Only the Workers’ Opposition Can Safeguard the Future of the Country!

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120^th Durham Miners Gala:
Only the Workers’ Opposition Can Safeguard the Future of the Country!

20^th Anniversary of the Heroic Miners’ Strike of 1984-5

— Call of the Northern Regional Committee of RCPB(ML), July 10, 2004 —

Today on Gala day, miners, ex-miners, workers and their families will be marking the 20th anniversary of the heroic miners strike of 1984-5. In this anniversary year, the monopoly-controlled media has tried to set the tone by finding every way to praise Margaret Thatcher for "defeating the fearsome reputation of the miners as the shock troops for organised labour". Ignored are the real disastrous consequences for the resources and future of society in Britain which are being felt with every passing year with destruction of the assets and the productive forces in the country. The real legacy of the miners’ strike, and what is becoming increasingly recognised, is that it is only the Workers’ Opposition that can safeguard the future of the country.

As the miners had feared, the Conservatives and then the Labour government did turn their back on clean coal technology and ushered in the "dash for gas" instead of coal. Now the dwindling reserves of North Sea gas and oil are pointing to the huge crisis that the rich have created. In the last decades of the twentieth century they privatised and sold off vital national assets to foreign multinationals and now they are continuing this anti-social offensive by turning to the public services in order to pay the rich. They invented the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) as such a mechanism in which big business leases back hospitals, schools, prisons and even fire-engines to the public sector at inflated costs in order to reap huge profits at minimal risk paid by the Treasury out of the taxes on people’s hard-earned income.

It is this crisis caused by the increasing destruction of the national economy, this dash for gas and oil and the drive to conquer foreign markets which is also behind the warmongering of the Blair government. Alongside the US, the British state attacked Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and now has carried out the further illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is also interfering, with the US, in Africa, militarily and in other ways under pretexts such as assisting "failed and failing states". This happened in 1997 in Sierra Leone in order to increase its control and the robbery of the corporations over rich diamond, oil, mineral and other resources.

Whilst it could be said that the miners were defeated in stopping the pit closure programme, their victory was in so many class-conscious miners seeing whom the state serves and in resolving to take forward the fight for justice. Today, 20 years after the miners strike it is the rights of the monopolies and financial institutions that hold sway in all things, and the issue for the miners and class-conscious workers is not just the safeguarding of one industry but the safeguarding of the country, ending the wrecking of its economy and taking the lead in nation-building.

Today, workers everywhere are continuing to fight to defend their interests. The miners continue to uphold their rights and interests alongside shipyard workers, rail workers, fire-fighters, call centre staff, local authority workers, hospital workers, school teachers, pensioners and so on. Today, workers are continuing to get together to discuss what is in their interests. They are concluding that a new workers’ opposition must be built, and that history once more demands that they elect their best representatives to Parliament to uphold their collective and individual rights. In this movement there is increasing realisation that a new society must be brought about which is free from racism and warmongering and in which the rights of all to the fruits of their labour is recognised and guaranteed.

On the occasion of the 120th Durham Miners Gala and the important anniversary of the 1984-5 miners strike, we call on workers to join in the building of the Workers’ Opposition to safeguard the future of the country and bring about a pro-worker, pro-social and anti-war government that is fully accountable to the people.

Carry Forward the Militant Traditions of the Working Class!

All for One and One for All!

Together Let’s Build the Workers’ Opposition and Fight to Safeguard the Future!