from the knowledge that the heart of heir own class-ridden system is under attack.
Finally whilst analysing the dispute, et me say I believe the proposal for a return to work without an agreement as d fundamental mistake events have shown that this was not the best course of action However, let no one in this conference ar outside talk to me about defeat or setbacks. Those who since the end of the laye pontificated aegative and destructive fashion fail uterly to understand the nature of what ctually took place.
This union must not turn inwards in an orgy of self-criticism. tand confident and proud of what we have achieved, proclaiming the positive spects of the dispute, and the most important victory itself. Let's not forget that without that ¿struggle the pits would have been closled, and I submit that we had no alternative but to stand and fight. And indeed in future we will have no altersative again.
Within our union and our commitRees, the strike brought forth revolusionary changes: I never tire of paying La united fight fieht to save Dis, adopt. decimation of the green light #HELC OUr will slaughter our industry, area will be exempt from gramme of attack.
We should the struggle TUC and for our jobs.
The case to munities and mining challenge any trade union has ever faced. We must build from this conference united on policies and on principles. We must intensify the jobs win munities, knowing that in the present climate only industrial action can save the pit closure programme and the our mining communities. If we don't involve ourselves with other unions in this industry, if we don't take decisions this week that will then we are showing to the Coal Board to come forward with a programme that and no that proVe must demand, indeed we have : right to demand, from the rest of th movement - and in particular from the leadership of the Labour Party and — a firm commitment in our action, in our fight for the coal industry protect our com- have families is irrefutable — but never forget that it is inextricable from the economic case for coal, and it is on our economic case for coal and our economic case against pit take combined action - and not leave trade union colleagues isolated when facing a concerted attack by the ruling But ours is not just a defensive fight. Our generation of trade unionists has a responsibility to make the dreams of the Socialist pioneers a reality fighting to save our nationalised industries and our public services, must win for them and for the Britis people the democracy, accountabilit efficiency and profitability they ha been during the past 40 years.
Amnesty Looking ahead, one immediate tast faces Us and the movement building the campaign to release dI members, jailed as political prisoners fighting against pit closures.
reinstatement work members sacked during and since the end of the strike. This task is as crucial to the union as the fight to save the mdustry itselt. We must make clear that the next Labour government should first of all take decisions to free from jail those miners who have been imprisoned, to reinstate any miners who remain victimised.
I submit that the government must then address itself to the National Coal Board. It is no longer enough to merely call for the dismissal of lan McGregor, although the NUM that The next laustr gone ment The next must remove all senio or Coal Board personnel, and all area and local managers who last no yelys in the ed drate last two years destruction of our industry, but who also viciously attacked members and sought to humiliate them since the end of the strike. They've no part of this industry The point I think must be made, it's certainly not a departure make the broad alliances necessary to create the conditions for the swiftest possible return ment which march towards full employment, while campaigning for peace, all nuclear bases from Britain, and for economic justice throughout the world the past two years, this union will continue to participate in plans for a new miners organisation, East West ideological differences separated us for far too long, ripping away the barriers that have been artificially erected by National Union indeed the trade union movement in general.
within Europe, the threat to other coal We must industries, as we watch the horrors of tor ouI incessant warfare in the Lebanon, or watch while thousands die of hunger in the Third World, we cannot forget that our own struggle is connected those of workers everywhere.
As we see the nuclear madness of the ever-increasing arms race, we must ple discovered the real meaning of th our But (carefully nurtured by our enemies in the Coal splits and divisions in our great unior — divisions which would inevitably afany fect our ability to fight effectively on of a Labour governwill mobilise the removal of Despite the struggles and turmoil of incorporating the struggle by and bridging the Michael which have what those outside the of Mineworkers and As we look at rising unemployment with paign mination, every also indications Board and government) of policy or rules and to work wholeheartedly for them. No matter what my personal view, I will fight for the policies you decide, and I believe that all areas of the union should give the same commitment.
That is my responsibility as presi dent and I carry it proudly.
I would like to express my deep appreciation of the unfailing solidarity and comradeship shared throughout my two colleagues McGahey Peter Heathfield. Yes Michael, the troika' has remained united, and irrespective Heathfield, Scargil and MeGahey will media continue to fight a united battle on behalf of this national union Our union's contribution to history and to humanity is in itself a triumph -let our great strike be the beginning of the fight not only to save jobs and pits but to strengthen our union, and help create the conditions for electing Labour government pledged to fulfill the aims and principles upon which the NUM was founded.
Colleagues when we go from this hall at the end of this week, leave with confidence and pride. Lift your eyes and go into the coalfields and cam Recognise th achievement of the 1984-85 dispute. You have writte history. Let their be no doubt about only way an am is and i o - that the is to fight yet again with the same deter single oalfiela, dedicate ourselves to the ta of carrying out the policy decisions ‹ this conference. As president, I pledg myself to that task. I ask conference tr equally pledge itself to the task as well Together we cannot fail.
The struggle of the FSLN Socialist Action 19 July 1985 THIS WEEK sees, on 19 July, the sixth anniversary Nicaraguan 1983 one of the key leaders of the Sandinistas, Tomas delivered a speech assessing the Nicaraguan revolution and historic contributions made to it by Sandino, before his assasination in 1934 and the founder of the FSLN, Carlos before his murder by the dictatorship in 1976.
The editing of the speech is by Socialist Action.
WE HAVE agreed to make some comments on the history of the Sandinista front. They will at least serve as a basis for us to reflect more ceriousiv and tinalv to make some notes toward a modest contribution the glorious history organisation.
