miners strike 1984-lessons to be learnt.

[borders]

how about sausage , chips and beans ?

[DGP1]

how about sausage , chips and beans ?

Or you could call a taxi................................S Cabs

[Thorby Bislam]

That's why it's frowned upon, these days. And to be honest, I can understand why. Because I've known people give in to Management pressure, and crossed the Picket Lines. And then years later, grown a Backbone, and joined us on the lines. So it makes sense, once the dust settles, not to rub their nose in it. But start convincing them of the error of their ways, in a more reasonable fashion.

.

Spot on Andy. The lad on the frame next to me. During the strike last year, at first he went in but then after, he was out on the line with the rest of us. So what am I supposed to do ? Hate him for scabbing or admire him for not. Actually, I treat him just the same as I always have. No more, no less. There's a couple of guys I dont talk to though. I dont abuse them, not going to get coded over the likes of them, just dont have owt to do with them.

Today's Mirror. The policeman, striker, wife and protester.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... -21185655/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The journolist. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... -21183678/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A series of pics.http://www.mirror.co.uk/2009/03/09/mine ... -21184903/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TrueBlueTerrier]

For strike breakers I have to say its the totality of their actions that count, unless they are taking the mick.

What I mean is if they start of by crossing the line but then are convinced of the error of their ways they they deserve respect and they will get if from me.

If however, they start of crossing the picket and are abusive towards strikers but in the end they end up striking then they deserve a little respect, a bit more if they actually attend the picket as well.

If however, they cross the picket line and are abusive, or if they say they went on strike but are found out later to have gone to another work place to dodge the picket line then they deserve no respect. I will not ignore them but I certainly would not talk to them unless I had to as part of my job.

However, one thing I cannot understand and will never condone is any "direct action" taken by strikers against strike breakers. One lad at my DO was proud that during a strike in the 80s or 90s he had keyed a strike breakers car, I am sorry but just because someone does not strike is not enough reason to break the law. I would always attempt to change their minds by discussion and documentation as to do otherwise is likely only to make them more entrenched in their views.

[johnsouthwales]

a commendable fascinating insight in history there by borders. the recent 25th anniversary features in the national press recently has brought in other insights to the dispute an revelations from other sides, whether it was a matter of conscience pangs from a police officer who has stated that he had become a state puppet (whether he was making a referal to himself or the police force as a whole in their role in 1984-85. other comments noted have been coming from derbyshire miners who have also come out and stated that they were used by the government as political instruments. i do surely hope that many others will come out one day. circa 2004, the bbc documentary of the 20th anniversary, a senior police officer refered that the miners were misguided, which to me looks like in the context that it he viewed it through a political view.

it is all so easy for some parties to say to let bygones be bygones, put the past behind and move on. to the general public in 1984, maybe have been naive. i for one was 20 at the time, the unemployment situation was dismal from 1981-83, was very happy within myself but looking back in hindsight (which is always easy to do), had no concept of the intricate wheels of industry. having been on previous youth opportunities programmes where i thought £23.50 was a lot of money. but looking back, a lot of people were ripped off. then i had started work on some proper work in 1983 which if i remember correctly, took home around £57 for a temporary painting and decorating post, which again did feel like it was quite a bit of money. previously in 1981 after leaving school, my insights were postal work or following in my fathers footsteps as a railwayman. mass redundancies of 1982-83 put a stop to my natural ambitions, and once again found myself back on the dole, which incidentally i remember quite well being asked for a donation to the miner's fund outside one of our local supermarkets, and the collector who i knew said "come on john" while shaking his tin. that is one emotion that has stuck with me. being enticed by suggestion, persuasion, not knowing the full extent of the demise, as the only information i knew at the time was that there was a strike on, people were having no income, food parcels were being distributed, and my solemn belief was that the collection was for food only and gladly donated 50 pence.

then i started working 16 miles away in may 1984, and oblivious to the extent of strike. one major point that i totally felt totally shocked and outraged by was the death of the taxi driver in south wales where concrete was thrown from a bridge, leaving behind a pregnant wife. at the time, we mostly knew the difference between right and wrong was. as people get older, itis not the case of this anymore, the concept of good and bad was added onto this scope.

