Miners [Report and analysis from Doncaster, 1984]

BALLOT? 

The liberal call for a national ballot on whether or not to strike against pit closures, can only be treated with derision and contempt. If a pit closes, a whole community dies. You only have to look at what were pit villages in the north-east and South Wales to witness the utter devastation and dereliction that are the result of pit closures. So the call for a ballot of people, some of whom do not even live in mining communities(particularly white collar staff) to decide on the life or death of that community is an anathema. Such decisions should lie with every man, woman and child in that community and the people in the pit villages are well aware of this and in the past few weeks have been working shoulder to shoulder with the miners to defend themselves against the attacks made upon them. 

Their actions are mainly ignored by the media who are only interested in those opposed to the strike, e.g. some Nottinghamshire women. Little has been said about the Yorkshire women standing with the men on the picket line; making collections of food and money to help each other out as there has been no social security payments as yet; setting up kitchens; taking food to pickets; producing news bulletins. Nor about the school children who have demonstrated in solidarity with the miners in Edlington and Mexborough schools near Doncaster. Nor about the Barnsley nurses who have voted to have a rota of women to stand with the miners on the picket lines. Nor about the local trades people who are selling fish and chips cheaper or giving food to the women’s action groups. The fight against pit closures is a fight that concerns all the people who live in the mining areas. 

POLICE STATE 

The police operations during this strike have struck alarm into the hearts and minds of the liberal establishment. The co-ordination on a national rather than regional level has been seen as the embryo of a national police force. The speedy mobilization as a threat to ‘democracy’. Their tactics an affront to freedom of movement. Perhaps these are all true, but as anarchists they are what we expect. 

What has happened has helped to open the eyes of many to the repressive nature of the state. For the first time many people are finding themselves in direct confrontation with the police merely by travelling, picketing and even in one case having a drink in a local pub. In reality the police actions are just the tactics they have used on some demonstrations on a much larger scale, and a watered down version of what they do every day in the north of Ireland. 

So, what have they been doing? The stopping and turning back of pickets is common place, many are given a warning the first time and arrested the second. This is done on a thorough basis, with police road blocks, and when pickets have tried to walk to pits still working, lines of policemen standing across the road. A good example of the thoroughness and effectiveness of the police operation can be seen in the following example. A miner from South Yorkshire, contacted his brother who runs a pub in Nottinghamshire saying he was coming over to stop the night so he could go picketing in the morning, and so if the police contacted him to confirm it. The miner and a friend then dressed themselves up as if they were going for a drink. After entering Nottinghamshire they were stopped by the police, the story was given and checked up on, but they were still turned back on the threat of arrest. The police have smashed windscreens, held miners on minor driving offences, arrested many and beaten some up; just to stop them reaching the still working pits. Four miners from Bently pit, north of Doncaster were arrested while having a drink and a game of darts in a village pub. 

“March while its still legal.” Photo: M. “My friend wanted to come but he lives in Kent.” GLC Demo March 29th London. 

The police have mounted roadblocks and convoys of vans constantly cruising up and down motorways in order to stop the recent tactics of causing congestion of main roadways. 

The police have also been questioning arrested pickets on their political views, but again this is nothing new. Finding out what people think, who they vote for and what they think is the major function of the special branch and MI5, whose job it is to keep an eye on []. It is clear that the police have mounted an efficient means of control, but it is only a fraction of what they could do and their tactics and repression have only been a part of the methods they could use. 

DIVISIONS OF LABOUR 

The Coal House in Doncaster has become a battle ground in the miner’s strike, not only because it is still working but because it is where the wages for the Nottingham scabs are made up. 

The Coal House is the main administrative centre in the region and employs some 1,800 workers, who are divided into 3 unions BACM (British Association of Colliery Management), APEX (Association of Professional Executives and Computer Staff) and COSA/NUM (Colliery Officers Staff Association). 

