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concede demands which at one stage woul "I doubt whether the recent dispute between have seemed impossible to win" the coaiminers and the government can be Arthur Scargill on the Tories' 1981 backdow described as a total victory for the miners; talk of victory is premature. The Government "We have to convince our members that t sidestepped the issue because they realised struggle for wages and conditions is not i they could not win. The miners had an itself enough. It is not sufficient to win: support, but most important there was mass- unanswerable case. There was massive public struggle for a wage increase that can i eroded by a government a few days later. V have to convince our people that there is:

But what it did do -and this in a sense can direct political challenge that affects the be described as a qualified victory - was standard of life, that affects their ver demonstrate vividly that if the working class are determined, then they can win against this or any other government practising capitalist economic policy. To that extent the working "We must prepare the conditions for class received a lesson that provided they are downfall of Thatcher and her monetari prepared to back up their demands by milit- policies, and the return of a Labour gover ant industrial action, they can force govern- ment pledged to socialist policies". ments to change course and employers to problems.

The ASLEF dispute, the NHS strike, and the use of the Employment • Act against the Fleet Street Sparks, confirm if such confirmation is needed that leadership for a fightback against the Tories is simply not forthcoming from Great Russell Street.

It is amazing in terms of basic union principle that not one single TUC left-winger was prepared to demand a full public debate and vote on the General Council on the selling out of the train drivers by the Finance and General Purposes Committee. It is startling in terms of the reams of principled rhetoric about the necessity to fight the Tories anti union laws that not one single TUC left-winger should call for industrial action when Sean Geraghty appeared in Baffling It is baffling and incomprehensible that not one single TUC left should have protested when in defiance of the ABC of union tactics the TUC Health Services Committee separated NHS Days of Action on June 9th and llth from the union day against Tebbit on June 10th, thus squandering the already limited potential of all three.

'Amazing', 'startling', 'baffling', and 'incomprehensible', that is, unless we understand the dynamics of the bureaucracy, spawned to serve our movement, whose mission now has become its misleadership and misrepresentation.

However it is no good, no good at all, simply bewailing the fifth column activities of Congress House, whilst striving unceasingly to call the leadership to account, we must organise to create a situation where ASLEF will not go back to work at their behest, where a worker's court appearance will of itself prompt mass strike action, where NHS workers will extend their action without instructions from the TUC.

What we have seen these last months has been reverses, lost opportunities but not crucial defeats. Given these setbacks the job of the left in the unions right now is to prepare the ground for the next confrontation which will con -tain the seeds of possible large scale mobilization against the Thatcher government.

At the moment we should do three things: Fight demoralisation, do all we can to deepen and extend the NHS dispute and, whilst attempting to intensify the struggles we are involved in ourselves, turn our eyes towards Britain's mines.

The miners play an ambiguous role in working class •consciousness. Sometimes their very strength can make other groups overaware of their own weaknesses, inducing an inferiority complex rather than galvanising them to emulate the NUM. But any national coal strike provides the opportunity for other workers to link up their struggles with it and create a focus for opposition to the State.

Balance

The balance of forces within our movement is also more favourable. It is relatively easy for Thatcher to stand firm against 25,000 traindrivers - a little more difficult where 250,000 miners are concerned. And the same goes for Murray, Evans and Sapper.

It is after all only a little over 18 months ago that limited action by the miners threw the Tories into tremendous confusion. After three days of strikes opposing pit closures in early 1981 the Thatcher Cabinet caved in. 'We had no alternative' said Trade Secretary John Biffen, explaining on TV the Government's backdown. didn't come into politics to be a Kamikaze pilot'.

A Financial Times editorial commented 'What is most notable is that the idea of resisting a strike -or even insisting on ballots -does not seem to have been seriously entertained. In Tory Britain, Miners Rule'.

Shambles

Such was the Tory demoralisation that Walter Goldsmith, Director General of the Institute of Directors, could claim: 'The scandalous surrender to the miners has reduced Mrs Thatcher's policies to a shambles. We might as well ask the miners' union when it wants to call the next General Election.' It wasn't, alas, as bad as all that. By buying off the miners and subsidising pits that the NCB wished to close at one fell swoop, the Tories bought time, vading a conflict which, as Arthur Scargill pointed out at the time, could have 'created the conditions to get rid of this Tory Government once and for all.' However, in the intervening period, 12 of the 23 pits in question have closed through the use of the ive trade union support. agreed local procedure. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

Thatc! or, as Callaghan before here, relied tremendously in her strategic relationship with the NUM on the existerice of Joe Gormley and his built-in majority on the Executive. So often was Joe their ace in the hole, but now he has cashed in his chips, and in reward for years of faithful service, adorns the House of Lords and the race tracks.

The election of Arthur Scargill to the NUM Presidency - in an 80% poll he. obtained 70% of the vote compared with 17% for his closest rival - represented a new mood in the pits. In his address to the NUM Conference in Inverness in July, Scargill described his election as 'a demand for a break with the past, a demand for a different kind of leadership.' And it must be said that in the short period of his incumbency, Scargill has already shown the ability to give a lead. A host of apparently small measures -the transfer of the union headquarters from London to the coalfields, the rejection of plans for the miners' pension fund to be invested in South Africa, the swift hatcheting of the Gorleyite editor of "The Miner' all showed a new style at work.

'The era of behind the door negotiation beloved of Joe Gormley is over' said Scargill as he terminated discussions over pit closures with Norman Siddall, chairperson of the NCB within 10 minutes and i walked out to address a ¿ crowd of cheering demI onstrators.

Steps have also been taken in the direction of ¡ greater union democracy John Harris with the decision to re-elect NUM officials - including Scargill - every 5 years and restructure the union, amalgamating the outdated specialist groups with the NUM areas so that executive representation will at long last reflect to a greater degree the superior numerical strength of the left-led areas - Yorkshire, Scotland and South Wales. existence."

Scargill, This could cost the Right up on the General Coun to six seats. replacing right-winger 1 The new-found confid- Chadburn. Dyed in ence and elan of the left has wool opportunist Sid I thrown them into disarray. cent of the Lancast Whilst the old Gormley/ miners has declared thal opportunist/ right-wing he can't beat the left might as well join them! 13-11 majority still formally exists, Scargill has been It would of course winning soni executive wrong to leave thi motions with 16 or 17 votes. there. We would like to MeGahey has joined Scar- for example moves towa gill as NUM representative tying the salary of offic

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NATIONAL IN MINEWORKERS NUM vonn harris OHIMO = HI

COVENTRY COLLIERY SUPPART THI

Mick McGahey, July 198 KENT AREA