The miners' struggle got under way this week with the unanimous adoption of an overtime ban by the NUM Executive.
This followed their rejection of the Coal Board's last minute offer, which added a miserable Sp to the proposed basic rates of E2.50 and £2.25 under Phase 3, and came nowhere near to meeting the miners: demands for rises of between 18 and E12 per week. An overtime ban is an essential prelude for 2 sucoesstul strike, It would exhaust the 18 milton tons of coal the power stations have in stock, and flying pickets could then bring about power cuts to industry from the fist days of the strike. Some pits started to ban overtime before the EC made its decision. and all 20 areas of the NUM voted in favour of the ban.
Unexpectediy, the right wing, led by Joe Gormley, created a division in the Executive by proposing a /ull overtime ban. This would mean that safety and maintenance workers, is well as production workers, would be involved. The left wing of the EC, led by the Communist Party, voted in favour of a production ban only, but were defeated.
Now, every miner should think twice when Joe Gormley appears to be taking a militant line, He is a master in the use of ultra-left behaviour in order to sabotage struggle and de morale worker. His ecneral strike or nothing line over Phase 2 was a good example; and his latest stunt, to warn that a successful repeat of the 1972 strike would allow the Tories to win the next General Election, was a blatant attempt to frighten the miners away from a struggle hefore a single power cut had DEED THAT The Times commented about a full overtime ban: "It is the moderates who are pushing for a complete overtime han, This would remove key safety and maintenance men from collieries, particulary at weekends, and bring a strong risk of spontancous overheating and flooding at some pits, which might have to close as a result. Equally, if men are sont home for refusing to work overtime, their mates are likely to follow and sporadic strikes may then break out, The scene is set for a confused bout of industrial action leading nowhere.' (7 November) A full overtime han, therefore, would hit the miners long before it hit the power stations. Some miners would lose substantial carnings just before Christmas, and there would be a confused situation in which some miners were on strike, while others were hardly affected at all. On the basis of the hardship suffered by some of the miners just before Christmas, the right wing will then argue that the overtime bun is a substirate, rather than a preparation, for full industrial action.
STRATEGY So far the EC has avoided spelling out clearly the aims of the present overtime ban. To avoid these dangers, the miners need to have a worked out strategy.
Their first step must be to set up liaison had to contend with the rampant annexationcommitices between NUM production workers and the maintenance and safety men in NUM (2) and NACODS, in order to plan ways of cutting down production with the minimum effect on the miners. Each pit needs to evolve a plan to ensure that any reduction in earnings occurs gradually, and is spread as evenly as possible over all the workers, Confused situations in which men turn up not knowing whether work is available, or situations where management are able to provoko premature strikes, have to be avoided. A system of pithead delegates should be created, to co-ordinate these plans as far as is possible on a regional hasis. These measures are particularly important where pits are highly mechanised especially since many of these are in areas which tradition ally hold the balance of power in a ballot. The second step is to start to prepare for a strike. The ruling class is much better prepared for a miners' strike than it was in 1972, Power stations are taking in extra stocks of oil und oxygen. The police have sct up special mobile radio intelligenoc squads to relay information about the destination of flying pickets, so that they can deploy their forces with more strength and economy than before.
This time, many more it. the i 2% of miners who were involved in flying pickets in 1972 will be needed. This means that the committees which organise flying pickets should be created as carly as possible. They should send lay mem bers around the country to gain pledges of support from other workers, promises of accommodation for travelling pickets, and commitments to strike action for the purposes B inconcenable without massive Soviet aid. of freeing men for mass picket duty, in solidarity with the miners, when the time comes.
Finally, no miner should be complacent about the abiiity of the NUM to win on its own. To be certain of victory they need to construct an allance with the empineering workers, in line with statements made by figures such as Bill MeLen, Scottish Secretary of the NUM. If the Tones were to defeat one section, they would feel certain of victory over the other. Unity in action of miners and engineers, on the other hand, would be a decisive step forward in achieving a working class victory Calls should be made on the Executives of the two unions to prepare a joint national strike. But without waiting for the ECs, the rank and file should go abead and hold joint meetings between the NUM area councils and AUEW district committoos, set up joint action committees, call joint conferences etc, with a view to synchronising actions leading to a joint strike. No union should settle without the other, and all negotiations should be under the control of the rank and file If these concrete steps of preparation for a strike in the new year are taken now, they will reduce the demoralising effects of a full overtime han, overcome any crisis of perspec tive among the rank and file, and smash Gormley's latest attempts at sabotage. aside, however, this is no more than a cynical