TUC backs the miners' call: Scargill gets it right
Socialist Viewpoint1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
ARTHUR Scargill got it right this year. His decision to reject pre-TUC overtures and present a principled resolution to the TU Congress over the plight of the NUM and the sacked and imprisoned miners resulted in a major victory for the left.
Although the resolution didn't call for amnesty for the imprisoned miners it was a comprehensive list of demands:
● A complete review of all cases of miners jailed as a result of the dispute.
● The reinstatement of miners sacked as a result of the dispute.
● The reimbursement of the NUM and all other unions with all monies confiscated as a result of fines, sequestration and receivership.
● The ending of all pit closures other than by exhaustion.
The adoption of the resolution overturned the recommendation of the General Council — reached by a 16–24 majority — that it should be rejected.
It creates a dramatically new situation in the campaign to defend the sacked and victimised miners and demonstrates once again the impact the strike had on the trade union and labour movement. It shows the authority the NUM still carries as a result of it 6 months after the end of the strike.
The influence of the NUM resulted in conflict within many of the delegations, where the right wing were opposing the resolution. Scargill's speech evoked memories of the strike, which are still strong in the working class. The ASTMS delegation, for example, forced a last-minute switch in favour of the resolution, despite the opposition of Clive Jenkins.
The way this resolution was carried shows again that last year's decision by the NUM leaders to compromise on their demands with the TUC General Council at the height of the strike was a serious mistake. Much more could have been won if the NUM had gone in and fought it out.
Arthur Scargill's attutide this year is what it should have been then: "we will either win or see clearly where everyone stands!" He put it this way in the Morning Star on the first day of Congress:
"When the TUC makes its decision, the world will be watching, the wider labour movement will be watching, the public at large will be watching, and, perhaps most importantly of all, 632 men and their wives and children will be watching to see whether the labour movement stands by the modern day equals of the Tolpuddle martyrs."
The TUC decision, which was reached on a card vote of 4,649,000 to 4,585,000, a majority of 64,000 in favour, focuses all attention on the Labour Party Conference next month.
Despite the fact that Neil Kinnock has said he would not carry out such a decision, a victory for the same resolution there would be a further major boost to the campaign. The campaign to force Kinnock to put it in the manifesto and to carry it out would come later. As we go to press it seems likely that the NUM can win such a motion at Bournemouth.
The TUC decision puts major new responsibilities onto the miners themselves, the support movement and the labour movement as a whole.
The campaign must be stepped up by the NUM. A weakness of the TUC intervention was that it was not accompanied by an adequate campaign on the resolution prior to the Congress, and there was no lobby of the TUC outside the doors of the Congress while the issue was being debated. A massive lobby of miners and suporters would have increased support for the reslution and advanced the campaign.
Nothing should be left to chance with the Labour Conference. There must be a massive lobby organised nationally by the NUM.
This is another very good reason why the support groups and the women's support groups must be kept going and revitalised where they have been wound down.
The recent Sheffield conference of Women Against Pit Closures, for all its problems of establishing a functioning democratic structure, showed that the movement is still there and can be mobilised on the issues facing the movement.
The response to the Conference of support groups called by a number of groups for October 12 also shows that the support groups are still there if they can establish a means of co-ordinating the campaign.
Arthur Scargill spelled out the importance of the Support Groups very well in the Morning Star when talking about the campaigning to defend the victimised miners.
"The organisations to carry that message forward are already in place; the support groups around the country (and abroad) and the women's organisations."
If the TUC decision is to boost the campaign for the victimised and imprisoned miners this must mean a new attitude to the two cases which are by far the most important in this — Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland. They were convicted of murder following the death of a taxi driver in South Wales and are now serving life sentences.
No date has been published yet for the special conference of the NUM called to discuss the campaign to defend the victimised miners. It is understood to be early October. That Conference has a responsibility to build on the TUC decisions, and begin to take some direct action on the issue.
There should be a one day NUM strike on that day. And there must be a full scale official mobilisation by the NUM and support groups for a mass picket of the court on the day of the appeals by Shankland and Hancock.