- Northern Region, Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) -

Murton banners at the Gala in 2022 - "The Future Is In Your Hands"

Today, July 8, is the 2023 Durham Miners Gala and Big Meeting, dedicated to workers in struggle and taking industrial action. As Stephen Guy, chair of the DMA, said: "We are proud to dedicate the 2023 Gala to all workers in struggle and to those organising to defend their communities from the policies of this cruel and incompetent government. We urge everyone to rise up, join a union and join the fight for a better society for all." The call of history is that workers should be in the forefront of the progress of society and making its decisions.

Stephen Guy, Chair of the DMA, speaking at the Big Meeting 2022.

The Durham Miners Gala and Big Meeting is a vibrant carnival of hope and unity for the working class and people. It is a living expression today of the aspirations of the Durham Miners to build a new society for all. For example, the Murton Banner contingent that comes with so many youth from the Murton area has a motto emblazoned on the banner, "The Future Is In Your Hands". These beautiful banners alongside the banners of workers today celebrate the region's working class history and its struggles today and they are carried through the medieval city to the sound of brass band music that resounds with the spirit of the present. This is the wonderful atmosphere of the people in celebration of their rights and values and not those of the decadent ruling elite. Then, when the mass contingents of the workers reach the race course for the Big Meeting, the Gala becomes that force of the working class coming together to raise their voices as one, representing their struggles and their fight today.

Gala Parade, 2022

The Durham Miners Gala has become part of this call of history of the working class in Britain and internationally. Workers are declaring that Enough is Enough! and in all sectors of the economy are fighting against the attacks on their livelihoods, their pensions, their health service and their welfare and against outrageous racist deportations and attacks on women and the rights of all. It is the working class and people who continue to expose the lies of the British establishment at home and abroad and their justifying of the dangerous escalation of the Ukraine war. Britain is in the forefront of repeatedly refusing to permit a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives are being sacrificed as a result of the refusal of the US/NATO-backed Ukrainian government to negotiate a peace deal, or implement previous peace deals with Russia, such as the Minsk agreements which were backed by the United Nations. They are running roughshod over the opinion of the peoples and majority of the countries of the world that the war must stop.

The time is now for working people to strengthen their organisation, stand firm and speak out in their own name, with their own outlook and programme, as national and international events unfold. The Gala reflects this new mood of the working class and people to speak out for themselves and their collectives in their own name and elaborate their solution as a workers' opposition to the dictate of the rich and the Westminster governments whatever their shade. It is a step towards workers becoming worker politicians with their own independent programme, a programme for a new direction for the economy, in order to serve the people's interests, a programme to place the control of political affairs in the hands of working people that is pro-social and anti-war.

So, on the occasion of the 137th Durham Miners Gala and Big Meeting, we declare:

Further build the collectives of the working class as a workers' opposition to the political control of the rich! Every step is a victory!
All out against escalation of war! Fight for an Anti-War Government!

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