In order to ensure maximum participation in the fight and its victory, every struggie must be organised and waged in the most democratic way possible. In the 1972 miners' strike the lack of such democratic organisation led to a cripp ling weakness when the union leaders called off the pickets, thus effectively ending the strikebefore any decision had heen taken by the NUM members. This would never have happened if democratically elected strike and picket committees had been established. It would have been these committees which would have set up the pickets, decided when to call them off, and conducted the general running of the strike, whether to end it and so on.
Democratically elected strike committees together with frequent mass meetings must be established as the rule right at the beginning of the strike, for ell groups of workers engaged in struggle. The Glasgow firemen showed the way here since it was through these methods that they were able to obtain the solidarity necessary to win their great victory.