DON HAYWARD is administration officer of the National Union Mineworkers in South Wales. He talked to Challenge about the towards general strike action in Wales on 10 March.
*THE South Wales miners have been geared up for strike action since 21 Ляпиягу. We only agreed to hold SO that collu KEep movement together. We have had two delegate conferences and a lodge vote, so we nave a ceg all-out action on jobs whenever we 'We are very disappointed other unions in the not fuly committed to going with strike action. We hope that the Weish recall TUC on 27 February will come out for clear action. steps back then we will go ahead on 10 March. We may eyen take action earlier than this.
the of Socialist moves mandate to take DON HAYWARD that Wales TUC are •The TUC has ahead But if it made Inreais oE "drastic action" if the governmeni loesn 'T come up with a satisfactor eTSanswer to their request on Welsh jobs. If the TUC called a general strike it action woul soire our prooiens ou weka and jobs overnight. Mind you, have to keep the lesson of the 1926 делета]. strike remeraber nioe laen obe Tinc let sne movement down.
'If Wales came out ou strike, we d expect solidarity strike actien from the rest of Britain. And we won't accept any argument that action" means a one day strike. Wales the magnificent day of action 28 January was ouly to test people's feelings.
'Where I live the ledges went fo local factories, the werkers there held quick meetings and agreed straight away to come out for the day. It seems to me that the problem is not with the people themselves. It lies with the leadership.
*Wher George Wright [Wales TUC secretary] says he is not proposing a general strike I think be is talking a cross purposes. If miners, steelworkand transport workers are strike and there is a call for solidarity from other workers then ! don't see any way round calling this & general strike. The TUC should make sure this is backed nationally all-out acton around the country. "The medis are trying to say that we motivated opposition to the Tory government. We say that if the Tories gave us what we wanted we would not need to take "drastic action now. But of course we all know .LE it is a political fight.
'If the government is forced out as a result of our strike action that wonid be a great bonus for the movement. I am totally committed to getting the subsidies The generation, mannenanict But HOW MANY jobs in Wales will be lost if the Tory cuts and clost, ts go through? Ian Kelsall, of the Wales Confederation of British Industry, has claimed that ao more than 30,000 redundancies are involved. But the Wales TUC has said:
*20-21,000 jobs in the steel industry will go.
*15-16,000 in the coal industry, including pit closures and job losses throug the reduction of coking coal producing. And this does not include the threatened closure of three pits through a fast-off in coal demand and BSC clostres.
*6,000 in related industries such as rail, road, docks.
*30-35,000 indirectly affected in service and retail Industries.
The Wales TUC's total estimate: anything up to 81,000.
Socialist Challenge Sirs and Hector Smith will see sense The kind of solutions necessary A are available to the government in the form of the measures taken in other European countries. ln France, West Germany, alla Luxemboug: stecworkers can retire with good pensions at 55. Com 12 to 27 time higher than in Britain.
development of local industry to meet the needs of the nem the of coal and steel production, is essential.
all this beyond the dogmatic policies being pursued by the present government.
14 February 1980
question of power Preparing for a slipping out of its hands.
etc. The fact that MacDonald and Thomas reyolutionary class up against the depriving it of its power.
the bourgeois stale... change them under enemy fire.
and the trade unions...
can industry, especially in the world market, This the question of power...
it shakes the foundations of capitalism, reaction to go over to the counter-offensive, is Britain Going?, written on 6 May 1926.
Onday 14 FeRre "THE TUC Generad Council started out with the ridiculous declaration that the General Strike was not a political struggle, and in any case not an attack on the state power of the bankers, the manufacturers and the landowners, or on the sacred British Parliament. This most respectful and submissive declaration of war appeers, however, not to have convinced the goverament at all; it felt that, through the effect of the strike, the real instruments of power were "The power of the state is not an "iden", but a material apparatus. If the apparatus of administration and suppression is paralysed, the power of the state will also be paralysed. In modern society, no-one can rule without controlling the railways, shipping, posts and telegraphs, power stations, coal, political sims characterises them as individuals but by no means indicates the nature of the General Strike, which, If carried through to the end, brings the task of organising a new state power.
'Nevertheless, those who by the course of erents have been placed "at the head" of the General Strike are flgating against this with all their strength. And this is the chief danger; men who did not wish for the General Strike, who deny the political character of the General Strike, who fear nothing so much as the consequences of a victorious strike, must inevitably disect alt their efforts towards keeping the strike within the scope of a semi-political half-strike, i.e.
