Police clashes were also common as tensions grew between miners and police. Margaret Thatcher and her conservative government came into power and wanted to move Britain forward. https://www.youtube.com/embed/8n8BeD6fkwc?controls=0. The decision was taken by a delegates' conference and not authorised by an individual ballot. [18]:251252 The Morning Star was the only national daily newspaper that consistently supported the striking miners and the NUM. [85] Ted McKay, the North Wales secretary who supported a national ballot before strike action, said he had received death threats and threats to kidnap his children. The comradeship of miners developed underground continued about ground slaking their thirst in the Miners Welfare, playing football or rugby, meeting local girls at the Welfare or rugby club. Never to cross a picket line was a question of honour. [19]:161162 When the number of strikebreakers increased in August, Merrick Spanton, the NCB personnel director, said he expected NACODS members to cross picket lines to supervise their work threatening the 1972 agreement which led to a second ballot. The worst insults were used against strike-breakers blacklegs, scabs and at the limit violence was used against them. [19]:6162 Ollerton Colliery closed for a few days as a mark of respect for Jones. It was compared to the return to work led by George Spencer in Nottinghamshire during the 1926 coal strike, but Nottinghamshire had gone on strike alongside other regions in 1972 and 1974. The National Recording Centre (NRC), founded by the Association of Chief Police Officers for England and Wales (ACPO) in 1972 helped the government prepare for the organisation of police units travelling to areas of protests and in figuring out how to deal with flying pickets (strikers who travelled to different areas to protest). Dick Gaughan released a mixture of old and new songs on his LP True and Bold. There were 15 British Coal deep mines left in production at the time of privatisation,[110] but by March 2005, there were only eight deep mines left. [23], In the more militant mining areas, strikebreakers were reviled and never forgiven for betraying the community. The strike started in Yorkshire, and he was not present at the delegate Council meeting in Barnsley. The Miners' Strike in Scotland 1984-1985 In March 1984, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) called for its members to strike against 20 planned pit closures by the National Coal Board (NCB), a state agency under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government. [18]:157158 On 25 May, a writ issued in the High Court by Colin Clark from Pye Hill Colliery, sponsored by Hart, was successful in forbidding the Nottinghamshire area from instructing that the strike was official and to be obeyed. Match. [19]:161162 Ian MacGregor suggested that deputies could be replaced by outsiders as Ronald Reagan had done during the 1981 airline strike. In November 1984, it was alleged that senior NUM officials had travelled to Libya for money. There was also criticism of police action at the Battle of Orgreave in June 1984 where policemen were caught on camera seemingly using excessive force against strikers. ", Peter, Gibbon. [124], In 2021 Peter Fahy, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, argued the policing of the strike was politically motivated and "took policing a long time to recover" from, and warned that the proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill risked drawing policing into politics once more.[125]. In 1983, Thatcher appointed Ian MacGregor to head the National Coal Board. [19]:5960 News of his death led to hundreds of pickets staying in Ollerton town centre overnight. Livingstone, Ken (2011). [19]:161162 Its constitution required a two-thirds majority for a national strike. His speech developed into an argument with hecklers who saw him as having betrayed the NUM by failing to support the strike. They attempted to stop pickets travelling from Yorkshire to Nottinghamshire which led to many protests. The film parodies Hollywood films by overdramatising the strike and changing most of the important historic facts. [113] South Yorkshire became an Objective 1 development zone and every ward in the City of Wakefield district was classified as in need of special assistance. WAPC activist Marsha Marshall on the phone with actress and activist Vanessa Redgrave in Wombwell, 1985. "Pies and essays: women writing through the British 19841985 coal miners' strike. By the early 1980s the collieries were losing money. I am not prepared to accept policies elected by a minority of the British electorate. Following is a chronology of the longest strike in British history: 1984 . [19]:78 At some pits, most miners initially refused to cross picket lines formed by Welsh miners but returned to work when more aggressive pickets arrived from Yorkshire. [60][48]:71 NUM leaders in Lancashire argued that, as 41% had voted in favour of a strike, all its members should strike "in order to maintain unity". It was a major victory for Thatcher and the Conservative Party, with