Author: ourbulgarianlife

Today I’m here to honour miners and their families who in 1984/58 fought the greatest workers’ fight since the days of the Merthyr Rising (1831), the Tolpuddle Martyrs (1834), the Newport Chartists (1839), the Featherstone Martyrs (1893) and the Suffragettes (1903). I honour, as I always have, the young miners fighting for the future – and the magnificent Women Against Pit Closures who for a year were at the forefront of our struggle to save pits, jobs and mining communities. Who can forget that amazing day, 12th May 1984, when more than 12,000 women from mining communities around the British Coalfields came together in Barnsley to stage a historic march and rally in support of the NUM’s fight against pit closures?  What a march and what a rally! They were supporting our Union’s right to take strike action, which was and is governed by the United Nations Charter and International Labour Organisation Conventions 87 and 98. The NUM had held a Special Delegate Conference on 21 October 1983; the Union knew the Government was planning pit closures, and voted unanimously for a national full overtime ban which over the next four months had an extraordinary impact. It cut national coal stocks to about the same level as they had been during the successful – and unofficial – miners’ strike in 1981. On 1st March 1984, National Coal Board Directors in four Areas announced the immediate closure of five pits:  Cortonwood and Bulcliffe Wood in Yorkshire, Herrington in Durham, Snowdown in Kent and Polmaise in Scotland. At a National Executive Committee meeting on 8th March, one week later, Scotland and Yorkshire sought endorsement from the NEC for strike action in their Areas.  They were given authorisation in accordance with National Rule 41, and the NEC confirmed that any Area could if they wished take the same decision. On 12th March 1984, Area strikes began. I’m fed up of  our critics saying we “picked the wrong time of year” for a strike.  Our fight-back started in November 1983 – an appropriate time for miners to start industrial action. At a Special Delegate Conference on 19th April 1984, delegates rejected a call for a national strike ballot and voted to support and strengthen the 180,000, or 80%, of Britain’s miners who were already on Area strike in accordance with National Rule 41. PICKETING TARGETS From the start, I was convinced that the steel industry should be the Areas’ main picketing target – far more than power stations or, indeed the pits in the few Areas that had rejected strike action. On the basis of information I  had, I argued that the obvious targets were the steel plants at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, Ravenscraig in Scotland and Port Talbot in South Wales – and the coking plants which supplied them.  For that reason I saw the Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire as a crucial target for picketing. My argument was initially rejected by Area leaders who believed that the main targets should be those Areas which had not joined the Strike. It was not until May that my view on Orgreave was accepted. I’m fed up with reading and listening to historians and media experts who say that miners “walked into a police trap” at Orgreave on 18th June 2024.  It’s untrue. Picketing started at Orgreave on 23rd May, and by the 27th thousands of miners – and supporters – were responding to the call for mass picketing at this plant which supplied the coke essential for Scunthorpe steelworks. Of course, police numbers grew accordingly.  By 30th May, the growing number of pickets had led to a substantial number of us being arrested, including me. On 18th June, 10,000 pickets had arrived by early morning.  We KNEW the police would turn out in greater numbers and they did – 8,200 of them. But we were there for a reason – and with a strategy.  We did not “walk into a trap”.  We had worked out how to co-ordinate our actions.  From a little shop in Sheffield, I had purchased several walkie-talkies for distribution among picket leaders – including Dave Douglass.  And our lines of communication held through the early part of the day. It has long been admitted that the police brutality at Orgreave on 18th June 1984 was a deliberate tactic used by the State to wage war against the National Union of Mineworkers.  123 people were injured; a number had to be hospitalised (including me).  95 – including some of those worst injured – were arrested and charged with riot, unlawful assembly and violent disorder.  These charges, of course, were discredited and dropped with the acquittal of the first group of miners who were tried. What is virtually never reported is that before the end of the day the police were forced to close the plant in accordance with a telex from the British Steel Chairman Sir Robert Haslam.  A copy of that telex was later handed to me by BBC Correspondent Nicholas Jones and the closure is referred to by Dave (Douglass) in his book “Ghost Dancers”. The tragedy was that the pickets were withdrawn the next day.  From my hospital bed I had urged Area leaders to step up the picketing on the 19th,  to increase the pressure as we had at Saltley in 1972. Had that happened, I have no doubt that Orgreave would have been closed and Scunthorpe would have faced immediate closure.  The impact of that, and the effect elsewhere would have forced the Government to settle the strike. Nine years after the strike, my conviction about “picketing steel” was confirmed by none other than Margaret Thatcher. In a chapter titled “Mr. Scargill’s Insurrection”  in her 1993 Autobiography, she wrote on Page 350  of her concern in March 1984 that energy and steel  could be hit by our strike action.  She wrote: “The CEGB  estimated endurance at about six months but this assumed a build-up to maximum oilburn – that is, using oil-fired stations at full capacity – which had not yet begun.  We had to judge when this should be set in train because it would certainly be described as provocative by the NUM leadership. “We held off while there seemed a prospect that NUM moderates might force a ballot.  However, I decided on Monday 26 March that this nettle must now be grasped.”  She went on to write: “Industrial stocks were, of course, much lower than those at the power stations:  the cement industry was particularly vulnerable and important. “But it was BSC whose problems were most immediate.  Their integrated steel plants at Redcar and Scunthorpe would have to close in the next fortnight if supplies of coke and coal were not delivered and unloaded.  Port Talbot, Ravenscraig and Llanwern had stocks sufficient for no more than three to five weeks.” “REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE” For 40 years, I have been accused of refusing the negotiate a settlement with the NCB, and of “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”.  This was and is a lie. The NUM settled the strike with the NCB on five separate occasions in 1984: on 8 June, 8 July, 18 July, 10 September and 12 October – only to have the NCB renege on these settlements on what we now know was Government instruction. The most important “settlement terms” were agreed between the leaders of the pit deputies’ union NACODS and the NUM on 12 October 1984. NACODS had just conducted an individual ballot and obtained an 82% vote for strike action. Following the NACODS result, the conciliation service ACAS invited the NCB, NUM and NACODS in to see if there could be a negotiated settlement. After futile discussions with the NCB, the NUM and NACODS held a joint meeting in which, on behalf of the NUM and in consultation with my two closest colleagues, Michael McGahey and Peter Heathfield, I drafted the following proposal: “That the NCB withdraw its pit closure plan, give an undertaking that the five collieries earmarked for immediate closure be kept open, and guarantee that no pit will be closed unless by joint agreement it was deemed to be exhausted or unsafe.” This proposal was accepted by NACODS and acceptable to the conciliation service ACAS.  It was then submitted to the NCB.  It was emphasised that if the NCB did not accept this joint proposal, the NACODS strike would go ahead. On the eve of reconvened discussions at ACAS, I learned that the NACODS leadership had inexplicably reneged on its agreement with the NUM and had instead reached an agreement with the NCB for an amended colliery review procedure – despite the TUC leaders urging them to stick to the agreement they had reached with the NUM! No explanation has ever been given by NACODS for this u-turn, or sell-out, which had terrible historical consequences, leading as it did to the destruction of Britain’s deep-coal-mining industry. On 21st February 1985, we held a Special Delegate Conference at which the NEC called upon the trade union movement not to leave the NUM isolated.  We called upon all our members to stand firm, and those not yet involved to support our Union against the Government’s attempt to destroy us.  This was carried unanimously. Inexplicably, by 28th February, just one week later, five NUM Areas asked for a recall Conference to agree an immediate return to work without a settlement. That Conference took place on 3rd March 1985.  The NEC’s position was for continuation of the strike, as instructed by Conference less than a fortnight earlier. The resolution to call off the strike and return to work was proposed by the South Wales Area and seconded by Durham.  The vote to return to work was carried by 98 votes to 91. The three National Officials – Mick McGahey, Peter Heathfield and myself –  supported continuation of the strike. The Miners’ Strike of 1984/85 remains  not only an inspiration for workers, but a reminder to today’s trade union leaders of their responsibility to their members, and the need to come together in direct action to challenge Government and employers against all forms of injustice, inequality and exploitation. It is a privilege to be here today with men and women who took strike action in 1984, their families and all who supported the NUM and supported the strike.  You marched into history, and entered the pantheon of working class heroes and heroines. Arthur Scargill 22 June 2024

