A State of Siege and The Iron Fist, both reports by Trade Unionists to the Yorkshire Area NUM. [Review]

A State of Siege is a report on the policing of the miners strike during the first six weeks and The Iron Fist on the second six weeks. Both can be guaranteed to dispel any last illusions about the police. The message which comes across in all the incidents detailed are that the police are BASTARDS. The authors, both NALGO members, survey different incidents, with much first hand material. It’s a frightening reality.

In particular The Iron Fist details the rise of the ‘radical’ Right that now controls the state. People like the Freedom Association, Monday Club, Economic League, League of St. George, various private armies all firmly in control of much of the Conservative Party. Regular readers of Black Flag should find much of this information familiar. However all these disparate facts are drawn together to show that the state has deliberately prepared and engineered the miners strike in order not to attack the NUM, but to crush the working class, to destroy any organised opposition.

Let’s make no mistake about this. If the miners lose, it will be our defeat and victory for the fascists. The miners strike is central. If we lose this one, then we can look forward to a dark age. And if the miners win then the struggle moves onto a higher level. The civil war is on. Smash the bastards. Fight to win.

M. Black

Recommended price £2 from better bookshops or the authors: Paul Holmes, Greenwich Branch Nalgo Staffside Office Basement, Borough Treasurer, Wellington Street, Woolwich SE18. Cheques made payable to ‘Greenwich Branch NALGO’.

From Black Flag Quarterly vol 07 #07 (Autumn 1984) https://libcom.org/article/black-flag-quarterly-vol-07-07-1984