BELIEVE that the' eturn to work without a egotiated settlement and guarantee of statement of our died comrades was bitdo not ink it was the policy of Oi the already -ked in South Wales, we т= told at the Saturday 9 dred 80 had been taken Dul its not clear lI will be employed from dien. Or ll they will get the benefits due accordto length of service think it will be difult to get the other 20 per back without a big especially the ones accupied pit winding he area managbys hires Illallasti clear he doesn't want them re-employed here.
There approximately cases pending, with a range of charges.
alca exec utive's approach appears to be to take it softly, and deal with the Board. think this wrong.
The area executive has promotea me area or setting up a support fund, to support any miners sacked. I know there are problems with how the sacked men are to be supported, with the possibility WILLS being taken against the NUM misappropriation of union funds.
But setting up support fund now is a tacit acceptance that a certain won't get thei jobs back. It will create an attitude allisol LIlt membership that enough is being done.
The Board can't be trusted anylning Pressure has be stantly maintained for the reinstatement of all miners sacked during vi occause of the strike. We can use tactics like work-to-rule and rigidly sticking to the Mines and Quarries Act Kinnock has sat on the efence right through the strike. but now savs that miners on charges like obstruction unlawful assembly should get their jobs back. We demand that ne should call for the dropping of all charges taken analist NUM members during or because : of the After all, their only "crime' was to fight for the right to work.
tind it unbelievable that Mick McGahey could say lulal has no differences with Kinnock. Kinnock has been responsible for undermining the light put up by the NUM, like hear McGahey's reasons for his statement.
Kinnock I would say this: that those he has stepped on to reach the top tung, ne will meet on the way remembered by the NUM back. will as the traitor to his own PRESS officers of the
for all... Amnesty for all... Amnesty for all... Police altack on pickets at Thoresby asked. 'You could get the sack from your manager,' was the answer Petney Holroyd were both charged with ,rievous bodily harm While the case was pend ing, Petney was askeo to attend interrefused.
He was summarily dismissed. The manager said 'I have thoroughlv investigated the incident.' Come the trial, the striking community had mobilised around the case Strikers supplied material for cross-exa mination. Ellis' case suffered a severe blow when he admitted being known as 'Rob the gob'.
the outset, Holroyd's 'confession' was questioned. The judge noted police irregularities. Ellis could not say how he got his Inuncs. Smith admitted he went in expecting a fight. Medical evidence showed Ellis' ankle couldn't have been : broken in the way police claimed.
Other witnesses contradicted Ellis and Smith. The case was looking rickety.
Alan Radford held the court spell-bound when he described his examination police. 'Police told me 'Ellis may cock his toe [die] thought, God, a murder charge. They were not joking?
Like all other strikers, 'routine' questions included how long he'd been striking, whether he'd been picketting elsewhere, and SO O Halfway through, the fight on 'BECAUSE we were situated differently, you could probably say that we didn't come out solely for pit closures and job losses.
"The main bulk of the lads that came out here, canle support their own kind their O WI Cassc Omer COd. fields - because they were in trouble. reason they came out, its 'But whatever been proved - • and they have had great difficultie because they don't live in the communities that have added so much strength to this strike - that nobody in this land has had as much mental pressure as the lads in this county and the lads in South Derbyshire. Nobody 'There ain't nobody knows anything like what we know about scabs, and WC have told the other coalfields that. broke our hearts when this dispute was called to an end in the manner that it was called to an end, becausi we that had all of the shi all the way through the . We're gonna have the shit at the end of the strike, and that's proved to be the case Malcolm Pinnegar is the leader of Leicestershire's "Dirty Thirty', the only miners in the entire conne. who supported the strike. Like strikers in Dirty thirty 'It broke a lot of people's hearts. A lot of people didn't want to back. But we recognised the situation we were in, being 17 of us It took us a long tim to convince mem [naı we came out because of special conterence decisior and that we had to go back Decausc of that decision. That's not to say that we Navc lo couea mose mer that have been sacked, left so to speak in the lurch "The problem that we have got now with our own union officials is that they are trying to kick us out with a stupid rule that says because we haven't paid Gc ot ou UROT reer during the strike we are no longer bona tide. we are no longer financially members of the South Derbyshire NUM 'We al C currently appealing against this decision. We have taken it to national.' After 12 months of struggle those who struck Norts, Ls ister and soick, areas like Warwick Derbyshire understand what's at stake. They know scab officials want them out of the pits As Jim O' Grady put it: We also realised that if you were going to get rid of the likes of Ken Toon and the rest of the scab officials in that area, then the only way that you are going to Socialist Action 15 March 1985 of the strike for themselves and the working Speaking to the Leicester Support. Committee Kay Smith explained: 'The national isation 1S still carry on despite the ending of the strike. During the strike women have become organised and active in lots different ways: running soup kitchens, picketting, helping with collecting, speaking at meetings and most women know, even though this strike's ended they are not going to go back to how they were before. I know I'm not.
Kay spelt it out when she said: • dn t what you will think of this. but I am going to tell you anyway because am absolutely bursting. I have joined the Labour Party and l am candidate tor theg Labour Party in Bosworth. I know I might not get in but if I can convince one person who is thinking of voting Tory, if I can just convert to vote Labour, then I will feel I have achieved something "Becaus T Ores have done nowt but slag the mInCIs during this strike. And now I am going to have a go at them. Bu: l can assure oI thing, I ain't going to end up like Neil Kinnock.' Kay's fight will be part