as for the 3 day week, i cannot remember much about 1972 personally. the only other vivid memory i had previously was wondering where our usual bottle of milk at school had gone to. so thatcher was interfering with my life even then..i was too young. a lot of men from this town were miners along with other, but it is impossible to imagine to feel or totally understand what our elders or parents or relatives thought and went through.

life had seemed generally cosy growing up, but never see behind the scenes. i remember postmens uniforms of the mid 70s, grey woolen trousers and matching jacket that probably itched to hig heaven, kept you a bit warmer in winter and swelter in summer.

as 1984 progressed, we were subjected to the daily news routine. people i knew were saying "shut up arthur" at the tv. this was one of my turning points to understand fully of other people in general, as from what i could see, the dispute was a fight for communities, and i fully supported that. the dispute did have a knock on effect as my father was a wagon examiner and the rail transportation of coal was one of the primary sources of work. when i was working, it was in production, i was to work 39 hours a week at a particular rate, and that was it. you just did not question anything. just got on with it. i did actually learn to operate machinery quickly, and even grazed my finger with a guillotine metal trimmer, i did not now at the time that the machine was supposed to have a guard, but the general operators health and safety rule number one was just to be careful. even though machinery can look intimidating to some people, it was kind of exiting to me. the work did not last that long as lay-offs were around the corner. but this experience was valuable.

i cannot recall during 1984 that the hidden reason why the government wanted to do away with coal altogether and transfer the energy source from coal to gas at power stations. circa 1982, it was known that there were 35 years of gas reserves. and for this reason, we today are suffering these consequences. it is not the consumer that has frittered away energy over the years, various government promotional adverts over the years advising to save on energy. industry has always used the vast majority, and when gas gets used to operate turbines, it is inevitable that the consequences are going to be high.

we all know for sure that the government turned their backs on the 1981 proposals, then introduced mine closure programme in 1984. there was propaganda used by the government, and the general public did not see this deception. even the labour party ath the time, neil kinnock, who has since publicly quoted that he dispised Mr scargill, has suggested that he regrets not making the NUM to force a national ballot. the word on everybody's lips was that the strike was undemocratic. and to the ordinary person, the information that was fed gave the appearance of being undemocratic. this was fed to the public. and even today, miners say it was undemocratic. by christmas 1984, the struggle was cutting deep. This was not just a dispute of working practices or closures, not of class, it became something more serious than miners versus state. more serious than union versus bosses. it was the crushing of the human will.

and that crushing is relevent today. the soul of the nation died in 1984. we may have all these wonderfull technologies of today but at what cost? nobody wants to strike or raise a dispute for no reason. all concerns have a legitimate reason, we all aim for a better life. we all thought that when labour won in 1997, incidentally a month after the death of my father, things can only get better. actually, the psychology of this has not actually made anything better, but an illusion. exactly the same propaganda the conservatives exploited, and the defragmentation of ordinary peoples concerns wherever they maybe,

after putting on hold any employment within the post-office, an opportunity arose during mid 1987 after a spell of two years in the retail trade. a post became available with royal mail lcally and spotted the chance. i had my interview and heard nothing for weeks. after getting fed up with no work, i went away to holland, came back and almost immediately, i started working as a welder 15 miles away, learnt quite a lot within the first month, and ended up working there for ten years until redundancy came along. after starting in 1987, i was disappointed not to hear from the postal service and was quite gutted. then out of the blue approx 2 months later i received a letter from the gpo, which put me in a position of which way to turn. do i stay or do i go from the work i had started? it was quite a hard choice to make and always had regretted it deep down as aspirations were already instilled from 1981.

postal services are important to whether is it communicating in pleasure or business, as most of the postal services is generated through business (approx 80% to date). Just as the same way the NCB was looked at as a business in 1983 rather than a life sustaining service, which makes you actually think why coal mining was introduced in the first place. was it mined to supply foundries back in the 1830's onwards or was it mined to keep people warm in their homes? were railways built to take passengers or to transport coal? the computers we use daily were originally contructed for military use, then became available for business use. somehwre along the lines of evolution of services, the ordinary public provisions are secondary and become an offshoot products.

