Miners Ban
Socialist Press1976 1976-02-25Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 8 →
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The decision of the NUM Executive to call off the overtime ban against the closure of Langwith Colliery (previously initiated by an 11 - 10 majority) is another nterference in the internal affairs real example of capitalist pres of trade unions.
The right wing have again used the press where they failed to get their way through the democratic procedures of the union.
The question is not the closure of this one pit, but the decimation of the mining industry by pit closures, all of which have been allowed by the NUM leadership.
And even in the case of Langwith, the 'left' in the NUM leadership ate not arguing for defence of all jobs through the fight for work-sharing throughout the industry in cases where coal seams run out.
Thus the majority of miners were offered no perspective for the overtime ban. This then opened the door to the press intervention - which played also on the abstention in the first vote Stalinist Vice-President MeGahey.
The role of the press in this dispute must strengthen the campaign by militant workers to defend trade union democracy. At the same time the crisis of leadership exposed in the NUM demands the fight within the union for the programme outlined in our lead article.