OscailtAn Interview with Arthur ScargillAs part of the build up to this Friday's 'Day of Action', Unite the Union invited legendary Trade Union leader Arthur Scargill to Ireland for a series of talks. Before his talk to a packed Matt Merrigan Hall, Indymedia caught up with Scargill to chat about the Miners' Strike of 1984/85 and other contemporary issues such as January's Lidnsey oil refinery strike, which Scargill supported, a strike which caused much debate on the left with the use of the slogan 'British Jobs for British Workers'.
Breaking news: Italian MP, Sgarbi denounces the Statistical Fraud on COVID-19. The speech of the Member of Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi in the session of the Italian Camera, Meeting no. 331 of Friday 24, April, 2020. Vittorio Sgarbi, denounces the closure of 60% of the businesses for 25,000 COVID-19 Deaths, of which the National Institute of Health says 96.3% died NOT of COVID-19 but of other pathologies. That means only 925 have died of the virus. 24,075 have died of other things.2009-11-03T00:13:59+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=94636http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifGood readhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/94636#comment2616002009-11-03T00:13:59+00:00DonalÓFAn interesting, and (to say the least) complex character. One of the best public...An interesting, and (to say the least) complex character. One of the best public meetings I've been to, and probably one of the oddest too.<br />
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He's working on a book by his own admission, I find his recollections of the period fascinating (down to the bugged chipshops!) but am not the fondest of his modern day political speeches in all honestly. Good insight into the man here, and not just the famous red-haired larger than life union lion.<br />
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His response to the question regarding class war is worth praise.Differentiating Workers is a very dangerous ployhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/94636#comment2616042009-11-03T01:36:32+00:00JDGood interview and as said above a good insight into a polarising character. I f...Good interview and as said above a good insight into a polarising character. I find Scargill's explanation of the banner ‘British Jobs for British Workers’ very unsatisfactory though. Of course under any Left society the issue of immigration would have to be discussed and addressed in some shape or form. But, ideas such as:<br />
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"they are opposing the fact that either their factories are going out of Britain and at the same time they’re seeing migrant labour moved freely in without little hindrance to take jobs that would normally be done by people who live in that country and who have contributed for years."<br />
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I would hope would never transpire under any Socialist society. Blaming any worker for wanting to simply work and earn a living at the expense of the "British worker" only serve to drive a wedge between the working classes on an international scale and hinders any possibility of change being achieved. <br />
Arthurs Scargill's mistakes?http://www.indymedia.ie/article/94636#comment2616872009-11-04T20:01:22+00:00john throneloughfinn at aol dot comLike tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of others I actively supported the miners...Like tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of others I actively supported the miners strike, raising money and picketing etc. So I am interested to read Arthur Scargill's interview. He denies that the miners strike was defeated. This is just about unbelievable. Thatcher and the British ruling class defeated the miners and threw back the British working class as a whole. How can anybody say otherwise? And the other question which is related, is why would anybody say otherwise? <br />
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In this interview with Scargill he does not give even a hint that he himself might have made any mistakes in his position as leader of the miners. This unfortunately is not uncommon amongst trade union leaders and also left groups. It is always somebody else who made the mistakes, it is always somebody else to blame. Of course the rest of the trade union leadership refused to support the miners in a way that would have made their strike successful. But the preparation of the strike within the miners union was determined by Scargill and he made mistakes in this which made it much harder to get industrial action from workers outside the miners union itself. So rather than look at his own role in the miners defeat Scargill denies there was any defeat. This is what is happening here. <br />
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Refusing to acknowledge past defeats, refusing to draw lessons from past defeats prepares the way for further defeats. Scargill is not living up to his responsibility here. He is preparing the way for future defeats. <br />
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I see that Scargill also takes a poke at Trotskyism. He is against the idea of union leaders being on the average wage of a skilled worker and subject to recall by the membership. This is a Trotskist position. But from experience I know it is supported by many workers. I would like to see it tested in a genuine discussion in the working class movement. But Scargill wants to attack trotskyism. And also does not want to tie himself to a particular wage. While he has something to say about trotskyism Scargill has nothing to say about Stalinism. Surely it also has some sins that could be pointed out. Surely it had influence in the British and international trade union leadership which refused to take the action that would have led the miners to victory. <br />