i am sure it is common knowledge regarding the history of the postal services in the uk and it's evolution. and in my eyes, the postal services through the gpo is a commendable industry who have my respect, and many of my friends are post office staff. in all respect, the postal services should stay in crown ownership, even though the original postal service was created in 1635, then came he evolution of Bath's involvemment, then came along the penny post and so on. i am very sure that the general public and even ministers themselves know that peter mandelson's role is embarrassing is damaging. and it cannot be understood why mr mandelson has suddenly found the money to make up the pension's deficit. it will be interesting to see if he would do this before any changes are implimented, but i doubt he would do this. after all, who is to say that funding will run out after the sell off? and his proposal of allow the sell off to get the funding is contemptable, and if a proposal is contemptable, therefore the originator falls into this category. it is moral blackmail, everybody can see that. bribery is another term i can think of. See what this government has in common with 1984?

austria-germany postal system of the 1870's was a revolution. probably the german counterparts felt exactly the same with their redundancies. austria post is owned by their government with a stake of majority share of 51%. it took a lot of problems. apparently, it coild be possible that letters under 50 grammes are no longer viable, and this delivery is being looked at for tendering. other things which are doing on in austria, is their post office closure programme, just as what the uk has experienced. austrian post workers carry machines around with them and act as a walking post-office, where you can purchase stamps from a postal official on the street, or even make a cash withdrawal. which means they are cash carriers. somehow i cannot see my postie being too happy being held up while i count my change to buy two stamps. as for extra duties for any postal worker, whether it is at home or abroad, is not acceptable. staff are pushed to the limits as it is. you can only get so much blood out of a stone! but it is no laughing matter when the postal delivery work actually causes death of it's own workers. i see posties who are younger than me, fit. maybe non-smokers, and i can see the rush in their hard strides and tired look in their faces. and as for the snowfall last month, i was very suprised to see the female post deliverer. the pavements were walkable at some parts at extreme caution and if walked on slowly. so after another media news story where post workers are to be told to walk at 4mph, will only lead to exhaustion. it does not mean a worker is unfit, it is just inevitable. and how they will implement it is beyond me without physically attaching an odometer to an ankle which i am sure is against workersrights. so when someone thinks they are walking 4mph and are actually walking 5mph, and a normal walking pace is 1.5mph, so in other words, the be workers getting away with walking at 3.5 mph on one hand and others working like blue arced flies at 4.5 on the other. so the next generation of workers would have to be an athlete? where the reality is no two people are the same and that is a common mistake to make.

mandelson first resignation in 1998, was followed by a second resignation as northern ireland secretary. last year, he was demonsrating his confidence on chinese dairy products when they were causing kidney stones and other ailments and deaths to add. he drank some chinese milk in front of reporters (similar to john selwyn gummer with the beef burger stunt in the mid 90s).. nine days later, mandelson was in hospital with erm, kidney stone. like homer simpson would say, D'OH... adam crozier. . how he was in charge of the football association i never know. (bit of trivia for the footy fans). he wasn't experienced in football. his previous employment was with advertising agency, so he employed advertising people and paid them over the odds salary, created a black hole in footballs finances..the fact is, for far too long, the wrong people have been put into power, take the cream and give out the sour milk, get sacked, get huge pay offs... how do these people get these lucrative posts is beyond my logical thinking.

seems a bit weird, crozier was made joint chief executive of saatchi and saatchi after the saatchi brothers walked out of their own company. hence another connection to thatcher in an ironic way.. i'm not superstitious but...

and to think adam crozier is a year younger than me. and any future employment in the uk within royal mail is now diminished due to an incurable foot problem, so those aspirations from 1981. are just history. but that did not stop me from supporting against the post office closures which i do believe that quite a lot of MPs were using it as a cause to score political points, and county councillors were just standing and watching. and when the next round comes, i won't say to them i told you so. the next time it happens, it will be too late because the damage had already been done because they did too little in the beginning.

Liberalisation of the uk and europe. since this relaxed britain, most working people are apathetic to politics and matters. workers have been thrown into situations which basically throws away some workers rights which i thought mr blair brought in a maximum working week, and when an employment situation arises and the employee throws away his or hers rights, and this becomes the "norm". and this liberisation of domimamt postal services has forced the sales of tenders whether they are successful or not. germany has it's problems, austria has it's problems. Dhl has it's problems and i would be suprised if they are still interested at all. France has it's problems too, but their floatation has been quoted as selling off 20%, where as the uk has said part of it's stake, how much is a part? austria has floated 49%. But France has a different structure, as most of their postal workers are classed as civil servants, run their parcel services similar to ours, and maybe under one umbrella, unlike ours post office and parcelforce. Germany has transferred 25,000 jobs to lower paid contractors, possibly due to letters under 50grammes, so if that happened here, either the postal services will have to employ new workers after 2011 at a minimum wage or subcontract out the delivery to another firm operating at less than royal mail. under 1996 european agreement which guarenteed quality basic service, this is obviously outdated and quality cannot be guarenteed these days. quarter of germany's post offices closed. the danish-swedish collobarotion is unusual as they are two seperate countries in identity and they only got it by the European Union decision to deregulate the sector would increase "demand of cross-border distribution solutions." and the danes had to sell their stake in the belgian post company.

