IN JANUARY the most important election for years will take place in Britain. It is being fought because, as Arthur Scargill has said, for the first time in history a law is being introduced specifically to remove one single trade union leader - himself.
The Tories shave no interest whatever in trade union democracy. The centrepiece of their current round of anti-union legislation — the 'right" of union members to ignore a majority ballot and break a strike even when there is a clear majority in favour of it is so anti-democratic that it has been condemned even by the CBI. The Tories insist on endless ballots in the unions while giving workers in a company no right whatever to vote on many any important matter which affects them.
The Tories are insisting on postal ballots in union elections, rather than workplace ballots which usually have a higher turn out, because they are SUOU interested number of union elections but solely in trying to secure the outcome the Tories want.
The reason why the Tories have introduced their current proposal that all non-voting members of union executives must be subject to reelection every five years was simply to force Arthur Scargill to offer himself up to the membership in defeating him. It had nothing to do with protecting the rights of NUM members which trampled underfoot by the government's programme of pit closures. It is simply about employers demands maximum people participating in aim is privatisation.
pits.
the hope introduction of are ruthlessly and cut jobs, dustry securing leadership more compliant to the NUM -The election of the president of the National Union of Mineworkers is a vital one for miners. There is an escalating attack on them. It starts with six day working and its eventual As David Hopper, of the Durham North Yorkshire. area, rightly said, if Arthur Scargill is defeated in the presidential election a giant step forward will have been taken towards the privatisation of the An advance by the right wing in. ide the NUM will be seen by the government as a go-ahead to push on with its plans for privatisation. The six-day working would hit the conditions of miners, throughout the inThis is why it is so disgraceful that the soft left'-led areas inside the in reality the Communist Party and Kinnockite-led areas of South Wales and Scotland - are in practice lined up with the right wing. They are scurrying around trying to find a candidate to oppose Scargill. They are even prepared to support open right winger John Walsh from Kinnock himself is openly calling for a candidate to replace Scargill. And he is thereby attacking the miners and helping the government with current and future attacks.
But the NUM election has a mificance stretching far beyond the mineworkers union. Arthur Scargill is not just 'another' left wing trade union leader. The miners strike of 1984-85 was the longest mass strike in the history of any advanced capitalist country. And it was led by a leadership that fought to win, using class struggle means to try and do so The NUM under Arthur Scargill's leadership has been the greatest champion of black people's anc women's rights inside the labour movement. Arthur Scargill's defeat would be a setback for every working person in Britain The tactics of the election, of course, must be decided by those inside the NUM who support Arthur Scargill. But one thing , is clear Whatever any other member of the labour movement is asked to do to aid in Scargill's campaign, it is their tog priority to do it. This is no routine tion. It is a decisive issue in the labo movement. It will have ami
Socialist Action 20 Nov 1987 ACTION