Links made NCB uses threats

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ORGANISE FOR A GENERAL STRIKE! they could lay their hands on - 90 people in all. Some are still in custody.

In the face of this it might seem incredible that the police committee of the County Council should give a unanimous vote of confidence in Chief Constable McLoughlin. That is why Labour Party members and trade unionists are demanding that the County Council call for the withdrawal of police from other forces; non-payment of extra policing; and a public inquiry into what has happened over the past few weeks in North Nottinghamshire.

The events in Nottinghamshire are a foretaste of events in the future. It is important to make things as difficult as possible for the police.

Build for the demonstration on Saturday.

Take a collection workplace.

Send cheques and postal orders to Miners' Solidarity Fund, St James's House, Vicar Lane, Sheffield.

Or pay by bank giro credit to Miners' Solidarity Fund, Co-op Bank, Sheffield branch, account number 30000009, bank sorting code 08-90-75. THERE are clear political motives behind the NCB strategy to rundown so-called peripheral coalfields. With the Torics behind them they are out to break the miners and put coalmining back into private hands."

This was Tyrone O'Sullivan, Lodge Secretary, speaking at the Support the Miners rally called by Cardiff Trades Council and Cardiff West and Central Labour Parties on 6 April.

He went on to point out that there was plenty of anthracite and coking coal waiting to be mined in South Wales, including massive reserves at Margan, near Port Talbot steelworks.

But, he argued, there was a political strategy to starve the coalfields of investment to make it easier to hand over to private industry.

He called on the meeting to organise solidarity action in support of the strike.

Speakers from the NUR and the seamen pledged their support, not least because their industries would be decimated in Wales if MacGregor was allowed to put through his closure programme...

The NUS hadn't been able to prevent coal ships from docking at Port Talbot, because they were staffed by foreign crews, but they had got support from the Finnish seafarers' union.

A speaker from NUPE pointed out that links had already been built between miners and health workers during the NHS pay dispute and weekly collections were now being held at the Heath Hospital, Cardiff, NUPE locally had given £5,000 to the miners and health workers had gone on picket lines with miners.

Labour prospective parliamentary candidate Ann Ciwyd condemned the unprecedented control of working class liberties by the police. IN Scotland, none of the pits are working, but the Coal Board is doing everything possible to force a break in the miners' strike.

Albert Wheeler, the NCB's Scottish area director, is using scare tactics, saying that Polkemmet and . the Ayrshire mines, are particularly under threat of closure.

At the same time, the NCB itself is endangering the future of pits by failing to allow proper safety cover during the strike. Even before the start of the national strike, the NCB had allowed the Bogside pit to be flooded in an attempt to justify closure.

Now the same tactic has been tried at Bilston Glen, where power to the pits' pumps and ventilation system was shut off, and at Polmaise, where management would allow only one pumper to maintain cover while the NUM insisted on sending two.

But coal supplies for domestic consumption in Glasgow are now exhausted, and will run out soon in the rest of Scotland.

From t miners, and help develop the movement into a general strike.

union leader Bill Sirs has rejected active solidarity with the miners, saying that it could lead to steelworks being closed. This view is disastrously short-sighted Only by joining up with others can any group of workers beat back the rampaging Tories. If the Tories are allowed groups one by one, then we will all lose The Labour Party leadership should also be giving the miners solidarity. But they have chosen And picketing and blacking have also been effective at the Avonbridge open cast mine near Falkirk, now prevented from supplying coal; at Clydebank, where miners supported by health workers, nave been picketing South African coal deliveries; and at Leith, where NUS members have been blacking a ship which unloaded coal at Fraserburgh before sailing up to Leith.

Dundee

DUNDEE will strike on the day when the miners' dispute confes up on the agenda at this year's Scottish Trades Union Congress, which begins on April 16 in Aberdeen.

This was the pledge given by Stan McLauchlan, convenor of Kestrel Marine shipyards in Dundee, at a 1,000-strong rally in support of the miners which the Triple Alliance held in Glasgow last Thursday, April 7. The Dundee Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions is already backing the strike. ck page only to agitate about the police brutality - and then without committing themselves to a clear demand like 'Police out of the coalfields'.

According to the Observer, Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock has devoted most of his energy to adding pressure for a national ballot. And Kinnock has certainly said nothing to suggest that the Observer has got it wrong.

Ballot or no ballot is a question for the miners. The 0s s the Labour Party is to succotheir struggle, loudly, unera, oally, and actively. Stard 3* .= line, Neil Kinnock!

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