Tnt run dutch-post, but it previously said in 2004 it is only interested in business mail, even if tnt pay royal mail 13 pence per letter through access agreement. tnt will collect from businesses eg bank statement and they will sort them, hand them over to royal mail so they can deliver the folowing day. one may wonder if there is a scam, but no figures can be found on how much tnt will charge the bank and will depend on the amount collected on the day. from a non business customer, this seems cheap to send a letter. i cant post off a letter cheaper if i personally handed it in at sorting office to save the expense of having someone to pick it up at mailbox. germanypostworldnet have already aquired tnt to create their parcel delivery to compete with Ups. germanyworldnet is a portion of germany post after deregulisation. when the press in the uk mention germany post is interested in royal mail as a whole remains to be seen. if tnt cannot deliver on their own, why do they need to acquire the services of a second party at all? seems like with bank collection, tnt charge for collection and sort, they get paid. tnt then use a cheaper competitor as a convenient source to deliver. the implications of this is a bit difficult to understand as it has always been deemed as the sender has the contract with the postal company for delivery, the bank is the sender and tnt is the postal company even acting on a collectiion and sorting basis. so who is liable if the letter went missing? or if a compensation claim was made when sending something abroad or vice-versa after a package has changed hands through different companies and the sub-contract gets subcontracted to another firm? too many cooks springs to the mind

does this actually mean nobody is interested in ordinary post eg, hand written letter, birthday cards, tickets and the like? i see a pattern here. the under 50 gramme letter distribution solution. im sure germany still operate this but austria are looking into it as it seems lettes under 50 grammes are not profitable.

[norbert]

fantastic post

[borders]

very interesting read John , thanks for taking the time to write it. cheers .

[johnsouthwales]

it took a bit of time that i didn't mind. if only things were straight forward, it would be better for everyone from the bottom to the top? unfortunately, society is just rush rush rush, has been for far too long. and we all know what that does eventually.

when i mentioned that germany post workers carry cash, it is for the rural areas, their version of post office outreach. they carry in their pouch a mini postoffice. Especially in thinly populated areas, they practically carry a branch post office in their pouches. Among other things they sell stamps, take packages, accept bank deposits, cash checks and sell telephone cards. Not known is how many visits are made, or even who does it. will find out. here in the uk, the local sub-postmaster is responsible for outreach services.

i also remember from 2002 during my employment at a distribution centre, as it is always in my personality to do my work and even make things better if i could. if i discover something that would benefit the operation without having to put any burdens on an operative or myself, it would immediately be dismissed as "it's too easy" by a line leader. after a while, i began to realise that management were saying the same wording "it's too easy" as if it was a way of life., which i had wised up by then and realised everyone spoke the same language. management did not want to make things better, and it's was not a joke when i ended up doing the work of three workers. Sounds familiar?

[norbert]

it took a bit of time that i didn't mind. if only things were straight forward, it would be better for everyone from the bottom to the top? unfortunately, society is just rush rush rush, has been for far too long. and we all know what that does eventually.

when i mentioned that germany post workers carry cash, it is for the rural areas, their version of post office outreach. they carry in their pouch a mini postoffice. Especially in thinly populated areas, they practically carry a branch post office in their pouches. Among other things they sell stamps, take packages, accept bank deposits, cash checks and sell telephone cards. Not known is how many visits are made, or even who does it. will find out. here in the uk, the local sub-postmaster is responsible for outreach services.

i also remember from 2002 during my employment at a distribution centre, as it is always in my personality to do my work and even make things better if i could. if i discover something that would benefit the operation without having to put any burdens on an operative or myself, it would immediately be dismissed as "it's too easy" by a line leader. after a while, i began to realise that management were saying the same wording "it's too easy" as if it was a way of life., which i had wised up by then and realised everyone spoke the same language. management did not want to make things better, and it's was not a joke when i ended up doing the work of three workers. Sounds familiar?