We are witnessing a propaganda campaign coordinated by the UNITED  STATES  of AMERICA , NATO, the EUROPEAN UNION , the UNITED KINGDOM and WESTERN POWERS unlike any propaganda campaign since the FASCIST campaign by Germany prior to and including the Second World War. On all TV News Channels and in virtually all Newspapers both in the UK, EU countries we have and are being subjected to non stop 24 hours a day a case seeking to convince people that Russia started this conflict when evidence clearly started this conflict by implementing a policy of deploying troops on nearly every country surrounding Russia, despite a promise in 1990 that NATO would not expand eastward yet between 1990 and 2021 NATO expanding from 17 countries to 30 countries. The agreement not to expand NATO was given by James A Baker USA Secretary of State to the then Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, a promise repeated by the NATO Secretary General in a speech in Brussels on 17 May 1990. As a result of that agreement the Soviet Union disbanded the Warsaw Pact in March 1991 and the Soviet Union became the Russian Federation The reason given by NATO and the Western Powers for their involvement in the dispute is because Russia ( in response to the build up on Ukraine border) invaded Ukraine with the intention of supporting the two Independent areas of Donestsk and Luhansk established by a votes by their citizens in 2014 Since the two Republic’s were established in 2014 they have been subjected to non stop attacks by Ukraine  using Rockets, Shells and Drones, yet no Western countries have done any thing despite an agreement that there should by a negotiated settlement, yet these negotiations over 8 years have seen Ukraine buiding up its Army including USA, UK and other countries military to “train Ukrainian Army how to use the arms which have been pouring in to Ukraine and it is now clear mercenaries to become part of Ukraine’s army, air force and naval forces It appears that the propaganda has been swallowed hook, line and sinker, Britain’s ” left wing” political leaders are weeping at the Russian Invasion and occupation yet not a whisper against the neo fascist Israel’s invasion of Palestine and it’s occupation of Palestinian and Syrian lands or their almost daily bombing, shelling and murder of innocent people in their homes, and their places of worship. On the contrary the USA and other western countries apply sanctions against the victims of occupation and support the perpetrators The hypocrisy by the West and by many on the “left” is beyond believe. What about the America’s occupation of part of Cuba used as a he’ll hole know as Guantanamo Bay which continues to hold human beings without charge Why does the International Court bring USA and it’s leaders who invaded Iraq on the basis that it had weapons of mass destruction ( a lie which cost the lives of over a million people) The same USA invading Libya because it wanted regime change, it’s invasion not only resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands but left the Country and its people in war torn civil turmoil and then. The USA and UK invasion of Afganistan and after 20 years of causing over three quarters of a million deaths many of whom were young soldiers from The USA and Britain with many more badly disabled had to leave Defeated and in disarray We in Britain now living in the worst economic position since the 1920’s and 1930’s are pouring millions in a conflict in which we should have no involvement; yet because millions are made making and then selling arms for killing instead of using all the £250 billion on arms we should be using those billions on our National Heath Service. It’s time to stop this madness and start to use the billions currently spent on death and destruction in wars use that money on our people in need, particularly on health, education, care for the elderly and on mental illness Arthur Scargill. President National Union of Mineworkers 1982-2000 and Leader Socialist Labour Party  2022

