displayed double page spread in Republican News — the political newspaper supported by Fein in Ireland. It shows the complete identity of the Republican movement with the goals and methods of struggle of the British miners.
Republican News had not wanted to make any public comments whilst ‹ne strike was on for rear inal any such overt support might be used against the miners by the Tories. But Republicans had massively in the raising of funds and solidarity for the miners in Ireland.
It is clear from the article that Republican News had followed the Iy sensitive to and supportive of the miners efforts to reach out to women, black people and other oppressed and exploited layers.
The British miners' strike the very political strike. It was not simply an attempt to win higher wages reluctant Rather, it became a confrontation about a fundamental question: should society be organised for the benefit of present and future generations of working people, or should it be organised to make profits for a few capitalists?
On the one hand, Margaret Thatcher ana ner government plan lo ruthlessly reduce the mining industry io a lew superpits coalfields. These would be equipped with the latest technologv highly productive, with few miners and a weakened union, then be sold off to multinational mining enterprises.
Pits in the outlying areas, and the communities that depend on them. would be left to die, and the miners and their children would be forced to join the army of at least four million unemployed that Thatcherite policies have already produced.
The miners, for their part, argue that the coal industry Lne those who work in it and for the community as a whole and that long-term plans should be made for the careful exploitation of natural resource. It does not make sense either in social or economic terms to destroy communiles, swell the ranks of the unemployed or to leave viable pits producing high quality coal to rot for lack of investHUCIL.
The attack on the miners is part of participated was a highly employer. multinational Photo: MARTIE VOLK in the central and be and could the interests should be greatest the nationalised industries.
HaLS put a long-term strategy, also being implemented in other nationalised in dustries and in the welfare services, of restructuring the British economy in of multinational capitalism. The miners have recognised, as Arthur Scargill has repeatedly stated, that they are in the frontline of the fight not just for their own jobs, but for everybody's jobs. In failing to support them, other trade unionists are undermining their own position.
As far back as 1978, right-wing Tory MP Nicholas Ridley drafted a report on Conservative policies for plans forward contingency plans for a miners' strike which included: building up coal stocks, par- priority. ticularly at power stations, introducing dual coal/oil-firing in all power stations, cutting off state benefits to strikers and equipping and preparing a large mobile squad of police to act against violent pickets. 'Good non-union drivers, the report said, should be recruited to cross picket lines with police protection.
When the Tories came to power, these nans were switt v implemented. They organised their defences and prepared to beat and starve the miners back to work. Coal stocks were tripl. ed, generating stations were switched to more flexible fuel and the policing were: acted on Laws brought in to make mass picketing and secondary picketing illegal and to the establishment that are treated as a At the same time, the government moved to cut off funds to the miners and their families. Although the National Union of Mineworkers was not severely restrict the pavment of social security benefits to strikers' families.
The British thrown every available weapon into the battle: public money, the police, the law, the media, tactics. Under this onslaught, tens of thousands of miners and their communities have been politicised to an extent not seen in Britain since before World War Two. they will never see the state through were the same eyes again.
The government's plan to develop a tew pits and leave the rest to die meant that 'divide-and-rule' obvious tactic. The strike started with miners at threatened pits coming out. The NUM leadership's decision to transform this into a national strike without a ballot was to provide a propaganda weapon for the government.
But, as the striking miners pointed out: Why should we allow people in sale Jobs lo other people?' The the Coal Board worked behind the scenes to set up scabs' committees. Business tycoons some assisted in planning work' campaign and designing advertising material for it. Using the so. called working.
Tory lawyers initiated a succession of legal actions against the NUM.
In pursuit of its objective, British government has poured huge amounts of public money down the drain. It paid £1.5 veteran union-breaker MacGregor from an American merchant bank to man', first of British Steel and then of the Coal Board. By the end of the miners' had been spent — much of it on im porting coal and oil for the power sta tions -saving of £250 million.
As with the occupation of the Six Counties, costs payers some £1,500 million per year, and of the Falklands-Malvinas, which costs more than £1,000 million annually; it is the long-term interests of out.
of Ine counted' feminists ment.
out.
searches.
The tional ordinating ranged the of 13,500 men.
officers Counties.
government has been 'divide-and-rule' dons Many swear that was an Miners' pounded by vote away the jobs of Party and poured in money advisers the 'back-to- government, miners as a cover, the indeed million to buy Labour Party lan make him the "axe with over £3,000 million - in order to achieve an annual British tax- developed March per week from their their social security Were by that two adults with two children were receiving just £24.75 a week. Single men go nothing. Also, legal action by the Na tional Working Miners' Committee succeeded in freezing the £6.8 million assets of the NUM, which meant that funds for financing flying pickets ran While financial hardship was the main factor forcing miners back to work, it paradoxically also helped to produce the most remarkable feature the unprecedented mobilisation of women. Women in ly been confined to the home, but over the last twelve months thousands have decided to 'stand up and be They have organised women's action groups in all areas and allied with form the national Women Against Pit Closures moveThey have raised money, bought tood and provided regular meals for the strikers day in and day Women WILd no previous political experience have toured Britain and abroad speaking at meetings, joined picket lines and gone to prisor suffered degrading stripmass ve sophisticated policing operation against the strike has brought many in the mining communities to see the British state in a different light. In effect, local police forces have been welded into a national force through the Na.
Reporting Centre, body based at Scotland Yard. Aided by a computer, this ardeployment of police around the country • it arranged zu, assignments in une hrsl lu weeks of the strike alone, from a pool The police operate in squads of 23 known 'police support uns, wmen Have receivea nol tran ing which includes the 'snatch squad' technique as developed in the Six Suddenly, villages where relations with the local 'bobby' had generally friendly found themselves besieged by vast numbers of often brutal police. The use of police coraround Nottinghamshire, of road blocks, and of riot shields provoked many comparisons by miners and their supporters with the situa tion in the Six Counties.
Many hundreds have been arrested, and extraordinary bail conditions have been imposed, preventing strikers from picketing anywhere in the country or attending demonstrations or addressing meetings.
Danger las OCCI comthe media coverage, which gave massive coverage of picket line violence but said nothing about police brutality. Whereas everyone in Britain has heard of the taxi-drive who was accidentally killed, few have heard of the two pickets who died, Davy Jones and Joe Green.
Throughout, television press have behaved — as they do in İreland — like agents of the British trying to persuade the strikers back to work, attacking Arthur Scargill and failing to present the reasons or me souce • 'I don't know anyone who buys the Sun newspaper any more,' said one miner.
As a result of their treatment by police and media, and the shameful behaviour of leader Neil Kinnock, who failed to support the strike, many in the mining communities have come to see British politics in a new light. They are developing a new solidarity black communities, who have given a lot of support.
The reaction of many to the Brighton bomb was 'Pity they bloody missed'. There is the beginning of an understanding about Britain's role in Ireland, which, hopefully can now be • This article is reproduced from the o5 Republican
Pocialist Action 5 April 1985