the sort of place that would make cardboard submarines ? - things tended to take on a even more surreal element with the introduction of :lfo & Propaganda reminiscent of Hitler's Third Reich .

the worst of the old RM culture and the worst of the corporate culture , as things tend to be taken to literal extremes , are handled badly and hamfistedly , with mountains made out of molehills . :cfo

It's all these people have known since being Cadets , very negative , everything within the Planet RM box , many would struggle to get past stupidvisor or Foreman outside and part of a management structure that operates for the benefit of the managers inside it .

[johnsouthwales]

actually, it was a pharmaceutical distribution warehouse, sending out all the little pills and remedies to help the people whoever they are to get better. distributing to hospitals and pharmacies. if an order came in requesting something to be delivered there and then, it simply just had to be done, so every second counted in that environment. i would have thought that it was common sense for a hospital to keep adequate stocks and re-order when they are down to 25% remaining which probably would last two days, but because of the costs of tablets, they just cannot afford to keep surplus stocks, even in retail, and make a low stock level last as long as possible.

[johnsouthwales]

everybody started somewhere as a cadet so to speak. the trouble is that many officers who were once a private forget their roots and where they come from, climb up their social ladder and get caught up in their own little worlds.

[norbert]

actually, it was a pharmaceutical distribution warehouse, sending out all the little pills and remedies to help the people whoever they are to get better. distributing to hospitals and pharmacies. if an order came in requesting something to be delivered there and then, it simply just had to be done, so every second counted in that environment. i would have thought that it was common sense for a hospital to keep adequate stocks and re-order when they are down to 25% remaining which probably would last two days, but because of the costs of tablets, they just cannot afford to keep surplus stocks, even in retail, and make a low stock level last as long as possible.

I think it's a Japanese idea - the just in time idea which a lot of companies use , maybe it's the NHS being split into all these competing parts and marketization & all these private sector ideas and people being introduced .

If anybody makes money it's the drugs companies especially if they hold the patents and there's no generic alternative , SOME doctors and managers can do well out of it too , junkets paid for by the drugs companies etc .

[borders]

Former miners tell Mike Simons why they were right to challenge Margaret Thatcher’s offensive


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Ian Mitchell – Silverwood miner
Arthur Scargill was head and shoulders above any other trade union leader at the time or since.

The miners elected him with an overwhelming majority because all of us knew Margaret Thatcher and the Tories were coming for us.

We wanted someone who would fight and had a record of winning.

Voting for Scargill as president when there were three million unemployed was a vote for the right to work and a sign that we were prepared to fight for it.

Scargill was absolutely in tune with the rank and file militants, particularly in Yorkshire. We had seen what had happened to steel workers and engineering workers and we weren’t going to see our lives wrecked like that.

We wanted to fight and when the strike started, we wanted to spread it fast.

We wanted a repeat of 1972 when militant action brought the country to a standstill.

That is what Scargill wanted too, but there was a weakness. Unlike 1972, which was led by the rank and file, in 1984, there was a section of the union leadership, who were supposed to be Scargill’s allies, but who were holding us back.

At times it seemed as if Scargill was acting with his hands tied, and he was, because the leaders of the union’s Scottish, Welsh and Yorkshire areas were out to undermine him. It wasn’t until quite late in the strike that we had enough people who were prepared to act independently of the union officials if needed.

We saw it at the Orgreave coal coking plant. It has gone down in history as Scargill walking into a trap laid by MacGregor, Thatcher and the police. In reality it was the climax of an attempt to stop the steel industry.

The militants and Scargill campaigned to focus our action on hitting industry – but the NUM area leaders tried to sabotage our action.

We had a simple calculation. If we stopped Orgreave we would have stopped steel production. That would have stopped the car industry and a lot more. And that would have had the ruling class begging to end the strike on the miners’ terms. Thatcher would have been history.

There is a myth that the strike was unending misery from beginning to end. It was hard and people were short of everything. Miners died scavenging for coal to keep their homes warm. But it was also the best year of my life, as it was for many other miners’ families.

There was a real strong sense of solidarity among people and peoples’ lives were transformed. They saw things, and each other, differently.

