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. Arthur Scargill: We Could Surrender or Stand and Fight. The Guardian. Scargill, Arthur. Seumas Milne argues that the miners had sued the police for assault, wrongful arrest, malicious persecution and false imprisonment and then went on to describe the battle of Orgreaves as an 8,000 riot police staged medieval-style mounted charges of unprecedented ferocity[33]. By 1984 however the police were ready and neutralized the tactic with superior force. He says Support for the strike was virtually solid not only in old militant areasbut also (at first) in traditionally moderate Lancashire, Durham and Northumberland[19]. The Myth of Workers' Control Issue 5 of Occasional papers in industrial relations Author Arthur Scargill Publisher University of Leeds, 1980 Original from Cornell University Digitized Apr. Accessed October 12, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn. The miners also failed to gain the support of the dock workers in strike effort. Therefore, the argument that the government limited its role to upholding law and order in the dispute is faulty as many of the people who were downplaying the governments actions are known Thatcherites and consequently had ulterior motives. After a Labour Party conference speech on energy policy by Richard Marsh in July 1967, Scargill said: I can honestly say that I never heard flannel like we got from the Minister he said that we have nuclear power stations with us, whether we like it or not. The Myth of Workers' Control Arthur Scargill Snippet view - 1980. Page 473. However, one of the most important factors in the failure of the miners strike has to be the lack of support especially from the Nottinghamshire miners and the falling through of the NACODs strike. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the trade union movement. Scargill opposed civilian nuclear power and, during the first Wilson ministry, became highly critical of the government's energy policy. Page 342. He called for the cotton mills, steel plants and mines to be re-opened and that under EU rules, the government had not been able to subsidise the coal mines. ", Old Labour party constiturion, Clause 4 part IV, Yorkshire Area of the National Union of Mineworkers, "Arthur Scargill joins Battle of Saltley Gate 40th anniversary celebration", "The Nottinghamshire Miners, The Union of Democratic Mineworkers and the 198485 Miners' Strike: Scabs or Scapegoats? //, Unions on the board : an experiment in industrial democracy, Batstone, Eric, (1978), CONTESTING THE MARKET: PAY EQUITY AND THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING, Eigart, Deborah M., This is supported by Margaret Thatcher herself; His (Ian McGregor) impression was that the police were failing to uphold criminal law and that the pickets had been able to prevent people going to work[38]. The Myth of Control: Created by Mikail Chowdhury, Sana Soni. Page 13. (The Yorkshire Left had already decided to stand him as their candidate even before the strike.) Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. Are you using WordPress? The staff at headquarters issued a press statement in January 1983 to deny this and to list twelve grievances against Scargill's treatment of his staff. [38] Thatcher, Margaret. London, 1984. A miner at the age of 18, he was a member (1955-62) of the Young Communist League before joining the Labour Party.In 1981, Scargill became president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).His attempt to confront Margaret Thatcher's programme of pit closures and anti-union legislation led to a miner's strike (1984-85). Scargill has so burnt his bridges with the NUM and the broad left of the labour movement that his name is never mentioned at Durham miners' gala or at other miners' strike commemorations. The Miners Strike Day by Day: The Illustrated 1984-85 Diary of Yorkshire Miner Arthur Wakefield. This Mainstream media view holds that the strike failed because of Scargills extreme beliefs and bad decisions. [32] An internal NUM report by Gavin Lightman QC found that Scargill had used some of the Libyan money to pay for improvements to his bungalow but not to pay off his mortgage (as had been alleged),[33] and stated that Scargill's failure to make a full report on the Soviet money donated for the Welsh miners was "a remarkable breach of duty" and that he should repay the money back to the NUM. September 09, 2018. Shirley Letwin takes the mainstream media view that Arthur Scargills incompetence as a leader caused the miners strike to fail. Thatcher disregarded how much of an impact the WAPC would have on the strike as many of the striking ladies figured out that if they went out picketing then they would less likely be targeted by police. of Leeds [u.a.] Margaret Thatcher. : S.n., 1996. [28] Travis, Alan. However, if the outcome of the 84-5 strike can be regarded, at one level, as a tragedy, then Scargills post-85 trajectory can only be viewed as an even deeper tragedy. ",email_success: "Message Sent",bulk_noitems_advice: "No items were selected. One source described them as the iron ladies of the coal fields[17]. The most notable of these being the Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC) mainly made up of miners wives or women that grew up in mining communities. This was a complete reversal of the policy that was promised by the Labour Government before it was put into office this represents a betrayal of the mining industry. When you encounter a 404 error in WordPress, you have two options for correcting it. //--> [26] Milne, Seumas. 