Due to the death of Sandino and domination bv a brutal instrument of 4a truce. repression, the period trom 1956 was to be a dark and sad interlude. The practical expression of this was a downturn in the revolutionary movement. The people went on struggling stubbornly, but they were weak alla whuernourished terms of ideology and organisation.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front was founded in July 1961. This historic signified people's alternative, as opposed to the bourgeois reformist alternative, in the struggle against somocismo.
We the hay thought can be summed up in two great ideas retrieved by ronseca: only the workers peasants are capable of struggling to local political representatives. this notion, grasped above all the class character of the revolutionary movement, class struggle as the motor of history.
Besides pointing to and peasants as the fundamental subjects of this struggle, Sandino also grasped the form the popular revolutionary movement in Nicaragua had to take. In the economic, social, and political conditions of Nicaragua, the armed struggle was the only road that lead to the transtormation of society.
The Cuban revolution, as Carlos Fonseca observed, had an impact on Nicaragua even before its victorious culmination. Fidel was for resurrection of Sandino. the answer co our reservanuns, the justification of the dreams and heresies of some hours before.' the In May Borge, the Fonesca, of our instrument of 1934 to the called Alliance tor Progress.
Sandino's Cuban revolution. alliance received Carlos ing the facade its With dictatorship. dublicivi the vanguard the the workers Zelaya. While revolutionary the mountains. Combat us ine UME-CMES Imperialism's new development strategy for Latin America, the sowhich some of you may not even recall, was Kennedy's political response to the This famous great deal of sion of publicity, and it had an effect in alterof many Latin American countries. In Nicaragua, it gave a certain cover to the somocisia In the Pancasán Campaign (1967)
suffered military deteat ... but... the Nicaraguan people became conscious that only armed struggle could defeat the somocista dictatorship. After Pancasán the Sandinista front again took up the guerrilla struggle by establishing a front in Matagalpa there was certain reassessment in our ranks, the idea of guerrilla combat was not abandoned. We began to prepare the conditions in history, work. The blows of the dictatorship turned this division of labour into the isolation of the various elements one from the other. Various perceptions of reality emerged, based on different experiences, conditioned by this divilabour and their isolation. This led, along with other factors, to the formation of three tendencies innon rront.
Tendencies It is necessary to analyse this experience. We think that isolation is one of the factors that contributed to the formation of those tendencies. The existence of tendencies does not harm the image of the revolution. The great thing about this revolution is that we have been able to unite despite the tendencies. We have provided the peoples of Latin America with the example of what maturity means among Nicaraguan revolutonaries. the great thing, the important thing, about our experiences. To emphasise that greatness, we have to say that we were divided at a certain point in our enough to unite.
Only those who are ignorant of The Somozas' corruption, while it had its worst effects on the masses, also harmed the interests of the small and middle bourgeoisie. broadening the base of opposition to the dictatorship. To this must be add. ed the fact that the big-business sectors themselves began to lose confidence in Somoza's abilities. Somoza came to be an obstacle to capitalist development, and even to the prevention of the bourgeois The bourgeoisie really have a party of their own. The Liberal Party belonged to the Somozas and upheld the interests of an oligarchy that was highly centralised around a single family. The Conservative Party was the party of the landowners, rather anachronistic modern party of the bourgeoisie had appeared in this country. The MDN was born at the moment when the bourgeois regime was in total agony - it did not even manage to be premature infant. In the end it could only survive artificially umbilical cord that tied it to imperalism.
Faced with the acute crisis of the Somoza dictatorship and reaction manoeuvered to provide the regime with a way out. With this end in view, they sought to make cercities his This led to VICW Lu their inte cooked and leaving Deals order did not interests of Somoza, Guard, No shattered through the Whatever neutralised by basis of the imperialism struggle; detachments popular This spurred the morale and the efforts of the people as a whole. They were encouraged by te mounting de tivities of FSLN combat units in the and countryside. Everything ready for Ene insurrection Another significant event that helped to raise the fighting spirit of the people and that demostrated the Somoza regime's inability to halt the advance of the popular struggle was the taking of the National Palace on 22 August, 1978, by the Rigoberto Lopez Perez Sandinista Command The seizure of the palace had a great impact, not only among the peo ple but also on international public opinion. The dictator Somoza - With image tarnished feeling pressure for a change from an obscure human-rights policy that US presi dent Carter was trying to impose found it necessary to utilise more and more brute force against the people like those of September 1978, which opened the road to victory. There were insurrec tions in Esteli, Masaya, León, and Chinandega, and popular uprisings in certain barrios of Managua. Through lose their fear of the National Guard So the people began to move forward and take the offensive.
The rising struggle was headed by a revolutionary organisationgand imperialism and the reaction egan to th fear. Theyh vere in daise 'mediation scheme which involved removing the dictator place somocismo without Somoza. Somoza, being. atrogant, would not accept this.
He proposed holding a plebiscite that never took place. Mediation was to reconcile, through shady deals, the the corrupt party of the genocidal National the bourgeois opposition political parties, and private capital.
These mediation manoevres were by the unity of the vanguard. The mediation scheme ran un aganst the unity or the entire na tion that was taking shape around the FSLN, which kept on fighting with arms in hand down to the end.
vacillations were • the FSLN's will to carry the fight to a higher level. Plans for insurrection were drawn up on the • people's experience in military actions by armed combined with uprisings and. the general
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NU i 'CLOSURES photo: MARK SAI
* TE VAS CAER