They saw solidarity as the basis of a better world. That didn’t die with the end of the strike.

I’ll never forget the run up to Christmas 1984. There was so much pride that we were still out, that people had resisted the propaganda and the enormous amounts of money on offer to go back.

We filled the kids’ stockings with toys, the kitchens laid on fantastic meals – all thanks to the solidarity of trade unionists.

In the end we were beaten but it wasn’t a rout. We still resisted. Kent miners tried to stay out in solidarity with the thousand men who had been sacked during the strike.

Three weeks after we went back management tried to sack me and another lad, and people simply wouldn’t go down the pit.

Management had to back off.

A year after the strike there was loads of unofficial action in the pits. Where we held it together during the strike, we could hold it together afterwards.

Twenty five years on, remembering what we did isn’t about nostalgia. It is about remembering one simple lesson – it is always better to fight than to give in to the bosses.


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Steve Hamill – Silverwood miner
Everyone knew there was going to be a showdown between the miners and Thatcher.

Her plans to smash us had been in the press. While the Tories prepared, we prepared. We debated our response at NUM branch and area meetings across the coalfields and at our conference.

We agreed unanimously at our conference that there would be a national strike if the government or coal board tried to shut a single pit in contravention with the agreements they had signed with our union.

The issues were simple. The Tories said loud and clear, for them it was about the right to let the free market rip. For us it was about the right to work, about the defence of our jobs and communities.

When they announced the closure of Cortonwood, it was a deliberate provocation and we had to respond.

We didn’t wait for a ballot and we didn’t need to wait for one.

We had a mandate for a national strike, we had momentum, with thousands of lads picketing or ready to picket. When we went to the Nottingham and Derbyshire pits we mostly got results.

It wasn’t until Thatcher threw the police at us and the media began a massive campaign of abuse that the momentum stalled.

The tool they used was to call for a ballot. But this was not about uniting the miners. It was about breaking the momentum of the strike and getting us back to work.

Later in the strike, Neil Kinnock, then Labour Party leader, and some trade union leaders used this argument as an excuse for their failure to deliver any meaningful solidarity.

Ultimately the Tories forced us back. But the way we fought prevented them doing what they really wanted to on the backs of defeated miners – smashing the living standards of every worker in the country.


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Jim Tierney – Castlehill miner
The strike was absolutely solid across Scotland, even towards the end. You could count the number of strike breakers on your fingers and toes.

We had lots of support from other workers and local businesses, which meant that the strike centre was well stocked and people didn’t go without a meal.

I was sacked during the strike after the police framed me for an attack on a scab van. I was well known in the area because I organised the picketing across Fife and Stirlingshire.

The Tories were organised, while our side wasn’t. But even so, we came so close to beating them. The trade union and Labour Party leaders stabbed us in the back.

If our side had been united we could have forced the Tories to back down. The Tories’ victory meant the widening of the division between the haves and the have-nots.

The anger and the bitterness that was there in the 1980s is still here today.


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Paul Symonds – Frickley miner
Sometimes in history you are asked to stand up and be counted, and that is what the miners did.

Some people say the miners had no option but to fight. We did have an option.

We could have carried on working like many Nottinghamshire miners, but we didn’t. We decided to draw the line and we decided which side we were on.

Thatcher picked the fight. She wanted revenge on the miners for our victories over the Tory government in 1972 and 1974 and she wanted to smash trade union organisation.

But when the fight started, no one knew how big it would be or how long it would go on for.

When you go into battle the outcome is always uncertain. If you always knew what the result would be, there would never be a fight.

We knew we had a cause worth fighting for, and we knew then and we know now that we could have won and at times came close to winning.

Today people talk about why there was not a negotiated settlement. No negotiated settlement was possible. Even when MacGregor wanted to settle, he was told by Thatcher to get on with the fight.

The only outcome the Tories would accept was total surrender. But that would have meant the organised labour movement laying down before the Tory government, and that would have been the worst of all defeats.

Instead, we fought for a year.

We made the Tories pay a price far beyond anything they ever planned for or dreamed of in their worst nightmares.

The end of the strike wasn’t the end of the resistance, either in the pits or in other industries. The Tories wanted to break the trade union movement permanently. We stopped that happening.