"We must look the facts straight In the face; the chief efforts of the official leaders of the Labour Party and of a considerable number of the offictal trade union leaders will be directed not towards paralysing the bourgeois state by means of the strike, but towards paralysing the General Strike with the aid of 'Success ls only possible in accordance with the degree to which the British working class, during the development and the intensification of the General Strike, realises the necessity of changing its leaders and succeeds ta doing so. An English provert says that one must not swap horses while crossing a stream. This practical wisdom is only true within certain limits. It has never yet cen possible to cross the stream of revolution on the horse of reformism, and he class which has gone into battle under opportunist leaders is compelled to "This determines in advance what the really revolutionary elements of the British proletariat must do — above all, what the communists must do. They must support in every way the unity of mass action, but they cannot permit even the appearance of unity with the opportunist leaders of the Labour Party "The strike in itself cannot alter the position of British capitalism or of th of the whole of the British economy. The strike is only an emphatic expression of this necessity. The programme for the reorganisation of the British economy is a programme for a new power, a new state, a new class. Herein les the fondamental significance of the General Strike; it brings forward sharply "This by no means implies, however, that the present strike is faced by the alternative of all or notbing... The more widely it develops, the more vialently treacherous and opportunist leaders, the more difficult will it be for bourgeois orgenisations suffer, the sooner shall we reach the next, more decisive stage of LEON TROTSKY, from the preface to the second German edition of Where deny on oath that they have aay have up to Requires the reorsanisation strike.
the more completely it sheds the will the proletarian do ISTC, the MILITANTS are inning to da into waldug calen the digs of action against 11 dread there February Yorkshire ani lorth-West), March ITUC March (start of nite action to save jobs in Sou les), and then - suitably far o •TUC's own day of action of No wonder, general strike is Fi together gainst the boss seir goveraOral strike • tinse by the kind of sell out that d in 1926?
The people who are in a position to organise a general strike are the TUC leaders - the general staff of Determined action on their part could already brought victory in steelworkers' strike.
The TUC General Council was set Glad - not sit about on the complaning how unfair the Tbat towhy union bran. sy ctc. should be doss now demanding TUC organise a general Calls But at the same time it's not enough to make calls on the leaders. A confrontation is the last thing they want. Even if they're pust ed into it they will try to call off ac tion at the first opportunity.
This means that the working class must make its own preparations.
organise its ground, develop its own channels of communication and coordination.
The steel strike is an example of why this is necessary - and what to The of forced into action by the rant has done nothing to make strike effective. Bill Sirs has sought every opportunity to ant up. can we the hold back the struggle - kowtowing Denning's even trying to delay calling out the private sector again after it had been reversed. done what the executive has failed to local strike committee do. They picketing to stop 'secondary produc tion', and while the refused to cal on other unions for help, they reticence.
The strike support committees set up by trades councils in Camden Wandsworth, "lower - elsewhere have been the vehicle for local steelworkers and explaining the issues the involved. Developing such bodies on a more permanent basis, to prepare the way for the emergence of all embracing representative Councils of Action such the strike in many areas in 1926 necessary part general strike today Among the tasks of such bodies ty to will be to prepare the defence of the struggle against the repressive actions of the state. genera strike -every opportunity workers' unity and enforce capitalist order.
Power This is what is meant by saying that a general strike poses the question of power. To make its struggle effective, the working class will have to take over more and more aspects of the tunning of society.
In 1926 several Councils of Action established workers' defence. Emile Burns' book General Strike — Trades Councis in Action describes what happened in Methil in Scotland: ang, the Workers' comprised 150 men, but this rose to 700 after police charges on pickets. The area was patrolled by the Corps, organise in companies NCOs, and there was no further, in terference by the police with pickéts.' ine organsauon or hyllg pickets in the steel strike shows how it is possible prepare Systematising this through organised picket pools in every area would be a further step forward Equally, however, a general strike Doreeni has to arm Troops marching into London's East End during the 1926 General Strike 'The power of the state is not an "idea" but a material apparatul" Trotsky judgement and runs society mediately have organised effective day executive has have shown no such Labour Hamlets and support for the Ranks that ran is a of preparing for a 'owni This The police and • In a the army will seize to break up tors.
sub-committees for 'At the beginn• Defence • COrD: the 18, exAfghanistan.
such defence.
Or Lo Tor the working class about what is involved political. ly. If the question of power - of who - is posed, that imraises the question One of the failures of the Communist Party in 1926 was That it didn't make this central.
Preparing for a general strike tomeans preparing a movement with the clear objective of kicking out the Tory government that is responsi ble for this offensive against workers' rights. We call for its replacement by government to demobilise the struggle but so that the leaders of the working class are forced to stand naked before their But that in turn implies the construction of an alternative class strug gle leadership based on the ranks of the labour movement. It has to fight to drag the present leaders into united action, but also be capable of taking initiatives to counter a 1926-type sell-out.
means developing and encouraging local, region, and national meetings and conferences of workers in different unions and secThe recent LCDTU conference could have played this role had it not been under the tight political organisational control of the Communist Party, which is tied to the coat-tails of the union bureaucracy which the Minority Movement launched by the young CP briefly played in the years leading up to 1926. will be looking at the lessons of this period in future issues.
Intercontinenial Press combned with 1X ERNEST MANDEL writes on what lies behind the soaring price of gold latest issue of the weekly Intercontinental Press/Inprecor (Vol , No 5). And 'Selections from the Left' looks at the reaction of the Trotskyist movement to Individual copies cost 30p plus 10p p&p, but subscriptions work out much cheaper at fl! for one year (48 issues), £6 for six months (24 issues), 10 weeks. Please make cheques/POs out to Intercontinental Press' and send to: IP/I, PO Box 50, London NI 2XP.