Terry Robinson is standing as Socialist Labour Party Candidate in Barnsley South. p&p 49 B21 9RL

James McDaid is standing for the Socialist Labour Party at the General Election on 4th July, 2024

I am a former UNISON Local Government Branch Secretary and have worked in local government for over 20 years. We are living through an ongoing cost of living crisis wreaking misery upon millions of people throughout Britain whilst at the same time the wealth of billionaires exponentially grows and the number of food banks increase.The Socialist Labour Party policies deal with the injustices and inequalities that people currently face in our society. We want to secure for the people a full return of all the wealth generated by our industries and services based on common and social ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. There are those who would suggest that this idea is revolutionary, and they would be right. Compromise with crooks is no solution. It requires the removal of the small elite who control Britains economy, employment, health service, education system, pensions, and social systems. The mad obsession with the production of nuclear and conventional weapons of war, designed to destroy life, should be replaced by a commitment to save and improve the quality of life for people everywhere. We are witnessing in real time a genocide of Palestinians in the first instance in Gaza but also through Israeli government policies in the West Bank. The murderous assault on innocents by Israeli armed forces is an atrocity opposed by the overwhelming majority of countries throughout the world, yet the British Government continues to aid and abet this atrocity supported by the Labour Party. The SLP supports the Palestine right to a free and sovereign state unequivocally. The Socialist Labour Party wants to see a world that is truly at peace, with liberty, justice and prosperity for all. p&p 49 B21 9RL socialistlabourparty.org

