Fight the pit closures! Keep up the class struggle!

Text of leaflet distributed on TUC’s ‘Day of Action’ – April 2nd

The Government has finally announced plans to only ‘save’ 12 pits out of the 31 planned for closure, announced last October. Even then the subsidies may only keep them open for up to 2 years. The future of these pits will depend upon how profitable they will become. Under plans to privatize them, the only way to make them ‘efficient’ will be either to increase coal output, ruthlessly out the number of workers employed, or more likely both. And even if they are made profitable, then they may threaten some of the other pits which weren’t on the list. Whatever unity miners have still got as miners could finally be lost by competition amongst mines.

     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 of the Government looked 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.

     The strategy of privatization is to break up the old nationalised industries and force competition to cut down on the number of workers employed in those industries. The attacks will not be confined to the mines, but will extend to the railways. The ‘shake-outs’ are already affecting other public sectors – the NHS, local government workers – as well as other industries. That is the strategy of the Tory Government. They have prepared their ground as well as possible. It is unfortunate that the workers movement doesn’t at least learn from the ruling class: prepare your own forces before a sustained fight. But the broadening of the attack of the Government to other sectors of workers does give us the opportunity to link up, organise and fight back!

The TUC’s response

    The TUC has called a ‘Day of Action’ on April 2nd. They also call it a European Day of Action. And how are they planning to establish unity amongst workers across Europe? First move, stop the France-England Electricity Link whereby French electricity is imported. Some European unity! With unity like this, who needs divisions. In reality the TUC leaders are calling for a “national” solution to problems, stop imports and subsidise exports. How can unity be forged amongst workers in Europe when it is being proposed to export British unemployment and put other European workers on the dole!

     Scargill, the President of the NUM, has been 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. When it comes down to it the arguments over free markets as opposed to protectionism are debates going on in the ruling class over the fate of capitalism. The real interests of the working class can only be satisfied by the abolition of capitalism, not by its reform.

What now for the miners

At the moment the miners find themselves in a similar position as in 1984, with massive coal stocks available. 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 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 are 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.

What now for the working class

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 prospect of inflicting defeats on the common enemy – the ruling class.

     Here is a good opportunity to reorganise the real movement of the workers, that which is involved in struggle. Forge real links with other workers in struggle leading to new expressions of class organisation. Organise the employed and unemployed into a common organisation, refusing to leave the unemployed to their own fate. Discard national boundaries, national divisions, in establishing and maintaining real international links.

     This reorganisation can’t be done through the so-called Labour movement, but only by a break from the existing organisations which tie the workers to the interests of the capitalists – that is the Labour party with the unions which are affiliated to it. Parliament, and the local councils, are not forums for class struggle but the organising centres of the exploitation of the working class.

     Ultimately our own interests can only be satisfied by the ending, the abolition of capitalism not its reform. Our living standards (in reality, surviving, not living) can never be secured within capitalism. Only by abolishing capitalism, the selling of goods produced through the market system, can any real future be secured for the working class.

End Exploitation! Abolish the Wages System!