Goverment to work out some face-saving agreement which would allow them to call off the strike. Only the determinution of the Government prevented a sell-out much carlier.
The deadlock was broken by the intervention of Sit Herbert Samuel, chairman of the Royal Commission on the mines, He worked out a formula - basically a rehash of his Report which the TUC agreed to accept as the basis for calling off the strike. The miners refused to accept this, not surprisingly, since there PU-2772 raking mission. This was the type of incident which truck terror into the hearts of the TUC General ders control over transport and the movement of essential supplies: a decisive step on the road to class struggle through to a victorious conclusion. The creation of such a leadership out of the struggles in which the working class is engaged is an task facing all those who are fighting Council of Action? the class enemy rising essential once again. urgent and detention without trial.
Action come in Red Weekiy has often raised the slogan For the creation of Councils of Action'. Why do we see such bodies as so important now? What Is a A Council of Action is one of the most adranced forms of organisation which the working class movement can crealet an extraordinary committee of delegates from all working class organisations. What makes it so exceptional is that no workers organisation, be it political" or economic, is excluded, A Coatell of Actin represents the working class as a whole. It welds the class into a unified and cohesive force, allowing it to present a united face to URGENT NECESSITY Bodies like this become an urgent netessily when the workers" moscosent has to bind itself together to perform some decssive task. They have emerged in different times and places, for various purposes and under a variely of names. Sometimes they have been called soviets or workers councils They have heen Tormed to seize and run factories, fight an election, or conduct an arined upIn Britain they have been called Councils of Action and were formed in 1926 to conduct the general strike. Today in Britain a general strike is needed to beat back the Tory offensive, and Councils of Action become It is easy to see why such a body is necessary to organise workers in a general strike. The capitalists know perfectly well that a general strike is an all-out struggle, and that their future depends on the outcome, All the re sources of the capitalist state are accordingly centralised to fight against the strikers Thousands of scabs are recruited, thousands uf civilianis made into special constables", the police forces re-equipped and turned into shock trops and the atmy mobilised. The Government takes wide emergency powen to commandeer butlding, printing presses. factories and transport to use against the strike, and assumes wide powers of arrest In short, the state is placed or a war footing A general strike can only be successful if the working class can uchieve un equivalent level of organisation and B able to counter the various strike breaking moves made by a highly cent ralised enemy. This is where the Councils of food rationing system, and the supervision of food supplies to stop black markereering are all tasks the strikers themselves undertook In many districts no private transport of any kind was allowed to run, excepr that which recened a permit from the Council of Action. All cransport was inspected by the workers to casure that to matertal were transporled to industries run by scabs.
This type of operation is something which can only he planned and orginned by a central body such as a Counci of Achion, to wich all the strikers owe their allegiance. Al the same time, the Council of Action can caly acquire He necessary anthority in the eyes of he population at large. at it is able to establish its mule in the streets, and make its rules and regulations cffective?
This can only he done by the centralised organisation of picket squads Thousands uf pickets have to be orgunised. not just to stop Teres or scabs going in and out of the factones, hut to control and patrol the man Toade themselves. The detence of these pickets against the podice requires the creaton ofa Worker Defence Corps, These must be under the control of a central authority. must be mobile, and must he able to lake or Large bodies of police on their own berms, In 1926, the police were forced to have » healths respect for such bodies in many areas, and thrit presence was an important factor in averting wadespread bloodshed BACKBONE OF WORKERS STATE These are not the only tacks of a Council of Action. Is 1926 some Cousch wi:
calions between one town and e fixing up entertarements foe the striken Ideally, the Council would be elected by democratic strike committees or on the basts of mass elections by the entire body of the striken, but this seldom happened in 1926 i can sadily be soca why the trade unles Stint to embak on a second gesctal strike. The Com to be effectine, must levohe the man of stnico in day-to-day decision making. Bu this zakes the striken feel they want to take direct responsihility for the outcome of Cre strike. The strike can tapidly pet out of the control of the trade union leaders, und resistance to any compromise settlement can grow by the hour Sécondly, the Council of Action is much more than a body which expresses the opinions of thi strikers. An we have seen, it can only organine the strike electively, if it seeks to become the sole public authority in a city, town or district, elbowing aside the bourgeois state authorities. "This is why Councils of Action, If they were united nationaily and counterposed their authcaity to that of the hourgeois Govergment and Parkatient, could begone the fourdation stone of the socialist re-alution, and he backbone et a worken tate.
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