There is traditionally a resentment of the office staff by the miners, and since the introduction of the bonus system this has greatly increased. The bonus system works on an area, pit and face structure, face workers are paid the bonus on the production from their face, other pit workers get paid on the production from their pit and office workers are paid a bonus on the overall production of the area. What this means is that office staff are paid a bonus which is higher and more constant than the other workers. If a face stops production for reasons which are no fault of the face worker such as mechanical or geological, the face workers lose most of their bonus, whilst still working a full shift in situations that are just as hard and dangerous. 

So the bonus system means that office staff earn their bonus not on their own work but from the toil, blood and sweat of the pit workers which makes the resentment more intense. The National Coal Board Policy is to employ people who are relatives of people already employed by them, which means you have men on picket lines while wives working in the office are crossing the picket lines. You even have the case of picketing men driving their scabbing wives to work. 

THE THIRD WEEK OF THE STRIKE 

On the Monday at the start of the third week of the strike the Coal House became a target for pickets from the Doncaster area; up to this time the only pickets had been a handful from the Coal House and their effect was minimal. There were around 200 pickets, mainly miners who had been turned back from the Nottingham border, but they were supported by members of the Hatfield Women’s Support Group and a handful of unemployed workers. On arrival at the Coal House there were only 20 policemen but these were soon reinforced by others from the police station next door, bringing their numbers up to about 100. 

There was then pushing and shoving to occupy the entrance to the building, and although the pickets could not hold it all the time, the police couldn’t ensure the ‘safety’ of the scabs, the majority of which were being held at the police station. After a couple of hours when only a smaller number of workers had braved the pickets the management agreed to close the place down for the day. 

Although the press has attempted to highlight any ‘violence’ of strikers towards scabs, this encounter showed there is little violence directed at the scabs; this is obvious when all the pickets and scabs are face to face. When a non-striker stops to talk and argue their case, even if they are surrounded by pickets there is quiet to allow them to talk. When the police lines are outflanked, a group of 50 pickets ran towards the workers being held at the police station; even though there was only a couple of police there, the pickets stopped short of the scabs and shouted pleas for solidarity. It is only when the pickets are held back or pushed around by the police that abuse and aggression is directed at the scabs. 

The next day the police were better prepared and when the pickets arrived at the Coal House there were already 200 officers around the entrance, but as more and more pickets arrived they were reinforced by bus loads of police from the barracks in Nottingham. There were about 500 pickets facing 500 police many of whom came from outside South Yorkshire. 

The scabs were again held at the police station while the police and pickets fought for control of the entrance to the building, but the police managed to form a cordon. One of the weaknesses of the pickets was the reluctance to risk arrest. At one point when a surge was taking place further down the line, it was only the action of the women who held their ground while the men fell back, which gave the more militant pickets time to run over to outmanoeuvre the police. 

VISIT SCENIC YORKSHIRE Photo: M,. 

Odd items were thrown and a window broken; at one point, when the police allowed a car to drive into the mass of pickets it was attacked and rocked and the woman inside thumped, but she was not a scab, she was a magistrate going to the court. But it was not these events that the press focused on, but the passing out of a policeman. During a lull in the pushing and shoving a policeman was ‘overcome by the occasion’, nothing was thrown and he was not pushed, an ambulance arrived which had a blue light smashed and the policeman was taken to hospital. This event gave the press their headlines and front page photographs. 

After the closure on the Monday and the near run thing on the Tuesday, by the Wednesday the police were making no mistakes. The police started by occupying all the ground as they out-numbered the pickets by around 600 to 400 the result was a police training exercise. 

The pickets attempted to block a main road that runs next to the Coal House, but were soon dispersed. As it came nearer to the time for the scabs to be escorted in, the number of pickets fell further as miners left. A small group, consisting mainly of the women of the support groups, attempted to stop the scabs reaching the police station, but they were also pushed back by the police. The police managed to keep the pickets at least 40 feet from the entrance and the scabs were escorted in with ease. It was after the scabs had been taken in and the miners were about to disperse, as they had done the previous day that the police line opened up and a snatch squad burst out to make a few indiscriminate arrests. 