the Thatcher government able to consolidate their economic programme. [55]:374, A Court of Session decision in Edinburgh ruled that Scottish miners had acted within their rights by taking local ballots on a show of hands and so union funds in Scotland could not be sequestered. [144], The strike is the subject of songs by many music groups including the Manic Street Preachers' "A Design for Life", and "1985", from the album Lifeblood; Pulp's "Last Day of the Miners' Strike"; Funeral for a Friend's "History", and Ewan MacColl's cassette of pro-NUM songs Daddy, What Did You Do In The Strike?. [18]:264 Lancashire miners were reluctant to strike, but most refused to cross picket lines formed by the Yorkshire NUM. Dominic Sandbrook is a historian and television presenter best-known for his books about Britain since the 1950s. Historian Kenneth Rose, who wrote her official biography, said she called the strikers . [18]:220[71], The Director-General of MI5 from 1992 to 1996, Dame Stella Rimington, wrote in her autobiography in 2001 that MI5 'counter-subversion' exercises against the NUM and striking miners included tapping union leaders' phones. The historical fiction novel Minor Miner by Matthew Morgan is a conspiracy drama in which the Thatcher government intentionally escalates tensions with Libya in 1984 to draw attention away from the controversial UK Miners' Strikes in an attempt to improve the political party's approval ratings ahead of an election. The government's policy, the Ridley Plan, was to reduce Britain's reliance on coal claiming it could be imported from Australia, the United States and Colombia more cheaply than it could be produced in Britain. started mandatory collections in 1984 . [18]:228 Some groups prioritised aid to pits in South Wales, as they felt that Scargill was distributing donations to his most favoured pits in Kent and Yorkshire. Thirdly, it is an oral history approach, using interviews with a number of key miners, miners wives and supporters to allow the story of the strike to be told through the rich experiences of a selected cast of characters. These will bring together those former miners and their support groups who fought for their jobs in the late 1970s and early eighties, culminating in the Great Miners' Strike of 1984/85. [19]:70 The government claimed the actions were to uphold the law and safeguard individual civil rights. In 1990, the Daily Mirror and TV programme The Cook Report claimed that Scargill and the NUM had received money from the Libyan government. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. Test. Numerous scholars have concluded that Scargill's decisive tactical error was to substitute his famous flying picket for the holding of a national strike ballot. [18]:303 Mick McGahey, who was loyal to Scargill during the strike, became critical of him. The NUM strategy was to cause a severe energy shortage of the sort that had won victory in the 1972 strike. In March 1984, one of the longest and possibly most damaging industrial disputes in British history began. But Scargill denied that there was such a thing as an uneconomic pit, and argued that every colliery should be kept open, no matter how much it cost. [48]:227 The Nottinghamshire NUM then opposed the strike openly and stopped payments to local strikers. South of England more new industries such as electronics etc, Very much a split country Northern England, Scotland Wales Working Class Traditional Industries Southern England Middle & Upper Class New Industries. [18]:139 In September 1984, Viv Brook, assistant chief constable of South Wales Police, warned that throwing concrete from motorway bridges was likely to kill someone. [48]:8182 Picketing in Lancashire was less aggressive and is credited with a more sympathetic response from the local miners. Miners across Yorkshire began strike action and on 12 March, a national strike was declared by the NUM, but no official vote was held. language, region) are saved. [19]:78 Ken Livingstone wrote in his memoirs that Scargill had interpreted a Daily Mail poll that suggested a comfortable majority of miners favoured a national strike to be a trick and that he would actually lose a national ballot. In Yorkshire, miners at Manvers,[18]:86 Cadeby,[48]:66 Silverwood,[48]:66 Kiveton Park[48]:66 and Yorkshire Main[18]:218 were on unofficial strike for other issues before official action was called. [18]:137139, The National Union of Seamen supported the strike and limited the transport of coal. In 1926, they were. A wider context needs to be adopted in which the mining villages provide the foci but across which the connections are often much wider. "[18]:294295 It was a thinly-veiled attack on Scargill, whom he later admitted that he detested. Considering the role of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. [59][failed verification], Area ballots on 15 and 16 March 1984 saw verdicts against a strike in Cumberland, Midlands, North Derbyshire (narrowly), South Derbyshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire (with around 90% against), Nottinghamshire and North Wales. Thatcher