DEMANDS for action by the Labour government to end child poverty, end arms sales to Israel and abolish all Tory anti-trade union laws were cheered at the 138th Durham Miners’ Gala.
The gala crowd of tens of thousands roared on Saturday as speakers called on Labour to use its record 172-seat majority in the Commons to transform society for working people in Britain.
Speakers called on the government to end arms sales to Israel and Britain’s complicity in the continuing slaughter in Gaza.
The 138th Durham Miners’ Gala began with the traditional marching of dozens of proudly raised trade union and campaign banners and brass bands through the streets of the city to the gala field for Durham Miners’ Association’s (DMA) Big Meeting.
Steady drizzle did nothing to dampen the huge crowd’s enthusiasm for demands from trade union leaders and other speakers for radical change by Labour.
There were cheers — and boos — at the mention of the names of some of the most despised Tories booted out at the general election: Jacob Rees-Mogg, Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt among them.
The gala celebrated the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike against pit closures, and Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), praised the courage of the miners for the strike which he said “has been vindicated ever since.”
He said the strike had also seen the power of the state unleashed.
“They used the press to lie, the police to batter, the courts to lock people up for defending their jobs and communities,” he said.
He warned: “That was the message from the boss class in 1984-5.
“That is what they will do again. If we are to fight back we need to develop our plans with the same ruthlessness and organisation.”
Public-sector union Unison general secretary Christine McAnea said there were reasons for optimism with the new government — such as the ending of the Tories’ Rwanda deportation plan, and proposals for house building.
“As trade unions it is our job to keep pressing for more,” she said, including free school meals for all children and the creation of a “transformational” national care service.
DMA secretary Alan Mardghum said a public inquiry into “unprecedented” police violence at Orgreave should include: Who gave the orders? Who to? What were the orders? And “if necessary to proceed to prosecutions, because not one police officer or politician has been arrested, never mind prosecuted.”
“We demand — demand! — that that wrong is righted,” he said to cheers.
He called on the government to pardon in England and Wales the miners convicted during the 1984-5 strike, as has happened in Scotland, and an end to successive governments’ creaming billions of pounds from miners’ pension funds.
He demanded justice and compensation for Waspi women whose state pension age was raised from 60 to 66 which he said was “another example of corrupt Tories dipping into the pockets of other people.”
“Don’t tell me there is no money,” he said. “I am sick to death of people — politicians — saying there is no money, then in the next breath they are increasing arms spending. We can afford money to kill people but not to give people a safe and decent living. It is obscene lunacy.”
Train drivers’ union Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan called for the renationalisation of rail, water and utilities.
National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said the Tories had enabled millionaires to become billionaires and that 4,000 schools now operate foodbanks to feed hungry children while the profits of supermarket giant Tesco rose by 160 per cent and energy companies pocketed £420 billion.
“Do not tell us there is no money,” he said.
He warned Labour: “Cuts hurt kids. Labour cuts will hurt the same as Tory cuts and in our union we will confront with absolute vigour any attempt to fail to invest.”
