Author: ourbulgarianlife

In the Amazon review of the Alwyn W. Turner book Crisis? What Crisis? Britain in the 1970’s, the precis includes the following:- The 1970’s. They were the best of times and the worst of times. Wealth inequality was at a record low YET industrial strife was at a record high. As members of the SLP, we have to ask the logic of using the word ‘Yet’. To us, it would seem absolutely logical that BECAUSE industrial strife was at a record high under the rotten, corrupt capitalist system, then the working class were able to defend themselves better and so wealth inequality was lower! One of the major sources of relative working class strength in the 1970’s was to be found in the National Union of Miners. This union had stood almost alone against the Capitalist Establishment in events surrounding the General Strike of 1926 but had periods of being dominated by the ‘right-wing’. The Yorkshire area of the Union had been dominated by its right- wing until the appearance on the scene of a young ‘left-winger’, by the name of Arthur Scargill. He had swiftly won the backing of his colleagues in the area through political astuteness and adroitness and had introduced the idea of support for fellow workers in struggle by the use of, what were termed, ‘flying pickets’. It was the use of these flying pickets, along with the concept of working class unity that were to become the decisive factors in the eventual ‘Battle of Saltley Gate’. The miners felt that their pay was inadequate and called a strike under the national leadership of Joe Gormley. The Tory Government of Edward Heath had been preparing for this action and had been stockpiling large amounts of coal. If the NUM were to succeed in their demands, it was imperative that coal stocks should be minimal, so that disruption of supplies, as at power stations, should be maximised. The winter of 1971-72 brought cold weather on cue to help the miners so demand for coal increased and stocks ran down quickly. One source of heating which hadn’t been adequately dealt with by the actions of the NUM was the vast stockpile at Saltley coke plant in Birmingham. Joe Gormley asked that this source be turned off. It was time for the operation of effective picketing of the depot to prevent lorries distributing the coke. Arthur Scargill has recalled ‘We launched from the coalfield here (in Yorkshire) squads of cars, minibuses and buses, all directed on to predetermined targets, with five, six hundred miners at a time. Of course, the police were going to come, but they couldn’t cover forty points at a time, without bringing the British armed forces in.’ Minor local picketing had been going on at Saltley with a small police presence but this had been insufficient. The arrival of Arthur Scargill and the Yorkshire miners galvanised the situation and having already established close ties to influential Birmingham trade unionists like Frank Watters, an appeal was made for broader trade union support from the area. Despite huge increases in police presence outside the depot gates and the more vicious ‘Special Patrol Group’, the arrival of tens of thousands of Birmingham trade unionists and their allies, including students and members of the public, presented the police with an insurmountable problem. Arthur Scargill, meanwhile orchestrated the operation on behalf of the trade unionists, with megaphone in hand. With the chants of ‘close the gates’, the gates were closed to the lorries under police supervision and a great working class victory was secured. The Tory administration was meanwhile reeling under this pressure. Other industrial action around this time included the dockers dispute and the jailing of the ‘Pentonville 5’, the building workers dispute resulting in the jailing of the ‘Shrewsbury 2- Ricky Tomlinson and Des Warren, and the Grunwick dispute with the emergence of the horrible Rupert Murdoch Group infiltration into Britain. With these militant actions, a break was temporarily put on rampant capitalism in Britain and the Country was soon immersed in the ‘three day week’ and periods of electricity shortage. Heath tried to bribe the working class with 10 per cent across the board pay rises and the like but in February 1974 he called a general election on the question of who runs Britain, the Tory Government or the Trades Unions? The Tories lost the election and Harold Wilson emerged as a Labour Prime minister. But it wasn’t the working class that benefitted. The non-stop attacks upon the working class by Labour and Tory administrations led eventually to the James Callaghan ‘Winter of discontent’ war with the British working class and the emergence of even more rampant capitalism under the Thatcher regime. Tory vengeance over the Heath debacle knew no bounds and eventually, the whole state apparatus was thrown against the working class bulwark of Arthur Scargill and the NUM in the 1984-5 Miners Strike. The British working class needs to rediscover its determined resistance to rampant capitalism as in the above events of the 1970’s Rob J. Hawkins, S.W. Region, 14.1.2022 Note. The 50th anniversary of Saltley Gate wil be on 10th February 2022. A number of events are being planned with a meeting on the day to be addressed by Arthur Scargill, Ricky Tomlinson, Mick Lynch, General Secretary RMT, Ian Hodson, President BFAWU and Sharon Graham, General Secretary of UNITE (tbc). This will be at the Priory Rooms, Quaker Meeting House, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham

