different The Kinnocks and Willises fully realise the significance of this. That is why they fight the black SCCLIUE movement vehemently as they fought against building the solid arity necessary to win the math of the strike? What now of the Scargill-black section bloc in particular?
The end of the dispute must be the beginning of a major effort to shift the balance of forces s between the militants and the scabs in the labour movement. lion votes cast at Labour conference against o ack secuons came over unions. struggle tor black self-organisation and representation in the party must be taken through the race unods This means posing the question of black caucuses in • unions which have organise OCKDCODIC within the movement.
Both struggles must as a permanent continue featur• of labour movement politics in the comin years. These struggles wi initiate a revolution in the movement struggle for a leadership modelled on the Scargill leadership of the NUM.
6 Socialist Action 15 March 1985 STAMPING FEET, clapping, singing, and chanting rang through Chesterfield's football stadium on 9 March at one of the most memorable celebrations of International Women's Day ever seen in this country. Thousands of women and men descended on the town from every pit community throughout the land.
The day was organised by Women Against Pit Closures, when the miners were still on strike. The decision to put extra energy into getting a good turn-out on the day -although most miners had returned - paid off.
COMRADES AND friends, I want to bring warm fraternal greetings from the national executive committee of the National Union of Mineworkers, to this international women's rally. I haver never felt as proud to be bringing greetings as I have today to women who have stamped their mark indelibly on history, and certainly on this dispute over the past 12 months. Mem. They cam dilack foty problem. They can't attack Benn. They'll try. And they're havinga problem with me. But they're having a bigger problem with you.
You see, these journalists don't go to normal schools. They go these new computer senools when programme them. And they've been told by Mrs Thatcher, and that Mr Walker, to put it out that they have won. Theydon't find that a big problem because they've been saying that for 12 months. Butthe problem that they find is the fantastic, amazing sight of miners, members of the women's support groups tamilies workers from other industries marching to work in victory.
I participated in the march at Barrow colliery near my own home.
When I arrived at the gates of Barrow colliery there was a handful of pickets.
we turned away. The motley crew of journalists said, 'Mr Scargill why did you turn away?'. I said: Because I reacted as any decent trades unionist should, and so should you. You don't cross picket lines.' This is the only sort of rally that could stop me in mid flow.
You see, there have been historians already comparing the 1984-85 dispute Photos: MARK SALMON The rally proved an ideal opportuniy to put the return to work into perspective and to give a new direction to the continuing work of the women's action groups.
Each speaker received a warm welcome from the crowd as they mounted the platform. Betty Heathfield gave a strong, fighting speech. We are not defeated,' she insisted. 'We have gone back with pride and dignity.
•We have defended our union against the most dastardly government ever known in this country. We are stronger today than ever. There is a strong body of with 1926. They've been pontificating from their Fleet Street desks or their Daily Record offices in Glasgow, about what is right and what is wrong, about the lessons to be drawn, and the conclusions to be drawn. They don't know wial lucy alc lalkhe aboul In 1926, miners didn't go on strike thev were locked out. In 1984 they took strike action. In 1926, fighting to stop a decrease in wagesand an increase in hours. And alter sever months, they were starved back into work with longer hours and lower wages.
In 1985, at the end of the most historic strike in history, Britain's miners marched back to Tuesday having seen the 1984 closure programme not implemented, the five pits still open, a new procedure giving an appeals body intact, and above all, this union refusing to acquiesce to the closure of pits on so-called economic grounds. That's a victory.
There have been casualties in this dispute. We have just paid tribute to those that have paid the ultimate price They died not only for the fight to save jobs and pits. They died, because they believed in their trade union.
And if there's any individual in the miners' union, or anywhere else, who assembled still asks the question of why they should have supported the fight of the National Union of Mineworkers, it's because people like Joe Green and David Jones gave their lives for the British trade union movement and the right to work. That's why they all should have supported us.
There were those unions affiliated to the Trades look backwards.' Scargill arrived.
field to the platform, the feed, and the refrain of Arthur Scargill, we'll support you ever more.
His half-hour long speech was punctuated by the audience's loud approval.
below.
particularly those Margaret they were stained until the end of time.
dispute.
American appointee, United States here in Britain.
forwardly what we mean. mentarians, Union Congress, women in every pit. We can't Ann Scargill repeated the theme that the fight must go on. But the crowd went wild with enthusiasm when Arthur As he walked across the he was at first drowned out by the chanting and singing.
We reproduce that speech power musty, ta snould hang their neads in eternal shame for what they have done during the course of this dispute. _hev can cometorward with whatever arguments they wish. But they will never be able to erase the fact that when the chips were down, they supported Thatcher and turned their backs on the NUM. For that they'll be Of course something approaching a thousand of our members have been dismissed for the most trivial of during the course of this This government, and its now seek to impose the Americanism that we have seen deployed in the mining areas of the This union has got a responsibility Those men who have been arrested and jailed are, as far as I'm concerned. political prisoners. They've been jailed because they fought for this union. and we should all stand upand saystraightThose of our young people, and those of the women's support groups who were arrested in the most brutal way, have been criminalised by a state that's deployed every possible tactic against the miners' union. They sought to defend their system against the demand of a union and of a movement that sought only the right to work. This is a stain that the next Labour government has got to wipe clean. It's a stain that they have got to take on board.
And I appeal to all of our parlia lappeal to all those in the in the union. trade union movement - when this union talks about amnesty, for god's Under E stinda sake stop the equivocation. We want an amnesty forall our members who've been sacked in the course of this disLOUS back. Their only crime was fighting They've a right to their jobs for the right to work.
Was established during the course of the 1984-85 strike in the mining areas. It not only transformed the lives of women who, until that time, had had a narrow vision of what their role was and should be. It transformed our lives And if there's one thing the union's got to do it's to say to the women's PRAFUR support groups: this is not the end, it's the beginning. Because you're part of USUS remain existence. I want the women's groups to go away from rallies like this and rededicate themselves to the struggle This dispute has not ended. The strike has come to an end, as the government fights a war of attrition The miners' union and the women's groups, together with those sections of the labour movement who have supported us consistently, have now gotto adopt new tactics That means an increase in determination on the part of the women's movement to defend the
1C 14--nL. 100C Socialist Action 15 March 1985
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stadium shook with stamping When he rose to speak,