David Peace - GB84

Monday 24 — Sunday 30 September 1984

He has the introduction. The connection. He makes the call. The appointment –

The Mechanic drives North. Far North. Into Scotland –

The dogs in the back.

He takes the A66 from Scotch Corner to Penrith. The A74 from Carlisle to Glasgow. Thenthe A82 all the waypastGlencoe –

Towards the General. In his castle on Loch Linnhe.

The President had met the Leader of the Labour Party. The President and the Leader had had constructive discussions. The President was to speak at the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool next week –

The President would speak, and this time they would listen –

The whole country would listen now.

The Dock Strike might be over. There might be other court actions –

But NACODS had rendered all these things academic.

NACODS were set to strike. Power cuts were but weeks away –

General Winter on the march, and so was his namesake.

Terry picked up the phone on his desk. Click-click . Terry dialled Bath –

‘It’s almost over, love,’ said Terry. ‘Please come home.’

Then Terry hung up. Click-click. Then Terry picked it up again. Click-click.

*

The footsteps in the dark corridor. The knock at the door. The turn of the handle –

The news he dreaded. The news they all dreaded:

The NACODS men at Sutton have voted for strike action by 90 per cent –

‘Ninety per cent!’ screams the Jew. ‘It’s the most moderate pit in the country!’

The Jew blames the Chairman for this. The Jew hates the Chairman for this –

It was the Chairman who had threatened these men with the sack –

The Jew wonders sometimes who really pays the Chairman’s wages –

Moscow or Margaret?

The telephones start to ring. The faxes start to come –

More footsteps in the corridor. More knocks at the door. Turns of the handle –

There will be no safety cover when NACODS strike. There can be no mining without safety cover. There will be no mining, so there can be no working miners. There will be noworking miners, so there can be nocoal –

‘No fucking coal!’ shouts the Jew. ‘No fucking coal!’

The Jew throws his biscuit tins across his office –

The blue pins. The yellow pins.

‘He will have won!’ shrieks the Jew. ‘He will have fucking won!’

The Jew falls to the floor beneath the huge, crooked map of the British coalfield –

The map covered only in red pins.

‘He will have won and we will have lost!’ screams the Jew. ‘Lost!’

The Jew sobs. The Jew weeps –

‘Everything will be ruined,’ whispers the Jew. ‘Ruined.’

His men come for the Mechanic at the Ballachulish Hotel. His men march into the bar in uniform. His men march the Mechanic out. His men put the Mechanic in the backof a Land-Rover. Hismenblindfold the Mechanic. His men drive the Mechanic away from the Ballachulish Hotel. His men stop to open metal gates. His men leave the roads marked on maps. His men speak into radios. His men talk in codes. His men stop to open another metal gate. His men drive uphill. His men slow down. His men come to a dead stop. His men remove the Mechanic’s blindfold. His men open the back of the Land-Rover. His men order the Mechanic out. His men lead the Mechanic through a training camp. His men march the Mechanic into a castle. Through the courtyard. Up the stairs. To stand before his door. His men knock. His men leave –

The door opens.

Today is the day –

The day of the decisions. The decisions that will determine the dispute –

The day the Jew is nowhere to be seen.

Neil Fontaine knocks again on the double-doors of the Jew’s suite on the fourth floor of Claridge’s. Neil Fontaine unlocks the doors and enters the suite. He walks across the deep carpet. He pulls back the heavy curtains –

The Jew’s bed is bare. The sheets wrenched. The blankets perverted.

Neil Fontaine walks across the deep carpet to the bathroom door –

The deep, damp carpet.

Neil Fontaine stands in the stain outside the bathroom and bangs upon the door –

Neil Fontaine kicks in the door.

The Jew lies naked on the tiles of his bathroom on the fourth floor of Claridge’s.

Neil Fontaine wraps his waxen body in the monogrammed towels and holds him –

The Jew opens his eyes. He looks up at Neil. The Jew asks, ‘Did we win, Neil?’

‘There’s good news and there’s bad,’ says Neil Fontaine.

‘The bad news first, please, Neil.’

‘It did happen,’ says Neil Fontaine. ‘NACODS have voted to strike.’

The Jew nods. The Jew wipes the tears from his eyes. The Jew sniffs –

‘And the good news?’ he asks. ‘You did say there was some good news?’

‘Don and Derek are outside with Piers and Dominic,’ says Neil Fontaine.

The Jew sniffs again. The Jew squeezes his nose between his fingers and nods –

‘The show must go on, Neil,’ he says. ‘The show. Must. Go. On!’

Neil Fontaine goes back out into the corridor. He asks the four men to step inside. Tells them the Jew is feeling a little under the weather.

‘Maybe we can cheer him up,’ says Derek Williams.

‘Let’s hope so,’ says Neil Fontaine and opens the door for them.

Piers Harris and Dominic Reid lead the way. Don and Derek follow –

The Jew is sitting on the settee in his dressing-gown. The Jew says, ‘Welcome.’

Neil Fontaine sits the four men down. Neil Fontaine takes their orders –

Two gin and tonics. Two pints of bitter –

‘And a brandy for me,’ says the Jew. ‘A large one, please, Neil.’

The Jew turns to the men. His men . He says, ‘What news from the Inns of Court.’

‘The strike is unlawful in Derbyshire and unofficial in Yorkshire,’ says Piers.

Dominic nods. He says, ‘The judge did not order a ballot, though.’

‘Did the Union attend?’ asks the Jew.

Piers shakes his head. He says, “Their lawyer said they’d overlooked it.’

The Jew looks at Don and Derek. He asks, ‘Will you go to work on Monday?’

Derek looks at Don. Don looks at Derek –

Don and Derek both nod.

The Jew smiles at Don and Derek. The Jew looks at his watch. The Jew says, ‘Let’s see what Arthur Stalin has to say about that, then. Neil, the television, please.’

Neil Fontaine walks over to the TV. He switches on the Channel 4 News –

There he is. Bold as brass. Their president –

The Jew smiles. He picks up the remote control. He presses record on the video –

‘— I’m going to say this quite clearly: any miner in this Union and any official in this Union who urges or crosses a picket line in defiance of our Union’s instructions runs the risk of being disciplined. There is no High Court judge going to take away the democratic right of our Union to deal with internal affairs —’

The Jew presses stop. The Jew claps. The Jew applauds –

The Union would not accept the court’s decision. The Union insisted the strike was official –

Don Colby and Derek Williams would be scabs. Official.

The Jew looks over at Don and Derek again –

Don and Derek sitting on the fourth floor of Claridge’s with their two pints of bitter –

The Jew says, ‘That’s not very nice, is it?’

Don and Derek shake their heads and sip their pints of bitter.

The Jew looks over at Piers and Dominic with their two gin and tonics –

The Jew says, ‘That’s not strictly legal, either, is it?’