Tyrone O'Sullivan speaks on the Miners Strike of 1984-85 1/5 скачать в хорошем качестве

Tyrone O'Sullivan speaks on the Miners Strike of 1984-85 1/5

Tyrone O'Sullivan, Secretary of Tower Colliery NUM during the great Miners' Strike of 1984-85, speaks here as a committed socialist on May Day 2014 about the strike, the events that led up to it and the need for trade union militancy, solidarity and internationalism today. The public meeting, called by the Socialist Party, took place at the Maldron Hotel in Cardiff. Below is the text of the press release that was issued before the meeting. "There are those who are making television programmes and giving interviews now saying that the miners were the architects of their own downfall -- or blaming Arthur Scargill. Those are lies. The truth has got to be told. We had to fight. "We were forced into the strike by the Tory Party, who were supported by the likes of Neil Kinnock, because he feared the strength of working people as much as the Tories did. We scared the hell out them, because we didn't just fight for ourselves, we supported others as well, in this country and internationally. "In the 1970s working people were strong. We were moving society in the right direction. Because of the defeat of the miners, Thatcher -- in her role with Reagan -- was able to set the world back 40 years. All the work the miners had done supporting struggles in this country -- and in countries like Nicaragua and South Africa -- was set back. The Tories won and they changed the world. "Of course when Thatcher beat Scargill, she didn't beat the miners. What she didn't realise was that in Wales -- to take our case -- there were 22 Scargills, 44 Scargills in the pits. When the strike ended, we didn't go away. "We were the lucky ones in Tower. We carried on after the strike just as before. We kept fighting. We kept travelling all over the country -- we kept supporting others -- and when other pits closed, the best people came to Tower, the men who wouldn't take redundancy. By closing all those pits, the Tories accidentally gave Tower the best army in the world and that's why we were the last pit in South Wales." "In Tower, we always used May Day to invite people from the other pit areas -- Durham, Yorkshire, Kent -- down to a dinner and a march in Aberdare. We always used that opportunity to talk politics and bring all the areas of the NUM together. In 1984, the very year the strike started, Nottingham was meant to be coming down. If we'd only had them down the year before, history might have been different. "We need to explain the lessons of the Miners Strike to this generation, so that they are prepared for the battles of today. Others may change, but I don't. I still have the beliefs I always had -- and always will have."