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THE CLOSURE OF TICKET OFFICES ON THE BRITISH RAIL NETWORK IS DEPLORABLE AND ALL TRADE UNIONS SHOULD TAKE INDUSTRIAL ACTION TO STOP THIS ATTACK ON MILLIONS ON PEOPLE PARTICULARLY THE DISABLED  THE AGED AND PEOPLE GENERALLY The Socialist Labour Party Condemns the Closure of Ticket Offices and the loss of jobs but more important the removal of an essential part of a transport Facility which is part of a policy for a cleaner environment and a system to use rail instead having a system which is jammed with millions of juggernauts and cars which is rapidly bringing our country to a standstill. We need a National Railway with the staff to operate it  and  with cheap or free fares particularly at a time when workers both industrial and service workers; the unemployed, pensioners; the disabled are facing the worst crisis since the great depression in 1930’s Words or statements are not enough.We need action along the lines of the campaign against the Poll Tax, and the action by the miners in 1974. We need a massive National Demonstration to save the Ticket Offices WE NEED TO STOP THESE MADMEN WHO ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN MAXIMISING PROFIT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE TRAVELLING PUBLIC COMPROMISING SAFETY AND HELP SERVICES. Jim McDaid   John Tyrrell  Arthur Scargill, Socialist Labour Party 6/7/2023

Those attending the memorial service held on 19 June in Swansea’s All Saints Church for Tyrone O’Sullivan – legendary NUM Lodge Secretary of Tower Colliery and leader of the workers’ buy-out which saved Tower from closure in 1995 – included activists from all major trade unions and outstanding political figures such as Mark Drakeford, Leader of the Welsh Assembly. At the request of the O’Sullivan Family, there were only two speakers: Arthur Scargill, former NUM President, was Tyrone’s friend and comrade for over 50 years; they fought together in the major strike actions of 1969, 1972, 1974 and 1984/85; Jeremy Corbyn MP, first met Tyrone in the 1984/85 miners’ strike when his Islington, London constituency mobilised to provide food and funds for Tower and for mining communities throughout South Wales. Both paid emotional tributes, which were warmly received, to Tyrone, a giant who fought for trade union rights and Socialism, both nationally and internationally. Arthur pointed out that when in the pit closure blood-bath of 1992 Trade and Industry Secretary Michael Heseltine commented cynically that: “If miners want to save their uneconomic pits, let them buy them..” Tyrone and the miners at Tower did just that. They acquired the colliery as a co-operative which in its first year produced over £4 million profit for workers and their community, not for millionaires who had plundered the remaining pits. Below is Arthur’s contribution to his comrade and friend: TRIBUTE TO TYRONE 0’SULLIVAN Friends and Comrades: We are here today to honour the life of Tyrone O’Sullivan and celebrate the memories we have of a wonderful human being – a committed Socialist, an outstanding trade unionist – someone who, throughout his life, struggled in so many ways against oppression and exploitation, poverty and war. I offer my deepest sympathy to Elaine, the children and grand-children and all the family Tyrone loved so much. I want to express my own gratitude for the fact that they were willing to share him with the comrades and colleagues who were lucky enough to work with him and campaign alongside him – especially the men, and the women, who made Tower NUM an inspiration to us all. My partner, Nell Myers, and I feel privileged to be here to pay tribute to a comrade and friend I first met more than 50 years ago. I want to share a few events and memories that are always with me. I first met Tyrone in 1969 when miners took “unofficial” strike action, fighting for shorter hours for our surface workers. We were both rank-and-file miners; he was only 23 and I was 31 – and how we fought! Our action was opposed not only by the National Coal Board but by the NUM national leadership. In spite of this, we rank and file miners and activists were determined and united, and we won. Tyrone described that strike as our “October Revolution” and how right he was. It was a turning point for our Union which had been passive since nationalization in 1948 – without that fight, the strikes of 1972, 1974 and 1984/85 would never have taken place. In 1972, Tyrone and I were together again in Birmingham at the Battle of Saltley Gate. Once again, determined and united, we achieved victory – and that victory, historically involved 20,000 Birmingham trade unionists joining us on the 10th of February on the picket lines and forcing the police to close