Info letter number 4 of the 2nd International Miners Coordination
Dear colleagues, dear comrades, The 3rd meeting of the "International Coordination Group" (ICG) took place from June 3 to June 6. We want to inform you about the most important results.
The meeting took place in a situation where the attacks against the miners and the masses are increasing all over the world. Hard worker fights like the general strike of the Peruvian miners, the independent strike of the miners of Ukraine, the train blockade of the miners in Harlan County/USA, the underground strike of the Bosnian miners or the strike of 15.000 miners in South Africa for weeks. More and more the miners and the masses of the people join forces.
We are dealing internationally with a right-wing development of many imperialist governments, which, although their main method of government is still mostly bourgeois democracy, are increasingly turning to an open internal and external reaction. The unevenness of economic development is intensifying and there are increasing signs of a new global economic and financial crisis. Germany is in transition to an economic crisis, which is likely to initiate the transition to a global economic crisis. The growth rates of the global economy are declining.
New structural crises are developing on the basis of the introduction of e-mobility and the digitalisation of production, trade, communication and society. There is merciless international competition in the transition to e-mobility and China in particular has competitive advantages here. In England, Spain and Germany hard coal mining has now been discontinued, in Poland cold closures are being carried out and planned by merging hard coal mines.
In Germany the miners and large parts of the population did not and do not agree with the closures of the coal mines, but mass struggles like the one in Spain in 2017 were prevented by the rulers by telling the miners that everything was "socially acceptable". The coal company in Germany has switched to layoffs, which has been avoided here in the country to keep "calm" for the closure process. Against it resistance forms among the mates, in addition, against the closing politics of the RAG, which wants to leave burnt earth. The buddies and the population do not want to watch how the toxic waste and PCBs stored underground get into the groundwater. Mines in the Donbas in Ukraine are also being flooded, threatening nature and health. The fight against it unites us. In the meantime there have been 6 demonstrations in the Ruhr area against the machinations of the RAG in which Kumpel participated for AUF. We need both jobs and environmental protection!
The militant miners' movement lives what we see in Peru, where the general strike of the miners is going on. That shows on the one hand the effect by the establishment of the international miner coordination and that the union of the miners there, since the 1st IMC progressed. We organized the solidarity and there came worldwide solidarity addresses to the Peruvian miners.
Also the miners who block a coal train in Harlan County/Kentucky in the USA to claim their outstanding wages wrote on our solidarity declaration "The letter is very motivating for our miners. We put it on our facebook page. We thank you for your support and solidarity. The miners thank you."
The sharpened struggle of more and more imperialist competitors for the world market is a basis for the tendency to imperialist war preparation. The military conflicts between China and the USA, in the Near and Middle East, as well as between Russia and Ukraine, but also the threats of military intervention in Venezuela and the putsch-like imperialist interference against the growing influence of China and Russia on Venezuela are unpredictable in their effects. The US government under Donald Trump shakes the imperialist power structure with its provocative course of punitive tariffs in the trade war with China and its troop deployment against Iran.
The transition to a global environmental catastrophe is accelerating, as the new UN environmental report on the extinction of species shows. Never before in the history of mankind has the extent of extinction been so great: (1 million species out of 7 million are on the verge of extinction). The dramatic extinction of species calls for active resistance! Worldwide, several million people took part in the protest and action day of the youth, workers and environmental movement on 20 September. In Germany, miners were actively involved in the Friday for Future activities in some towns in the Ruhr area and were enthusiastically welcomed by young people, children, parents, women and environmentalists.
The workers' movement sent a signal that it takes responsibility for the consistent protection of the environment from the profit economy. The workers must not let themselves be played off against the environmental movement in the struggle for their jobs and become consistent environmental fighters themselves. The miners have a special responsibility here. On the one hand, because they extract raw materials which are the basis of life for the most part. On the other hand, they mostly stand in front in the fights and have an exemplary function within the workers and the population. That is why working, living conditions and the natural protection of the environment play a special role. The militant miners' movement should position itself in its countries against the production of energy from fossil raw materials in accordance with our international struggle programme and, for example, support the preservation and use of coal as a valuable raw material. The workers and their families need water and air to breathe.
The miners fight with great severity for their jobs, for better working and living conditions, against attacks on their trade union and democratic rights - they also learn to distinguish friend and foe and 'right' friends from 'wrong' ones. They also get to know their opponent, the world's highly organised capitalism and their governments better. These experiences must come together to become a superior force and to build the international labour unit.
The forthcoming Continental Conferences serve this purpose. We want to advance this process, develop the self-confidence of the militant miners as part of the more than 20 million miners worldwide, and promote the international exchange of ideas and experiences. When the miners stomp, something moves - we have to be united, organized and many! We want to work together on this and advance the coordination of miners internationally!
The meeting expressed the great progress and a positive development of international miners' coordination since the 2nd International Miners' Conference. Present were the members of the International Coordination Group from Congo, Morocco, Peru, Poland and Germany. Unfortunately, the representative from the Philippines was unable to attend the meeting. The representative from India could not attend because of national tasks and we had no contact to the representatives from Kazakhstan and Colombia with the ICG members in advance.
The following main decisions were taken at the 3rd meeting of the International Coordination Group:
In the unanimous final resolution, which we attach to the info letter, the coordinators state that the international corporations like Glencore are intensifying their attacks on the miners. The reduction of the pension level of miners in many countries is to be discussed internationally with the struggle program of international miners coordination. The final resolution calls for the fight for the protection of water to be dealt with at the forthcoming European and all continental conferences. Because internationally the mining companies ruthlessly poison the water. Water is vital for people and for their survival on the planet. According to our self-conception as international miners' coordination, the international miners' coordination commits itself to support the miners' struggles for their wages, for the release and against the murder of miners, against dismissals etc. with full force, to learn from them and to pass on the experiences and lessons to all miners of the world.
For the binding and principled work of the International Coordination Group (ICG), rules of procedure were unanimously adopted.
Germany was chosen as the venue for the 3rd International Miners' Conference.
In order to establish the structure of continental coordination and regional coordination, the following resolutions were passed that the ICG members work 2019 and 2020 for the financing of the continental/regional conferences.
For the International Conference of Automobile Workers in South Africa in February 2022, the Africa Coordinators will prepare a welcoming address which will be sent to all ICG members for approval during the round trip in mid-January.
We call on you:
- Become a member of the International Miners Coordination!
- Spread the battle program and the calls of the International Miners' Coordination!
To the common struggle of the miners worldwide, for a future worth living!
With a heartfelt Glück Auf
International Coordination Group of the International Miners' Coordination
September 2019