The next day the bulk of the pickets changed to picket the power stations which is just as well, because there was a bigger police presence than the day before and were in a position to squash any attempt to disrupt the scabs going to work in Coal House. The ability of the police to build up their forces and to preposition them (learning from the previous days events) makes it extremely difficult for pickets to permanently close a place of work, which is one of the reasons why the miners are being forced to move from place to place in an attempt to catch the police unaware. The days of the early seventies and the mass pickets that closed the Saltby coke works are over as the police are now better trained and more willing to take on large groups of pickets. 

LA-BORE HYPOCRITES

The Labour Party is giving its full support to the miners in their fight against pit closures, but as with all things their words in opposition and their actions in power are two different things.

The present run down of the industry is very similar to the run down that occurred between 1964 and 1970 under the Labour government, where in South Wales alone 50 pits were closed, one every 7 weeks, and 34,000 jobs destroyed. In the 60’s oil was very cheap and power stations were changed from coal to oil. This is similar to today where nuclear power is seen by many as a cheaper form of power, mainly because it employs less workers, which makes it less vulnerable to industrial action as most of the workers are specialist technicians and management.

After the oil producing countries pushed up their prices and the oil crisis led to the 3 day week, coal was back in favour, power stations were switched back to coal and the new Labour government of 1974 launched ‘The Plan for Coal’. But even now the coal industry was being run down as nuclear power is to be the power of the future. In South Wales alone between 1974 and 1979 4,000 miners jobs were destroyed.

Tony ‘Lefty’ Benn, the Energy Secretary between 1975 and 1979, not only supervised the ‘Plan for Coal’, in order to offset the pressure from the oil countries, he also launched a plan for nuclear power, giving the go ahead for many more nuclear power stations, which then as now was seen as the alternative to coal. Tony Benn also proved that the nuclear power stations are easier to control when he broke a strike at one plant by threatening to send the troops in.

Thatcher may have a hatred of the miners and the power they are within the working class and a love for cuts and monetarist purity which the Labour Party is dead against but for whatever reason they act, over the last decade both labour and tory government have meant one thing and one thing only for the mining industry, CLOSURES.

The miners are split in the fight against pit closures, a split that will probably be the death of the strike and the death of many pits. Because of the massive stock piles, especially in the power stations, the miners cannot win without the support of other workers, and they cannot win without the support of each other. The divisions within the miners union cannot be healed by ballots or by executive officers mending their differences, they can only be healed by destroying all the things that divide miners against miner. The first target must be the bonus system, which must be eradicated, but it is not only the divisions that are imposed on the miners by the NCB that must go, but the divisions that the miners force on themselves.

Only by creating a free union, free from full time officials, bureaucrats and other trappings of inequality. Only when every organiser is a worker, and whether national president or pit secretary is unpaid and does union work in their spare time, will the miners be free from their own bureaucrats. Keeping the officers in the pit not only means that the miners replace them when dissatisfied, it means that the militants are left where they can educate all miners of the need to fight and work together.

But it is not only the burden of full time paid officials that miners must free themselves from, it is from any entanglement with the NCB. All agreements allowing people time off to do union work must be scrapped; liaising with the NCB over the pensions and the running of the Miners Welfare Clubs must be destroyed in order to free the miners from the tentacles of the NCB. All pensions, clubs, union offices etc must be run and owned by the miners without the NCB.

Thirdly the miners must free themselves from the restrictions and divisions that the law puts on them. All laws such as the one restricting the transfer of cash into the strike fund from other sections and the divisions of pickets into official and unofficial must be ignored. 

When the organisation of the union is free from all hierarchical and bureaucratic structures and the union is made totally independent of state and company can the solidarity evolve that is required to destroy the power of the state.

J.M.

Black Flag : fortnightly newsbulletin vol VII 5F No.110 9/4/1984 https://libcom.org/article/black-flag-vol-07-5f-110-1984