New pit closure threat

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AFTER Lewis Merthyr, the National Coal Board has moved against Cardowan colliery in Scotland. But the miners there are ready to fight.

The issue has been taken to national level to delay the closure. But direct action is also being discussed. And then the outcome will depend on the willingness of Mick McGahey, Arthur Scargill, and other NUM leaders to fight to spread the action nationally.

Stuart McCann spoke to Alex Hogg of Cardowan NUM. "Specific action has not totally been worked out by the branch committee or the members. But to go for occupation is more than a possibility. We will be prepared to resist to the maximum.

Resistance will depend on the type of support the rest of the If the men of Cardowan take positive action in defence of their jobs, then the responsibility for the support from other Scottish miners rests with the area leadership. I believe there is a wind of change going through the industry and indeed the nation. The men now realise that the promises of a secure long-term future at another colliery are meaningless.

To quote a recent example: some members were transferred to Cardowan 15 months ago and promised a long-term future. The promise of a long-term future is a massive con-trick.

We fight now or become industrial gipsies, tramping from area to area at the whim of the National Coal Board.

Young socialists in the labour movement must be actively invol. ved in ensuring that their trade union is not found wanting in any department to support any action the Cardowan miners may take. Activists in the political wing of the movement must pressurise councillors and MPs to make clear cut statements of support, and must ensure that these people are using their positions to pressurise the powers that be to concede the justice of our case.

When the Cardowan men take action, we expect the entire labour movement will be prepared to extend physical and financial support" THE PEOPLE'S March for Jobs was already well under way when Thatcher called the election. The march will converge on London for a massive rally on June 5 - just four days before polling day.

It ought to be a golden opportunity for the labour movement to link up the struggle for jobs with the need to kick out the Tories. But the march organisers, dominated politically by the 8.5.83. Arrived in Ellesmere Port yesterday from Shotton (Deeside, Wales). We leave from Birkenhead from Liverpool this morning, about a nine mile march. For second night running had to sieep on hard floors: At the moment I'm sitting at the breakfast table waiting for the beans to arrive.

The CP seems to be/is dominant in both presence and authority. All the marshals and some stewards are CPers. Apart from Communist Party and their fellow travellers in the trade union bureaucracy, have decreed that the march must 'non-political'.

The official slogan, Make Full Employment a First Priority' ', is, they say, aimed at all parties and all governments - including the Tories.

SDP councillors have been invited onto the People's March platforms. But marchers who have attempted to raise politics have been told to shut up and threatened with expulsion by the march marshals. that there is no other large grouping in our contingent - one WRP, one non-aligned YS member, us two SO supporters, two ordinary Labour people, and two Arlington House strikers.

The official slogan is: "This is the People's March for Jobs... we are marching from Wales to London... there are 5 million people unemployed... we call on this government to make unemployment its first priority" • When I suggested that we all start chanting, the stewards asked what, and I said: *Marie Mas Tole Maggie Out Out vul. an official slogan and that we Our latest information is that three marchers have been thrown off for shouting anti-Tory slogans, and that another six or seven, including a IGWU official, have left the march in sympathy with them.

The march organisers must not be allowed to succeed with this gag law. Militants in each area should bring their Labour Party banners onto the support marches and raise anti-Tory slogans. Workers in struggle should be brought onto the platform at every march rally. local manageress had been sacked when she complained about the area manager's sexual harassment of women staff.

Arrived at Liverpool Pierhead for the rally, the largest so far though the Liverpool people were saying it was a poor turnout because of the weather. Heard speakers from the council and the Labour Party, and a vicar. The size of the march was more than doubled by supporters.

After the lunchbreak the CP showed themselves for the rats they are. The chanting was what really brought things to a head. The Liverpool contingent, Labour In Manchester the organisers were persuaded to accept a speaker from the Greenings dispute. He spoke strongly about the link between the struggle for jobs and the need to elect a Labour government - much to the annoyance of both the 'non-political' CPers and the sectarians from the SWP who also objected to any mention of the Labour Party!

As the march reaches the Midlands and polling day gets closer, it will be increasingly difficult for the organisers to maintain their grip. Our job must be to organise 11.5.83: Left Leigh, where we'd stayed the night before, and set off for Salford - only about six or seven miles. As we came into Salford, we started to chant slogans that the CP didn't like again. We met up with the main march about 12 noon, and some of our chants were taken up by them.

Someone from the main march told me that they had tried to sing as well, but the marshals had stopped it.

On the way to the town hall, we had the best reception so far maximum support for the march, and to turn it into a workers' march against the Tories and for a Labour victory!

STOP PRESS: TGWU region 6 committee, Merseyside County Association of Trades Councils, Wirral Trades Council, and Liverpool Trades Council, have all condemned the three expulsions from the march, and called for the march to be politicised. 12.5.83: Penniless. We got stranded in a comrade's flat where we were staying, and had to call NALGO to come and pick us up and take us back to the march. Some of us organised an 'opposition' meeting of rank and file marchers where we outlined our demands: regular meetings, election of marshals, stewards to be allowed into marshals' meetings. 13.5.83. A marchers' meeting this morning. It lasted nearly two hours, and got quite heated, the CP arguing more or less for keeping the march as a-political as