Delegates from 31 countries, representing some 5 million workers assembled in London on the weekend of 22/23 November. They were attending a conference called by the International Miners Organisation on the struggle to promote employment in the mining and energy industries.
IMO president, Arthur Scargill, described the success of the conference as being 'beyond our wildest dreams'.
The IMO was launched in September 1985. It has formal affiliation from miners organisations in 33 countries, representing 3.8 million mineworkers.
The weekend's conference was open to affiliates and non-affiliates alike, and included a very weighty presence from the African continent. Egypt which has recently massively expanded its coal mining under the Sinai desert was represented.
Representatives from the Philippines First of May trade union movement were coming until the murder of the movement's leader, Roland Olalia.
Vietnam was present and there were representatives of unions from Eastern Europe. A group of women miners from the United States participated as observers. They had been invited by WAPC who were also in attendance.
Pride of place amongst the delegates went to the South African NUM delegation, headed up by the NUM's president, James Motlatsi. The union's general secretary, Cyril Ramaphosa, had not been allowed out of the country and so was unfortunately unable to attend.
There are over 700,000 miners in South Africa of whom nearly half a million are in the gold mines, where the NUM is based. But as James Motlatsi told the conference the 325,000 NUM members are also in coal, platinum, diamond and other mines.
By Jon Silberman
The NUM leaders confidently predict that they will unionise the rest of South Africa's miners over the next few years.
Conditions in the industry are appalling. Low wages, the infamous 'compound system' whereby miners are separated from their families for a 12-month contract and housed in compounds — with between 20 and 40 to a room — and a 'safety' record of 600 deaths a year were highlighted by the tragic Kinross accident earlier this year. Three hundred thousand miners were joined by a similar number of other workers on 1 October in a Day of Mourning strike.
The struggle of the South African miners inspired the conference delegates and an emergency resolution (see box) was adopted unanimously, aiming at a complete boycott of South African coal.
The conference also adopted a report from general secretary, Alan Simon, a member of the French union confederation, the CGT. The report aimed 'at the protection and extension of jobs' and argued that unemployment was not a natural phenomenon but arose out of definite decisions based on maximising profits.
Peter Heathfield reminded delegates that in Western Europe, North America and Japan, over 31 million people are officially unemployed, the real figure being much greater.
Arthur Scargill said that to deliberately consign millions of people to the dole represented criminal action and spelt out the need for international solidarity action to support workers in struggle.
'It's no good passing resolutions and making passionate speeches' he emphasised 'unless these are translated into effective action'. In addition to practical action on South Africa, Scargill urged solidarity with workers in Chile and Bolivia, El Salvador 'and above all Nicaragua'.
We must renew our support, he said, for miners in the Philippines, South-East Asia and the Indian sub-continent; and he called on the socialist countries not only to provide financial assistance to workers in dispute but to stop trading or dealing with their companies.
The success of the conference can be expected to be reflected in increased affiliations to the IMO.
Resolution on South African coal
Conference notes that 18 countries imported 40.9 million tons of South African coal in 1985, with EEC countries importing 25.5 million tons or 62% of the total.
Conference further notes the decision by the Danish, French and US governments to ban South African coal imports from the end of 1986 (affecting 10.6 million tons). It also notes the decision by the EEC Foreign Ministers on 16th September 1986, not to include coal in the economic sanctions against the apartheid regime.
In view of the requests for support from the South African NUM, Conference agrees to:
1. Write to the Prime Ministers of the 12 EEC countries and to the EEC Council of Ministers, demanding that full sanctions are imposed against South African coal imports, and that this issue be considered at the Council's next meeting;
2. Write to the Prime Ministers of the other countries world-wide importing South African coal and demand similar action;
3. Support the call by the African National Congress, South African trade union movement, anti-apartheid organisations and the United Nations Assembly for comprehensive maximum economic sanctions to be imposed upon South Africa;
4. Call upon all national and international trade union centres to bring about united and comprehensive trade union action to maximise pressure on all those governments or economic concerns who continue to import South African coal, thereby expanding the life of apartheid;
5. Call upon all national and international trade unions to refuse to handle South African coal, and to urge all trade unions to join in the campaign for a complete boycott of it.