America wants Russia to leave Ukraine and not to interfere in Taiwan. When will this war mongering Country get out of of the part of Cuba it has occupied for years and vacate its prison camp in a sovereign country and stop interfering in Taiwan which is legally part of China. Arthur Scargill. Leader Socialist Labour Party

A memorial was erected to miners in Swadlincote, Derbyshire. This was due to the efforts of Socialist labour Party members. Today East Midlands members will be laying a wreath as they do annually. Due to circumstances, inclduing Covid 19 Omicron upsurge members from other regions are not able to join them. We send them a message of Solidarity. Here in an earlier ceremony, Paul Liversuch, National Executive Member for East Midlands region is shown by the Miners’ Memorial is Swadlincote. He will be joined today by Nick Wroughton, also East Midland member and General Secretary Of the Socialist Labour Party.

Download Report / Executive summary Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) published their Peoples’ Enquiry into the Covid Pandemic in the U.K. The Government has talked about setting up an enquiry to learn from responses made to the pandemic, but there are no signs even of any preparation taking place for this. An enquiry was set up under the chairmanship of Michael Mansfield QC which has reported today, 1st December 2021. Posted by John Tyrrell 1/12/2021

Indian Farmers have been on strike fro over a year opposing the Modi Government wish to put control of farmers and farming in the hands of the multinationals. Globalisation has seen the rise and rise of neoliberalism designed to increase the profits of big business while seizing land and exploiting labour on the cheap. Hundreds lost their lives in the ensuing drawn out battle. Birmingam Trades Union Council organised a meeting where those involved tell their story on Sunday, 21st November 2021. Watch it here. Press report: Morning Star; Hindustan Times Posted by John Tyrrell 30/11/2021

