Politics for People

It is absolutely appropriate that this National Assembly for Wales marks the final shift being worked last Friday at the last deep mine in Wales at Tower Colliery, Hirwaun in the Cynon Valley. Indeed it would be a dereliction of our political duty if we did not mark such a significant event, not primarily because it is the end of an era, but because the Tower Colliery as the last deep mine also became the first employee-owned deep mine in Wales and probably among the world's coal-mines.

Tower therefore is simultaneously the last throw of the dice of the old Wales as well as the first throw of the dice of the new Wales; the new Wales which we aspire to embody as a democratically elected Assembly, because the Tower Colliery workers buy-out preceded the formation of the Assembly by two or three years but embodied a willingness to take control of our own destiny and to take the responsibility for your own future, for saving your own jobs, for saving your own community, your own Valley, and your own industry.

Making a success of it despite all the difficult geological conditions that Tower was notorious for, not falling flat on your face but accepting that you might fall flat on your face and there wouldn't be anyone else to blame if you did - but that you would and should get the credit for having a go - that is what this collective act of industrial enterprise was all about. That is also a key part of Wales growing up as a nation - a more self-confident nation. It is a bonus in a way, that they actually did make a success of it and only closed last week for want of any coal left to mine. That was what was so important in our development as a country with the guts and confidence to take risks and make and take responsibility for our own decisions.

Tower Colliery is in another sense a harbinger not just of the end of Wales the country that gave the world as much as anywhere on this earth, the first wave of the Industrial Revolution. It will also be the base of a major urban regeneration plan since the Tower surface site extends to almost 500 acres and we intend to work with Tower to oversee that transformation to a new urban village.

Likewise with the price of coal being so high and the world short of energy, Tower's miners who want to continue mining and the reclaimable machinery from underground will be transformed to the maximum degree possible to drift mine development over the mountain in the Neath Valley.

Old King Coal may be dead, but New King Clean Coal certainly has a sustainable future. In the meantime, it is right and proper that we pay our tribute to the 239 miners led by Tyrone O'Sullivan who had the courage to sink their redundancy money into reopening the pit they knew better than the old NCB management, and made a success of it until they ran out of coal. We say to you all on behalf of all the people of Wales: Mission Impossible Achieved! You're a shining example to all of us in Wales.

Labels: co-operatives, employee ownership, mining, Rhodri Morgan, Wales