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John Throne. Strike breaking...http://www.indymedia.ie/article/94636#comment2617782009-11-06T13:11:27+00:00paul o tooleIn this economic environment it is worth noting that a total of 9 strike- breake...In this economic environment it is worth noting that a total of 9 strike- breakers was all it took to smash the Union of Miners. There were 9,000 striking miners. The blacklegs were of course shuttled in by police escort who used to wave their £20 notes earned in overtime to taunt the miners, their familys who were suffering immesurably from hunger amongst other things....<br />
Thacher, Regan and now all leaders across the western world have union-busting/ co-operation/sub -suming as their number 1 priority in advancing their notion of society into the future.....union free, hassle free to abuse us at will.<br />
Very interesting interview - though I agree his answer on "british jobs for british people" sucks.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/94636#comment2618502009-11-07T20:58:24+00:00iosafI wasn't old enough to properly remember the miners' strike but I am old enough ...I wasn't old enough to properly remember the miners' strike but I am old enough to remember the 80s. Which I suppose puts me in a generational slot below those who do have proper grown up memories and those who have non at all. The 80's political events politicised me to the extent that any school kid going through secondary cycle could be. I remember the hunger strike riots in Dublin and a Garda diverting me in my posh school blazer to avoid the sight of people getting their heads split. I remember Thatcher on TV and the scenes of violence. I was thus then old enough to remember the shortages and power cuts of the 70's before. All those memories gave me a sense of have and have not. <br />
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This interview which I've read a few times now, on the first reading sent me to youtube to listen to Billy Bragg. Instead of bothering too much with the industrial worker anthems, union songs and "new England" I have found myself listening to "Saint Swithin's day" since. & as another article has reminded of the fall of the Berlin wall and the father a friend had lost only three months before to the Stasi - I suppose this article has brought me back to the 80's in general - whether it be Irish, British, local, the cold war - whatever.<br />
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Scargill's answer to the question about the british jobs for british people sucks completely. As does his reasoning for the BNP. I might agree with Donal OSF that the concept of class warfare is neat - but it has never convinced those who steadfastly stick to the middle class pretence & it is those who dictate the patterns of consumerism and the mechanisms of state. The interview has in fact convinced me that Scargill has not only aged badly as a reference for the modern left <em> or dream of days a reconstitution of a proper labour movement in Britain / England </em> but that worse he never really botherd to rigorously get past a problem inherent to the theory of British labour and socialism.<br />
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The jobs were reliant on an imperial system to begin with. Without a protected imperial market the British would never have bothered building their satanic mills and digging their infernal mines. The flaw inherent in the absolutist and trite initial tenets of Marx & Engels popularisation (through pamplets etc - if you will "Marxism lite") as contrasts with complete absorption of the theory was in the inability to explain <em> how workers reliant on empires carved through conquest and the perpetuation of racial differences and inequality could be equal universally and unite to their global betterment </em>. It was in my opinion this very flaw which led to the worst problems of the Soviet system. - Only those who read all the theory and justified their place as apparatchiks and intellectuals in the "-ism" could reconcile the glaring inequalities. Marxism might have been simple in its brochure but it didn't explain why jobs in mines or steel works were better than jobs in rice paddie fields or jobs in rubber extracting jungles of the Congo. <br />
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It is my contention that those problems still exist. We are not going to solve those problems by paying too much heed to the miners strike. Nor are we going to solve the problems of imperialism by paying too much heed to the hunger strikes. We wouldn't likewise understand the cold war or the speriod of Thatcher by spending every evening watching a television series which magically transported us back to the time, its language, it's fashions. Not that I say these things aren't worthy of contemplation. But I don't believe they are as worthy as many people think in the task of education future generations in neither "lite" or "inner party heavy" style about leftist thought.<br />
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& it is a priority to seperate the chaff from the wheat in the questions <em> where did we go wrong?</em> or more pointedly <em>why did leftist parties collapse in Europe and give birth to "new labour", the european liberal socialists of Schroeder, Zapatero etc.., </em> <br />
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<strong> If I had been able to add but one question to the list offered Scargill it would have been this :-<br />
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How many former strikers under your leadership & their families, do you think vote BNP now?</strong><br />