Scargill. The miners at Langwith have been 'sold down the river as a result of sabotage tactics and statements'.
This was Arthur Scargill's angry response to me accision or the nautona Union of Mineworkers Executive to reverse its vote for a national overtime ban in support of the 880 men at the North Derbyshire pit threatened with closure. Langwith is expected to make a profit of £800,000 in 1975-76, but it is being closed because it is 'uneconomic'. *If they can close a pit like Langwith, God help half of Britain's pits, said entum.
And half of Britain's 246 pits are losing money. Even in the rich Notting ham field, some pits are losing between El and E4 a ton on coal produced. Elsewhere the loss is as high as £10 a ton. Lancashire miners" secretary Syd Vincent polnica to une dancers or tne rxecuave s decision: The verdict is going to make people think we are a set of clowns.
I have a very funny feeling that in the 1980s we are going to see a spate of pit The urgent task is to prepare miners now for industrial action against any closures. The best way to expose th demagogy of Joe Gormley and the other NUM right-wingers is to demand the opening of all the Coal Board's books to the pit committees and union nationally to expose all the closures and investment plans of the National Coal Board. Exposure of these plans would (me prepare the way for concerted national action to defend jobs. It is this that the NCB fears.
The Times (19 February) let the cat out of the bag when it wrote: The Coal Boare woule uke to close a number ol these pits, but is disinclined to put forward a comprehensive closure programme because of the consequent political furore.' The Times gave the lie to Gormley and the popular press by pointing ou that by the third day of the overtime ban Yorkshire pits were 90 per cent in favour of the overtime ban, and overall it had 'gained rather than lost momConference The second vital step of preparation is an immediate conference of area delegates to hammer out a clear common jobs policy. The Welsh and Yorkshire area are calling for this, and although the demand was turned down by the Executive meeting, these areas should nevertheless go ahead and launch the call for Thirdly, to whip the wind completely out of Gormley's sails - - since he is claim ing that everything the miners do must be tailored to getting a good deal for coal from the Central Electricity Generating Doare - me ler must Tormulate l own plan for the whole energy industry. Scargill must be forced to turn his earlier rhetoric about an integrated national energy plan into a coherent policy or mes are an cucy mouse workers which defends all jobs.