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. He was succeeded by Ian Lavery. Downing Street Years. Please click on a checkbox next to an item and try again. [1] Letwin, Shirley Robin. This shows that even someone who takes the traditional mainstream media view, that because of Scargills actions the strike was poorly supported and doomed to fail, you cant deny the amount of support that the miners had. A dialogue box may appear asking you about encoding. Scargill admitted there was 'bad blood' between him and the NUM general secretary Chris Kitchen, who said, "I honestly do believe that Arthur, in his own world, believes that the NUM is here to afford him the lifestyle that he's become accustomed to. [15] How the Miners Strike Could Have Won. Socialist Worker (Britain). In the event, it turned out to be the exact blueprint that the government followed[21]. All work is written to order. 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]. Just click. Letwins Thatcherite view is also discredited by Tony Benn who says The issue of a national ballot was really irrelevant. [19] Morgan, Kenneth O.Britain since 1945: The Peoples Peace. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. Arthur Scargill emerged from semi-retirement from politics to speak at a meeting of the Communist Party of Britains wretched little pro-Brexit front organisation Leave Fight Transform (LeFT) in Brighton on 11 September, alongside Eddie Dempsey (the man who said Tommy Robinson supporters were right to hate the liberal left) and other assorted xenophobes, nationalists and social conservatives. He played an important role in the miners' strike of 1972 and was involved in the mass picket at Saltley Gate in Birmingham. The miners had already built up a fearsome reputation as the shock troops for organised labour and during his time as leader of the Yorkshire coalfield, Mr Scargill had rarely been out of the news. He was not addressed or greeted from the platform, though as Honorary Life President of the NUM it might be expected, as a courtesy if nothing else, that his presence would be acknowledged. Back in 1983 (even before the great miners strike) the forunner of Solidarity (Socialist Organiser) condemned Scargills attacks on the independent Polish union movement Solidarnosc, but also identified the root cause of Scargills tragic error (nationalism) and denounced the hypocrisy of many of his critics within the labour movement: Its no news that Scargill has a scandalous attitude to Solidarnosc. But Rule 43 said that a national strike can only be called if there was a ballot. His mother, Alice (ne Pickering), was a professional cook. RewriteEngine On Seumas Milne portrays the Marxist view that the government went over the top with the preparations in order to see the miners strike fail and bring down the unions altogether. Page 70. Yet he was a decisive figure in the great strike of 1984-85. "It was Thatcher's legislation, actually giving council tenants the right to buy their own houses. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. My mother was strictly non-political. For more information, see The National Review (June 15, 1984 and April 5 . With Fay Hauser, Olivia Haller, Doris Morgado, Chrystee Pharris. London: Pan Books, an Imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2017. [29] Thatcher, Margaret. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984-85), a major event in the history of the British labour movement. Page 341. [49], After stepping down from leadership of the NUM, Scargill became active in the UK's Stalin Society[50] saying that the "ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin explain the real world". Free resources to assist you with your university studies! Accessed January 06, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/07/arthur-scargill-miners-strike. [39], During the media controversy, the antiperspirant Mitchum used Scargill's image, without his consent, under the slogan "Mitchum, for when you're really sweating! Page 345. of the other candidates claimed that they were given very little time to prepare. [31] There was much criticism of Scargill within the NUM from the Welsh and Scottish areas, who briefly considered splitting from the NUM. Scargill said himself that the real reason that the NUM areas such as Nottinghamshire, South Derbyshire and Leicestershire wanted a national strike ballot was that they wanted the strike called off, believing naively that their pits were safe[7]. [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. Page 341. The myth of workers' control: We are fighting for the survival of our culture: Selected Co-authors Countries and Regions of . I think if it had been made public before then there'd have been a huge outcry. Scargill had the ability to do great things; Pity he got in the way of his own opportunities, and could not see Communism as a failed ideology that blighted every country in which it held sway. [36] In September 1990, the Certification Officer brought criminal charges against Scargill and Heathfield for wilfully neglecting to perform the union's duty to keep proper accounting records. There was some controversy in February 1985 when Times journalist Paul Routledge engaged the Queen in discussion on the strike, and the Queen said that the strike was "all about one man", which Routledge objected to. The Alliance for Workers' Liberty is an organisation fighting as part of the labour movement for a socialist alternative to both capitalism and Stalinism, based on common ownership and democracy. Somerset: Routledge, 2018. London: Verso, 2014. March 10, 2004. [41] Campbell, John. Scargill led the union in the 19841985 miners' strike. Both the Marxist view and the mainstream media view gives credit to government preparations showing this was definitely an important factor in the failure of the strike. Margaret Thatcher. Still the Enemy Within (2014). IMDb. 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