7000 march in Notts

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STRIKE Alliance must become "Siege town" was how the local paper descirbed it, and such language accurately described the city of Nottingham last Saturday.

The invaders from Yorkshire and Kent were welcomed by a significant number of Notts miners, carrying dozens of "Notts Miners Support the Strike" placards.

The atmosphere of the march, organised to welcome the 50 Kent miners who had walked the 200 miles from their coalfield, was jubilant and at times rowdy.

The 7,000 marchers, of whom about 4,000 came from Yorkshire, were looking for a vent for their anger, and in the absence of genuine scab miners, were content to denounce the entire population of Nottingham in no uncertain terms.

It was the first time many of the miners had been with their friends without being encircled by police, and few were prepared to let such an opportunity pass by. Some of the loudest chants were reserved for the police.

Without the security of huge numerical superiority, or snatch squads, many of the police could only smile nervously at chants of 'Maggie Thatcher's boot boys'.

There were some unpleasant scenes at the Market Sqaure at the end of the march, caused naturally by "violent pickets" who tried to cause trouble by objecting to having a double decker bus plough through their ranks.

The feelings of those in the Square were running high and many of the speakers sensed this. Normally placid councillors declared themselves ready to lie on a railway track to stop trains moving coal, and kent miners told Notts miners to get off their knees and hold their banner with pride.

After an hour of such rhetoric the march moved off to the Albert Hall, a Methodist mission in Nottingham. The atmosphere here was quite electric and everyone wanted to join in from the floor. It was difficult to say if anyone was in control, but collective will expressed itself loudly to remove the press. Scuffles only broke out when individuals broke from this informal discipline and heckled speakers from other trade unions.

Arthur Scargill called for disciplin order of the day. Ne-vas interrupted as he later delivered a rousing and hard-hitting speech against lan MacGregor and pit closures, encouraging Notts miners and other trades unionists to fight alongside the striking Judging by the feelings expres sed by speakers from the NGA, FBU and TGWU and other examples of solidarity this week, it will not be long before his wishes are fulfilled.

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•23 10C3 Sto NUM Conference Socialist Organiser neng FOR THE AFTER Monday's meeting to form the Notts Rank and File Strike Committee, Socialist Organiser spoke to Roy Barsley, chair of the South Yorkshire NUM Panel:

"Experience of the meeting today was fantastic - so was the response to yesterday's demonstration. It was great considering that there were two other rallies at the same time.

We are going to win. There's no two ways about it.

Under the circumstances the rank and file couldn't have hoped for a better result from the meeting. At last we've got a leadership that won't sell the rank and file down the river.

The statement from Henry Richardson and Ray Chadburn was fine, but should have been four weeks earlier.

Perhaps other workers will see the struggle of the miners as their struggle. If we go under, then the trade union movement goes under. We want their support, but we also want positive action, including strike action.

Eventually it's got to come to a general strike to get rid of Thatcher's monetarist policies. Now we've got rid of the Falklands factor we've got a good chance.

Trade unionists have got to get united. If we want to destroy capitalism, then the time to do it is now.

Neil Kinnock's response? I didn't know there was one. The reaction from the Labour Party was what I expected anyway. Many individual members have worked well. Socialist Organiser might find it difficult to accept but even Joe Ashton has been good in this dispute - and of course other MPs as well.

The message to other trade unionists is that the miners' strike is everybody's strike and needs to be won.

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FOR THE STRIKE RRIS JOHN HARRIS VICE

going to win"