UMW leaders ‹ill 109-day 'ie

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(left) and Marchais ary tendencies generated by the social tensions which result from the economic crisis.

But Mitterand is not as yet able to release Giscard from the restraints imposed on his policies by the Gaullists.

The workers who fought for the 'Unity of the Left' to get their leaders into power will not tolerate any volte-face into unity with the 'liberal' bourgeoisie.

Marchais too has some delicate footing in front of him. The main purpose of the quarrels with the Socialists was to create the best conditions for building a far broader Popular Front formation, where the representation of the bourgeoisie would be far greater than that provided by the puny 'Left' Radicals.

Unwelcome The Stalinists now run the risk of seeing Giscard's UDF and the Socialists forge The vote by US miners to end their 109-day strike and accept a sellout contract which embodies a number of concessions to the employers is a sign of inadequate leadership rather than defeat.

Stringent contractual provisions for the sacking of unofficial strike leaders and $20 a day fines on those engaged in unofficial strikes have been deleted.

But in a little publicised part of the deal union officials have agreed to allow disciplinary charges resulting from unofficial strikes to go to a state Arbitration Review Board.

The right to strike is far from safe-and depends entirely on the balance of forces at the pit concerned.

30 years of free health care under the control of the miners' union are also ended in the deal.

The contract was accepted partly because of misleading reports as to its real contents; partly because of the effects of 109 days without pay; but largely because, with no clear alternative leadership emerging within the United Mine Workers union, there seemed little prospect of substantially changing the terms of the offer.

Union President Arnold Miller, who had been bombarded with calls for his resignation since his endorsement of the first contract offer, is a strong Carter supporter.

So is the bureaucratised layer that make up the UM Ws bargaining council. Fear of growing controntation with Carter and the Taft Hartley legislation he invoked against the UM H brought them to give their support to the sell-out contract.

Now the task in the union is to drive out these traitors.

The miners are not defeated. They have shown that US employers can be forced to back down. But they proved also that a leadership tied to the capitalist Democratic Party cannot win workers full demands.

As New York city transport workers and printers now enter struggles on wages this political lesson must be learned.

The unions must be broken from the Democrats and a Labour Party built on a socialist programme to defend the interests of the working class.

And a Trotskyist leadership must be built in the course of this fight to offer a principled programme and a clear understanding of all wings of the labour bureaucracy