THE CYNON Valley is in the heart of the South Wales bordered to the west by the Rhondda and to the east by Merthyr Vale. Running from Abercynon in the south, nearby Pontypridd beadquarters of the NUM, to Hirwiaun in the north, it boasts five South Wales NUM lodges as well as one which covers the Phurnacite plant in Abercwmboi, part of the coking section of the separate from the South Wales area Locally it's known as Scargill Valley. There's Throughout the last 12 months it has been solid in Dai Davies, a member of the South Wales executive from the 800-strong Penrihwceiber pit, explained: "The five lodges voted in favour of the strike. If you consider that only nine of the 28 lodges in South Wales initially voted for the strike, then you can see how strong the Cynon Valley was.
'Prior to scabs going in, preoccupation was North Wales. First we got Bersham out, then we went to Point of Ayr.
'In the autumn a few lads went back to work in this area. Our main attention then was here at the Phurnacite plant. But out of more than 6000 miners in this valley we had only one going into work' As far as Dai was concerned, that was still 'a blot on the valley'.
The five Cynon lodges are Abernon, Lady Windsor (not in the valley itself, but linked FIVE WEEKS after the return to work, there is bitterness among the NUM militants their porters in the Cynon Valley, the militant centre of the South Wales coalfield. Bitterness treachery of the South Wales area leadership who organised the return to work and refused to give a lead to the thousands of women still prepared to fight to save jobs and communities.
But support for a continued fight against pit closures remains strong among the Cynon Valley pits which were amongst the first in South Wales to respond to the strike call last year.
Tyrone O'Sullivan, Tower Lodge in the north of the valley, reckons that if a vote were taken now there'd still be a clear majority for action. The bitterness against the role of apport for the Scargill leadership the strike or diminished the feeling that the only way to fight the closures is by mass industrial action.
vuce oul, the strike was sold in South Wales. But the executive distanced itself from the start from the tactics of the national leadership. nade clear and public WIth Williams' now-infamous no Orgreaves i South Wales' statement.
coalfield, to remain out.
Jimmy Evans, 'Ceiber, explained: wanted to remain on strike.
union and tions were put on thatmembers.
support of the same position. decision.
our main Abercynon supat the Dai Davies, South Wales executive member men South when the Port Newport transporter of mass picketing initiatives lodges themselves.
hasn't tarnished spokesperson for of This was the Emlyn 'anti-Tory alliance'.
Socialist Action 19 April 1985 underground), Penrihwceiber, Tower, and Mountain Ash Mechanicals, a surface lodge. In March this year feelings in support of the strike still ran strong. The Tower and Penrihwceiber both voted sculelal y hot the 'Penrihwceiber Al le delegate conference we were asked to vote in support of the position of the South Wales executive council's recommendation for a return to work. Condi- agreed.
- Ine neea to gel the boys reinstated - but it passed at the conference. Penrihwceiber abstained. We wanted to bring it back to the "The general meeting of the lodge wasn't in favour, and Tower took the 'Our lodge wanted to hold out till those dismissed were reinstated, rather than going back and trying to negotiate reinstatement after. Once we returned we would be in a weakened position. But of course we abided by conference section photo.
Instead of pursuing a policy of mass picketing advocated by Scargill and the Wales militants, the area executive chose to support guerrilla acover lou arrests Talbot crane and cupied. Not only that but the executive kept tight control on the purse strings after sequestration, thus blocking any the Kim Howells, an NUM research officer, emerged during the strike as the He played a significant role in launching the Wales Congress in Support of the Mining Communities in November 1984. A brain-child of the Communist Party and the Kinnockites, it was a fur ther tool of the Wales bureaucracy in heading off support for the tactics of NUM national leadership. The Congress pursued the Communist Party's revamped popular front line: the executive. DISCUSSON rumbles on about the secret meetings they organised to win the return to Hugh Edwards, chair of Tower, in-. sists the executive "jumped the gun'. 'It's said by the rank and file in places like Yorkshire that South Wales sold them out. But that's not the case for the rank and file here. They never betrayed 'Arthur Scargill had a lot of work on his hands, but he got us together.
South Wales executive
fought to keep us together.' No faith Malcolm Cook from the Phurney, where the valley's only scab, Paul Watson, went back at the end of October, "The Phurnacite was active from day one, going up to Nottingham and Derbyshire. Picketing was organised by the rank and file in the Cynon Valley. But as far as the ex ecutive in Ponty goes, I've got to be honest, I've not a lot of faith in them.
"They were quite prepared for the rank and file to put their jobs on the line, but when their jobs started to be on the line they had secret meetings saying we've got to go back to work to save the union 'Was it to save the union? Or was it to save their own £20-£30,000 a year jobs? We went back under the same wording that the secret meetings were discussing atter Christmas 'We knew what was in the press •about the drift back to work was propaganda. But those who weren't coming out on the pickets each morning were believing it. They were prepared to go back and there was no leadership to say don't listen to the propaganda.
'I'm not taking anything away from Scargill or Heathfield or our own president Edwin Morans (of the cokemen's Led). This strike needed leadership We had it alliulig generals. We had it among the rank and Whilst the Congress failed to build any significant rank and file support, during the winter period it was able to act as a cloak for the initiative to organise a return to work. There are