68.Friday July 6th – Monday July 9th, 1984.

Keith Smoult, Gary Marshall and myself travelled down to London to attend ‘Marxism 84′ at the University of London.

Keith and myself, along with Yunus Bakhsh were allocated lodgings with a lovely Irish woman called Anne in Holloway (not the prison!) She made us feel very welcome and didn’t complain if we came back late, which we mostly did. Also, we were usually pissed because comrades kept buying us beer. It was a really welcome break from the boredom of Woodside, and I for one learnt a lot.

We attended as many meetings as we could, eager to meet new people and learn loads of things we knew nothing about. The highlights for me were Paul Foot on, ‘From Wilson to Kinnock, The Tragedy and the Farce’, Chris Bambery on ‘Ireland’, Duncan Hallas on ‘The French Revolution’, Ian Birchall on ‘Emile Zola’ (brilliant!), and Tony Cliff on everything!!

Socially it was excellent and it was great to meet up with Ian Mitchell and Steve Hammill again. We had a miner’s fringe meeting where we discussed our fears of a sell out of the strike because of the ‘constructive talks’ taking place between MacGregor and the NUM, and he vapid outpourings of Heathfield, Taylor, McGahey and co. Steve Hammill has drawn up a leaflet that outlines what constitutes a sell out, and what a victory should be, including the divisive Incentive Scheme being scrapped and the average integrated into our basic rate of pay, a minimum 15% pay rise, reinstatement of all sacked miners, retirement at 55, a 4 day week, and no pit closures without consultation. It was just heartening to talk with lads in the same situation as ourselves about positive things instead of the apathy we have to face on a daily basis. We should get together more often!

Keith and me were so broke over the weekend that we had to walk back to Holloway after meetings, and on Sunday had to share a plate of chips between us for dinner. Sheila McGregor noticed, bless her, and gave us £5 each. We celebrated with a takeaway meal and caught the tube back to Holloway instead of walking.

We had to come back on Monday, partly because I am up in court on Wednesda, but also to appease our wives. That’s one thing the three of us do share in common, and iy isn’t getting any better as the strike drags on!

37. Thursday May 3rd, 1984.

 

Tonto Jackson was arrested this morning for having the misfortune to be standing too close to a lorry which had its windscreen smashed. The pigs just grabbed him because he was the nearest person to the crime. He’s been charged with using ‘foul and abusive language’ because he swore when the pigs roughly grabbed him.

After Tonto’s arrest we tried a new tactic, walking in front of the scab lorries at a snails pace, linking arms so the pigs couldn’t arrest us easily. It worked brilliantly but despite us shouting for more men, not enough of us were prepared to take part. The pigs charged into us and tried to break our ranks, and even though we put up a brave struggle we couldn’t stop them achieving their aim. I was linked in with Arthur Oxley from Vane Tempest Colliery. I know Arthur from Broad Left meetings and you couldn’t pick a better man to be standing next to in a fight because he’s well over six foot tall with a build to match. He was my saviour this morning because he refused to let go of me as I was dragged to the side of the road. The look on the young pigs face when he realised he was on his own with us was a real picture. Arthur said, ‘What are you going to do now son because you can’t arrest us both?’ He took the wise decision to let us go and beat a hasty retreat. The battle was over but the war isn’t won and I’m pretty certain the two of us will have to be on our guard from now on.

The pigs made 10 arrests this morning and the mood of the men seems to be getting more militant, thank god. The Westoe men are getting really wound up by the lads we’ve had arrested. The pies arrived a bit late because of Tonto’s arrest, and this has really done the trick in terms of ending Westoe passivity. You have to laugh.

