Amnesty!
THE LASTEST FIGURES on the number of miners who have been given their jobs back by the NCB is 280 out of the original 900 who were sacked.
But many of these men are being reemployed not reinstated, which means they lose all their years of service. Those who have 30 years of service behind them could lose more than £30,000 if they were now to be sacked because of pit closures.
The re-employment tactic is being used in the Durham, Derbyshire and Nottingham coalfields The NUM in Scotland is refusing to take back any sacked miners, under any conditions.
The figures themselves prove that victimisation occurred in this strike on a mass 9,808 miners were arrested in this dispute according to Home Office figures. One in five of those arrested were never charged with any According to an analysis made by Paddy Hillyard and Janie-Percy-Smith in the Guardian (11/3/85) far from the majority of the miners being involved in daily violence and intimidation the majority were charged with minor public order offences, 4,314 with breach of the peace and 2,322 with obstructing the highway.
The methods that the police employed - riot policing, road blocks, bail conditions which imposed curfews and restrictions on movement, trumped up charges that were later dropped -prove that the law was blatently used in this dispute as a method of social control.
The miners in prison and out of a job are not criminals. They are victims of the Tory government's revenge on a community that dared to resist the destruction of the mining industry. It is vital that the labour movement does everything it can to defend these militants.
'I KNOW MYSELF that these men should not be in prison. They shouldn't be criminalised. My husband was locked up for 32 hours in Mansfield prison. He was dragged out of bed at 1.45 in the morning and in the end he wasn't Brenda Greenwood was arrested in Ollerton on 26 November. She was locked up in Risley Prison for seven days. She had been charged with obstruction as she supposedly had ignored her bail conditions. But in court she was proved innocent of obstruction so she too was wrongfully arrested and imprisoned without I have seen men stood up in court and they have done nothing wrong. A lot of men in prison are not guilty of anything. They are in prison because they are miners. Some of the offences are first time offences and very trivial ones at that and men are being sent down for Neil Kinnock should be kicking up about these people being sent to prison. When I was interviewed on telv thev asked me aboul violence. I don't believe in violence but when i was beaten up by two six foot policemen what could I do about that? Neil Kinnock doesn't talk TWO press their continued support for the fight of the i ne on the Sun the of the others' the viCWs truth the miners' the Among the Fleet Street, of Reply too that proThe allowed the NUM, through Arthur Scargill, express the thanks of its members to another section of workers Taceo win smiar aacks on Jobs Printworkers in Fleet Street built Have long-standing relations with the NUM The capitalist press piayed a disgusting and reactionary role throughout the miners' strike, with hes. propaganda boycott of the miners' Case. The classic example was the infamous picture ot Arthur Scargill giving a supposed 'Nazi-style' salute on the front of the Sun The courageous stand of the printworkers in refusing to publish it put paid to that.
NUM president ernment. 1 speaker, took the opporReply step, mOTe Geraghty of the in previous the strikes National the health He attack on miners an on all Because level printworkers next on the list threat to The was goes on'.
the John trom the AUEW for sacked imprisoned miners.
John of the NGA, Vice-chair of on This with the use of passes in USAF base. We are told we around Molesworth need the bomb, he said, to stop undemocratic laws being imposed us but we've already got them.
The sequestration which both the NUM and the NGA have suffered was blackmail to destroy attempt by financial the mass organisations of the working class.
The meeting collected over £10,000 for the NUM previous collections shops chapels roueLOuI Fleet Street. These collections will continue on a weekly basis and form very important source of funds for the NUM at the moment.
Arthur Scargill began his remarks by saying that history had been made during the months of the The whole movelliculi had begin appraising the effects of dispute and where to the go from here. In his opi nion there could be no talk of defeat, since the impact of the last 12 months could only be described as a sucfor the trade union movement.
As Scargill explained. he could have goi agreement during the strike as THEATRE of WAN he was now being advised by various commentators, but would nave beer agreement the coal board's terms not the NUM's. His job as a trade leader jobs, members tight interests.
"That should be the job of every trade union leader in Britain today, he said, clearly aiming his remarks al nose 'leaders' of the TUC individual unions that Sean Geraghty John Hannington from Duffy's AUEW, had referred to earlier.
Scargill's central point however was that the month strike had challeng ed the heart of the system by challenging the right oi the employer destroy jobs, communities and pits : the stroke of a pen. F ls reason the NUM ha incurred the wrath of the whole state machine.
The lesson to be learnt was clear. It applied to the victory at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders ana the miners' strikes in 1972 and 1974: that mass mobilisations and the support of The whole movement are the conditions for preparAgainst those ing victory who argue that 'old I style unionism dead, Scargill reasserted the methods of mass struggle.
The one thing which academics would-be coalitionists can't unaels tand, he said, was that the greatest of was struggle itself. Yes I've been reading Marxism Today', Scargill said. In fact the strike had unleashed forces never before organised in the labour movement. The clearest and best example was the women's support groups, , who had realised their potential strength, taken their place alongside striking miners, not as their back The women should be given full rights of NUM membership at every level.
Scargill ended with a clear statement of where stood what he wanted. 'There's no need to tap my phone, he said 'everyone KnOW what want: a society free from unempioyment and want, with no or Trident missiles, but with hospitals and adequate care.
can jail our questrate our funds, but vou can't imprison an ider or a mind which trans cends policies establisher the interests of capitalist system.
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IN A FINE display of solidarity, over 500 Fleet Street printworkers attended a meeting last Thursday to ex-