After a year of heroic strike action the British miners were forced back to work. Their strike, the longest mass strike in the history of any imperialist country, inspired working people around the world with its determined intransigence against capitalist policies of unemployment and austerity.
But the cost to the miners and their families was high. Two miners were killed on the picket lines; 11,000 were arrested by the police; over 700 miners have been sacked as a result of their participation in the strike; and nearly 100 miners are serving prison sentences. Hundreds of other miners will appear before the courts in the next months. Already severe jail sentences of up to five years have been inflicted, such as that of Terry French of the Kent miners. Even harsher punishment awaits some strikers.
However, those found guilty face not only jail sentences but also a lifetime of unemployment. Those sentenced in the courts have been automatically sacked by the coal industry employers. They are also denied state benefits on the pretext that they are still on strike. Demands for an amnesty have been rejected, and instead the sackings are being made part of a campaign to weaken the organization of their union.
There is now a need for an international campaign of solidarity to demand an amnesty from the British government for the sacked and imprisoned miners and to raise funds for their families.
The enormous solidarity that the strike received internationally marked the identification of millions of workers with the miners’ struggle. Now the same energy must go into the urgent defense of the victims of that struggle.
The goal of the British state and the coal employers is not solely to victimize militant miners. If this campaign of vengeance is not prevented the political result will be intimidation of workers in Britain and internationally from fighting in a determined way to save their jobs. Victory against this wave of victimization would help in a significant way to roll back management's attacks against the National Union of Mineworkers.
The miners’ strike was a strike for the whole international working class. The defense of those victimized is a fight to defend all workers, including those millions who will, in the years to come, emulate the British miners’ courage, combativity, and determination.
No victimization!
Amnesty!