Arthur Scargill (President, National Union of Mineworkers 1982-2002), to Barnsley Chronicle (published 21 June 2024) I rarely write letters to newspapers but feel I must respond to your front-page story headlined “Labour pledges £700-a-year boost for ex-miners” (June 14, 2024). The statement: “First introduced in 1952, the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme set out to ensure that retired mineworkers received a good pension after years of work in coal mines” gives the impression that all retired mineworkers will qualify for the Labour Party’s Manifesto proposal of a £14 per week pension increase from the MPS investment reserve fund. Nothing could be further from the truth.  The MPS was established in 1952 as a flat-rate scheme into which mineworkers paid no more than 20p a week – receiving pennies, not pounds on retirement.  During a Court case in 1996, British Coal witnesses admitted many mineworker pensioners received  no more than £1 a week from the MPS. It was not until 1975 that the National Union of Mineworkers negotiated a defined benefits scheme which involved contributions from both mineworkers and the NCB – but the NCB refused to make the new scheme retrospective – leaving out thousands of retired miners and other beneficiaries, none of whom will benefit from the Labour Party’s “£700-a-year” pledge. I speak from experience; I receive a good pension as a retired full-time NUM official – but after working as a miner at Woolley Colliery for nearly 20 years from 1953 to 1972, my MPS pension today is £3.12 per week. In 1994, the Government privatised the MPS – and established a 50:50 split with the Scheme of any surpluses in future valuations, a “split” which has resulted in the Government effectively stealing £4.4 bn from a fund established to provide pensions for retired miners and their widows! In 2021, the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee called for this split to be replaced with a more appropriate arrangement. In its opening Summary, the Select Committee’s Report stated that since privatisation in 1994 to date: “….The Government has received £4.4 bn, and is also due to receive another£1.9 bn, on top of 50% off any future surpluses.  The Government has not paid any funds into the Scheme in return”. And: “We conclude that, with the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the Government has already profited greatly from the Scheme.” And: “The Government must acknowledge that continuation of arrangements in their current form deserves a review and a better outcome for pensioners should be found.” And: “The Government should also relinquish its entitlement to the Investment Reserve, and transfer the £1.2 bn fund to miners, to provide an immediate cash uplift to former miners.” It was pointed out that since the arrangement was agreed in 1994:  “the Government has received £3.1 bn as its share of surpluses, and £1.3 bn from the Investment Reserve.  The Government has not contributed financially to the Scheme since it became the Guarantor in 1994.  The agreement did not include a mechanism to review the arrangements at any point in the future”. That was three years ago.  The Chronicle’s 14 June report states that the Labour Party “will review the surplus sharing arrangement and return the £1.6 bn investment reserve fund to miners”.  This figure of £1.6 bn means that in the three years since the Select Committee’s Report the Investment Reserve fund has increased substantially, with the Government plundering still more. Chris Cheetham, Chair of the MPS Trustees in 2021 explained that such an arrangement is now “highly unusual”, if not “unique”.  “There is no current situation where sponsors take money out of the scheme that they are responsible for; indeed, they cannot.  Regulations do not enable it”.

Kathrine Jones is the SLP Candidate for Bangor and Aberconwy.

Arthur Scargill, former NUM leader with Gareth Peirce, solicitor and human rights activist in Sheffield Arthur Scargill joined the 2024 Rally fighting for justice for the infamous Battle of Orgreave where riot police, horses, shields, trucheons took on unprotected miners picketing the delivering of coal to Orgreave. He himself had led from the front but at some point was felled by a police shield landing him in hospital. He made it clear that he wanted pickets to remain in place on site as had happened in 1972 at Saltley Gate in Birmingham when the combination of pickets and 20,000 Birmingham workers compelled the police to shut the gates. It was a famous victory, but one that haunted Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher all those years later. She devotes a chapter in her autobiography to it. There is absolutely no reason why Orgreave have the same outcome as Saltley had Scargill’s wishes been followed. The police have not challenged that view. Gareth Peirce, the lawyer famed for her involvement in high profile cases, including Orgreave and Hillsbrough, spoke along with Scargill. The police brought prosecutions against 95 miners but thanks to the eminent legal representation led by Ms Peirce their cases were all dismissed with the comment “one police force, two disgraces”. This included senor police ordering officers to change their statements. The BBC also assisted by running a news report backwards so it looked as if miners were moving forward on the attack while they were actually retreating. The BBC reported that while Arthur Scargill was in attendance he was not a speaker. In fact there were speakers in the afternoon as well as the morning and he spoke to wind up the day. At this point I’m waiting see what was said during the day. Arthur has already spoken at packed meetings at a number of former mining sites and received standing ovations each time, such is the continuing feeling of injustice among the communities affected by the Thatcher Government’s actions and lies as they killed of mining along with so much of competitive British Industry. Many of the pits were profitable and certainly cheaper than the inferior and dirtier coal which was, and is still required to provide our energy needs.

Iyad Burnat before and after his imprisonment at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Force. Iyad Burnat was well known for his speaking tours over the years. He and his family have experienced violence which led to serious injuries. We are not talking about Gaza or Hamas, the supposed enemy, but the West Bank where IOF together with settlers are habitually violent towards Palestinians, their property and livlihood. Time for a CEASEFIRE and end to violence involving atrocities of unimaginable horror towards a courageous who have practiced years of non-violent resistence. The whole world, apart from the few with vested interests, arms dealers and the like are sickened by the gross inhumanity witnessed day by day over months. For the Palestinians it has been decades. In solidarity. John Tyrrell 12/6/2024

As a miner for 25 yrs. I campaigned peacefully in 1984/5 highlighting the truth about the pit closure programme. I served as a district councillor for 20 yrs.and served in the  fire service; also as a school governor and on the road safety committee. With consistent predictions: “Our demands most moderate are, we only want the earth”. Peter Michael James Dean. p&p Socialist Labour Party 49 Stockwell Road, Birmingham B21 9RL Website: socialistlabourparty.com