50th Anniversary, Battle of Saltley Gate, 10th February 1972 Birmingham Trades Council are planning celebrations to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gate in 1972. It is planned to kick off with the unveiling of a plaque on the Unite Trade Union office in Birmingham which is in the area of Saltley Gate on 10th February 2022. Arthur Scargill will be a key speaker and Banner Theatre will perform songs from current productions on major issues. You will be welcome to attend and bring Union banners and banners relating to key issues affecting us, including the NHS, education funding and inequality, homelessness etc. Further details will be announced shortly. Banner Theatre are creating live and on-line programmes. This will be available for booking around the country. Details here: https://bannertheatre.co.uk/portfolio/banner-theatres-international-may-day-celebration-2021-2/ DONATIONS. We are asking the Labour and Trade Union movement and their supporters for donations towards making taking the 50th anniversary of Saltley Gate of Saltley Gate as a sign that great victories are possible through solidarity and determination. These can be sent to Birmingham Trade union Council. A Message from Arthur Scargill On 9 January 1972, Britain’s miners went on national strike for the first time since 1926. Miners had fallen dramatically down the wages “league table” whilst terms and conditions had reached a point at which they were no longer prepared to accept pennies instead of pounds. The NUM’s Areas commenced picketing at power stations, docks, ports – wherever road transport could deliver or collect coal; the Tory Government, determined that our claims should not succeed, was importing coal together with what was termed “cheap” oil and using nuclear power to keep energy supplies going. The trade union and Labour movement was by and large supportive – yet, despite messages of solidarity from individual unions and the TUC, national trade union leaders in the energy sector weren’t calling on their members to support us, while in road transport, scab drivers were transporting imported coal and oil to power stations. Faced with this, miners deployed flying pickets to the power stations, ports, wharfs and non-union transport companies, confronting self-employed scab drivers. Whilst picketing was in many cases proving successful, miners were still having to battle in all parts of the country. Against this background, I certainly wasn’t expecting what happened in the early afternoon of Saturday, 5 February. As a member of the Yorkshire NUM Executive Committee and picket organiser for the Barnsley Area, I received a phone call requesting help in closing down a coke depot in the centre of Birmingham, Britain’s largest city. Within two hours, 400 Yorkshire miners were on their way by coach, with me and my fellow-Branch Official Alvin Philips following in my car. On reaching Birmingham and we realised that the term “coke depot” didn’t convey the reality of Saltley, with stocks that looked to me as high as Mt. Everest! We were warmly welcomed by Birmingham’s working people; the Trades Council, local Labour Party, Communist Party and Co-operative Party; hundreds of families came forward with accommodation and meals, and looked after us over the coming days. At 6:00 a.m. on Sunday, what had been a handful of local NUM pickets, reinforced by miners from Yorkshire closed down the Saltley depot for the rest of the day. We were able to do that because the pickets were in the majority – however, on the Monday morning we were met by over 1,000 police determined that Saltley would be kept open. Yes, there was violence: it came from the police and resulted in substantial numbers of injured pickets. By Tuesday, 8 February, it was obvious we needed more assistance from the trade union movement. With the help of Frank Watters of the Communist Party, Moira Symons of the Labour Party, Dick Knowles of the Co-op. Party and the Trades Council Secretary, arrangements were made for me to meet with local and regional leaders of key trade unions of the day, including the TGWU, AEU/AUEW, NATFHE, Vehicle Builders, the GMW, the EEPTU and the FBU. All the union leaders and representatives I met listened to my heartfelt argument that what we needed wasn’t money or messages but strike action – and they agreed one by one to organise to ensure that we would get the support I was asking for on Thursday, 10 February. The morning of 10 February1972 realised an event which I believe will symbolise forever what trade unionists united are capable of achieving. On that day, 20,000 women and men marched to join the miners on the picket line at Saltley Gate, and in so doing they marched not only into the history of the British trade union and Labour movement but into the international pantheon of working class struggle. That day is also seared into the collective memory of our class enemies. The Tories in particular remain terrified that the working class of Birmingham proved in 1972 that workers had the power to determine events. I’ve always savoured the memory of then Home Secretary Reginald Maudling’s declaration – on 10 February – that the Saltley depot would remain open; two hours later, word reached Maudling and the Tory Government: Birmingham’s working class had closed Saltley Gate. Arthur Scargill President, National Union of Mineworkers 1982-2002 (4 October 2021) Posted by John Tyrrell, 29/11/2021

These last decades have seen movements with revolutionary potential hit the headlines. Greens began to make some impact, I seem to recall, about fifty years ago, mainly in Germany; the black and women’s liberation movements a bit earlier. So we get the “rainbow alliance” idea, with its [apparent ?] successes, as in South Africa. Still, at least some of these promising aspirations have been less than clearly “progressive” , the Peter Tatchell tendency, for example, being, so far as I know, very much a minority among “gay rights”, and the Tory C-in-C {Clown in Chief} posing as a greemlin [he’d lie down in front of the earth-movers to stop another Heathrow runway, joined by Mr Goldsmith, no doubt !] All the more important, then, for socialists to insist that red is the colour not only of the month but of our present and future. The colour which gives light to all the others [Greens know, in their heart of hearts, that only socialism can save the human and physical environment, and that dallying with the neo-liberals is dangerous and even fatal to this aim] Even infra-red can help us see in the dark of the capitalist murk; we can detect their tricks and avoid being picked off by their snipers. Give me some light !! Let it be Red !! David Marchesi, Southwest Region 11/11/2021

