United Left, the socialist rank and file movement in Unite the Union, pays tribute to the members of the NUM who held out on strike for a full year, 25 years ago, in defence of their pits, their jobs and their communities.
Never before or since had the country experienced such a brutal and deliberate attempt by a British Government to smash a trade union on strike, using all the powers of the state at its disposal. Margaret Thatcher’s Government, by now 5 years into its term of office, had already passed its first tranche of anti-union legislation. Now it sought to target and defeat Britain’s strongest trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers.
The Government instructed the National coal Board to draw up a secret plan to close 95 pits with the loss of 100,00 jobs, consciously abrogating the successful tripartite agreement known as the Plan For Coal signed by the Labour Government in 1974. The Plan For Coal had seen investment and modernisation in Britain’s coalfields, creating the most efficient and productive coal industry in the world. Many of the 95 pits earmarked for closure by Thatcher’s Government had recently benefited from millions of pounds of investment - and were profitable.
To divide the miners, the Government instigated secret talks with Nottinghamshire miners leaders who were promised their pits would be safe if they refused to join the strike. Tragically, the Nottinghamshire area leadership not only agreed to break the unity of the NUM strike, but also led a breakaway split to create the so-called Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM). This outfit has never been recognised as a bona fide independent trade union, then or since. Some of the fiercest conflicts happened in the Nottinghamshire coalfield where many miners remained loyal to the NUM.
But it was the surveillance and heavy-handed policing strategy which broke new grounds for a British Government, in its determination to beat a strike. For the first time, Britain’s decentralised area police forces were co-ordinated and directed on a national basis to confront the NUM strikers. Specially trained forces including army personnel were drafted in, in police uniform but frequently without displaying PC identity numbers. Road blocks were set up to intercept “flying pickets” and send them back, displaying the state’s “Big Brother” capacity to interfere in the public right to free movement. Massive police resources were provided to accompany and protect any scabs prepared to defy the picket line, no matter how few in number.
Meanwhile the nation’s right wing press railed against the violence of the picket lines - as if it was entirely the fault of the NUM pickets. In fact there were many examples of police provocation - and unprovoked violence against the pickets. Never before had a trade union on strike experienced such heavy handed police tactics. The true scale of the Government, police and media co-ordination in the battle for the hearts and minds of the British public, was demonstrated by the BBC News coverage of the infamous battle for Orgreave. The news bulletin turned the sequence around to show miners throwing missiles at the police followed by the police charge on horseback to clear the field. As was proved much later the truth was the police charged the pickets on horseback in the most brutal fashion ever witnessed in this country, causing many injuries and leading to pitched battles between police and pickets.
In fact opinion polls of the day consistently showed the miners had tremendous support. In spite of the welter of almost universally hostile media coverage, polls indicated roughly 50/50 support for an against the miners throughout the strike. Cash collections around the country brought in huge amounts of solidarity support, and international donations flowed in from unions abroad. Food convoys were organised by local trades councils in a massive solidarity exercise. Christmas 1984 saw tons of toys delivered to the impoverished pit villages.
The miners’ struggle was damaged not only by the Nottinghamshire split, but also the call for a “national ballot”, which the NUM delegate conference had rejected in favour of a strategy of local area stoppages, backed up by picketing. Even many who supported the miners’ struggle doubted the wisdom of not holding a national ballot, and the media exploited it to the full to claim the strike was undemocratic. But their real target was miner’s leader Arthur Scargill himself. He was subject to one of the most hateful press campaigns of personal vilification ever seen outside of a fascist state. In fact he came to personify Thatcher’s disgraceful claim that the strikers were “the enemy within”. Seamus Milne’s book of the same name later exposed in graphic detail the scale of the Government’s pernicious dealings behind the scene including illegal means to destroy the NUM and Arthur Scargill in particular.
The strike was also weakened by the disunity in the wider trade union movement towards the NUM. Neil Kinnock, then Labour Leader, refused to back the strike and join the howls of protest about the violence of the pickets. So too did many trade union General Secretaries, many of whom were wrongly misleading the trade union movement down the road of no-strike agreements and social partnerships in response to the 1979 “winter of discontent” which had seen off the last Labour Government. Nevertheless there was brilliant trade union solidarity too, most notably from the rail unions like ASLEF who refused to move the coal and very nearly brought the power stations to a standstill.
Of course the Tories’ wider strategy of privatising the energy market was little appreciated at the time. Closing down the pits and then selling off the remains of the National Coal Board, not only ended the NUM’s role as the vanguard of the British trade union movement, it also opened up the privatisation and deregulation of our then nationalised and balanced energy industry. Strategic planning of our future energy security was then lost completely as short term market forces led to overdependence on gas, a scarce premium fuel, for mass power station consumption. And when that ran out, the current dependence on foreign gas supplies at hugely inflated prices.
Meanwhile 400 years of coal reserves, which could be the backbone of a secure and clean British energy industry, using clean-coal technology, now lays trapped underground, along with millions of pounds of recently invested modernisation prior to the strike.
As for Britain’s trade union and labour movement, the defeat of the 1984-185 miners’ strike was a severe blow. Further anti-union legislation followed, severely limiting trade unions’ ability to defend their members, and union membership went into severe decline as a result. 25 years on, it is easy to see what a victory for the politics of the right and for big business the defeat of the miners really was.
