The axe still hangs over the mines

Since October 1992, with the announcement of the closure of 31 pits with as many as 30,000 jobs disappearing, still the axe hangs over the coal mining industry. Within a few weeks the outrage from all quarters forced the Government to retreat, promising to review the future of the coal mining industry. The indecision of Government Ministers is because they are on the horns of a dilemma. Not only is the crisis facing the Government deepening, with the much heralded recovery of the economy still not making its appearance. The dilemma is that they can’t keep on going the same way as before, the same Thatcherite nonsense of free-marketeering, but to change the course against an impending growth of class struggle also has dangers for the bourgeoisie. This is the reason for Government indecision and not just personal prevarication of this or that Cabinet Minister.

     The vicious hostility of the Tory Government to the mining industry is because they remember that they had been defeated before by the miners – Thatcher could never forget the humiliations inflicted on the Heath Government: the three day week, power cuts and a climb-down before the National Union of Mineworkers. A further confrontation early on in the Thatcher administration was deferred, the purpose soon being made clear. The stage was being set for a major confrontation with the miners – the year long strike of 1984/5. The Government had set everything up, large coal stocks, imports of coal by road from easily controlled smaller ports, special preparations of mobile police forces to counter flying pickets, new anti-strike legislation in preparation for the confrontation. It is unfortunate that the workers movement doesn’t at least learn from the ruling class: prepare your own forces before a sustained fight.

     Over the last decade two essential measures were taken, which were to split the miners into two opposing camps (the easier to divide them), and then see about doing without the coal industry completely. It is the fulfilment of the Thatcherite strategy which sections of the bourgeoisie now baulk at. They succeeded into splitting the miners, hiving off whole sections to create the Union of ‘Democratic’ Miners, a truly state sponsored union. The UDM is the Tory jewel in the crown, a pliable trade union which acts like a puppet on a string. Just splitting the miners was not enough for the Thatcherites. With the privatisation of the power stations here was a golden opportunity of getting rid of most of the rest of the coal industry as well. Enough of these troublesome miners; use gas, import coal and have done with coal mining in Britain! This was the Tory strategy coming to fruition. 

The campaign against the pit closures

The announcement over massive pit closures not only stunned miners but also large numbers of people in other industries. Verbal outrage poured forth from Labour and TUC leaders (but nothing else), along with disquiet being expressed from other MPs and politicians, embracing some Tories, Liberals and others. Some even said they would go down pits, stage sit-ins (not actually do any work while they are down there, of course) and maybe even vote against the Government! Here was a trans-class alliance which the former Stalinists would have loved. It set the tone for the whole campaign, much sympathy, public protest, heart searching and… prayers. The massive demonstration on October 25 in London of approximately a quarter of a million did give clear expression of the popular indignation against the threats to the miners. Some point out that this broad sweep of political beliefs (a united front) led to such a massive number of people gathered together. We would ask the following question – how many workers had been put off by all this class collaborationist, political back-scratching and quaint phrases from Bishops? How many more would have been on the streets through a real class mobilisation! Most of the demonstrators did not even go to the meeting, corralled off to keep it under control: the speakers didn’t wait until the rest of the marchers arrived (the march was three hours long). Those who did go to the meeting to heckle the more hated of the speakers were frozen out by some of the class non-warriors enthralled by this outbreak of unity.

     This trans-class block was not for a defence of the miners as workers, rather for the mining industry and the national interest, which is completely different. The only way to preserve the interests of a specific industry, also that of the nation, stands in stark contrast to that of the workers employed there (irrespective of what all the trade union leaders say, which includes Scargill). The logical conclusion of what needs to be done to preserve the coal mining industry as a competitive business was shown by the bid by the UDM to take over a section of the privatised coal industry as part of a private consortium. Roy Lynk, former UDM President (according to The Independent 14 Dec 1992), recommended the following measures in order to make the management of the coalmining industry: split the industry into two – North and South (with UDM taking over the Southern section) – in order to make united strike action more difficult; the undermining of the role of the pit deputies (organised in a separate trade union, NACODS), without whom pits can’t be worked; new contracts of employment enforcing longer shifts, and even the removal of rights of workers to go to industrial tribunals. It has been little wonder that Lynk has been paraded at Tory Conferences and awarded the Order of the British Empire by the Queen. And after all this class collaborationist some of the Nottinghamshire pits are down for closure. This explains why some politicians are uneasy about the pit closures – it is also a dagger aimed at the heart of the UDM!

