Why Notts

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hamshire, the right has gathered courage.

When Trevor Bell moved a national ballot at the last executive he got just three ANYONE who has been on the picket lines in Nottingham shire must be asking themselves - how is it that Notts miners are prepared to cross official picket lines mounted by miners from South Wales and Yorkshire? Is it because the Notts miners have traditionally elected the most right wing leadership in the NUM? Or are there other factors?

For example, coal seams in Nottinghamshire are thick and straight. In Yorkshire they are half as thick and plagued with geological faults. So Nottingham coal is easier, cheaper and therefore more profitable to mine. A tradition of better wages than other areas is undoubtedly a factor in explaining Nottingham's "moderation" • But this does not explain why a 'yellow' union — the Spencer Union -could rise and fall in the same coalfield.

Class struggle has been as much a feature in Nottinghamshire as in any other area. The "'non-political" union founded by George Spencer, MP for Broxtowe, in '27, arose out of the defeat of the General Strike. Spencer was a Nottingham Miners' Association (NMA) official who agreed locally to a reduction in wages which lasted five years.

The Spencer Union's influence spread to other coalto Robbie Roberts fields, particularly to South Wales. It was supported by the 'Anti-Socialist, Anti-Communist League' as well as the British Workers' league which aimed to be 'anti-Bolshevik' NMA members were victimised for their union membership.

In close alliance with the Industrial Peace Union, Spencer praised the passing of the Trades Dispute and Trade Unions Act of 1927 which made sympathy strikes illegal; made strikes against the government or public illegal; restricted picketing; changed the political levy so workers had to contract in rather than contract out.

All of which, today, in 1984, seems to have a familiar ring to it. It was known as the 'Blacklegs' Charter' The collapse of the Spencer Union has echoes that should ring loud around the Notts coalfield now.

A victory by the NMA at Harworth Colliery in 1937 caused the membership of both unions to be amalgamated under the name of the NMA which was again recognised by the coal owners. : Last week pit workers from Harworth sauntered through picket lines protected by a modern blacklegs' charter enforced by the police.

Yet the restructuring of the coal industry in the '50s and '60s affected the Notts miners as much as miners anywhere else. Having been 'moderate' and apolitical didn't help them. The vast programme of pit closures was not as heavy in Notts as in other areas, but the attack on wages and conditions was.

In 1966. when the National Power Loading Agreement (NPLA) was introduced, Notts miners' wages were 15% higher than the national average. This was to be significantly eroded during the six years leading up to the miners' strike of 1972, when the Notts miners supported the strike with as much vigour as other areas.

However the area to make the most impact in that strike was Yorkshire. Previous to the introduction of the NPLA, Yorkshire had as right wing a. leadership as Notts, though without the history of Spencer Unionism. It had, however, a record of rank and file strike activity, especially in 1955 and 1961.

The NPLA introduced a standard shift payment system and for Yorkshire an accelerated pit closure programme. Miners affected by previous

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-STENTH: S YOUR-GHA No will be inadequate. If the lead- themselves and fight with the ers of the EETPU and the miners and for the whole AMRATI had tha clichtact wintting alace arainst the ram.

is working prepared to fight and possesses a clear conception where to go.

It is also successfully pinning down the forces which could be used to take the strike out of the pits and providing the main motor for the anti-strike propaganda.

If this is the bleak side of the present situation, the other side is that some progress has been made in extending the Steel production at Scunthorpe and Ravenscraig is already being affected. And if steel can be halted, the factories and industries it supplies will be in trouble.

at a meeting on Thursday March 29 of leaders of six transport unions, it was decided to recommend a total blockade on all movement of coal in Britain. They decided to establish a central coordinating committee based on Transport House in London with local committees throughout the country.

News of one of the most hopeful developments in the hostilities so far was hardly out before Bill Sirs, - who had already been seeking to undermine the limited impact of the strike by asking for Ravenscraig to be declared a neutral zone announced that he would not see "the steel industry crucified on someone else's altar."

The jobs of Sirs' members were crucified long ago. They were crucified by one lan MacGregor, while Bill Sirs stood by like Pontius Pilate. programmes had moved trom Scotland and the North East with guarantees of jobs for life and now these assurances were broken.

• pits closed between 1965-74 and 35,000 jobs went.

The standard shift payment system affected pit bargaining. All negotiations on wages became national, so local or area full-time officials, including pit-top full-time branch officials, focused on other areas of pit work to negotiate around.

Therefore the NPLA had the effect of unifying workers at the pit - miners with craft and surface workers - both locally in the areas and nationally. this is not to say that this development was welcomed. The high wage piece work rates in Nottingham were to fall below the average industrial wage.

Yorkshire's militancy arose out of the pit closure programme. 18 pits had closed in four years by 1969 and out of work miners. were finding alternative jobs hard to get in. their communities. 1969 saw the emergence of rank and file strike action in Yorkshire. It was largely absent in Notts.