Saltley’s gates. That battle led to the Union winning a historic victory. In 1974, we found ourselves yet again having to fight the NCB, for a wage increase. Our strike began on 5 February and, shortly after, Prime Minister Ted Heath called a General Election on the question of “Who Governs Britain?” We were already facing a three-day week. On 8 February, NUM President Joe Gormley indicated to the NUM National Executive Committee that Ted Heath had asked the NEC to consider suspending the strike during the election campaign – a proposal rejected by the NEC and in all coalfields including South Wales and Yorkshire. Our strike continued, with the NUM picketing power stations, ports and, above all, steel works; at the same time, the Union gave evidence to a Pay Board Inquiry which agreed with our case. Our strike not only secured the Union’s full wage claim, but six further claims which had not been dealt with for over a decade. Our victory in 1974 brought the overthrow of a Tory Government – and produced a Plan For Coal, signed by the Labour Government, the Coal Board and the Mining Unions. At the start of the historic 1984/85 strike, Tyrone and Tower faced a dilemma. The NUM South Wales Area had voted against taking strike action, but Tyrone’s warnings at Tower about the result of not fighting against pit closures gained overwhelming support. He explained that the NUM was acting legally in accordance with National Rule 41 which gave permission to NUM Areas to determine whether or not to take strike action. Miners took legal action on an Area basis against the Coal Board’s Area Pit Closure programme – which was in breach of the Plan for Coal. The Scottish High Court ruled that our action was legal – a High Court decision deliberately overlooked by the media and our enemies. At the start of the strike, South Wales Area President Emlyn Williams told the Union’s National Executive Committee on 12 April 1984: ‘To hide behind a ballot is an act of cowardice. I tell you this now – decide what you like about a ballot but our coalfield will be on strike and stay on strike.’ Along with colleagues such as Ian Isaacs, Secretary of St. John’s Lodge, Tyrone successfully organized flying pickets, first throughout the South Wales coalfield and then much further afield, including – in June, 1984 – to the Battle of Orgreave in Yorkshire, where miners demonstrated outstanding courage in the face of what can only be described as state-sponsored police brutality. As Tyrone himself later said: “We faced horses, dogs like wolves on long chains and the police all with body armour, shields and long truncheons……. “The great injustice was that the media portrayal of such events was warped to paint miners as the aggressors..” He was not only brave but wise: from early in that great struggle, Tyrone warmly welcomed the involvement of the women in all our mining communities – what would become Women Against Pit Closures, a historic movement in itself, which I believe had a political effect well beyond the 1984/85 strike. In 2011, Tyrone told a Wales Online interviewer that as the strike progressed he and Elaine suspected, with strong evidence, that their phone was tapped. Oddly enough, it was in 2011 that a special unit of the Metropolitan Police, working on Operation Weeting, summoned me to a meeting to confirm that not only my phone but the phone of my doctor-daughter had been historically tapped as well. No surprises there. We all salute Tyrone’s organizing skills and commitment to principle, but I also have reason to be personally grateful for his solidarity. In the aftermath of the 1984/85 strike, I decided to stand in 1987 for re-election as NUM President. Sadly, the NUM South Wales Area leadership opposed my standing. Tyrone and Tower – again with comrades such as Ian Isaacs – mobilized a campaign among South Wales miners that secured a 61% vote for me when I was re-elected in January 1988. Then, two years later, in 1990, the Daily Mirror and Central Television’s “Cook Report” launched a vicious smear campaign against NUM Secretary Peter Heathfield and me, alleging financial wrong-doing during the 1984/85 strike. This attack was taken up like wildfire throughout the mass media – and led to the NUM NEC launching a High Court legal action against us. Peter and I fought back, going into the coalfields to refute the false allegations against us. In South Wales it was comrades such as Tyrone and Ian Isaacs who organized – I’ll never forget it – an incredible overflow meeting in Maesteg Town Hall at which Peter and I were overwhelmed by the support and solidarity of the South Wales miners. With the support of our Union’s members, the High Court action by the NUM NEC against us was dropped. In Spring 1991 Channel