World Notes Britain

Arthur Scargill, the bellicose president of Britain's National Union of Mineworkers, makes no secret of his Marxist leanings. He even solicited financial support from the Soviets during the miners' 51-week strike that collapsed last March. Just before the union's annual conference in Sheffield last week, the Scargill-dominated N.U.M. executive board reaffirmed its Soviet connection by announcing the selection of 20 miners to attend the Higher Trade Union School in Moscow this fall. The 20, the second N.U.M. group to be sent to the Soviet school, will take a four-week course emphasizing the link between socialism and the labor movement.

The overwhelming majority of delegates also demonstrated the resentment many miners feel toward Prime Minister Thatcher's Conservative government and the National Coal Board. They approved a motion to congratulate the leadership for its handling of the disastrous strike and made a rule change enabling Scargill to remain president of the N.U.M. for life. British Energy Secretary Peter Walker has condemned the union's actions, warning that "every miner who values the freedom this country offers and has no desire to turn Britain into a Communist state should recognize what the mineworkers' conference is all about."