The miners' vote was on the wage offer (continued)

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last week for Albert Spans- BY out the NHS dispute. GOSS

Board has been quick to captalise on the rejection, by 39% to 61%, of the call for • strike against pit closures ind the NCB's pay offer.

Almost at once, closure letails appeared which were unavailable before the vote. snowdown colliery in Kent was revealed to be top of the ist, followed by Kinneil in Nest Lothian and Britannia n South Wales.

These are plainiy only he tip of the NCB's rationalsation iceberg.

Already the NCB have alled for the reopening of he review board which deals with pit closures - paralysed ince Scargill's election rictory. The NUM executive lave obtained a secret NCB locument detailing the clos ire of 70 pits over the next ive years.

So much for the soothing vords of Coal Board chairnan Norman Siddall before he ballot,. claiming that Arthur Scareill's 'hit list' кто gar и .... legations were untrue, and hat he would not use a no vote to "butcher the ndustry'.

Arthur Scargill has called he ballot result a setback. This is certainly true, not only for the miners, but for he working class as a whole. • The media have been juick to capitalise. Linking he NUM result to the BL rote, they have proclaimed hese decisions as an endorsment of Tory policy, repreenting a new mood of noderation among importint organised sections of ndustrial workers.

Core

This is false to the core. And the situations in BL and in the mines are very different.

In BL, a militant workforce which has been looking for a fight with management was confused by repeated sell-outs over recent years and the stupid tactic of one-day strikes linked to JUP But they felt the odds n overtime ban. In the pits, Ithough the miners remain ery strong, the heat has een taken out of the wages sue to some extent by their pward shift in pay relativity 1 recent years.

Scale

Many miners judged that gainst the scale of the battle osed. The appeal to miners o back the union, and the ecision to include oppositon to pit closures on the allot form was not enough o counter that - particulrly given the virulent media ampaign against the strike ote.

The vote therefore in no vay represents a swing , to he right in BL or the pits, r a concession to Thatchersm.

Despite this, the media ; determined to ensure that he votes are used to draw trèngth for the Tory governnent - that they are a blow to • the working class, who ave been looking to the 'ere against them on wages. miners for so long, and more recently to Scargill himself.

The example of the miners in stopping pit closures by the threat of a strike almost two years ago has been a shining example to the working class. If the media can use the ballot to reverse that stand, it will be a very serious blow indeed.

The right wing in the NUM will assist that process by their campaign to discredit Scargill. The right wing leader of the small North Wales coalfield has even retailed the filthy line of some capitalist newspapers in likening Scargill's five regional meetings to Hitler's Nuremberg rallies.

Trevor Bell, whose white collar, management and supervisory members are traditionally the Achilles heel of NUM ballots, is cashing in by attacking Scargill's methods.

As far as Socialist Organiser is concerned, we give 100% support to the decision of the NUM conference to fight for a £30 wage under those particular conditions determined the vote. It is also clear now, we think, that making the two issues the subject of the same vote was a tactical ertor. (And we say this as a newspaper which accepted Arthur Scargill's assessment of the coalfields before the vote, and supported his tactics).

Whilst the two issues are totally linked, It is clear that the closure issue was not immediate enough to seriously influence the vote against the immediate issue of the wage contract. With no concrete names or dates for closures, the lies of the NCB could confuse the issue and allow the wages issue, which did have figures and dates attached, to dominate the ballot.

Closures should either have been the subject of a separate ballot, or a separate question on the ballot paper.

Despite this setback, however, the fight against closures in the mines is noi

Room 12 of the Great Room 12 of the Great Northern Hotel set the scene Northern Hotel set the scene last week for Albert Spanswick's latest attempt to sell out the NHS dispute.

With some COHSE mem- With some COHSE memhrer honed nraccod to afford bers hard pressed to afford a cup of tea, Spanswick laid on plenty of wine, whisky

and beer in order to entice the capitalist press to come and listen to his latest pearls of wisdom.

He then handed them an up-to-date tactical plan for losing the struggle.

