The Libyan version
41-can confirm that the Libyan Trade A.Unions will contribute substantial cash to enable you to win the struggle against
Mrs Thatcher the American Lackey. We shall make sure that the money is sent to you in a foreign bank account.' Who could have said such an incredibly damaging thing but Gaddafi himself, ' on Libyan television. That the Daily Mirror should have printed it is a measure Of the revul- sion that Mr Scargill's previous antics have aroused. The British Government, after all, would buy without hesitation coal mined in Russia if that would help to break the strike — and rightly. Contact with revolting regimes abroad is not the priv- ilege of only one side in this dispute. But it is not until you hear the Libyan version that the full lunacy of Scargill's war becom- es apparent. Gaddafi told the Mirror that Mr Windsor had told him how the workers were forced to live in 'poverty and in- human conditions. He talked of huge queues for food, and that women and children were being starved to death.
. .What is happening in Britain is a scandal. Children are dying, five workers have been killed' (two of them were actually on strike) '3,000 injured, and 7,000 put in jail.' This is not really very different from Mr Scargill's version of the strike for home consumption, but he has been going on for so long that one no longer hears how absurd he is. But what could the Libyans have made of it? Your earnest Libyan trade unionist, as he rushes to fulfil the Leader's promise to supply substantial cash, must wonder how the American Lackey Thatcher has managed to resist 80,000 'workers' (the workers are the ones on strike) for eight months with- out killing more than five of them. Very odd. Perhaps the answer is to be found in the green books that Colonel Gaddafi pressed on Mr Windsor, one for each member of the executive.
According to Mr Peter. Heathfield, Egypt is high on the list of countries which NUM representatives intend to visit. After the furore created by Mr Roger Windsor's trip to Libya, the NUM might be well advised to pause before despatch- ing one of its officials to Cairo. For strikes are no more legal in Egypt than they are in Libya. Indeed, strike organisers can be sent to prison for as long as 20 years. A while ago there was in effect a strike by Suez Canal pilots, but this was achieved by subterfuge. They all decided to be ill on the same day.
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