“Demonstration in support of the Indian farmers struggle and protesting Indian PM Modi’s arrival in Scotland in George Square today. Excellent contributions all round. We also met a few of our SLP comrades from south of the border a couple of whom were speakers at the rally.”. James McDaid, SLP Scotland and Bhagwant Singh, SLP West Midlands at COP26 in Glasgow “We are here demonstrating in solidarity with Indian farmers fighting in defence of historical rights, for dignity and for the right to provide food for the people and a decent standard of living for their families and communities against a reactionary government intent in selling out to the highest bidder amongst the band of transnational agribusiness pirates interested only in maximising private profit. We in SLP Scotland are proud to be here to sho support for that struggle. We are in George Square, Glasgow on the eve of COP26. Look around you, George Square is a square of ornate buildings, buildings built on the backs and misery of cheap and slave labour from around the British empire, an empire renowned as one on which the “sun never set”! But also one on which the blood never dried. Look at the statues around the square, Titans of British imperialism, slave owners and murderers of millions. Concurrently with that story is the story of mass working class deprivation and poverty in this same city, deaths again of untold numbers from malnutrition and preventable disease. These things are fact. But there is another story of this place, great anti-imperialists spoke to great demonstrations here in George Square, Paul Robeson, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and others. This square seen an insurrection in 1919 that then Home Secretary Winston Churchill sent tanks and troops to suppress. We here now are standing in that tradition. The elites worldwide are intent in turning back the clock to the days of empire and colonial exploitation, of the subjugation of working people, of super exploitation and meaningful democracy. The Indian farmers fight is a national struggle to defend rights but it is also an international fight against the transnational corporations intent on maximum exploitation and profit at all our expense. We are proud to stand in solidarity with Indian farmers. Victory to your struggle.”. James McDaid SLP Scotland 1/11/2021

The Budget hailed by the media and by right wing economists as positive will result in local authorities increasing rent and council tax, transport yet again increasing and pensioners will lose £17,78 per week as a result of the government breaching the Triple Lock, added to which workers will suffer a severe decrease in wages which should be at least £15 an hour. All this and yet not a word about the £250 billion being spent on Trident Nuclear Missiles and Defence; spending which over the years has seen over a million men, women and children die in Afghanistan, Libya, and Iraq . The answer is not woolly speeches in the House of Commons but in the Trade Union Movement taking action to force the government and the Labour Party opposition to demand that the multinational companies pay 85% of their profits; organisations such as Amazon, Apple; Google; Facebook; and Microsoft. Arthur Scargill President National Union of Mineworkers 1982- 2002. Leader Socialist Labour Party. 27.10.2021

Free Julian Assange meeting 26/10/21 at St Pancras church, about 100 people present. Main speakers. 1.Former MP Chris Williamson. Said Julian an inspiration to the world.He was betrayed by politicians,journalists and judiciary. Chris was particularly critical of lack of Labour MPS support for Julian Chris says Julian exposed war crimes of Britain and America throughout the world. Also the evil arms trade, and corporate control over governments. 2.Dereck Summerfield. Chair of Psychiatrists at Freedom from Torture Stated that Julian was on trial for exposing war crimes of UK and USA , particularly executing innocent civilians. 3.Andrew Feinstein former South Africa ANC activist and member of South Africa parliament. Stated Julian was an inspiration to the whole world. He said Julians arrest and trial was a travesty of justice. Julian is on trial for exposing Western powers war crimes throughout the world, also for exposing national security state being used against political activists. Russia Today interview with John Pilger warning of implications of action taken against Julian Assange and consequence treatment to not only journalists but any citizen who decides to be a white blower against injustice and criminal acts of those holding power. GETTING JULIAN ASSANGE: THE UNTOLD STORY. John Pilger Kevin O’Connor, London Region 27.10.2021