File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1997/marxism-thaxis.9712, message 131


Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 15:30:34 +0000
From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Don Quixote...


In message <34872A36.3EAE-AT-fs1.li.man.ac.uk>, DSU
<jwalker-AT-fs1.li.man.ac.uk> writes

>I hope this whole debate can move from mere mud slinging to an analysis 
>of the RCP and its continued and growing influence on the British 
>political scene.

and

>
>I am not out to hurl abuse at the RCP 


and then!

>The resentment at the RCP 
>siding with the Coal Board, the Thatcher government, the scab miners, the 
>Labour Party and the TUC against the striking miners was so severe that 
>they had to change the title of their paper to TNS to avoid recognition.

This is, to say the least, disingenuous. Just to recap on the RCP's
political positions during the miners strike

1. Support the miners (try to deny it, it was on the cover of every
other edition of TNS).

2. Oppose the Coal Board

3. Condemn the Labour Party

4. Condemn the TUC

What John is referring to is this: We opposed the strategy of the NUM
leadership - which in his mind is transformed into 'oppose the miners'.

The NUM leadership had sought action against pit closures throughout the
early eighties - and rightly so.

However, they had failed to win the majority of the miners to that
position. Ballot after ballot calling for strike action failed. In their
frustration, militants from the Yorkshire field picketed out other
areas. That strategy was understandable, but flawed. Miners recognised
the picket lines - even in the demonised Nottingham area at first, but
had a reasonable expectation that they would be given the opportunity to
vote on the matter.

The NUM leadership refused a ballot, preferring instead to carry on
picketing out the other pits. By doing so they prevented a national
miners strike from taking place. From the moment that it became clear
that there would be no ballot, the miners divided along sectional lines,
with Nottinghamshire miners being the first to go back to work.

A divided NUM was unable to win decisive backing from other industries,
despite the considerable sympathy the miners enjoyed. Nobody else was
willing to go on all-out strike when the miners themselves were divided.
Instead of developing outwards, the strikers dug in for a war of
attrition.

We did not expect the call for a national ballot to be popular. It
challenged the most militant sections of the mineworkers to reconsider
their own strategy. It put the blame on the leadership for following the
wrong strategy, instead of blaming miners in Nottinghamshire and
Leicestershire for the impasee the union was in.

Looking back I think it was the best thing we ever did. It was
inconceivable that the strike would win without a ballot.

NUM president Arthur Scargill's strategy was a grotesque failure.
Instead of trying to win the argument why people should join the strike,
they chose instead to denounce them as scabs. On that score, more than
half of the miners were 'scabs' by the eventual collapse of the strike.

Mineworkers sacrificed more than most in a gruelling, year-long strike.
But the strategy adopted by their leaders did not save one single job.
Today the pits are a fraction of the size they once were. The idea that
you could win a national strike without a vote of your own members was a
decision that cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The only people who continue to deceive themselves on this score are the
handful of leftists who preferred to cheer Arthur Scargill on to defeat,
instead of pointing out the painfully obvious pitfalls in his strategy.

As to the rest, of John's post, I don't think it is that serious. Only
that the last time I saw any of the out-of-work actors who sell the
RCG's paper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, it was on the elegant
boulevards of Islington's Upper Street.

Fraternally 
-- 
James Heartfield


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