the miners! IF ANYONE was in doubt about what would be the most important issue at this year's Labour Party annual conference, Neil Kinnock has cleared their minds wonderfully well. Responding to the unexpected and unwanted, news that TUC congress had supported the demands of the NUM, he put the issue faced at Labour Party conference in a nutshell: he didn't support the miners, and if conference did then the Labour leadership would damn well ignore its decisions.
Kinnock has risked the wrath of every party member with such a statement because the question of what attitude to the miners is vital to the party's whole future. Kinnock's statement, as far as accountability is concerned, begins to take the party openly back to the worst days of Wilson and The choice posed by the NUM resolution to this year's conference is not just about the miners — vital as that is. It is a choice about what type of party Labour will be. For step by step Neil Kin• nock is taking the party down a path of going over to the fundamentals of Tory and Alliance policy. Already on a whole string of issues Kinnock has shown how far he is prepared to take the party: on Handsworth, on local government, and on in comes policy, to name but a few — but most of all on the miners.
It was the miners' strike which posed the alternatives for Labour most clearly: by the determination of the NUM national leadership fo fight and win, and in the alliances with the oppressed secnons or unis society mey ount to strenginen te strike. The miners did more damage to Thatcher in twelve monthsthan four previous years of Labour parliamentary opposition.
There is only one way that Labour can win a clear electoral victory, and that is if it fights for the support of the whole working class and its allies, by showing itself determined and capable of offering a real alternative to the austerity policies of Thatcher and her friends. And that means supporting all those in struggle against such policies now — not mouthing hollow promises about a different future under Labour whilst attacking those who are prepared to take on the Tories today.
The single most important way of showing that determination is support for the demands of the mineworkers' union: action for all those victimised because of the strike and the return of union money confiscated because of the strike.
Every Labour Party member, and every trade union militant must show where they stand by overwhelmingly supporting the resolution of the National Union of Mineworkers to this year's conference. • See p2, "Two Alliances for Labour'. • See p5, 'Why Labour must support the miners. DUA TRIKES STRI НОБРП AM SCO D-DERBY DURHAM-KE NC
AcTioN SOCiAlist Socialist Action 27 September 1985