Four broadcast an edition of “Dispatches” directed by Ken Loach which destroyed the Daily Mirror/”Cook Report” smear campaign which had been intended to destroy us. Eventually, even the then Editor of the Daily Mirror issued a public apology. In Autumn 1992, Michael Heseltine announced the Tory Government’s intention to close 31 pits, but this was only a start to the impending slaughter of the entire industry. In 1994, the Government announced it was privatizing the remaining collieries. I recall coming down to attend a meeting alongside Tyrone and the Tower Lodge Officials with British Coal’s Area Director Philip Weekes, with the Union arguing the case for Tower’s future. Although the Area Director knew the colliery had years of life left he was bound by Government instruction to close the pit even though it was on the list for privatization. Following this meeting, Tyrone demonstrated his ingenuity by putting forward the proposal to buy Tower – as part of the industry’s privatization – in order to save it and manage it as a workers’ co-operative. This proposal was conceded by Prime Minister John Major. I remember the concession well, because Tyrone was with me at the NUM offices in Barnsley when the announcement was made! After the re-opening of Tower in 1995, Tyrone invited me down for a visit. I recall how rightly proud everyone was: they had known if the pit was managed properly it could be a success – as indeed it was. Tower Colliery remained open and profitable for the next 13 years. It ensured employment not just for the miners themselves but for workers in the steel industry and key services. And not only in South Wales. Coal from Tower benefited coal merchants around Britain – including in South Yorkshire where a local merchant supplied anthracite to the NUM offices and members of Staff in Barnsley! The vision and determination of Tyrone and all his Tower colleagues demonstrated the need for Britain to rebuild its indigenous energy reserves, including the use of carbon capture technology in producing “clean” coal – instead of relying on imported energy costing billions for ordinary men and women. Tyrone knew about my admiration for the Irish trade unionists and Socialists James Connolly and Jim Larkin. In an oration at the graveside of the murdered US trade unionist Joe Hill, Jim Larkin said: “Erect no monument to his memory as the man by his example has built himself a monument which will endure for all time.” Larkin’s tribute to Joe Hill applies to Tyrone O’Sullivan, who belongs in the pantheon of trade union and Socialist heroes. Farewell, comrade – I was privileged to know you. You were a shining example of what trade unionism and Socialism should be. Arthur Scargill 19 June 2023

Ukraine being bombed by Russia 2023. No explosion, Beirut 2020. Old, unrelated pictures are routinely used to back up false claims. The BBC exposes fake reporting while daily broadcasting propaganda instead of balanced accounts of conflict etc. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/60513452 James Waterhouse the BBC Correspondent extracted an admission from the Ukrainian Soldier who was driving him to the front line. The driver said he knew the way because we ( Ukrainian Government) had been bombing this area For The Last 9 years. I welcomed this honest report by James Waterhouse because it demonstrated that NATO and the Western Alliance have been lying about the Conflict for at least the past 18 years including its biased reports since 2014 when fascist elements overththrew the democratically elected President in a Coup d’etat The admission by the Ukrainian Soldier exposed that the Conflict in Ukraine was deliberately started by NATO, the European Union, and the United States of America. Britain’s involvement is to be deplored and its deployment of billions of pounds weapons of war is reminiscent of its policy in the unlawful invasion of Iraq by the Blair Government in 2003. Its time to stop supporting either side and spend the billions on the National Health Service, Social Care, the Education System. all of which should be Nationalised, and use money helping the 12-5 million old age Pensioners. We call for an end to Britain’s involvement in the Ukraine and remember the cost of its involvement in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan in the loss of life and the years of attempted occupation which lasted for 20 years only to leave countries in a worse position than they were in before the UK,’s became involved. We should remember that the UK sill occupies part of Ireland and remember the cost of that occupation. We call for Peace not War. Arthur Scargill Socialist Labour Party. 14/06/2023

