THE STRANGE CASE OF FRED CROOME

F RED CROOME is the delegate from Calverton pit likely to be here that the NCB would try to make a fight to the Nottinghamshire area council of the National in the event of a national stoppage.

Union of Mineworkers. He attended the national For the miners in the east Midland division the NCB policy industrial rank-and-file Conference called by The News- of obtaining cheaply a strictly limited supply of coal means more sweat and toil and less in the wage packet at the end letter last November in a personal capacity. of it.

In giving support to the Conference he wrote a statement The report of this section of the NCB for 1958 shows that outlining his view that such a conference was made necessary the production of coal in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Notby the threat of unemployment in the coal-fields. This statetinghamshire was held to within 1,250,000 tons of 1957 despite ment was published in the Rank-and-File Special issued as a the loss of the Saturday shift from last April. supplement to The Newsletter on October 25, 1958.

Area no. 6, which is mainly around Nottingham, dropped Some opponents of the Conference interpreted ‘delegate’ as only 3,000 tons, about .05 per cent. meaning that Mr Croome was a delegate to the Conference.

Two new pits are to open at Cotgrave and Bevercotes, and No such suggestion was ever made, by him or anybody else. these are expected to be turning out soft coal and gas-making coal by 1960. v At many other pits schemes for opening new seams and for the increased use of machines are going ahead, making WERE NOT FOOLED. The Newsletter inserted in the Notthe east Midland division one of the most mechanized areas tingham Evening Post an advertisement stating that any suggestion that his attendance at the Conference was in any- in the country. thing other than a personal capacity was quite untrue. At the same time manpower has been slashed by 1,850 But the leading officials of the Nottinghamshire area were during 1958, a reduction of 1.8 per cent. Despite this, output not fooled by this. They know all about these subversive per man per shift has increased to 38 cwts in the division agitators—haven’t they two leading Communist Party mem- as a whole, and as high as 43 cwts at one colliery. bers to advise them?

And they subjected Fred Croome to a most monstrous Vv campaign of trial by Press statement. They were given space in every Nottinghamshire paper, large or small, to launch an ATTACKS ON EARNINGS. There have been general attack on the one man who had dared to say that the danger attacks on the piece-work earnings of underground men, the of unemployment in the coal-field was very great, and who net effect of which has been to wipe out the increase of 7s. 6d. had dared to set out to discuss this with other militant gained last year.

One underground worker at Calverton told me that out of :

Suitably juicy bits about communism were released to the a week’s work on ‘packing’ his gang of six men had each news agencies, and these bodies proceeded to besiege Fred received an abnormality bonus of 10s. for the week. The Croome’s house and make his life one long nightmare—all average bonus is usually 6s. to 8s. per shift. in the best traditions of the ‘free’ Press. Another man at the same colliery said he had been told « Finally Fred Croome was solemnly censured by the Notting- that the drawing-off rate was going to be reduced by 2s. for hamshire area council, and threatened with loss of his liveli- every hundred yards. -hood if he ever again dared to speak out. Asked what the men proposed to do about it, these colliers replied that their first reaction was: ‘No use taking it to the Vv bloody union.’

There has been a similar reaction at Blidworth pit, where RUMBLE OF ANGER. This kind of witch-hunt has nothing the day-rate men are very bitter about their low earnings. to do with supposed communism, Trotskyism or any other Three months ago this pit went on record with a vote of ‘ism’.

Its meaning becomes clear when you put your ear to the no confidence in the president and secretary of the Nottingground in Nottinghamshire and hear the rumble of anger hamshire Miners’ Union. at the things being done by the National Coal Board in the Today the miners there are asking: ‘How can any progress interest of ‘productivity’ and ‘economy’. be made when those at the top are working against you?’ A quarter of the nation’s coal is produced within thirty-five Those at the top being the union leadership. miles of the Nottinghamshire miners’ headquarters, and it is Spencerism is not dead in the Nottinghamshire coal-field, Meanwhile, though business confidence was strong, the con- A movement towards restocking, new investment called ditions existed for a worsening of the economic decline— for by the activity in the consumer goods industries, a foreign excess capacity, underemployed labour, satiated markets, trade revival—these could do the trick. falling new investment. In that event the unresolved problems of the expansion It is unlikely that a severe crisis could have been averted would merely have been shelved and another, more virulent, without the U.S. recovery. Now, during the first half of 1959, recession could be expected within two or three years. the economy will be poised between further recession and A higher unemployment average, chronic excess capacity incipient recovery—with the latter extremely sensitive to the and increased sensitivity to crisis can probably be expected state of world markets. to accompany any such revival.

