Leicester miners give standing ovation to call to get rid of Smith and all on of uncil who refused ta condemn him Chris Dawes (Reporti Chris Baifour Miners should not be deceived by the generous" offer of the TUC bureaucrats not to cite any NUM settlement with the Government in future bargaining over their own claims Such an offer means little, and will certainly not satisty the Tory Goverument, who will stop at nothing short of a TUC agreement to underwrite Phase 3. At the same time, the TUC's action creates the impression that the miners' demands can only be met at the expense of the just claims of other workers.
Thus this little TUC manoeuvre has the effect of sowing discord within the working class at the very moment when the greatest possible unity is desperately needed Such a result may be 'unintentional, but it is an inevitable result of the burcaucracy's central passion at this point The Irish Political Hostages Cam in time: to asoid a struggle with the Government at all costs.
The weeks ahead may untold in various wys. The Government may continue to negotiate with the TUC and seek firmer commitments. If this is the case, the miners will begin to experience the other side of the collaborator's velvet hand-the splitter's iron heel, For the Goverument may offer certain concessions in exchange for a TUC sell-out on Phase 3, but it will be reluctant to swallow the entire NUM claim. The TUC in the best traditions of 1926-would then bring intense pressure to bear on the NUM leaders to accept a compromise packape.
The most likely offer-which has already been hinted at by Tory ministers and right-wing members of the NUM execulive alike is a limited wage rise now in exchange for promises of a better deal in future, This parole wile and her sister were arrested and interrogated for five Bours at Springfield Row Barracks in Boltast is exactly the tactic employed by the ruling class in the 1920's, when you could always tell a miner by his soup pot full to the brim with promises. The appointment of a full anay of cabinet ministers charged with 'energy policy, under the command uf Tory warhorse Lord Carrington, is the latest link in the new chain of servitude which the Govern ment is forging for the miners. A "say" in the future planning of energy development will be Blogped off to the miners in exchange for hard cash, all on an NC B-run H.P. scheme.
The answer to such a proposal has already been suggested by NUM Vice-President Mick MeGahey, speaking at last week's Scuttish delegate conference: miners must work out their own polcies on energy questions and demand thar the Government accept them, in addition to the fall wages claim, Tadustrial action should back up these demands to the hilt. Only in this way can the interests of the miners-which have for too long been sacrificed on the altar of the ruling class's nations interest -be defended and advanced The crucial problem now facing the miners how to undo the damage being done by their false "friends" on the TUC General Cousci. There in only one way to meet this challenge by showing the rest of working class that thure is a nother way to back the miners and deal with the Government than the slimy path of sellout. The miners must give a lead to the entire wor kers movement by launcbing a national strike and calling on every section of workers to join them in a general strike to bring Tory Government That remains the only road tom real victory, The TUC's ceurse cin at best, only produce some deformed monster which they would labe victory on the night of ies birth, but which would be revealed in its true shape at the first light of dawn, The IPHC will be holding a march from Speakers Corner (Matble Archi to the Home Office next Sunday, 20 January asse mhling at 2.30pm. A public nooting