Page 341. "Analysing the British miners' strike of 19845.". Therefore government preparations was definitely a factor in the failure of the miners strike but to what extent, can be argued. [38] Thatcher, Margaret. Thatcher, herself, advances this view in her memoirs The Downing Street Years and echoed by many other Thatcherites such as Nigel Lawson, Shirley Letwin and historians such as John Campbell. The NUM is not your personal bank account and never will be again. [28] Travis, Alan. Page 57. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/37592/How the Miners Strike could have won. A motion from the Kent area was passed by the NUM conference to move the head office to a coalfield. March 10, 2004. Written authorization is required for the purchase of tea and coffee. This is portrayed by Kenneth OMorgan, who takes a clear mainstream media view. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. In the 1981 election for NUM president, Scargill secured around 70% of the vote. Scargill subsequently decided to move to Sheffield, and said that he had spoken to each member of staff to ask them to move to Sheffield. [26], There is a prevailing view that Arthur Scargill, the NUM National President, called the strike. For other uses, see, Early political and trade union activities. His mother, Alice (ne Pickering), was a professional cook. This is because had the NUM come out nationally in favour of the strike, Nottinghamshire area would have won permission for its own ballot and remained at work. Page 414. The Myth of Workers' Control Arthur Scargill Snippet view - 1980. He did not take the Eleven-Plus exam and went to Worsbrough Dale School (now called the Elmhirst School). Therefore, we must conclude that whilst Arthur Scargills leadership was an important factor in the failure of the strike, it would be wrong to assume that this was the main reason as without the lack of support, especially from the Nottinghamshire miners, as well as the governments preparations, such as the stockpiling of coal, the miners strike might not have failed. Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) [1] is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. Vast majority of people work retail or asBarristersselling fancycoffee to people on the way to work in offices, most of them on single hour contracts working in retail parks or business parks built on the ground of old mine, steelworks and potteries that used to employ tens of thousands of men and now employ the best part of 100. A household name in the seventies and eighties, it was easy to imagine the strike as a personal conflict between Scargill and his nemesis, Margaret Thatcher. That is what we need to remember these days when we think of Scargill. ", Gildart, Keith. He claimed that the government had a long-term strategy to destroy the industry by closing unprofitable pits, and that it listed pits it wanted to close each year. : Univ. "It was Thatcher's legislation, actually giving council tenants the right to buy their own houses. Scargill had, before becoming president, favoured moving the head office of the NUM out of London, which he described as a "prostituting place". RewriteEngine On A History of Modern Britain. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. However, we have to question Lawsons motives behind this, as he may have naturally blamed Scargill for the failure of the strike to protect his political reputation as it legitimises his role in opposing the strike. The students, lesbian and gay rights movements also supported the miners as they could relate to their struggle. Page 341. [9] When Bullough (unwell at the time) attempted to rule Scargill as "out of order", he was voted out by the area's delegates and a strike was declared across Yorkshire on the issue. This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 23:36. [9][11], A few months later, the president of the Yorkshire NUM died unexpectedly, and Scargill won the election for his replacement; the two posts were then combined and he held them until 1981. ",confirmEmpty: "Are you sure you want to empty your clipboard? [45], For years the NUM had been paying 34,000 annual rent for the flat on Scargill's instructions, without the knowledge of NUM members or many senior officials; Scargill claimed the NUM should continue funding his flat for the rest of his life, and thereafter for any widow who survived him. [40] Tony Benn. Wikipedia. [5] In 1957 he was elected NUM Yorkshire Area Youth Delegate, and attended the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow as a representative of the Yorkshire miners. Person/Body (Historic): University of Leeds and Nottingham. He had been a Communist and retained strong Marxist views and a penchant for denouncing anyone who disagreed with him as a traitor Scargill had indeed been elected by a vast margin and he set about turning the NUM's once moderate executive into a reliably militant group By adopting a position that no pits should be closed on economic grounds, even if the coal was exhausted more investment would always find more coal, and from his point of view, the losses were irrelevant he made sure confrontation would not be avoided. Many of us started in the 1950s in the Young Communist League. [19] Morgan, Kenneth O.Britain since 1945: The Peoples Peace. ",confirmDelete: "Are you sure you want to delete this? The Enemy Within", Verso 2014. This event is held every year at the Barnsley Headquarters of the NUM and acquired particular poignancy that year as it coincided with the 30th anniversary of the strike. [15] How the Miners Strike Could Have Won. Socialist Worker (Britain). London: Verso, 2014. He gained fame for using the tactic to win the Battle of Saltley Gate in 1972, and made it his main tactical device in the 1984 strike. If like me you lived through that period of the early seventies, constant strike action, the mid seventies when Britain effectively went bust aided by constant strikes and was branded sick man of Europe going through the winter of discontent where it seemed everybody was on strike, building up to the miners strike in 84/85, you look back and struggle to convince even yourself that we allowed such selfish destructive idealism to ruin the lives of so many in this country. RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d Milne, Seumas. " Andrew Marrs view on why the Miners strike failed is much more convincing as it gives credit to Scargills leadership skills while also saying not even he would be able to persuade every part of the industry to strike showing that Marr believes that Scargill was the best man for the job. In pictures: Arthur Scargill's legacy Mr Scargill's election as NUM president in 1981 had an electrifying effect on the union movement. 100 0 _ a Arthur Scargill c British trade unionist (born 1938) 100 1 _ a Scargill, Arthur d (1938- ). Page 317. I could write a million words and not be able to adequately describe the misery,hardship and dispare these leaders bought upon the people of this nation. (1998), Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10000684676, Occasional papers in industrial relations. Notice that the CaSe is important in this example. London: Vintage, 2008. He cannot resist pointing out parallels in all times and places. Accessed January 06, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/07/arthur-scargill-miners-strike. [32] The documentary suggests that the claims against Scargill were untrue. This lack of support can be blamed on the leadership of Arthur Scargill; therefore, the leadership of Arthur Scargill is a more important factor in the failure of the miners strike in 1985. [54] He gave a rare television interview to ITV News at that time. Scargill was born in Worsbrough Dale near Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire. [9] At the subsequent enquiry, he used notebooks of underground working from the 19th century, retrieved from the Institute of Geological Sciences in Leeds, to argue that the National Coal Board could have prevented the disaster had they acted on the information available. (1978), CONTESTING THE MARKET: PAY EQUITY AND THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING, Eigart, Deborah M., "Goodbye to all that? Nevertheless, this shows that the strike didnt fail from the lack of support in general, but rather the lack of support from key figures such as the Neil Kinnock from the Labour Party, as well as the Nottinghamshire miners who, if they had supported the miners, would have guaranteed a different outcome for the strike. Page 317. See the Section on 404 errors after clicking a link in WordPress. Margaret Thatcher. You've been found out. Love him or hate him a lot that Mr Scargill and the Minors stood against in the1970/80s has now come to fruition, the uprise ofThatcherism,greed is good, stand on your neighbour to get a head! He did not. In 1974, he was instrumental in organising the miners' strike that led Prime Minister Edward Heath to call a February general election.[13]. [36] Thatcher, Margaret. All work is written to order. The striking miners didnt have the support of the Nottinghamshire miners, dock workers or even the Labour Party, including Neil Kinnock, and many historians believe that the strikes failure was down to the fact that it was so poorly supported; such as Eric Evans who takes the mainstream media view and believed the appearance of a much more conciliatory breakaway union representing the profitable East Midlands mining arealed to collapse of the strike[12] This we know to be true as the Nottinghamshire miners alone produced 25% of the Nations coal. Neil Kinnock even compared Scargill with a general who wanted another Gallipoli[3]. The view that the failure to call a National Ballot, by Scargill, cost him valuable support is advocated by Shirley Letwin; Nor did he bother to abide by his own unions rules which required that a strike shall be entered upon as the result of a ballot vote of the members.