Action SociAlist 'generosity' to allow an They are interested only in taking the next steps but it is clear that this is merely a tactical move by ruling against the NUM.
The Tories know that if a leadership which fights can oe removed, a icauci• ship which doesn't will be easy meat. lost sight of their objective.
The hit list of 20 pits and 20,000 jobs has been resurrected, and ine lily of London's financial experts are once again looking towards the eventual profitable parts of the coal inThe £5 billion of public money that the Tories have spent in trying to defeat the miners is seen by the City as a good investment for private - provided that Cavital the miners are defeated.
Multi-nationals such as Powell Duffryn and Rio Tinto are keenly interested in a simmea down coal ll dustry super-pits based on the of SU- the east Midlands, where plenHOIC nas been available to help the working miners' committees Their aim is a worldwide coal market, with the British ULC component of their financial empires. The restruc turing that they cuvsass for coal would mean the closures of up to half of tne pits in huge imports • their pits in Pousards that will be make Australia. step ing the coal industry Britain more competitive.
Change of the MacGregor plan The aim, set out by MacGregor's predecessor in 1983, of making the coal industry break even by 1987/8 would have meant 65,000 jobs lost.
The NUM exposed secret NCB documents in 1982 showing that 75 pits were classified as 'short life', and that reductions in the workforce of 75,000 over four years was planned. 'honourable settlement' waramont The NCB has always denied the existence of the hit list, and of these plans. The truth however, 1s exwhat the NUM has said throughout the strike: the government has a short term target of 20,000 jobs, and a medium term target of 70,000 jobs.
The effect on mining communities devastating if these plans went through. The loss of 70,000 jobs out of 200,000 would decimate the 'peripheral' areas such as South Wales, Scotland North East. , The cost of this, at least £480 million of 20,000 jobs, will not of course be borne by the multi-nationals.
The cost of the strike NCB the good of the nation'. For nation, read ruling CONS The central obstacle to the Tories realising their objective has been, and remains, the determination of the i miners the eadershir Arthur Scargill. Hence the centra political aim which the Tories are now pursuing is break the Scargill leadership of the NUM, which they correctly regard as the core of the left in the labour move ment.
This is why the gutter press has been calling for Arthur Scargill's head. It surprise that this chorus of reaction is joined by 'socialist' millionaire Robert Maxwell. For it is not a matter of 'malice' on Thatcher's part, as Neil Kinnock claims but of profits for the ruling class.
The Tories' plans go well beyond the carve-up of the coal industry. Privatisation of rail, docks and $ ACTION public services all offer profitable areas of invest ment, and in all cases will also demand attacks on unions in those industries., The truth that politics is concentrated economics has been clearly demonstrated miners strike. When the whole of the bosses media unite to claim in the words of the Daily Mirror 'A defeat for Scargill is also a defeat for the hard men (sic) of the Look!
ment....
left, the Benns who dream of triumph through a general strike it is clear that their class in terests are at stake.
And when they go ol to claim, again in the Dail Mirror's WOOS thai disaster for Mr Scargill is open he sensible left' we can l sure that it is not the interests of the labour movement that they are defending They are preparing H we're going to have an arguPhoto MARK RUSHER for another round of attacks and want the lal the movement have weakest leadership possible, to prevent it using its strength in the interests of the working class The strength has not been broken it is this that has made Thatcher drop her demand for nana chich ensure tions ensures that the Tories still have a long way to go before the! can satisfy the demands o the City of London. ®CORMAC ..the least you can do is disagree with me!!
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THE TALKS between the NUM and the NCB have produced the predictable and sickening response from the labour leaders. Their pleas to Thatcher for
serve to cover up the real issues involved. The Tories are not interested in an 'honourable settlement'.
forward in their plans for the coal industry. Kinnock and Willis are no doubt pleased to win the praise of the media for their 'sensible and moderate' stand,