Action that year began with the market men's dispute in March at Cortonwood - the pit currently threatened with closure. 'Market-men' were Sirs fought with might and main to ensure that the 1980 steel strike should be about wages, not about jobs. More than 70,000 steel jobs have been sacrificed on the altar of capitalism by MacGregor and Thatcher since 1979 and Bill Sirs bears a burden of blame.

Sirs should either shut up or act like a union leader and point out to his members that their best bet lies in a miners' victory and that means supporting the miners now.

The key to the strike remains the power stations. Half of their stocks are at the pit heads so a transport boycott can be a big blow here.

The National Union of Seamen can also halt all imports of coal in combination with the TGWU. Flying pickets are essential, but given the difficulties, boycotting by other union members is the way forward.

But more than that: we must campaign for other. workers not only to refuse to touch coal but to come out themselves. This is not an abstract call for solidarity.

There is a clear material basis for this: other workers have wage claims pending. Other workers, as well as the miners, are facing job loss. They have a common enemy - the Thatcher government.

The Electricity Council has promised the power workers an offer by Aprif 11 in response to their claim for a substantial wage increase and a shorter working week. There is little doubt that the response face workers allocated different jobs at lower rates of pay - around 17% less.

The strike lasted two weeks and similar action took place at other pits until the NCB conceded in the autumn after another strike at Cadeby Main.

However, Cadeby Main stayed out as 70,000 other Yorkshire miners came out for shorter hours and minimum wages of £16 per week for underground workers and £15 per week for surface workers.

The Yorkshire area panels - delegate bodies from each pit - spread the strike by sending flying pickets to South Wales, Scotland, Kent and Notts., bringing out in total 140 pits (out of 306) - 130,000 The NCB conceded on the money but not on the hours. Notts and Derbyshire settled immediately and returned work. But not Yorkshire which only went back after the personal intervention of Vic Feather, then General Sécretary of the TUC, who promised an inquiry on their claim for shorter hours!

This strike was run by the rank and file through the building of strike committees by the four area panels in North Yorshire, Barnsley, Doncaster and South Yorkshire.

NTY IS Kent miners' wives in Coalville, Leicestershire UMDMIU HAU LIE SUgHESI grasp of strategy they would be preparing their members for walk-outs now.

The gas workers too have a claim in. After them come the railworkers. United we stand .... Now is the time to get on the field.

Arthur Scargill should point out to Moss Evans, Jimmy napp ana company Inal Ine Inann and ramanar that ther best way of helping the miners is by dealing with their own claims now and appealing over the head of Frank Chapple — who has told power workers to cross miners' picket lines — to come out and fight for In Notts the full-time leadership have always controlled the rank and file, capitalising on the regionalism and sectionalism of the membership. After the strike in 1972, the Notts miners got a 15.3% increase in wages, almost half the increase gained by lower paid areas.

In 1977 the Notts leadership accepted atarea level productivity deal, negotiated with Tony Benn, Minister for Energy. This action by Nottingham, along with Leicestershire, Lancashire and South Derbyshire weakened the NUM as is only too evident today.

There have been divisions over wages and now divisions over pit closure, which of course the NCB encourages. The leadership from Nottingham at the 1980 conference at Eastbourne called for increased redundancy payments. four years later the NCB has complied.

The Notts motion in 1980 was thrown out in favour of a fight against pit closures. Four years later that fight is only seriously being begun, at a time of considerable: disadvantage to the NUM, given the powers of the so-called Employment Acts:

The lesson should be clear to all trade unionists — if you decide to act - ACT! mon enemy.

The NCB is still sitting on the injunction against the Yorkshire Area NUM. They are quite satisfied with the way the law is being used at the moment.

The police acting as the private militia of lan MacGregor, are beating the flying picket tactic, stopping pickets hundreds of miles from their destination on the grounds that they will cause a breach of the peace when they get there. And the courts are countenancing the police action. ROFEZZR Pickets at Lea Hall colliery, • Your Enforcing the injunction could unify the NUM. So the NCB is waiting for the April 12 Executive meeting:

Nonetheless, another employer may take action. A firm of coal merchants applied on 29 March for an injunction against the Scottish Area NUM to restrain picketing of its Falkirk depot. Serious action by the transport unions could lead to further develop. ments from British Rail and British Steel.

We have to counter a slight but discernable • feeling amongst the NUM left that the dispute is turning the wrong way.

Staffordshire Things are tough. But major effort must be mad before April 12 to develop th strike at every level. We ca expect an intensified offensiv from the Tories' house medi and the right wing as that dat approaches.

*We must argue.

*We must keep up the flyin pickets.

*We must use the transpo! unions' initiative to establis local support committees f the strike in every area.

*We must appeal to th power workers — support you own wage claim and strik now.

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173. April 1984 Page Socialist Organiser Editorial

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FOREGE S07°s strike!

SOPEOP THE MERS

SAY. TOAN PIT CLOSURE