on 19 July 1984 delivered a speech in which she spoke to backbench MPs and compared the Falklands War to the strike: We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. [19]:254 Some sources claim that the Scottish NUM continued the strike alongside Kent. The regime of General Jaruzelski had driven the ten million strong independent trade union Solidarity underground in 1981. Even at this early stage, Scargills cause was probably doomed. [20]:17[21]:248250 The threshold for endorsement of strike action in a national ballot was reduced from two-thirds in favour to 55% in 1971. You Can't Say That: Memoirs. [73] When asked in July 1984 whether they approved or disapproved of the methods used by the miners, 15% approved; 79% disapproved and 6% did not know. These mining villages will as far as possible be at the centre of the study, but the fact that as pits closed miners moved to other pits and sometimes moved house too meant that the pit village was far from universal. T part of 1974 Heath gov that was brought down by miners strike, she benefitted from excesses of power during winter of discontent and defeat on Callaghan . The violence was costing the NUM public support in the country as a whole, as a Gallup poll showed 79% disapproval of NUM methods. [18]:130 Part way through the strike, Norman Willis took over from Murray as general secretary of the TUC. Why did the Miners go on Strike? Camaraderie was a watchword: they looked out for each other in the dangerous work below; their lives depended on it. [107]:384 The EETPU was supportive of the breakaway Union of Democratic Mineworkers and met with its leaders before the TUC had extended formal recognition. But instead of calling a national strike, Scargill encouraged the regions to follow suit individually. [3]:ix, The NCB was encouraged to gear itself towards reduced subsidies in the early 1980s. The miners' strike of 19841985 was a major industrial action within the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent colliery closures. A major campaign was ready to go for a "Yes" vote in a national strike ballot. Three times Scargill pushed his members to vote for a national strike; three times they voted no. Scargill predicted rightly, as it turned out that in an attempt to stem its heavy financial losses, the National Coal Board was bound to push for further closures. Why did the government believe a pit closure programme was essential? Women ran the home and often took control of the pay packet, giving their man pocket money for drink and cigarettes. [19]:249251 One of the few concessions made by the NCB was to postpone the closure of the five pits: Cortonwood, Bullcliffe Wood, Herrington, Polmaise and Snowdown. The Soviet Union's official trade union federation donated 1.5million to the NUM. You can adjust your preferences at any time. [19]:214 A masked gang waving baseball bats invaded his house and beat him for five minutes, whilst his pregnant wife and children hid upstairs. Not long into the strike the slogan was invented, close a pit, kill a community. NUM National Union of Mineworkers. ", This page was last edited on 24 October 2022, at 12:51. [18]:169 Mr Justice Nicholls ruled that the 1981 ballot result was "too remote in time [with] too much change in the branch membership of the Area since then for that ballot to be capable of justifying a call to strike action two and a half years later. [18]:98 After the strike, Mick McGahey, one of the most prominent voices against a national ballot, said that he accepted "some responsibility" for alienating the Nottinghamshire miners through aggressive picketing. The storyline of Radio K.A.O.S., a 1987 album by Roger Waters, makes several references to the strike and its repercussions. The Miners' Strike of 1984-1985 was an attempt by miners to stop the National Coal Board (NCB) and the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shutting down collieries (mines). The activism of women from mining families was vital to keeping the strike going for a full year. The strike was held by the National Mineworkers Union under Arthur Scargill and it was organized against the National Coal Board, an agency of the British government which was led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Men and women were required to behave according to certain norms, and if children misbehaved their parents would know about it by the time they got home. 1. The proximate cause of the 1984-85 miners' strike, the longest mass strike in British history, was a round of colliery closures announced by the National Coal Board (NCB, now British Coal) in March 1984 as part of the restructuring of the British coal mining industry. The year-long action was marred by violent . [22]:78, At the South Leicester colliery, there was reportedly only one miner who stayed on strike for the full 12 months. Paul Routledge, "Pit strike would last 'very long time' warns NCB". A QUARTER of a century ago Britain was split by its most bitter industrial dispute ever. "[48]:218, Miners were demoralised and sought work in other industries. After the strike, statistics showed over 11,000 people had been arrested, just over 8,000 of which had been charged, but only 150-200 were given prison sentences. The strike had politicised mining families and encouraged many of them to become involved in other causes, to become local councillors or even MPs. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who wanted to reduce . Many women emerged from the strike in a much stronger place that their husbands who had lost the fight and would soon lose their jobs. [19]:164 During the 1972 strike, violent confrontations between striking NUM and non-striking NACODS members led to an agreement that NACODS members could stay off work without loss of pay if they were faced with aggressive picketing. [54], The strike in Yorkshire relied on a ballot from January 1981, in which 85.6% of the members voted to strike if any pit was threatened with closure on economic grounds. Margaret Thatcher and her [86] The intimidation of working miners in Nottinghamshire, vandalism to cars and pelting them with stones, paint or brake fluid, was a major factor in the formation of the breakaway Union of Democratic Mineworkers. [26][27][28] Scargill was a vocal opponent of Thatcher's government. The outcome was the Miner's Campaign Tapes. The Strike Miners worried about possible closures in the area went on strike. Some miners began returning to work from September, with many more returning by January as union pay ran out and some found it hard to pay for basic necessities. Towers, Brian. Most pickets throughout the strike were non-violent. [19]:214 There was criticism of picket-line violence from lodges at striking pits, such as the resolution by the Grimethorpe and Kellingley lodges in Yorkshire that condemned throwing bricks. In 1977, the implementation of an incentive scheme proved controversial, as different areas would receive different pay rates. David Peace's novel GB84 is set during the strike. An alternative source of miners solidarity derived from the communities they lived in. "[16] McGahey said: "We shall not be constitutionalised out of a strikeArea by area will decide and there will be a domino effect". Copyright 2022 - Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL [18]:264, Occasionally, attacks were made on working members of NACODS and administrative staff. Another is that after the strike former miners, miners wives and children reinvented themselves, furthering their education, finding other occupations, becoming involved in other political and social causes, curating the heritage of the mining industry. [19]:70 Sir Michael Havers initially denied the application outright, but Mr Justice Skinner later ruled that the power may only be used if the anticipated breach of the peace were "in close proximity both in time and place". An old Northumbrian folk song, "Blackleg Miner" gained attention when recorded by Steeleye Span in 1970 and was played to show support for the NUM and intimidate strikebreakers. [112] The last deep colliery in the UK, Kellingley Colliery, known locally as "The Big K" closed for the last time on 18 December 2015, bringing an end to centuries of deep coal mining. The son of a communist miner, he has kept its memory alive at the Shirebrook Miners' Welfare Social Club, founded in 1920. As in most of Europe, the industry was heavily subsidised. The main leaders reviewed in the video are Arhur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher. Bardill, Linda, 'Changing perceptions of the 198485 Miners' Strike in the Nottinghamshire Coalfield', Leeworthy, Daryl. In traditionally non-militant Nottinghamshire, many miners resented being strong-armed, as they saw it, into a strike without a ballot. When asked the same question in August 1984, 9% said responsible; 84% said irresponsible and 7% did not know.[73]. Dominic West "The Wire's" Detective Jimmy McNulty, "The Hour's" anchor Hector Madden and "300's" Theron was a teenager in 1984 and well aware of the British coal miners . [78] Cash from the Libyan government was particularly damaging coming seven months after the murder of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London by Libyan agents. "[18]:100 A motion at the 1984 Labour Party conference won heavy support for blaming all the violence in the strike on the police, despite opposition from Kinnock. In 19821983, the operating loss per tonne was 3.05, and international market prices for coal were about 25% cheaper than that charged by the NCB. The Miners Strike of 1984-1985 was an attempt by miners to stop the National Coal Board (NCB) and the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shutting down collieries (mines). [80], MI5 surveillance on NUM vice-president Mick McGahey found he was "extremely angry and embarrassed" about Scargill's links with the Libyan regime, but did not express his concerns publicly;[81] however he was happy to take money from the Soviet Union. The year-long strike involved hardship and violence as pit communities from South Wales to Scotland fought to retain their local collieries - for many the only source of employment. [22]:96 David John