Kath is very worried I am going to be arrested after I told her about this mornings events. I’ve told her not to worry because even if I am arrested I’ll only get fined. She remains unconvinced that what we are doing is lawful and this has caused even more friction between us. I feel she is allowing herself to be influenced by the media who seem to be engaged in a daily propaganda campaign against the NUM, and Arthur Scargill in particular. I feel she is coming round to our side but at the moment she still needs to be convinced we can win. We can win if we can convince the rest of the trade union movement of the justice of our fight. If only they would black coal and refuse to use imported oil. If only the scabs would see sense and that their jobs are at risk as well. If only NACODS would join us we would be guaranteed victory. It’s been 8 weeks and no sign of an end in sight so Tony Cliff has been proved right so far. This isn’t ’72 and ’74, mores the pity. Anyway, attitudes on the picket line seem to be hardening and Westoe has gained quite a few new pickets but we still need a lot more!

29. Monday April 23rd, 1984.

Tony Ciff gave an excellent summing up of the strike so far and urged us miners to go back to our pits and continue to argue for mass picketing of power stations and steelworks, and to argue for support amongst rank and file trade unionists to lobby their unions for support. We ended by singing the ‘Internationale’, but I didn’t because I hate communal singing and felt embarassed, though I liked the words.

  The girls couldn’t stop talking about the great time they’d had and the friends they’d made. They were sad to leave, and so were Kath and me. We agreed it was the best holiday we’ve ever had, and I feel ready to continue the strike reinvigorated.

27. Saturday April 21st, 1984.

Kath and I had a long lie in this morning then got up and had a late breakfast. The girls were up early playing with their new friends and it’s great to see them enjoying themselves.

  Kath spent the afternoon with some other wives and enjoyed herself. I went to a few meetings but spent most of my time talking with other miners about how things were in their areas. One thing I learnt is that they’re all a lot more organised than we are and do pickets almost every day. I’ve had enough of collecting and have decided it’s time I did some proper picketing.

 Tonight we were having a good time in the Drifter Bar when Yunus came over and told me there were some striking miners from Notts who wanted to talk to some miners. Dave Farham and me went outside onto the balcony and saw 4 lads talking to a couple of the Yorkshire lads so we just listened. I was amazed to hear that three of them claimed to be on strike at Ollerton Colliery, but the other one openly admitted to being a scab! It didn’t ring true to me because no striker worth his salt would even talk to a scab, let alone socialise with one. The scab openly boasted he was a ‘working miner’ and I moved towards him, ready to throw the scabby bastard off the balcony. I was stopped by Steve Hamill, whom I recognised as the miner who had spoken at the Tony Cliff meeting in Sheffield, so I went for a piss to calm down. When I got back Ian Mitchell was having to hold Steve back! The scabs took the hint and beat a hasty retreat but they had spoilt my night and all I could do was whinge about them. Kath was relieved when we left.

11. Saturday March 24th, 1984.

I left the house at 6.30am and the rain was lashing down. It’s still lashing down as I write this at 11.30pm!Anyway I made my way up to Newcastle and arrived soaking wet at roughly 7.30. I grabbed a coffee at the Haymarket and met up with Margaret from Militant and a couple of other members. The coach arrived shortly afterwards and we piled on, the inside resembling a sauna as we all steamed away in the warm. The passengers were mainly Militant supporters, as they like to be known, with a few SWP members as well. They got straight on with the job of selling their paper,’Socialist Worker’, and I bought one to see what news they had about the strike.

I sat next to a lass called Pat who was in the SWP and who worked at Newcastle Poly. We chatted about the strike and she told me she’s been down to Westoe a few times. She gave me £10 she had collected on the bus. She spoke a lot about the SWP but was equally talkative about the shortcomings of the Labour Party, especially Tony Benn and his role in pushing through the hated Incentive Scheme when he was the Energy Secretary in the last government.I agreed with a lot of what she said but was still suspicious of her motives.

The rain was still pissing down when we arrived in Sheffield so we sprinted across the road and into the university where a long queue was waiting to register for the conference. I was pleased to see Keith Smoult there because it would be good to have a Westoe lad to chat to, and as Keith was a member of the Young Socialists he knew quite a lot of people there, including Geoff, the ‘head; Militant man who took us into the canteen whilst he went to sort out tickets for us. It seemed like the miners were the stars of the moment because when we got into the main conference hall all the front rows were occupied by NUM members. I got a load of badges from them for my flat cap.

