Striking miner addresses Newcastle Green Left dinner

Striking miner addresses Newcastle Green Left dinner

By Jane Beckmann

NEWCASTLE -- More than 60 people attended the October 17 Green Left Weekly dinner to raise money for the paper. The highlight of the dinner was Ross Peters, the CFMEU lodge president at the Hunter Valley No 1 coal mine, who spoke about the miners' struggle against mining multinational Rio Tinto.

Peters described the Hunter Valley miners' determination to maintain the picket line and not give in to Rio Tinto. This struggle, he said, has been going on for over two years and is about maintaining conditions that have been hard fought for. It is not a fight about money.

To date only eight of more than 400 miners have left the union and signed individual contracts. The union aims to win these workers back because, as Peters emphasised, Rio Tinto will not look after them and the union will.

A Filipina member of the audience spoke about her father, a mine worker in the Philippines working for $2 a day. She had been in Britain during the 1984-85 British miners' strike and spoke about the importance of maintaining unity because the company and government will try to divide and rule the strikers. She was applauded when she called for support for the miners.

A rally organised by Trades Hall Council will be held on October 21 at noon at the Newcastle Workers Club.

The dinner was held at the Greek Socrates Club and featured a menu of delicious Greek food prepared by members of the Greek community. It was attended by a wide range of activists including feminists, environmentalists, trade unionists and students.

This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page.
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