Tyrone O’ Sullivan, former chairman of Tower Colliery in Hirwaun, South Wales, led miners in buying their pit from British Coal. It was marked for closure in 1994/5. Many pits were marked for closure with one of the reasonis s they were uneconomic. According to Socialism Today it became “a profitable going concern….with the best wages and conditions in the mining industry”. This is a cogent argument for bringing our industries into public ownership, rejecting the lies and distortions of the large corporate bodies that habitually seize the wealth created by the workers and enrich themselves and others – not least politicians who prefer to act on their behalf rather than those who elect them to office. https://socialismtoday.org/archive/70/tower.html Tyrone’s funeral is on 19th June, 2023 in South Wales. The community remember Arthur Scargill, still held in great esteem and affection according to a member who spoke to me this week. Report on the death of Tyrone O’Sullivan, BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65732587 John Tyrrell, President SLP 12/6/2023

Amongst other anniversaries today, it 39 years since Arthur Scargill was arrested at Orgreave. The article here was written on the day he was later fined. https://philmaxwell.org/arthur-scargill/#:~:text=On%20this%20day%20in%201984%20Arthur%20Scargill%2C%20the,arrest%20outside%20Orgreave%20Coal%20Works%2C%20near%20Sheffield%2C%20Yorkshire. He has called for a probe into the arrest https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-25053844.amp On this day other anniversaries https://nationaldaycalendar.com/what-day-is-it/

On all TV Channels, on Radio and Newspapers we are told that Inflation for April was 10.1% Its a LIE ! My our advice to trade unions is say no to compromise. Demand the full Retail Price Index of 13.8 % in 2022 and settle for nothing less and than the Full Retail Price Index of 13.5% rate in April 2023. Don’t forget the words of James Connolly and Jim Larkin – STOP COMPROMISING AND START FIGHTING FOR ALL WORKERS IN ALL SERVICES… AND KEEP FIGHTING UNTIL YOU WIN. ARTHUR SCARGILL SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY 24/5/2023

Windscale in Cumbria suffered serious damage in a fire in 1977. The incident was hushed up although many suffered from the outcome with cancer resulting in death of many. A Wikipedia article states: “the Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident” in the U.K. It has been estimated there have been 100 to 240 cancer facilities in the long term, with people still suffering it’s effects now in 2023. It is etsimated it will take 100 years to clear up “the mess” at a cost of £260 billion. A number of eminent people gave evidence at the Windscale Public Inquiry, 1977 who had become convinced of the dangers of pursuing a nuclear future and re-opening Windscale. They included Arthur Scargill, President of the National Union of Mineworkers (Yorkshire Area) and Chairman of Energy 2000, Sir Kelvin Spencer, Ministry of Power Chief Scientist (1954-1959), Colin Sweet, expert in the economics of nuclear power, Lesley Grainger, National Coal Board Member, Gordon Thompson, expert on the potential fallout from nuclear accidents and Sister Rosalie Bertell, expert on leukaemia caused by nuclear radiation. All gave evidence against nuclear power. Concerned scientists have given an acoount of accidents which have occurred in nuclear power plans globally: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/brief-history-nuclear-accidents-worldwide

We must draw on existing resources as part of an integrated enrgy policy, not flirt with nuclear, the most dangerous option. Has George Monbiot sold out on his environmental credentials or is he suffering from amnesia? In his article on these pages last Tuesday he states that he has now reached the point where he no longer cares whether or not the answer to climate change is nuclear – let it happen, he says. Has he not read the evidence presented by environmentalists such as Tony Benn and me at the Windscale, Sizewell and Hinckley Point public inquiries? Is he unaware that nuclear-power generated electricity is the most expensive form of energy – 400% more expensive than coal – or that it received £6bn in subsidies, with £70bn to be paid by taxpayers in decommissioning costs? Is he unaware that there is no known way of disposing of nuclear waste, which will contaminate the planet for thousands of years? Has he forgotten the nuclear disasters at Windscale, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl? We are facing an economic and political crisis on a scale similar to the Wall Street crash in 1929, the mass unemployment which affected the UK and Europe in the 1930s and the energy crisis in the early 70s. We are facing a monumental energy crisis, yet we live on an island with more than 1,000 