Miners’ Libyan link

Press, 1 November 1984, Page 12

Miners’ Libyan link

To say that Mr Arthur Scargill, the president of the National Union of Mineworkers in Britain, made ,a miscalculation in seeking aid from the Libyan Government would be a gross understatement. The curious aspect, of the whole appalling mess that the miners’ strike has become, is that Mr Scargill appears to have made a great many miscalculations, so many that he has alienated vast numbers of people but he still manages to get away with it. The calling of the strike could have been the first miscalculation. There is little reason to doubt that the Conservative Government wanted a fight. The appointment of Mr lan MacGregor as head of the National Coal Board was as clear a signal that the Government wanted a fight as could be found anywhere. Mr Scargill obliged. The strike has been going on for eight months and appears not one whit closer to -Settlement than when it was called in March. Any chance that the Government would have buckled seems gone completely now that Mr Scargill is known to have been seeking Libyan funds. Fighting the Government at a time of the Government’s choosing was only the first of Mr Scargill’s long chapter of bad judgments. He had been rebuffed over strike calls before by votes that failed to support a strike. This time he did not bother to hold a strike ballot and he and the union have been fined for contempt of court for holding a strike which was not an official strike. The lack of democracy within the union helped to alienate many people. Then there has been the whole system of roving pickets which have attempted to prevent any work at mines. The frequent violence seen on television screens as police and picketers have clashed has further alienated sections of the public in Britain. One of the outcomes has been that the strikers have not been receiving sufficient support from other trade unionists to keep their strike going. Hence, no doubt, the approach to Libya for funds. Within certain areas in Britain the strike has the overwhelming support of the local communities. The original cause was the announced plan to close 20 mines, reduce the total coal output substantially, and to dismiss

20,000 people. Other causes were sucked into the strike as time went on. The strike has been disastrous economically for Britain, although something of a boon for the Conservative Party, which was in danger of flying to pieces as different members sought different solutions to Britain’s woes. Mr Scargill, singlehandedly, has managed to keep the Conservative Government united in damning him. The Libyan connection will ensure that the Government is perceived to be doing the right thing against the miners. The British Labour Party has been unable to set forth a credible policy on the strike, or even on the fact that no ballot was held over the strike, and Mr Scargill appears to have become the force on the Left which many on the Left are reluctant to challenge. . No two foes could be more implacable than Mr Scargill and the British Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher. Mr Scargill is an acknowledged Marxist whose purposes sometimes seem to include overthrowing the Government. Mrs Thatcher pursues tough monetarist policies and her purpose sometimes seems to be designed as much to prove something about, economics and ’ td oppose anything in her way as to manage the economy in a way that makes life better for people in Britain. Partly because of the spirit of confrontation rampant in British society, the miners’ strike took on the dimension of a struggle against the whole Thatcher way of doing things. Inevitably the Conservative Government came to cast the strike in the light of a struggle against the rule of law. The Thatcher Government wants a victory for psychological reasons. Mr Scargill wants a victory for the ideological reasons of class struggle. He has retained some support because he is believed to be one of the few union leaders able to stand up against MrssThatcher’s Government. The questions now being debated in the British Government will doubtless be whether in appealing to Libya Mr Scargill has gone too far, whether and the assets of the N.U.M. can be seized and Mr Scargill thrown out of his union; and whether the public will accept this as fair.