Strengthening the Mass Character of the
Workers’ Organisations, To Act in a New Way to
Turn this into a Powerful Force to Change Society!

Contingents pass the CountyOn Saturday July 13, Durham once again became the focus of the working class movement as thousands of working people and their families from the north-east and many parts of Britain took part in the Durham Miners Gala. Crowds well in excess of 50,000 were reported once again as the Gala, which is also known as the Big Meeting, continues to grow and become a rallying point for the working class movement in the face the brazen anti-social onslaught of the present Coalition government. This year the 129th Gala also commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Great Dublin Lockout and its heroes James Larkin and James Connolly. The souvenir programme, which this year expanded its impressive coverage with more articles and photos, also featured the Lockout on its back cover, as well as an article by Dave Temple. As the article informs, Larkin was the chosen speaker at the 1914 Durham Miners Gala.

Besides the dozens of active lodges and their banners of the closed mines, large contingents of the trade unions Unison, Unite, GMB, PCS, other unions and working class organisations marched through the city onto the racecourse behind the beautiful miners’ and trade union banners accompanied by brass and pipe bands at their head. Working people from Durham and other parts of the north-east, for whom this is a working class festival, swelled the numbers so much that it was impossible to put an upper limit to the number of participants who took over the city for the day.

South Tyneside Health & Local Government
workers behind their Westoe colliery banner & bandAs anyone who has ever been to the Gala affirms, it is an incomparable experience. The contingents headed by their bands begin to march through Durham before 9.00am, stopping to play for the dignitaries on the balcony of the Royal County hotel, which this year included Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, and Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary. Well over three hours later, the streams of contingents converging from different parts of the city were still marching past the County towards the racecourse. Once the formal proceedings of the Big Meeting are over, and the moving miners’ hymn Gresford is played, commemorating one of Britain’s worst coal-mining disasters when over 250 men and boys lost their lives in 1934, the contingents march with their bands back over the River Wear, to more applause and set-pieces. It is an opportunity for the bands to let their hair down so as to delight the crowd, to march on again in disciplined formation once their day in the sun has concluded.

Party banner marching across Elvet bridge RCPB(ML) took part in the Gala with its programme, Fight for the Alternative! Stop Paying the Rich, Increase Investments in Social Programmes! For an Anti-War Government! The Party banner with the programme emblazoned on it was in the centre of the march onto the racecourse. This was representative of the independent programme of the modern working class fighting to place itself at the centre of politics in Britain, to build its resistance and plant the seeds of the Workers’ Opposition, to fight for a new direction for society. Through the course of the day, the comrades of the Party engaged many workers in discussion and distributed large numbers of the Gala issue of The Line of March on the march through Durham, on the racecourse and from the Party riverside stall.

Speeches at the Big Meeting

The Big Meeting was chaired by Dave Hopper, General Secretary of the Durham Miners Association. Speakers included Kevin Maguire, Associate Editor of the Daily
Crowds gather on the racecourse before Big MeetingMirror; Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Families Support Group; journalist and author Owen Jones; Ricky Tomlinson, who spoke on behalf of the Shrewsbury 24 campaign to overturn the convictions of the 24 building workers, including himself, who over 40 years ago were jailed after the 1972 strike for so-called picketing offences; Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT; Frances O’Grady, the first woman General Secretary of the TUC; and Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite the Union. All the main speakers militantly spoke of the necessity for an alternative to the government’s austerity programme, and the necessity to build organisations which fight for the interests of the working class and the whole society. The discussion is on the way forward, how to overcome the crisis of working class representation. This could be summed up by saying that there is an urgent need for the workers’ movement to take up the issue of the democratic renewal of the political system and institutions.

How to Move Forward

Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign Once again, the day was characterised by the working class principles, values and culture that defies all attempts to stamp them out – principles such as An Injury to One Is an Injury to All, or, as has been said about the miners, these comrades were not just hewers of coal, but hewers of society. The question all are considering, including the speakers from the platform, is: based on this spirit and these principles, what is the way forward for the working class movement. It came up particularly sharply at this year’s Big Meeting – how to ensure that the marginalisation of the workers’ voice and their class organisations are ended, so that the workers advance towards their goal of constituting themselves the nation so that they have the power to take up their responsibility for society.

Planting the seeds of the Workers’ Opposition necessitates settling scores with the old arrangements and building on the movement to fight for the alternative by strengthening the mass character of the workers’ organisations, to act in a new way to turn this into a powerful force to change society!