"Heartbeat" strikes

one week out, one week in - guaranteed to exhaust and demoralise the health workers who have already had months of such tactics.

And then he topped it off by telling the press that it would take COHSE until March to ratify a yes vote for an indefinite strike.

Not content with these two gems, he hauled out the • well worn bureaucrats' theme, saying that he was , Prepared to take the fight into next year's pay round, unless the membership wanted to stop it.

The message from the membership for Spanswick and all the other trade union leaders is that we want an indefinite strike and we want it now. Not in March or April.

The struggle about tactics between the rank and file and the bureaucrats in this dispute is becoming wider and more pronounced every day. Spanswick, as chairper• SON of the TUC Health Services Committee, finds himself in a role that he is just not capable of carrying out. His latest behaviour is callous and outrageous....

Strong, unfelenting pressure by the rank and file, organising through joint shop stewards committees and pressure groups like Health Workers for the Full Claim, has forced the TUC Health Services Committee to a position of serious discussion on indefinite strike action as the only way left to escalate the dispute, now in its seventh month.

COHSE voted against this position. And it is now widely recognised. that COHSE is the key union in the consultation procedure.

COHSE, traditionally a right wing union, has slowly changed over the past decade and Spanswick's actions have to be seen in the light of those changes.

In the past ten years the membership has grown rapidly - from 121,000 in 1973 approximately Spanswick..... "callous and outrageous" 230,000 now. During that same time the union has becont. politicised by struggles against the cuts, closures and low pay and by the increasing number of left wingers who join_COHSE. The National Executive Committee, although still dominated by the right, is challenging the officers more and more and is listening more to the membership.

The emergence 18 months ago of a credible broad left has further challenged the leadership and for the first time organised the rank and file in COHSE.

Wants

There are those who still genuinely believe that Spanswick wants further industrial action but that he is kept in line by the even more right wing national officers (led by his almost certain successor David Williams). His pronouncement early this year that COHSE would possibly be withdrawing Accident and Emergency cover and breaking the code of conduct sparked off inst instantaneous condemnation and brought a quick rebuttal.

There is no doubt that he was heavily criticised at the time, and after a respectable time lapse from his "mistake'/"misquote" he announced his early retirement.

This announcement takes a vast amount of pressure off him. He no longer has to worry about the NEC, the TUC, Group 81 (broad lett) or the membership. He is now free to sell out the dispute and get his peerage.

As chairperson of the Health Services Committee he is also spokesperson, and most of the publicity is around what he says.

This suits the trade union leaders with a more left' image, like Bickerstaffe and Jenkins. They can continue to claim that they were pushing for the right tactics but were blocked by Spanswick (who they will no doubt lunch with in the Lords) while in reality they have not lifted a finger to get an indefinite strike.

BY JANE GOSS

So at the most crucial phase of a long, drawn-out dispute, the most crucial union - COHSE - is trying its hardest to crush a yes vote for indefinite action.

The announcemeni by Spanswick that all out strike action cannot be called until March under COHSE rules is nonsense. The rule which states that 14 weeks notice must be given is for annual delegate conference. The rule providing for special conferences does not state any time limits because clearly the time span is governed by the urgency of the subject to be discussed.

A recall conference could be organised in a few weeks. The fact is that the COHSE leadership see a conference as a real threat. They know that the membership are sick of limited action, that the arguments they put forward in June for winning without indefinite strike have not a shred of credibility left.

They also know that in the run up to an election for a new General Secretary the position of the right wing leadership would be tested to breaking point by a recall conference.

But most importantly they realise that if COHSE votes for an indefinite strike, then it will certainly be carried by the TUC Health Services Committee and that this will mean a head-on clash with the Tories. This is the last thing the TUC wants.

ASLEF

Over and over again this year the TUC has sold out the struggles which could have challenged this government, NUR, BL, ASLEF, etc. Because of the tremendous swell of solidarity and public support they have not been able to do the same to the NHS.

In Spanswick the TUC have found a willing accomplice. He is prepared to use COHSE to wreck the Health Service action - but the COHSE membership are not prepared to let this happen. :303