Never before or since had the country experienced such a brutal and deliberate attempt by a British Government to smash a trade union on strike, using all the powers of the state at its disposal. Margaret Thatcher’s Government, by now 5 years into its term of office, had already passed its first tranche of anti-union legislation. Now it sought to target and defeat Britain’s strongest trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers.
The Government instructed the National coal Board to draw up a secret plan to close 95 pits with the loss of 100,00 jobs, consciously abrogating the successful tripartite agreement known as the Plan For Coal signed by the Labour Government in 1974. The Plan For Coal had seen investment and modernisation in Britain’s coalfields, creating the most efficient and productive coal industry in the world. Many of the 95 pits earmarked for closure by Thatcher’s Government had recently benefited from millions of pounds of investment - and were profitable.
To divide the miners, the Government instigated secret talks with Nottinghamshire miners leaders who were promised their pits would be safe if they refused to join the strike. Tragically, the Nottinghamshire area leadership not only agreed to break the unity of the NUM strike, but also led a breakaway split to create the so-called Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM). This outfit has never been recognised as a bona fide independent trade union, then or since. Some of the fiercest conflicts happened in the Nottinghamshire coalfield where many miners remained loyal to the NUM.
But it was the surveillance and heavy-handed policing strategy which broke new grounds for a British Government, in its determination to beat a strike. For the first time, Britain’s decentralised area police forces were co-ordinated and directed on a national basis to confront the NUM strikers. Specially trained forces including army personnel were drafted in, in police uniform but frequently without displaying PC identity numbers. Road blocks were set up to intercept “flying pickets” and send them back, displaying the state’s “Big Brother” capacity to interfere in the public right to free movement. Massive police resources were provided to accompany and protect any scabs prepared to defy the picket line, no matter how few in number.
Meanwhile the nation’s right wing press railed against the violence of the picket lines - as if it was entirely the fault of the NUM pickets. In fact there were many examples of police provocation - and unprovoked violence against the pickets. Never before had a trade union on strike experienced such heavy handed police tactics. The true scale of the Government, police and media co-ordination in the battle for the hearts and minds of the British public, was demonstrated by the BBC News coverage of the infamous battle for Orgreave. The news bulletin turned the sequence around to show miners throwing missiles at the police followed by the police charge on horseback to clear the field. As was proved much later the truth was the police charged the pickets on horseback in the most brutal fashion ever witnessed in this country, causing many injuries and leading to pitched battles between police and pickets.
In fact opinion polls of the day consistently showed the miners had tremendous support. In spite of the welter of almost universally hostile media coverage, polls indicated roughly 50/50 support for an against the miners throughout the strike. Cash collections around the country brought in huge amounts of solidarity support, and international donations flowed in from unions abroad. Food convoys were organised by local trades councils in a massive solidarity exercise. Christmas 1984 saw tons of toys delivered to the impoverished pit villages.
The miners’ struggle was damaged not only by the Nottinghamshire split, but also the call for a “national ballot”, which the NUM delegate conference had rejected in favour of a strategy of local area stoppages, backed up by picketing. Even many who supported the miners’ struggle doubted the wisdom of not holding a national ballot, and the media exploited it to the full to claim the strike was undemocratic. But their real target was miner’s leader Arthur Scargill himself. He was subject to one of the most hateful press campaigns of personal vilification ever seen outside of a fascist state. In fact he came to personify Thatcher’s disgraceful claim that the strikers were “the enemy within”. Seamus Milne’s book of the same name later exposed in graphic detail the scale of the Government’s pernicious dealings behind the scene including illegal means to destroy the NUM and Arthur Scargill in particular.
The strike was also weakened by the disunity in the wider trade union movement towards the NUM. Neil Kinnock, then Labour Leader, refused to back the strike and join the howls of protest about the violence of the pickets. So too did many trade union General Secretaries, many of whom were wrongly misleading the trade union movement down the road of no-strike agreements and social partnerships in response to the 1979 “winter of discontent” which had seen off the last Labour Government. Nevertheless there was brilliant trade union solidarity too, most notably from the rail unions like ASLEF who refused to move the coal and very nearly brought the power stations to a standstill.
Of course the Tories’ wider strategy of privatising the energy market was little appreciated at the time. Closing down the pits and then selling off the remains of the National Coal Board, not only ended the NUM’s role as the vanguard of the British trade union movement, it also opened up the privatisation and deregulation of our then nationalised and balanced energy industry. Strategic planning of our future energy security was then lost completely as short term market forces led to overdependence on gas, a scarce premium fuel, for mass power station consumption. And when that ran out, the current dependence on foreign gas supplies at hugely inflated prices.
Meanwhile 400 years of coal reserves, which could be the backbone of a secure and clean British energy industry, using clean-coal technology, now lays trapped underground, along with millions of pounds of recently invested modernisation prior to the strike.
As for Britain’s trade union and labour movement, the defeat of the 1984-185 miners’ strike was a severe blow. Further anti-union legislation followed, severely limiting trade unions’ ability to defend their members, and union membership went into severe decline as a result. 25 years on, it is easy to see what a victory for the politics of the right and for big business the defeat of the miners really was.
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