Douglass, a branch delegate at Hatfield Colliery dismissed the suggestions as the Doncaster pits also had large numbers of displaced and Polish miners, yet it was amongst the most militant areas of the NUM. [48]:227 The action was nicknamed the "star chamber court" by working miners (in reference to the Star Chamber in English history). This backup plan was not needed and was not implemented. Brief History of Policing in Great Britain, Brief History of the Association of Chief Police Officers. Gascoyne, a forceful 59-year-old ex-faceworker who swears a lot, was the branch secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers throughout the strike of 1984-85 and until the pit closed. [18]:169 Before the March 1983 vote, the Kent area, one of the most militant, argued for national strikes to be called by conferences of delegates rather than by ballot, but the proposal was rejected. [18]:157158 Legal challenges were brought by groups of working miners, who subsequently organised as the Working Miners' Committee. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. Paul Routledge, "Tories likened to Nazis". [25]:24. Rock falls, gas explosions, flooding and injuries from moving machinery were all too frequent and often took many lives. Their job was considered one for life and the pay was customarily a family wage. Timeline of UK miners' strike of 1984-85 LONDON -- Following is a chronology of events in Britain's miners strike, the longest major labor dispute in the nation's history: --- 1984 March 6. The Kent miners were successful in raising funds from sympathetic socialists in London and from trade unions in continental Europe, which allowed the Kent strikers to maintain a higher standard of living that those in other parts of Britain and generated some resentment. Tens of thousands of miners went on strike following an announcement by Coal Board Chairman Ian McGregor that 20 uneconomic pits would have to close, putting 20,000 miners out of work. Margaret Thatcher and the British Coal Miners' Strike. Late Antique Opportunities? The rule of law must prevail over the rule of the mob.[64]. This 70-year-old multi-millionaire import, who massacred half the steel workforce in less than three years, is almost certainly brought in to wield the axe on pits. The intention at the outset of the project, was to focus on a fixed number of mining villages, one for each coalfield. [19]:117 In Leicestershire, scab was chanted by the working majority against the few who went on strike, on the grounds that they had betrayed their area's union. [96] The ISTC donated food parcels and toys during the summer, but gave no money as they did not want to be accused of financing the aggressive picketing. [130] After winning an award at an Italian film festival, it was broadcast on Channel 4 on 9 January 1985. [2] The journalist Seumas Milne said of the strike, "it has no real parallel in size, duration and impact anywhere in the world". The Miners Strike of 1984 was a turning point in British history. And yet, out of the strike came a rebirth in many ways. [19]:254, The role of ballots in NUM policy had been disputed over a number of years, and a series of legal disputes in 1977 left their status unclear. Answer (1 of 12): It usually means a strikebreaker. Sheffield, in the south, was the national headquarters of the NUM but mainly a steel town and a cosmopolitan regional capital, a focus for activists who supported the Miners Strike rather than of miners themselves. [21], On 6 March 1984, the NCB announced that the agreement reached after the 1974 strike was obsolete, and that to reduce government subsidies, 20 collieries would close with a loss of 20,000 jobs. Many historians have provided interpretations and explanations of the defeat, largely centring on Scargill's decisions. This time to protest against the Thatcher government's plan to close 20 pits. It used the National Recording Centre (NRC), set up in 1972 by the Association of Chief Police Officers for England and Wales linking 43 police forces to enable police forces to travel to assist in major disturbances. [19]:164 In areas where the strike was observed, most NACODS members did not cross picket lines and, under an agreement from the 1972 strike, stayed off work on full pay. But the mine is not forgotten. [22]:5859, Even amongst supporters, picketing steel plants to prevent deliveries of coal and coke caused great divisions. March 5 - Britain's biggest coal region, Yorkshire, calls a county-wide strike starting March 12 after the National Coal Board announces the imminent closure of two mines. Miners lived scattered across a wide radius and this clearly diminished camaraderie and solidarity. Miners were men; the only women employed at the pit were cooks, cleaners or office staff. [98] The support groups organised collections outside supermarkets, communal kitchens, benefit concerts and other activities. [18]:276 The Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) was eventually de facto recognised when the NCB included it in wage negotiations.
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