years of coal reserves from which we can provide all the electricity, oil, gas and petrochemicals that people need, without causing harm to the environment. Britain – despite its massive indigenous deep-mine coal reserves – has never had an integrated energy policy based on coal and renewables, and as a consequence we are now facing the worst energy crisis in our history. Since the end of the second world war, both Labour and Tory governments have sought to replace Britain’s vast coal reserves with a false promise of “cheap” imported oil, “cheap, safe” nuclear energy and “cheap” natural gas – policies that have not only cost the British people billions of pounds, but resulted in the near-extinction of Britain’s deep-mine coal industry, the virtual exhaustion of North Sea gas and oil, and massive economic costs and environmental problems associated with nuclear power. After the closure of 192 pits since 1980, the loss of 170,000 jobs and the closure or non-operation of nearly 70% of coal-fired power stations on the false premise that they were uneconomic and the worst polluter of carbon dioxide, it is reasonable to expect that there would have been a dramatic fall in CO2 emissions. But in fact CO2 emissions have actually increased – not that surprising, since more than 80% of CO2 emissions are produced by oil and gas from power stations, road transport, industry, shipping and domestic use. That fact alone should cause Monbiot to rethink. Britain needs an integrated energy policy that will produce 250m tonnes of indigenous deep-mine clean coal per year – from which could be extracted all the electricity, oil, gas and petrochemicals that our people need. All existing and new coal-fired power stations should be fitted with clean coal technology – including carbon capture that would remove all CO2 – and at the same time we should be developing a massive renewable energy policy based on wind, wave, tide, barrage, hydro, geothermal, solar power, together with insulation, conservation and reforestation. We must end the import of coal, (currently 43m tonnes a year) which is produced by subsidies, “slave labour” and child labour, and end the import of shale oil, tar sands and other so-called unconventional oils, which are the dirtiest fuels on the planet but are being used to produce electricity. We still do not know – because of the security and secrecy laws – the full extent of the disaster at Windscale (Sellafield) in 1957 or Three Mile Island in the US in 1979, but we do know that the incidence of cancer and leukaemia – particularly among children – is 10% higher in or around nuclear power stations, and we know from experts such as Robert Gale – who treated the victims at Chernobyl in 1986 – that more than 100,000 will die over a 30-year period. We need an end to all nuclear-powered electricity generation, the most dangerous and uneconomic method of producing electricity. We need an end to deforestation, which is the cause of 20% of CO2 emissions worldwide, and an end to biofuel development – which not only produces substantial CO2 emissions but is causing mass starvation and higher food prices throughout the world. Only by the introduction of a real integrated energy policy based on clean coal technology and renewable energies, can we begin to meet the needs of people in the UK and throughout the world. I challenge George Monbiot to test out which is the most dangerous fuel – coal or nuclear power. I am prepared to go into a room full of CO2 for two minutes, if he is prepared to go into a room full of radiation for two minutes. Arthur Scargill, Socialist Labour Party. President of the National Union of Mineworkers 1982-2002 num.rimmington@wwmail.co.uk

Every night on TV and every day people in the United Kingdom and worldwide are subject to film and print to people are dying as a result of drought and the lack of water, the ownership which is in the hands of this natural resource of privatised companies. who charge exorbitant prices and urge people to use less water which has seen their bills increase by 50%. We have all the water not just in the West but enough water to provide people all over the world by using sea water which is rising at an enormous rate by developing Desalination Plants which turns sea water into clean water; indeed if we use Desalination Plants we can see the desserts bloom and the sea waters lower thus stop the erosion of our countries and the reduce the flooding which is effective countries worldwide This innovation can only be achieved by water being taken out of the hands of privatised companies and publicly owned. This policy could start in the UK by using the £3 billion profits and these companies recorded in 2022. Arthur Scargill Socialist Labour Party 27/3/2023