the most you can, where you are, at once. Push forward our own struggles and link them to the miners. The Tories look far stronger than they are because so many union leaders have kept their members divided and on their knees. We must forge a new unity around the miners starting a fight back today. A growing united offensive by all sections will sap the Tories’ strength and divide the ruling class.
Already since Thatcher’s victory, splits and divisions have appeared in the ranks of the bankers, and industrialists who rule Britain. Their Tory and Alliance ‘full-time officials’, their hired journalists and broadcasters have begun to criticise Thatcher and talk incessantly about banana-skins. A miners’ victory would be the biggest banana skin in twentieth century history. It would not only take the feet from under MacGregor for good. It would bring down Thatcher and her government, throwing the whole battle-line of the bosses into total confusion.
This strike will now end in a major victory for one class or another. That is beyond a shadow of a doubt. We must strain every nerve and muscle to make sure it is the millions of workers rather than the handful of parasites who win. Into battle, shoulder to shoulder with the miners!
