WE HEARD Ezra the Fekruary giving out the forebodings of that sister of Nero in over a collapsing economy.
Make no mistake a0Oll it, une present threats are part and parcel of an overall plan by the Tories. Thatcher has never forgotten the defeats of '72 and '74. But neither have forgotten.
years leading «o to tne saker of and "74 we had seen halt a million jobs lost and 800 pits closed. Miners were turned into gypsies, trailing round from pit to pit We cannot ever let tha situation re-appear.
We hear people talk pay. But no one has the right to prostitute their jobs for a few pounds. No one has the right to salute prospects of future generaLIUlIs.
Against the atempts by Torv DeSS seduce miners into selling jobs, we must assert the lessons of the '50s and '60s. Then LOW cheaper foreign fuel was the argument for closing pits. We were told tha cheap Middle East oil Was prelerable lo coal Then happened? The price of oil was Socialist Challenge executioner on 11 number 10, presiding quadrupled.
have similar mad-cap scheme with cheap coal imports. I recently went to the US to see the miners there. At first I was prevented from going by the US embassy, undesirable alien. an Joe agreed! visit showed up the nature of Thatcher's mad-cap scheme.
German coal is being shipped to the States at £45 a ton - subsidised to the tune of £35 Then the same ships are filled with US subsidised Coal Dack 10 europe and particularly Britain.
To say this represents cheap imported fuel deserves prosecution the Trades Description Act. We still £12bn for power stawhich has nothing Lous. to do with cheapness.
Ezra admitted that 25-30,000 jobs are threatened and pits could be closed vote of 86 per cent of my MOTE The membership showed they thought of that. We will take action immediately if one pit is 19 February 1981 closed.
Bear in mind, in our ballot we never spoke of Yorkshire pits. There is British coalfield. We will only one coalfield strike any pit threatened anywhere.
Just ScotGala, there was a hit list of 50 members of the executive allacked me saying that no such thing was in the air. Who was right? Who was concolcu dovut une murare of the industry?
The ecutive resolution today tion. But we need to state here and now that ballot or no ballot we are going out on strike to defend our ODs They say there is too much coal. So let's implement the proposal Sankey in the early '20s, for 4-day week with no loss of pay.
et's have retirement on full pay at 55. Let's stop working the equivalent of an 8-day week and bar all overtime.
If logic, clocuence or justice could win our then of sullie would not need to be here today. There 1S. ho were and that say only one way win, demonstrate the unity solidarity that showed in 1972 and 1974.
At the end of the '72 strike I was asked to say what our most important victory had been. thought about this for a anen shortly after, I was crossing the street and this ex-miner in his eighties Calle Ine traffic towards me and he shook my hand with tears in his eyes and explained that had restored the dignity of the miners lost in 1926.
will this up again. Wewill ask all trade unions, we will approach the triple in a battle the like of which we haven't seel before. There is no doubt inat in this way we can save our iobs.
can also bring about the conditions where we can force an get this Tory government once and for all.
----- pull-quotes -----
Arthur Scargill's speech to miners lobby- ing the NUM executive last Thursday.
said that