     A form of campaign over the pit closures was ’organised’ by the TUC, a sedate affair struggling not to offend the ruling class. The scraping and grovelling before the national interest was given a left cover by Scargill and Benn, uniting fiery rhetoric for import controls with an urge for more democracy. Some of us have already had a belly-full of democracy Mr Benn! Of course pertinent points are raised about the use of child labour in coal mines in Colombia, coal emulsion from Venezuela which threatens the environment but not one word of uniting the interests of workers in various countries. That would be too rhetorical, leading to a stampede of TUC leaders to quieter climes. And in what lies the real interest of child labour in the coal mines of Colombia but their organisation along class lines rather than starvation via unemployment at the hands of the Colombian bourgeoisie. This is not an isolated point. Scargill was calling for subsiding of British coal and exporting it to Europe thereby undercutting and throwing coalminers in other countries out of work. Strip away the fiery talk and then sections of the bourgeoisie will find something of interest in the speeches of Arthur Scargill. The health of a mining industry reaches out and clasps hands with the weakness of other sections of industry, expressing concern over the state of exploitation of the working class across the country.

     While the bureaucratic united front road show of TUC and Labour Leaders got into some sort of order, a group of miners marched from Glasgow to London as a protest of pit closures. A strange sort of solidarity was being expressed. Here was a march by miners being threatened by unemployment being welcomed by all sorts of local Labour Councillors who are directly enforcing worsening conditions on those who work for local government. Not only are same workers facing redundancy at the hands of Labour Councils, but what about all those millions of people being hounded for poll tax payments through courts, with the assistance of bailiffs, organised by these same Labour Councillors. With ’solidarity’ like this who needs enemies.

     With many of the pits not being worked, miners being sent home rather than having coal produced, morale fell in some areas. Many thousands of miners ‘voluntarily’ took redundancy money (sometimes under duress, vital bus services being cancelled, unions officials being harrassed) rather than wait around for the big chop. Waiting for succour to come from the TUC leaders is a dispiriting experience. It was at that point when one of those paradoxes peculiar to British society took place. The miners unions took the Coal Board and Government’s decisions over closures to the High Court as the relevant consultation over the pit closures had not taken place. Just before Christmas the High Court declared the decisions to be unlawful as the correct procedures (laid down in the original nationalisation legislation) had not been carried out. High Court judges were being toasted over Christmas in miners areas – the miners received more temporary relief from the courts than whole battalions of TUC leaders.

     The fundamental purpose of the bourgeois state is to preserve the long-term interests of the ruling class, that is why there is sometimes a difference between what is taken up by the Courts against short-term actions of Governments. The Government Minister, Heseltine, denied knowledge of how this had come about and blamed the management of British Coal. With some legal experts expressing the opinion that the Government Minister could be held liable personally for the costs of those shut down and ’moth-balled’, the Tories dilemma was complete. Promising to look at all possible options, including possibly short-term subsidies, nothing was ruled in and nothing ruled out. Months later still nothing has been decided by the Government over how many of the 31 pits have been «saved”.

Heated Discussions Within the Ruling Class

With the Government backing off from the original wholesale slaughter of the coal industry all the various experts and pundits are trying to get into the act. For instance the Institute of British Geographers at its conference heard the notion of «In a high-wage economy, the decline of deep-mined coal is inevitable in competition with oil or gas». As with all professors the opposite viewpoint was put about not throwing away £7 billion of economic investment. «We should intervene in the short term to give coal some breathing space and give it some protection in the energy market, while long-term problems are addressed». Economists then waded into the discussions. Let the markets decide over the production of coal and other sources of power some say. There is plenty of cheap coal on the world market, so who needs coal production. Others say that such markets are unstable and can be jeopardised during world conflicts. What these experts had not allowed for then began to happen. Some of the supplies of cheap coal suddenly disappeared. Polish coal miners in Silesia went on strike and British Coal needed to buy coal from privatised mines in Britain to make up for what was missing. The old stand-by, Polish coal supply could no longer be guaranteed. While the cold war continued and Stalinist rule was secure, the exploitation of Polish miners could be taken for granted. Supply by the boat load arrived when needed to break the miners’ strike in 1984/5. Now all this is in jeopardy. The meeting of the needs of the national economy became the centre of discussions.

