Miners Update: Ammanford South Wales [July 1984, Including speech by CNT member]

On 21st July 1984 a march in support of the miners struggle took place. The march was mainly by local miners plus miners from North Staffordshire. Members from FAU (German section of the IWA), CNT (Spanish section of the IWA) as well as DAM took part.

A public rally, attended by some 4-5,000 people, was held in an open field at the end of the 2 hour march. Speeches were made by NUM Officials, a prospective Labour Candidate (who apparently was not invited to speak!) and, a speech was made by a representative of the CNT-AIT. It serves as a reminder to us of the importance of international solidarity. Messages of support were also read out from FAU & IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) North America.

“To the leaders, everything seemed to be in the melting pot, because the men insisted on taking a hand in the conduct of affairs. There was much vain talk on the leaders’ side about ‘the growing spirit of anarchy’, which was bringing ‘chaos’ into the coalfield, And on the men’s side, a growing distrust of leadership, and a determination to gain more control.”
The Miners’ Next Step 1912.
(Published in Tonypandy in the Rhondda Valley).

CNT SPEECH TO MINERS 

Dear Friends, 

We are here to pass on fraternal greetings and a message of solidarity to you from all anarcho-syndicalist workers of Spain. 

Your fight is our fight for 2 reasons: FIRSTLY: As internationalists and libertarian workers, we feel that any worker’s struggle in defence of jobs and for the economic well-being of workers in any part of the world is also our struggle. SECONDLY: The fight for Worker’s Associations, for Trade Unions, which constitute our only defence, is also our fight. 

Workers who live in Spain are at this moment fighting hard to keep autonomous unions, controlled exclusively by the workers themselves, and relying neither on bureaucracies or political parties. 

For these reasons I say that your strike is ours, our struggle is yours. 

We must learn to show international solidarity and to unite on an international level. Our union must push aside frontiers and individual interests. This is the only way to defeat the upper-classes.

Spanish workers found out for themselves the importance of solidarity 50 years ago. (During the Spanish Civil War). 

In our daily struggle we have learnt that our fight as workers goes beyond nationalism, regionalism, the Army, bosses, and the State. When these things have interfered in our struggles, then we have lost them. 

We as workers, are the only people who produce, the only people who operate the machines. How can anyone tell us that we can’t stop working and can not stop operating these machines that we ourselves use? 

If nobody does our work for us then nobody decides for us. 

We have also learnt that in any struggle you have to go all the way. 

Struggle has taught us that dignity and well-being, or freedom, isn’t sold or given to us as a reward, but has to be taken. 

Dear friends and comrades, we are sure you will win. The British upper-classes know only too well that you, the miners are the heart of British unionism, and the heart of the British Worker’s Movement. 

They want to defeat you because of this. They want to disorganise you, to destroy your union, to impose secret ballots and redundancies. 

We don’t doubt your victory. It will be a very important one for the worker’s movement. 

Long live the miners struggle! 
Long live international solidarity! 
Long live freedom! 

From Black Flag: Anarchist Fortnightly vol VII, 6E, no.116 6/8/84 https://libcom.org/article/black-flag-vol-07-6e-116-1984