The Miners Battle

Source: The Communist, November 5, 1921.
Publisher: Communist Party of Great Britain
Transcription/Markup: Brian Reid
Proofreader: David Tate
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

“The Miners’ Conflict with the Mineowners”
John Thomas
International Bookshop, Ltd.
8d.

GEORGE BARKER, in his foreword to this admirable pamphlet says: “I know very few pamphlets which contain so much information in so little space. With this opinion every reader must concur. The history of the Coal-Miners’ Struggle is given compactly, and whenever possible by quotations from official documents. Statistics are given of wages, prices, and profits, and of the destination of the products of British Coal Mines both before and since the Peace Treaty. It is in this respect and indispensable companion to the essay of Walton Newbold given in a recent issue of the COMMUNIST.

The stages of the struggle are outlined with admirable clarity up to the crowning horror of Black Friday and the surrender which was its aftermath. The author identifies himself with the point-of-view of the rank and file and concludes thus:—

“The walls of Capitalism, unlike those of Jericho of yore, will not crumble at the blast of big trumpets blown by big leaders. Capitalism will only fall when undermined by powerful rank and file organisations making united assaults upon it. The loyalty and sacrifice of miners during the lock out is an earnest of the spirit needed to win ultimate victory for the members of the working class.”