The Miners' Strike 1984/85

Read on for a look at the events of October and the scabs and the law. The events 8 October: the NUM and the National Coal Board agree to meet at ACAS under an independent Chair on 11 October. 10 October: the NUM fined £200,000 and found in contempt of a High Court ruling which states the strike is unlawful because of the lack of a national ballot. 12 October: Restrictive bail conditions on striking members are upheld in the Divisional Courts. 15 October: NCB walk out of ACAS talks. 25 October: ACAS prepare a formula which both NACODS and NUM accept and which includes provision for an...

Continuing our timeline of the events of the strike... 26 September: National Coal Board offers pit deputies, NACODS, a compromise package. 28 September: High Court rules NUM strike was “unlawful” because there has been no national ballot. The action has been brought by two scab miners. The legal action parallels the new Tory anti-union law which have come into force in the course of the strike, requiring ballots for all strikes, but that law is not actually used. The court took it upon itself to interpret the NUM’s rule book, and declared the strike unlawful. NACODS ballot result announced...

The Labour Party conference opened at Blackpool on 1 October. It overturned and overruled the platform line on the miners’ strike. Arthur Scargill got a tremendous reception. The conference rejected Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s “statesmanlike”, even-handed condemnation of violence, by which primarily he meant pickets’ violence. Conference condemned police violence, called for police to be removed from the coalfields, and thus implicitly sided with the pickets. (Members of the Socialist Organiser Alliance, forerunner of the AWL, originated the crucial clauses.) Albert Bowns (Kiveton Park NUM)...

Every day the smooth-faced pundits forecast on the box. The miners' strike is lost, they say, and Scargill's on the rocks Lies, defamation, misinformation, this is the testing time He kept faith with the men who elected him, and that is a major crime. The Media, Ewan McColl By Mick Duncan The limits of the "free press" under capitalism were graphically shown up during the miners' strike. It is impossible to describe how polarised political life was during the strike. It was a time for taking sides. For the most part the media threw its weight behind the Government, and the Government's use of...

Beginning August: After South Wales NUM is fined £50,000 the NUM calls on the TUC and the rest of the trade union movement for solidarity action. Nothing happens. The movement begins to go into retreat, although the miners would remain, fundamentally, solid until November. There was nothing inevitable about this: many groups of workers had their own battles to fight, battles which could have turned into support for the miners, but either these were not seriously fought or the Government intervened to ensure that they were settled quickly. 8 August: 50p a week trade union levy in support of NUM...

"Support groups are beginning to assume the status of one of the positive lessons of the 1984-85 strike in much the same way that mass picketing was seen as the lesson of the 1972 strike". Paul Mackney The great miners' strike of 1984-85 was a historic defeat for the British working class - a defeat that continues to haunt and enervate our movement to this day. But it was not simply a negative experience. Many valuable lessons were learned by the 150,000 miners out on strike for over a year and by the tens of thousands of working class people who actively supported them. The support committees...

The second in our series looking back at the miners' strike details the events up to April 1984. 21 March 1984: power unions (including the GMB) advise their members to cross picket lines. Steelworkers will also cross picket lines. Third week in March: women in Barnsley, having formed Women Against Pit Closures, hold first activity, a picket of the National Coal Board local offices. Other women's groups spring up. Initially they are involved in organising food collections and distribution and fund raising. Soon they are organising pickets, rallies, demonstrations and public speaking. 26 March...

The events 13 July: Government withholds tax refunds to striking miners. 19 July: NUM/NCB talks last three days. Despite NUM willingness to negotiate, the NCB are ordered to stand firm by the government. Some of the NCB officials wanted to settle. They were later sacked or resigned. 31 July: South Wales NUM fined £50,000 and the High Court seizes South Wales NUM funds. The union had defied an injunction against picketing granted to two haulage firms. The Tories are beginning to up the stakes. The miners and the socialists Karen Waddington, speaking at "Ideas for Freedom" When your safe little...

The events 1 July: Leon Brittan endorses the use of Criminal Law rather than Civil Law against the miners. 5 July: National Coal Board and NUM talks. 6 July: Management visits NUM members at home encouraging them back to work. 8 July: High Court declares NUM Annual Conference unlawful. National dock strike called against the movement of coal. The dock strike The most dramatic point in the struggle to broaden the strike came on 9 July when the dockers came out on strike. Dockers today are many many times smaller in number and weaker in organisation than they were in 1984. At the time of the...