Recall the T.U.C.!
Labour Briefing1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
While the vast majority of striking miners continue to display their remarkable solidarity a slow drift back to work continues. It is grossly exaggerated by the media and manipulated by the NCB, but it is a factor which cannot be ignored. It continues to put tremendous pressure on the NUM leadership who despite this remain determined to continue the strike.
We have to be blunt about it, however. Were this drift to continue at present levels for an extended period, it would eventually destroy the strike. This is not to be pessimistic. It does not mean the strike cannot be won – far from it. But it does mean there is a problem to be resolved and resolved quickly.
All striking miners are enduring incredible hardship. But one of the main reasons for the drift back is a lack of a convincing perspective giving a way forward which can pull the strike out of its present difficult period. Appeals for even more solidarity are not enough without an effective new initiative.
The NUM leaders themselves know this. And they have been seeking a new initiative. There was an initiative from the South Wales and Durham areas, calling for an emergency full TUC Congress to discuss support for the miners. It was left on the table in favour of the joint approach with NACODS for fresh negotiations around the joint review procedure.
But the government are not interested in fresh negotiations. Their current tactic is to take a hard line and use every means to promote the drift back. Now the High Court has banned mass picketing at five pits in South Wales and a number in Yorkshire where scabs are going in.
I believe the NACODS initiative was a mistake. NACODS have made it clear that strike action is very remote.
Industrial action
In my view the South Wales and Durham move for an emergency TUC Congress was the most important initiative which could be made at the present time. The same policy was adopted at the conference of the Mineworkers' Defence Committee in Shefield on February 9.
Every form of solidarity action is important. Money, picketing power stations, days of action and demonstrations. But time is short. What is needed is industrial action in support of the miners and we have to consider what is the most effective way to get that.
There are two advantages of an emergency TUC Congress. Firstly, if a date was set it would stem the drift back. It would create a completely new focus. The issue would be "what is the TUC going to do". The movement would begin to mobilise to force action.
Secondly, if the TUC can be forced to call action, it is by far the most effective way to get it. The difference between organising action in individual workplaces or unions and being able to say that the TUC is calling everyone out and it is backed by your own union is tremendous. The action over GCHQ showed that.
Our movement, not theirs
It is true the TUC is controlled by the right wing. That they are responsible for the situation we are in. But it is our movement, not theirs, and we cannot concede it to them when the strength and authority of the official movement is needed most.
The miners did not accept the situation when the right wing controlled the NUM under Joe Gormley. They forced strike action on him in 1972 and 1974.
However you look at it, there could hardly be a stronger case for an emergency Congress. The General Council have failed to implement the decisions of the September Congress. They have failed to implement the decisions of the 1982 conference of executives on the anti-union laws – which are now used with impunity. On top of this, if Congress is not recalled they would be prepared to sit back and watch the miners defeated.
General strike
I believe that if the NUM and those unions who say they support the miners, called for a recall Congress they would get it. I also believe that the subject on the agenda should be a general strike in support of the miners.
The whole of the left has been forced on the defensive over the general strike issue. Yet there could not be a stronger argument for one. Everyone knows that we stand at a major historical turning point, and if the miners are defeated, it will have a disastrous effect on the labour movement for a generation. How can you talk about that, and not think in terms of a general strike.
Some say that the Congress could not be forced to call action. Yet the TUC did call for a general strike over the Pentonville Five and the current situation is far worse than it was then. If the movement could force it then, 120,000 striking miners and their supporters could force it now.
Others say that even if the TUC did call action they would not get a response. I cannot accept this. The miners have again proved themselves to be the vanguard of the British trade union movement. But they are not so far out in front that they can go on strike for a year while the official movement couldn't get anyone else out in their support. The difference is the miners have the Scargill leadership, the most determined the movement has seen this century.
If the TUC wanted a strike in support of the miners they could get one. If they picked the right time, explained the issues and the implications clearly to the movement – that we stand on the verge of the biggest defeat since 1926 – and put out a clear and determined call, they would get a response.
The case for a recall Congress is overwhelming. At the moment the government is confident and the miners are on the defensive. The decision to recall the TUC Congress and discuss the matter of a general strike would dramatically change the situation. Nor would it help the pound very much.
There is another important point as well. The miners have a right to have a full debate on the situation in front of the whole movement. They have a right – even if they lost the vote or got only a part of what they needed – to know if the movement is prepared to support them or not. They have a right to know who will stand with them and who would be prepared to vote them down at a time when the whole movement is on the line.