Was the strike worth it? Absolutely. Twenty five years on, with thousands of people being thrown out of work every week, we need to revive some of the miners’ fighting spirit.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17309" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[borders]

People changed in struggle


Louise Harrison

by Louise Harrison

My abiding memory of the strike is the coming together of my community. It brought families together to fight for something that was just.

The strike transformed everything. Before it men and women could be in a set role, with the man working and the woman doing the housework and looking after the kids.

But when the strike happened the men and women fought together.

Women, including my mother, came to the fore and defended their community. It showed me that women can be active and political, and that we need to unite with men to get anywhere.

We had to cope with poverty and uncertainty, but a whole new world opened up for us. My mother and I both went to university after the strike – the first women in our family to go into higher education.

The media and politicians tried to paint the miners as the “enemy within”. Now I look at the Muslim students and others protesting against the “war on terror” and think the same thing is happening to them.

When you come through a struggle like the Miners’ Strike you see how important it is that we stick together.

The miners stood up for other people too. The strike was where many of us learned to support other people fighting back against oppression and exploitation, such as the black people in South Africa resisting apartheid.

The defeat was heartbreaking. After the pits were closed lots of people retrained, but there were no jobs. People lost their families, drugs came in and there was a wasted generation. It took communities years to recover.

If we’d won then we wouldn’t be in the position we’re in now, with weaker unions and public services under constant attack.

The outcome could have been so different. When Margaret Thatcher dies there will be parties in Doncaster and other former mining areas.


Louise Harrison was 14 when her dad went on strike. She is now the Unison union’s women’s officer in Doncaster


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[johnsouthwales]

hi borders. they are good affidavits and thanx for sharing that.. what i have read today is that neil kinnock is coming out of the woodwork and has mentioned the miners were walking into the tories trap.. pity he did not publicly speak about this and give warnings because he knew what the consequences would be in the beginning and it gives the impression he too wanted the miners to go down by keeping quiet. and that was the labour party leader. maybe he wanted a cushy time and kept out of it. maybe, just maybe, if kinnock only publicy denounced the thatcherite policies and recognised the potential in the same way he denounced derrick hatton at the labour party conference and scoring political points. the only thing red in kinnock was his hair, and it was fashinable in the labour party shortly after to "weed" out the loony left. just who are the loony left? the miners who were battling day in day out struggling to keep their homes, feed family, fighting for survival? it is so easy for mr kinnock to say mr scargill exploited the situation. if anyone had exploited anything, he should take one good look at himself to see how well he has left his origins and joined the gravy-train over at brussels. it is just farcical. the later militancy was born out of the strike as it became common practice to label anybody who did not conform to a particular standard, and was becoming a fashion not only from the tories but labour themselves, and this was a bandwagon they were all too keen to jump on. where was blair at the time? the only vivid memory i have of him was in 1983 when he first started. i remember kim howell who was the num spokesman and thought he was decent, but like everbody else at the time, nobody could have realised the full consequences. the only people who fought for anything were the miners. looking back in hindsight, i cannot see anyone else breaking a sweat. the only person i thought that was supportive was roy hattersley. mr kinnock on his first speech at conference was Labour needed first and foremost to be a unified force. so where was the labour unity in 1984. like all of today's politicians, they pick and choose things to suit themselves. and if anything, they are more corrupt than anything.

the origins of the the strike was not one of militancy. only the year before with poland's solidarity in 1983 when they defied moscow, those so called "protestors" were water-cannoned and suffered brutality. outrage was protrayed at seeing these images by al factions. of course, poland got their independence and yet when barely a year later, the same solidarity was going on here in our own country and was dismissed as a communist threat to our own establishment. just what is "communist" about protecting communities and lives?

without being blunt, the lack of interest from the labour party in 1984-85, and the lack of interest from the public themselves, have all got a consequence. we all know that the tories manipulated everyone, they exploited the police force, the army, the public and the miners. and if mr kinnock and his side-kicks do not acknowledge that fact, then he is more disillusioned than thought.

i myself, am just an ordinary guy with a mind of my own, from an ordinary background. there are a lot of things i do not like, and probably the vast majority, so i am not any different than anyone else. i believe in feedom, but freedom and responsibility go hand in hand and neither can exist without each other.

and one of the most unlikely sources of current information coming out is from norman tebbit himself, and even he admits that the tories got it wrong.. that just sums it all up.