'AS FAR AS we're concerned we're not at the end of our struggle, we're just at the beginning of an epic struggle.' Betty Heathfield summed up the spirit of the most historic celebration of International Women's Day, organised by Women Against Pit Closures and held in Chesterfield on 9 March.
throughout Britain and the world, was one of determination to carry through to the end the solidarity, the awareness militancy exploded auring 12 months industrial battle in British history.
This battle has created an army of women whose fight can now only go forward. Who, Betty Heathfield said, 'will stay with this struggle until we do finally win. - and who never gongo go back.
This huge Chesterfield rally was not just a tribute to ne „valade roe women in the mining communities during this dispute to women, as Scargill said at the rally, 'who have stamped their mark indelibly on history and certainly on this dispute over the past 12 months. ' It was also tesumony to ine new movement that Dee• Dol• oar o las strike, out of the struggles at Greenham and WAC's fight for democracy in the Labour Party.
This movement which has built on the gains of the '70s, which has broadened out to include a whole new layer of women, taking inelr struggie women into every struggle to save ODS and communlies, defend democratic rights anO uSal lac wa-urve It is a movement which aoes nol stop to queston the value of women's selfOaNSaLOR. oul proves this through action of a most dynamic sort.
The self-organisation of women has made the fight for women's liberation in ofr al to every struggle working It has shown as ludicous iose wao woule call such organisation 'divisive' Ihere was no hint of defeat about the rally last Saturday. There Was spirit of great hope, and awareucss of the tremendous links which have been built between the different xperiences and struggle f women during the las year.
As ed: We Heathfield explained: women have decided to celebrate HOLDeSSImSO DUL II great optimism, because throughout this whole we women know that we have been underreported. We have been nisreported in this strike and they have tried thei very best to ignore us -and we are still here.
There are now many thousands more women in the mining communities whose eves nave been opened to the struggles of other women. They understand how the women at Greenham, women internationally, 'those That spirit,of the 9000 people who gathered from of women that has of the most. historic who had been fighting for years for women' have been misrepresented by the government and the media.
Betty spoke for many nore women larouenou Britain when she said that. Lnousanus ot UC W Call. paigners for the disarmament movement had beer produced by the Her allll was *to SCC women's peace movements mining community? evely Ann Lilburn, chairClosures, explained the most historic struggle of the Charter. realities about working class polities.
Firstly, it has clarified the role of the TUC leadership and their cohorts in the They have revealed: themselves as the greatest obstacle to achieving decisive victories for the working class.
Secondly, it has demonst aled in emergence of struggle leadership in the person of Scargill that is capable of galvanising the spirit of struggle of rank file mthe sessons developing which can be drawn at each .
tage of the struggle The Labour Party cor ference last year was the moment when all the most important elements came together in stark relief. The To e ol ine laoe bureaucracy, with the issue of the COUTI injunction against the NUM on conterence harbinger of things floor, was to Conc But the leadership of the NUM demonstrated that it really is a leadership of a qualitatively different type-by supporting the demands of the Action Committee black section movement, Labour Campaign for Gay Rights.
And it wasn't simply a maior force in dispute, or that the mobilisation of the black community in support of the miners at Notting Hill Carnival was being paid back in kind.
It is unprecedented for there to be à major force in Tabol Hovene mi willing wruggle by black pepte te champion the ana have elected representation at all levels GROGAN Chesterfield International Women's Day rally how women not only in Britain but internationally drew inspiration from the wortH the 1984-85 mining dispute. 1 he solldarity produced by the was snown In ll broad representation of women speaking the THE MINERS' STRIKE will surely be remembered as working class in Britain since the general strike of 1926, and perhaps the most titanic struggle since the days of the People's But above all it signifies two important the This perhaps more fundamental than most people on the left appreciate 1 he black section issue is the pivotal question which determines whether alliance can be forged be- meaningful tween the party black community. An alliance built on any other relation will inevitably be prone lo aissolution. as the current dispute between the black community and Liverpool city council demonstrates.
Moreover, the reason why this issue is so fundaTO THE Black support for the miners ral These included women from Greenham Common Joan Ruddock : of CND , Jo Richardson MIr SWAPO, the ANC. the French trade WHION federation, une CGT, women from Grenada. trom the German trade mental is because a Labour union group in support of the British miners, the Cypriot women s or ganisation, from SOGAT, ane ITON tse DuoIn Trades Council.
Chesterfield football ground was festooned with banners from a myriad of So what of the afterpeace Women Against Pit Closures groups. trade unions and political parties.
Stephanie Kent trom the ANC focussed on the importance of apartheid British under mollu g miners' South CACa COa. cheab and Pedia cost Briden ar- profitable under tonne to import. British coal cost £13 a tonne tons of South African coal had been imported according to the NUI s ligures Greetings were read our lo me ranv rom man other trade unions, political parties and women s groups.
Apart from this striking display of internationalIsm, the oulic. central feature of the rally was the Phé mary bung people.
many hundreds this rally who identified with the struggle of Scargill and the Women Moreover, the 5.5 milagainst Pit Closures are of a new current of youth whose political ideas have been forged by this dispute.
These young people are polentall formidable force in British politics, which — unlike the women - are still waiting to be organisca Arthur Scargill summed up the significance of the rally at Chesterfield when he talked of the miners' strike creating a new force 'which has transformed the face of British politics. The 1984-85 disBritish politics, will neve be the same again Women have come forward and led this force for change. And in so doing have taken a step to a new mass women's movement. As Betty Heathfield said 'this movement women which 'shall never look backwards, but will awavs ook lorward will optimism'. large black membership. It alsu means that the militants and black workmust continue the constructed Labour Party in order to fight the scabs realise the right of