to their full claim.
backing big concessions to the miners Кеер.
Government in future. ing people.
the show, the Government bent over backwards to remain aloof from the med the NUM and the NCB that they could resume negotiations unfettered hy Phase 3, First, to see if there was any way of whirding down the miners" full claim without the Labour Goveroment appcaring as the one doing the whittling. Second, to preserve the image of the Government as 'neutral' and above the struggle between boss and workers (oven when it is itself the COUNT Party spokesmen (left and right), the KOTTCTENCI for.
It is certain that the miners will soon settle their strike for something very close wEEn almost toe cause ruing cras even before the election, this is one cle clion promise that Labour was bound to But the way in which Labour has gone about resolving the dispute is a rather illomen of what we can expect from the They could have met with the miners затевае арод такту снасс, кало out exactly what the NUM wanted, and promptly agreed to meet their demands in full. Such a course would not only have been the quickest way to end the strike but it would have been the clearest declaration possible that the Government intended to act in the interests of workInstead, despite the fact that veteran "eff' Michael Foot was assigned to run settlement of the strike, It simply infor This was intended to have two effects cioss.
This, of course, is the much vaunted "restoration of free collective hargaining' from Michael Foot which trade union bureaucrats, Lahour Communist Party, and even some muddic headed revolutionaries, have been calling Certainly, we should he in favour of intervention hy a capitalist Government on the side of the bosses through an incomes policy. But let's not forget that workers have been exploited for decodes under capitalism precisely througlt "free collective bargaining'. Workers have heen starved, evicted, beaten, arrested, jailed and even murdered - all in the process of 'free collective hargaining".
What we really want is not a Government that stands by with arms folded while all this is going on, or even one that stands on the sidelines and shouts weds of sympathy as workers wet kneed in the groin, but a Government that interenes ou the side of the workbig That is the sort of response the rather than tea and a pat on tbe back But rhe miners can count themselves lucky. They at least got a friendly recepLion. The next group of workers who go to Downing Street to discuss a big wage claim will probably check the address as they leave to make sure they hadn't turned up at Tory Party headquarters The miners should make the best of their present opportunity. They should not budge from the demand for the full claim. and should insist that the settlement is hack-dated to November 1. both as compensation for the long strike they have been forced to wage and to strengthen their bargaining position for next time They can strike a blow for the whole working class hy insisting that Labour pardons the Shrewsbury workers befoce The rest of the trade union movement must treat the miners settlement as a precedent. From now on the watelwond The winning of such demands will take 3 hard fight, and preparations must begin right away to forge the sort of united, all-out action that can carry the day, WESLE CRUEI TESSERAH the bosses and the class collahoration of the Labour Government.
Rav Alexander
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The miners got tea and sympathy from Michael Foot. They should have got immediate support from the Government for their full claim. Tree collective bargaining as opposed to