[1] This led to the miners losing the support of many, including Labour Partys- Neil Kinnock, who felt emotionally disposed to support the miners but aware that it would be political suicide to do so[2]. ",viewBookBag: "View clipboard",addBookBag: "Add to clipboard",removeBookBag: "Remove from clipboard",itemsAddBag: "item(s) added to your clipboard",itemsInBag: "item(s) are either already in your clipboard or could not be added",bookbagMax: "100",bookbagFull: "Your clipboard is Full",bookbagStatusFull: "Full",no_tags: "No Tags"}; . The End of an Era Diaries 1980-90. In March 2014, ex-miner John Cunningham attended the memorial meeting for the two Yorkshire miners killed in the strike, Davy Jones and Joe Green. Edit the file on your computer and upload it to the server via FTP. [60][61], London Assembly elections (entire London city). [14] The section under "staff procedures" details how Scargill monitored head office staff: Mr. Scargill's vendetta against Head Office staff has at times descended to the most puerile and paranoic [sic] levels. His one man mission to bring down the elected government, for a second time, and destroy Thatcherism was not only not accomplished ,it only served to strengthen the Conservative Government and Thatchers dominance of the political landscape for over a decade. However, Kenneth OMorgan may be overemphasising the amount of support that the miners had as we know that Thatcher continuously demonised the miners in the media calling them the enemy within and this reduced a lot of public support for the strike. The motto, An injury to one is an injury to all, applies world-wide. you only have to look at the current state of our country after Cov19torealise that we have noindustry left! This article, far from being full of lies, hit the nail, well and truly, on the head. Woods, Alan. Person/Body (Historic): Kahn, Peggy. [51] Scargill criticised Poland's Solidarity calling it an "anti-socialist organisation which desires the overthrow of a socialist state", which Scargill saw as deformed but reformable. Lawson also takes the mainstream media view that everything Thatcher did during the strike was to maintain law and order. My father was a Communist. This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here. The myth of workers' control: We are fighting for the survival of our culture: Selected Co-authors Countries and Regions of . Margaret Thatcher began a media campaign in order to win over the public and demonise the miners. "[40] Scargill complained to the Advertising Standards Authority who criticised the advertisement as "highly distasteful". This is unfair as after the NCB accidently announced pit closures, the strike gained momentum very quickly forcing Scargill to just go along with it. [57] Scargill supported the 2022 United Kingdom railway strike, joining an RMT picket line in Wakefield on 21 June 2022. It is possible that you may need to edit the .htaccess file at some point, for various reasons.This section covers how to edit the file in cPanel, but not what may need to be changed. "It's so hypocritical it's unreal," he said. In 1990, Scargill was accused in a series of Daily Mirror articles of mishandling money donated for the striking miners during the 19841985 strike, with many of the sources being those who had previously worked with him in the NUM such as Kim Howells, Jim Parker and Roger Windsor. Their support would have been vital if they were to win the strike; this is presented by Cabinet minutes which show that Thatchers priority was to settle the dock strike as quickly as possible in order to allow the government to concentrate on winning the miners strike[15]. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world . [17] Still the Enemy Within (2014). IMDb. I suggest to this Conference that we have coal mines with us but they did something about this problem: they closed them down. The best work on Scargill was Michael Crick, Scargill and the Miners (1985). Notice that the CaSe is important in this example. This is given credence by striking miner, Arthur Wakefield; This time the police go berserk and the Riot Squad charge up the field with the Calvary they turn to where we are standing peacefully picketing and start hitting whoever they come across[34]. Nothing good about it. Scargill led the union in the 19841985 miners' strike. Therefore, government preparations are more important than other factors, such as Arthur Scargills leadership and support for the strike, in the failure of the miners strike. That violence strengthened the stature of the Coal Board and the Thatcher government. My Style of Government: The Thatcher Years. No plagiarism, guaranteed! [43] In February 2012, Scargill won 13,000 in a court action against the NUM, primarily for car expenses, and for the earlier temporary denial of membership. After the Miners were beaten into submission in 1984and the rest of uscheated and swindled by that government and successive government afterwards. March 07, 2009. He mentions how the strikers overtime ban was biting deep into power-station coal stocks and goes on to say If it was allowed to continue until the autumn, managers warned, a twelve-week strike would be enough to put the countrys lights out[26]. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. /index.php [L] [39] Benn, Tony. [1] Letwin, Shirley Robin. [52], The Guardian in February 2014 said that Scargill had become a recluse. This sparked an individual ballot of members, in the autumn of 1984, whereby the ballot obtained an 80% plus vote for strike action, a decision which, if implemented, would have been sufficient to save pits and jobs, and win the dispute which had been brought by the National Coal Board[35]. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! Ridley may have been trying to take credit for the failure of the strike by saying that the strike failed due to the governments preparations that included the plan he came up with.

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