Foremen Swing Miners Ballot

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With the aid of 12,950 votes from "officials and staff added to those of deputies and other management grades and backed by an intensive propaganda campaign by the Tory press and union leaders, the NUM right wing last week won a slim majority for the TUC 44% wage cutting plan.

Scottish NUM General Secretary Bill • MacLean correctly pointed out that the result is a distortion of the views of miners themselves, stating that a majonty of NUM members who actually dig coal clearly voted "No" to the pay plan.

REJECTED

In five areas where a principled call for rejection was issued by the area counci, there was a clear majority against the 47% deal - in Yorkshire a massive 62% voted for it to be thrown out, and in Scotland 63%, while in the smaller Kent coalfield only 700 out of 2,000 voted for acceptance.

What emerges is the decisive impact of leadership in the struggle against the barefaced betrayals now being carried through by the Labour government and TUC.

But at the same time the technique of ballot voting - which divides the strength of the union, forcing workers to vote as individuals - works strongly in the interests of the employers and the right wing.

Decisions on such issues and union elections should be held as branch meetings or special mass meetings of members by show of hands.

PROPAGANDA

Only in this way can unionists counter the wei PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report.

Scargill (left) and McGahe Now they must maintain 1 pressure applied to workers by propaganda in the press and mass media, and draw on the strengh of the class.

In the case of the NUM ballot, the complete control was taken outside the trade union movement altogether.

Using the excuse that they wanted to ensure complete "confidentiality" the NUM executive withdrew from the count on Friday June 4th its two official observers Jack Collins and Peter Tait.

This means NUM preferred PHOTO: Chris Davies, Report opposed the 42% pay cut plan. e fight for the £100 a week claim. to accept the word and reliability of Major Frank Brittain and his staff on the bourgeois Electoral Reform Society to that of their own representatives. This is a disgraceful attack on union democracy.

The strong vote for rejection in five areas shows the need for them to press forward at the NUM conference with the £100 a week demand put forward before the To the £100 claim must be added the call for a sliding scale of wages. to provide automatic increases to keep pace with rising prices - as assessed by trade union committees.

At every point the right wing must be fought and the real attack on living standards embodied in the 42% deal exposed to those miners who were tricked into supporting the Executive recommendation.

shrieks of protest against 'outside interference' from the US and from the Soviet Union.

The Stalinists for their own reasons supported the Syrian interventions in Lebanon - to compensate for. the recent defection of Egypt to the US by strengthening ties with Syria, and also more basically in the hope of avoiding another Middle East war which would expose the weakness of the Soviet bureaucracy.

SUPPORTED

Soviet policy is, of course, carried out by the Lebanese CP which has supported Syrian intervention. In this they have been joined by Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

Arafat, according to press reports lost credibility in the midst of massive palestinian resistance to Syrian forces to the extent that he found it necessary to leave the area hurriedly for Cairo disguised in a wig and a flower shirt.

Similarly, the leader of the left Muslim forces, Jumblatt, though opposing the candidacy of Sarkis for premier, by his support of Edde the left of centre' candidate and the National Bloc Party showed he was incapable of defending either the freedom of the Palestinian liberation movement or the democratic rights of the Lebanese Muslim másses against the manoeuvrings of the bourgeois parties.

The bitter lessons of the Lebanese war for the Palestinians and the Arab masses is this - that Syrian tanks and nationalist demagogues like Jalloud act together to break their struggle.

The nationalist politics of the PLO leadership - groping for support among the capitalist governments of Arab states, unable to appeal over their heads to the class interests of the Arab masses - leave them trapped in a situation where Syria has become the effective guardian of Israel's northern borders.

A dismayed Joe Gormley last week had to rule out an appeal by leading Yorkshire NUM right-winger Bill O'Brien against the two year ban on holding office in the union imposed on him as disciplinary measure.

The Yorkshire Area Council had correctly disciplined O'Brien for supplying union documents and information to lawyers representing the Sheffield Star newspaper.

The information was used in the paper's defence against a successful libel action by Yorkshire NUM president Arthur Scargill.

Gormley was forced to uphold the Yorkshire decision after lawyers pointed out that there is nothing in the union rule books to allow an appeal against such a decision by an area council.

Though this has clearly been the case for years, the right wing now seem likely to begin moves seeking to change the rules - in case another right-winger is caught the same way.

TUC (from would concentrate power democratically in the hands of the appointed national officials.

In addition to this the T&GWU bureaucracy has attacked the Joint Shop Stewards Committee at the Cowley Assembly Plant because it repesents a threat to Ryder; have disbanded the Oxford Automotive Committee because the right-wing lost their majority on it and it could have been used To criticise their policies.

On top of this they have entisted the TUC bureaucracy to disallfiliate the Oxford Trades Council because in fighting to stop the cuts it exposed the role of the local and national leaders in the Social Service unions.

RULE 14

In line with this, using in each case the same argument as Smith -"unrepresentative" - the TUC's new "gag" Rule 14 is initiated specifically to stop Trades Councils opposing TUC policy.

At the recent conference of Trades Councils held in Swansea, General Council member Terry Party refused to allow a vote on the 42% - because it looked like being defeated - saying that if a vote was taken he would close the conference.

The problem for the bureaucrats is that they are acting from weakness and not from strength. Their attack on union democracy is creating new conditions in the working class.

EXPOSED The nature of the bureaucracy often obscured in the past by fakers with left reputations such as Scanion, and Wright has been exposed to important sections of workers.

The working class will not accept the 4%% or the pianned cuts in public spending. The coming year will see struggles emerging on these issues and central to every struggle will be the role of the trade union leaders.

Every one of their betrayals highlights the burning need for a leadership which will not start from the requirement of capitalism but from the requirements of the working class.

COVENTRY

LEAGUE PUBLIC MEETING Wednesday 7th July at 7.30 •Hertford Tavern Junction St.