     Everybody involved in all these arguments have their own solutions to the problems of the national economy, for the well-being of the market system. All types of experts are dug out from Universities, Business Schools and the like to lecture a bored public about what would happen if such-and-such takes place. Instead of redundancy payments, keep the pits working to help keep others in work. Hypothetical multipliers are used, each worker in the pit sustains two others in employment. The optimists think that most will get work eventually (retraining, moving from the area) with perhaps three per cent never working again! Of course the real social effects of unemployment, of changing employment, of broken lives, demoralisation is never calculated because it never appears in any of the business plans and balance sheets. For these advocates of the market system the working class only appears as a variable cost on financial accounts, the physical effects of employment / unemployment, of wasted time and wasted lives, are not really of their concern. Just so long as the working class are there at the beck and call of the employers, that’s all that matters.

     Other options are being examined by the Government. There are long-term plans for the privatisation of the coal mines. The original plan was to sell off British Coal as a single enterprise, but British Coal doesn’t want to work all the pits under threat. Nor will it take kindly to letting others take them over to run as competition. Better to declare them uneconomical, and whatever can’t be stripped out, might as well leave buried under the ground. But the drive to ’secure’ the future of the mines only increases the pressure on the miners. The relentless drive for more profit means higher productivity, more output with less labour, fewer pits with a future even if the market for coal can be increased. The review in which the Government is involved is looking at American methods of production – longer shifts to increase the production at the coal faces (because of ever lengthening travel time to the where the coal is being cut). As an aside, bourgeois ’experts’ have always derided Marx for statements about the need of the bourgeoisie to lengthen the working day – well, here it is again. More productivity per worker, even with a static market will mean fewer miners and more unemployment. All the collaboration over the years between the employers and union leaders of various hues has extracted a fearful price from the working class. 

What Now for the Miners

     The uncertainty over the future of the 31 pits has been going on for five months. Still no sign of the review of the pits future or the prospective Government white paper has come forward. This has been one of the reasons why there has not been much of a campaign for the last couple of months. Government indecision has been a lifeline for the TUC leaders. Obviously no need to do anything so might as well forget it. Only when the plans for the future of the mining industry goes through Parliament can we expect to see an upturn in the fight.

     The miners find themselves (surprise, surprise) in a similar position as in 1984 as coal stocks are about 40 million tonnes. Winter has passed, no threats of power shortages can directly help in a direct confrontation through a strike by the miners alone. Some of the Left, particularly trotskists, are putting forward the same old tired slogans. Occupy the pits (in this situation a recipe for isolation and loss of pay), which is nothing less than a refusal to learn from past experiences (Turin workers in 1919/20, France in 1968) and leave the state in control of events. If that isn’t bad enough, the demands for Make the TUC leaders Fight, followed by the TUC should organise this and that is an invitation for the workers to have an even worse defeat inflicted upon them. The TUC should be kept out of any struggle, on the basis of know thine enemy!

     If it is seen as purely within the limits of the mining industry then the miners have an up-hill struggle with little chance of reversing closure plans. It should be remembered that it is the Government which prepares the attacks on the miners, and it is the stability of state preparations which is the key to the situation. The Government is on the verge of a period of instability, possibly on the scale of the crisis which affected the Conservative Government of McMillan in the early 1960s. The Thatcherite strategy of taking on one section of workers at a time has been undermined by indecision, financial crisis and political turmoil. During this year the prospect of an effective wages offensive, possibly uniting different sections of workers, bringing millions into conflict with the Government, is a strong possibility. It is by participating in this movement that miners may yet turn the situation in their favour. Fighting alone is a recipe for defeat; a class offensive opens up the prospective of inflicting defeats on the common enemy – the ruling class.