since the general strike in 1926 a mass class struggle current with a struggle leadership emerged in Britain. The Scargill leadership of the NUM demonstrated over a year of the longest mass in history that it is, in words 'a leadership which stands and fights.' The programme on which Scargill stood for President in 1981 was the which the NUM fought for in 1984/5. That programme, cluded: No pit closures other than on grounds of exhaustion democracy in our union so that conterence decisions are carried out. was one which was incompatible with the The Yorkshire Miner in December 1981 put the matter squarely.
either elect a leader Scargill's which inwho Is That critics of difference or one is basically against Scargill.
The fruits of that latter manic sectarian approach are now beginning to appear with all their consequences for a radical disorientation of the left.
Wild i ne Wild disorientation on this has of course come from The Next Step, journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party. This leads its February issue with the pages, headed "Not fit to lead', claim: 'Rank and file miners have been left they are battling on because they have no choice but to fight. That is how it has bee since on establishes its revolutionary credentials by restating its support for a ballot and carrying a spirited defence of the Nottinghamhave been made 'scapegoats' for the lunacy, the Socialist Workers Party has been equally critical, if less consislaunch vicious attacks on the leader- the tone being Yorkshire area NUM. drive to recruit miners to the SWP, Socialist Worker had made a sharp turn. It realised the basic feeling in the ranks of the NUM and dropped its atWith its 2 February issue however Socialist Worker slips back into its old line. Its front page warns: 'This is no time for unconditional surrender by the miners' leadership.' The whole issue of the paper. is devoted to the lessons almost being referred to in the past tense — while 130,000 miners are con tinuing the struggle. Such a position is a stab in the back to the strike - and no signs of 'unconditional surrender' have been coming from Scargillites at all.
The SWP's rank and filist line has totally blinded it to the possibility of differentiations in the bureaucracy, and the importance of these differen tiations for the class struggle. It shares with the RCP the infantile belief that the British working class is really very politically advanced, and that the onIv obstacle to its advance is the laboul bureaucracy.
Benn The fact that Scargill, Benn, Livingstone and their base is a minority within the working class at this point seems to escape their attention. instead of fighting with Scargill, betrayed the miners at every step, they divide against this current. This position is sectarian abstention from the real class struggle. Since reality does not comorm lo me picture or we revolutionary rank and file confronting worse for realitv. Amongst those who have not fallen trap, however, there are equally false positions.
Failing to recognise the fact that TUC.
tionary now /Livingstone struggles ahead.
SWP has illusions the ferent left, not through far 'have devastating Finally, Thus Benn Livingstone leadership and The the bureaucracy so much the into this sectarian and the long road ahead before this can be qualitatively changed, leads to absurdities as the Black Dragon No 4 (the bulletin of the Mineworkers' Defence Commit.
This claims that the balance of forces is such that not only could a 24 hour general strike be delivered on 11 February in the face of TUC hostility, but goes on to set 6 March as the day for beginning an indefinite general At the MWDC conference in Sheffield a number of left groups put forward resolutions which demanded a recall TUC to call a general strike. Others demanded that the MWDC sel up councils of action, and constitute itself as an alternative 'rank and file' The common thread in all of these ultra-left demands is the belief that the working class is really • revoluand needs only the cor. rect call for it to respond.
The reality is that the Scargill wing of the movement is very much a minority, and the Scargill leadership is only the first step in breaking th grip of reformism and class collaboration on the British labour movement Failure to understand this fact wil lead to disastrous mistakes The logical consequence of these positions is to fall into the rightist error of the SWP, and conclude that 'we are closer to 1927 than to 1925' The reverse is the case. We are in the first stages of a new phase in the class struggle in Britain. The Benn/Scargill current is the key development in this stage. It is the most advanced mass political current in Britain. It is, in Lenin's phrase, the 'next link in the chain'. Those on the left who fail to grasp that link will • historic opportunity in the emerged 'BennIn then place. innecessarily starts among to fight far more than anything entire