With the new measures to free sterling held by foreigners * * * the internal position is tied more closely to the fluctuations AFTER seven months, in which not one outstanding of international trade and currency movements.

problem of French capitalism has been solved, de In the absence of new depressive factors the recession may be brought to a halt before it becomes severe. There is still Gaulie has made his leap. And it is clear that his choice considerable momentum derived from the boom, and _pros- is of the purest economic orthodoxy. perity still prevails in many sectors of the economy. It could scarcely have been different had it been designed but it has been made respectable and accepted into the fold.* In the 1920s Spencerism went along with the miners’ struggles so long as defeat was not certain, then sold out for a local settlement.

Today the local union members talk about fighting, about the seven-hour day, about stopping compensation payments, about opposition to the pit closures.

Vv NO LABOUR SHORTAGE. But when Fred Croome sets out to do something about precisely these things he is all but thrown out of the union and out of the pits.

When the Derbyshire pits begin to close, as they are scheduled to do in the next few years, there will be no shortage of skilled labour, which the NCB will try to use to drive down the conditions in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

If the union officials now lead the field in persecuting militant workers can they be trusted to defend workers who are on strike in the future?

Such activities can only help the NCB to force the Nottinghamshire miners to accept worse conditions of employment.

No doubt the Nottinghamshire miners’ leaders will hotly deny that they think along these lines. If they are sincere about this, then let them reverse the censure motion on Fred Croome. Otherwise the miners will draw the conclusion that Spencerism is due to return.

Vv A MILITANT FIGHTER. The Newsletter salutes Fred Croome as a militant fighter for the working class.

He is not a communist, but a sincere supporter of Labour. He would deserve our respect just as much if he were a member of the Communist Party, and were being witch-hunted for that.

The attack on him is a slur on the Nottinghamshire miners which can be put right only by forcing the officials to withdraw the censure motion and the threat of expulsion.

A blow against Fred Croome is a blow aimed at the head of any militant miner who dares to get up and challenge the officials. This extension of the witch-hunt must be firmly resisted.

* After the defeat of the General Strike and the miners’ strike in 1926, a breakaway ‘non-political’ union was formed in the Nottinghamshire coalfield under the leadership of a Right-wing official named Spencer. This union survived as an independent body until 1937. ‘Spencerism’ was the term used for tendencies towards ‘non-political’ unionism among miners generally, not only in Nottinghamshire. being put on past politicians, and with insinuations that it is the fault of the British—the intention of the new policy is plain.

Weak, parliamentary government could not reconcile the deeply-divided interests of different sections of French capitalism, nor could it impose a policy of austerity without the risk of strong popular opposition.

Now the strong State speaks in the interests of the strong, though through the mouth of the general and in the name of national greatness.

Hold down the consumption of the people in order to enable accumulation to go ahead. Strengthen the competitive power of French industry by driving down real wages. Balance the budget at the expense of the social services and education. But keep the Algerian war going.

The socialists’ policy of collaboration, and the compromises of the Communist Party, have helped de Gaulle to put these measures across easily.

These ‘workers’ parties’ have, in fact, bound the workers hand and foot, stultified and stupified them.

They have thus made it possible for de Gaulle to go about his task of trying to overcome the problems of French capitalism without the workers being able to intervene at once. The full fruits of the defeat of last May can now be seen.

The effect which the measures themselves will have cannot easily be foreseen; they are a gamble upon which de Gaulle has staked his reputation.

Big industry will benefit In essence they seek to carry forward the half-complete and one-sided modernization of the French economy which has been going forward under pressure since the war.

The main beneficiaries are big industry and big finance: the less efficient, more backward sectors of the economy will have to look after themselves.

Under the influence of Pleven and Baumgartner the siren voices of the expansionists at all costs have been rejected. For one thing it would mean a haphazard development with continued inflation, and with. no prospect of disentangling French finances from dependence upon outside influence.

But still the choice is a gamble. It could mean a damper on expansion and the growth of the still slight recessionist influences. , It depends upon retaining the support of middle-class people and peasants, whose interests may be adversely affected.

It takes big risks with future international trends and, if they prove adverse, could merely aggravate the balance of payments problem.

Above all it counts on the passivity of the French working class, Perhaps, as in 1955, a big movement will develop in the next year or two, apart from and even against the machines of the trade unions and ‘workers’ parties’. This would signal a real renaissance of socialism in France.

HOW RACE-HATE CAMPAIGNS SPLIT