Power men ready to back strike

THE electricity board in Scotland have tried every dirty trick to break the miners' strike by keeping fuel supplies flowing into power stations.

Their desperate action exposes the boast that they have enormous stocks of coal keep the generators running.

If did the Board to the en orm of hì scab contra road sta tion Co south?

sup plie inferior private and why even mines already beer closed hea ad?

moth power stations Cockenzie are fed by 15 train loads of coal a day. With the official rail black movement none of this is getting through.

With enormous daily supply to keep stocks constant, those that remain going to keep the Cockenzie fires burning for very long.

The key issue in giving the miners' strike its greatest impact has been therefore the solidarity shown by other And it has largely been the rank and file that has helped the miners in the localities. Most union leaders put out the usual-'don't cross picket lines'-instruction.

But men the ground made sure this vague order interpreted the way miners wanted - 'coal does not move.

Now from within the powel tations there is talk of linking their claim to that of the miners and imposing a work to rule like last year's that caused immediate chaos.

Edinburgh's militant Portobello power station Ramsay Vickers, engineer's steward, told me he was ready to back the miners.

'In the early days of the strike the Board were hiring every contractor they could lay their hands on. May I add at enormous expense, and of course we have to foot the bill in the end.

He told me that management Portobella approached the station's own drivers and asked them if they could man articulated lorries.

In addition the oil supplies that are used to start up the coal burners have mysteriously doubled since the strike ATTENT NEWS DESK 01-720 2000 CIRCULATION 01-022 7029 began. Ramsay thinks they could be used as a substitute for coal.

"There is a lot of sympathy for the miners. Jackson, the point on TV, he said it we postmen's leader, made a are allowed to be picked off one by one we might as well pack it in. There Should be unity and the TUC should organize it.

'People say "what about the Industrial Relations Act?" but the Act could not be used if we stuck togetherit's this very division in our ranks that makes the Act so dangerous.

I'm for going the whole hog myself and I think a lot of other people are as well. Every day it's prices up, rent up and of course unemployment up—l don't think the people are going to stand for it—it's not the 1920s and 1930s now, you know. 'Daily Mirror, May 1926: 'THE government cannot capitulate. It represents the nation and must refuse to be intimidated into surrender.' And in another editorial headed •Rally round the government', the paper said that 'for the average man and woman throughout the coun•. the call is "Carry on". Be prepared to assist in the work of maintaining supplies.' 'Daily Mirror, January 1972:

IT WILL be a tragedy if the miners' strike is allowed to drift into a long and savage fight to a finish. A tragedy for the miners and their families.

"They will face much hardship. They will get no strike pay. A tragedy for the country.' "The Times, May 1926: 'THE efforts to prevent a stoppage of the mining industry have failed. The responsibility rests with the miners because they declined to consider a reduction in wages.' And in an editorial on May 3, 1926: 'Unless counsels of domestic hung over this nation since the fall of the Stuarts? 'Sunday Times', January 1972: 'EVEN in the middle of a major war against inflation, on, His support for the miners is not entirely without an element of self-interest.

The power workers are at present at stage two of their own claim and like the miners they have had years of savage redundancy and The biggest department in the industry now is 'management services', , the so called eficiency experts whose basic job is to scheme away how to get rid of men whatever the cost.

At Portobello at the present time the enginers are fighting against a bid to merge the mechanical engineers and the electrical engineers.

'Workers are all facing the same attacks. Really it's not the miners' strike, it's our strike — we're all under the Tory hammer so let's get fighting,' was Mr • Vicker's final message.

they •and the miners' strike is peculiarly tragic.

Now that the strike is on, any bargaining to end it will have to start afresh. The offer lapsed when it was rejected. If the stoppage lasts as long as the miners are predicting, some marginal pits are likely to close.

Its long-term effect on jobs will be considerably worse than the effect of the futile post office workers' strike' 'Morning Star', January 14, 1972: •WITH solidarity and unity we can make this a short and successful strike which will win miners' immediate demands. We can also strike a blow against the Tory gov. ernment which will speed the day when it is defeated and replaced by a government which will take the side of the workers and not the millionaires.' Communist Party statement, May 5, 1926: 'THE Communist Party warns the workers against the attempt being made to limit the struggle to its previous character of self-defence against the capitalist offenSive. Once the battle has been joined, the only way to victory is to push ahead and hit 'Not a penny off the pay. Not a second on the day! Nationalize the mines without compensation under workers' control.' VEV A SLOW-MOVING trough is expected to lie N to S over western districts.

N Ireland, S Wales and SW England will be cloudy with occasional rain at first. It will become brighter with some showers later. Western districts of England and Scotland will remain cloudy with occasional rain. Eastern the pit.

'There's a lad at Cwm now, dying on his feet. He's gasping. I expeced. But he keeps • day to hear on because there's no other work round here.' Far from lessening coal dust in the mines, new machines, introduced in the past ten years-disc-cutters, power-loaders and even electric fans-have made conditions much worse.

Cliff told me: "The machines cut small coal like cobbles, so the dust is very fine. Now that we've got electric fans the dust is circulated all round the face and up and down the supply roads.' In the last five years new labour-saving machines been used to force up productivity.

As Cliff says, it's all such a rush today.

•Water helps keep the dust down but they won't use enough of it. Often they don't use any at all.

•Machines are very expensive and all electric down the sides-too much water and they could be knocked out or sink into the pit floor?

But the price fgr this ruthless drive for productivity and profits is high in men's lives. Cliff first went into the pits in 1930. 'It was total darkness. You might as well have shut your eyes.

'There were 30 to 40 men Erle Williams Is 63. Off work for a year, he has 20 per cont