The hall was full to capacity with people from every union, some of whom I have never even heard of! All of the speakers in the morning session made comforting noises about supporting us miners but seemed to me more concerned with electing left wing union leaders and politicians into various obscure roles. A collection was taken which raised over £2,000, half of it to go to the NUM the other half to Broad Left. A group of people, whom I later discovered were all SWP members, complained and said all of the money should go to the miners and a lively debate followed. However, the SWP motion was rejected, much to my disgust because I felt they had very valid reasons.

At lunchtime I was persuaded to attend a fringe meeting to be addressed by someone called Tony Cliff and to be about our strike. It was a small room but was packed, and to be honest, when I first saw and heard the guy I thought to myself,’who the bloody hell is this!’ He was an old guy, short and stocky with wiry grey hair sticking out from either side of his head, and wearing glasses.He had a strong foreign accent which I found hard to understand at first.However, once I was tuned in I found myself agreeing with almost everything he said. He wasn’t like the other speakers I had heard because he openly criticised Scargill and the NUM leadership saying they were tactically naive!He drew comparisons between the ’72 and ’74 strikes and now, saying we couldn’t win this one just by closing down power stations, mainly because of the time of year but also because we would not get support from other trade unionists unless we began campaigning for support now amongst the rank and file. He warned that the other trade union leaders would do to us what they had done to the NGA at Warrington, and the people at GCHQ. They would stab us in the back and leave us to fight on our own.He said our only hope was to appeal to workers directly by going to their meetings and explain exactly what the strike was about. He got a tremendous round of applause and I for one thought what he had to say made sense, even if it did depress me a bit.

A Yorkshire miner spoke next and made and appealed for money to send pickets into Notts. He also spoke with passion and got great applause, and he got £644, a sum that surprised me because we had never ever got into three figures. One thing I will say is that the SWP are certainly a party of action!

As I headed back to the main hall I met a lad called Yunus from Newcastle who I had seen down at Westoe a few times. He said I should collect money outside the hall instead of listening to hot air inside. I was a bit dubious but he got me a bucket covered in ‘support the miners’ stickers. He assured me it was ok but a steward disagreed. After Yunis had a word with some official I was given permission to stay, so I did.

I was soon joined by some Yorkshire lads who were a bit cool towards me at first but after 20 minutes or so we were getting along like a house on fire. One of the lads was called Ian and works at Silverwood Colliery. We got along particularly well, joining forces to verbally abuse a little runt of a man who more or less accused us of collecting the money for ourselves. Ian told me later he was a union official from Barnsley who didn’t like the idea of anyone organising but elected officials. I told Ian about the officials at my pit and he said we should organise ourselves.

We spent the whole afternoon collecting, and such was our success that I was forced to put half of the bucket into a box at my feet because the bucket was so heavy!One big Scotsman tossed a quid into the bucket every time he came out to use the bog, which he did on a regular basis.He either had a weak bladder or too much to drink but whatever I was impressed by his generosity.

Geoff, the Militant guy came to ask me why I wasn’t listening to Tony Benn, and when I told him he was not happy and stormed off. He came back with some even bigger official from Militant who told me the SWP were a bunch of small time losers. I told him to piss off,so he did. Tosser!

When Keith and I counted up what I’d collected we were staggered to find the sum of £102.77p. We were over the moon but when we met some of the Wearmouth lads we decided to give them half, knowing they’d put it to good use.

The journey home was spent talking politics, and one thing I am sure of and that is I have totally lost faith in the Labour Party because its long overdue for them to get off the fence and support us instead of trying to pander to the middle classes. They are a disgrace to all those who have gone before and founded the trade unions with their blood.

Before we went home we bought fish and chips for the few lads on the Westoe picket line. After all, they are giving up their Saturday night and deserve a little treat. The bloody lodge won’t give them one!