Miners will be heroes

Press, 1 April 1985, Page 6

Miners will be heroes

NZPA-AAP London Fifty British miners will go to the Soviet Union to be feted as heroes of a British “class war.”

The president of the National Union of Mineworkers, Mr Arthur Scargill, has accepted an invitation from Moscow for the men to visit Russia.

The "Sunday Express” newspaper said that Mr Scargill made the decision without consultation with his fellow members of the union executive. About 30 miners will take a training course at the Higher Trade Union School in Moscow. The others will tour Russia and take part in an international youth festival where they will be feted as heroes of a class war.

Mr Scargill accepted the invitation when he visited the Soviet Union last week. All the miners going will be aged 17 to 24.

Members of the union executive, which recently gave up a year-long strike to save jobs in the mining .industry, were annoyed that the decision was made behind their backs, the “Sunday Express” said. One member said: “Arthur Scargill goes to Moscow for a few days and what happens — we end up with 50 young Scargills?" Mr Scargill was in Russia setting up an East-West miners’ federation.