But the remarks also reflect her governments systematic resort to anti-democratic measures to break the resistance of Britains most powerful union: from the use of the police and security services to infiltrate and undermine the miners union to the manipulation of the courts and media to discredit and tie the hands of its leaders. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who wanted to reduce . Thatcher refused to protect the mining industry through subsidies and import tariffs, believing instead that the free market would find the best solution. He said: I think that language captured how the government felt about it at the time. Thatcher had secretly stockpiled supplies of both coal and coke in strategic sites around the country; her government had also entered into agreements with non-unionised haulage firms to break the pickets and carry the coal from storage facilities and coking plants to power stations and factories. Despite not being an overwhelming electoral victory, the incoming government promised radical action to reverse Britain's economic decline during the 1970s. and "Maggie Thatcher Job Snatcher. The Redwood memo frames the dispute in a whole new way: he says the extreme left is mounting an extra-parliamentary challenge, with a revolutionary strategy. It took place when negotiations over a pay rise between NUM leaders and the National Coal Board broke down. However, there was nothing good about communities being smashed to bits while a government that appeared more interested in the increasing economic success of the south east of England did very little to help them. Answer (1 of 6): Right wing power and influence working for the extremely well paid bosses and executives of the Coal Board with their overlord Thatcher. Her defenders and enemies can barely comprehend . How Thatcher broke the miners' strike but at what cost? As the months went by, life for the miners and their families got progressively harder. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. In reality, as 50 MPs declared when some of these revelations first surfaced, Thatchers government and its security apparatus were themselves guilty of the mass subversion of democratic liberties. introduced legislation The Employment Acts of 1980, 1982 and 1990 restricted secondary action, a form of trade union activity in which one union goes on strike in response, Margaret Thatcher Britain's first female prime minister It was certainly what the prime minister herself believed. Mrs Thatchers annotation of the documents shows her considering a payment of 35,000 per man for those who would take redundancy. The strike was a turning point in post-war British politics. He was 85. What happened to Thatcher? Had the miners held a ballot and voted to strike, Thatcher would not have behaved differently. They are the servants not of government but of the law itself, Mrs Thatcher said in her Mansion House speech that year. How did the miners strike end in 1972? For other inquiries, Contact Us. The miners' strike was a public and political battle whose symbolic importance was well understood at the time. Their pit would last a mere seven years. ", Les Lee/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). An interview with the Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher. The miners were on top of the world in the 1970s, able to hold the country to ransom to stop pit closures and raise wages. And in some of the other documentation I demonstrated there were groups involved in the miners strike who had a wider political purpose. In 1972 and 1974, strikes shut down every coal mine in Britain, and a combination of solidarity strikes by the steel and railway unions and targeted picketing of coking works, ports and industrial sites brought the country to a standstill. Libya is thought to have provided 150,000, but in a behind-the-scenes move, Mrs Thatcher successfully persuaded Mr Gorbachev not to help the miners. The stalemate produced by Thatchers preparations ground on for a year. It was only as a result of the IRA bomb attack on her Brighton hotel that she was prevailed upon to drop the line as too divisive. In 1984 it was announced that 20 collieries would close with a loss of 20,000 jobs. Answer (1 of 10): Closed down the mines. Causes and Consequences of the 1984-85 Miners Strikes The Conservative party of Margaret Thatcher came to power in May 1979, but with a relatively small majority of 28 MPs (Election History). At the time, Britain had 170 working collieries, commonly known as pits, which employed more than 190,000 people. The loss of the UK coal industry caused devastation across large swathes of the country, and some places are still only now recovering from it. This time around the gloves would be off. The pit closures the miners had fought so hard to prevent began in earnest. Pre News refresh player this is the default player for the C4 news site please do not delete. Mines were the beating hearts of communities stretching from Scotland to Kent. The strike was officially called to a halt on March the 3rd 1985. The 1972 strike was the first time miners had walked away from work since 1926. And Thatcher had another powerful weapon on her side the police. Thatcher's strategy March 5 Yorkshire miners' strike begins. By 1992, Grimethorpe Colliery had ceased operating and the miners had all been made redundant. . It wasnt just the militarised police occupation of the coalfields; the 11,000 arrests, deaths, police assaults, mass jailings and sackings; the roadblocks, fitups and false prosecutions most infamously at the Orgreave coking plant where an orgy of police violence in June 1984 was followed by a failed attempt to prosecute 95 miners for riot on the basis of false evidence. A change in the law meant that the dependents of miners were not entitled to benefits, as they had been during the strikes of the 1970s. The industry relied heavily on government subsidies. Was it a good thing that the miners lost? Union membership fell from some 40 percent of the nations workforce to barely 20 percent, and dropped even lower in the decades to come. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Explain Like I'm Five is the best forum and archive on the internet for Replacement jobs failed to materialize, businesses closed down and young people got used to the idea of either moving away or wasting the best years of their lives on the dole. Margaret Thatcher has seen how the 1974 strike had brought down the Heath government by shutting down power stations through picketing and secondary support by other unions, and was determined not to let this happen again. The miners strike is today depicted as one of those inevitable events that history is littered with: a doomed workforce staging a last ditch battle in the face of progress. This had worked spectacularly well in the 1970s, but this time around McGregor and Thatcher were ready for the miners. Former Cabinet member of the Heath government, Margaret Thatcher, was elected in 1979 and again in 1983. News. The cabinet had, the minutes show, from the very beginning, pressured police to get tough on the pickets, and complained that local courts were dragging their feet in the processing of those arrested. By 1994, when the coal mining industry was finally privatized, Britain had just 15 collieries; when Thatcher died in 2013, only three remained. Thatcher raised the matter with the Soviet premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, during his talks in London. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Thatcher immediately set out to turn the economic situation around, according to her firm belief in the independence of the individual from the state and limited government interference in the economy. The year-long strike that stretched between 1984 and 1985, led by Mr Scargill as president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), changed the face of Britain forever. It was a political strike". Toggle search. With the dockers on strike, and the NCB crumbling, it took Mr Redwoods intervention to stiffen the cabinets position. The use of troops to move essential goods was seriously considered, as was the declaration of a state of emergency and changing the law to enable this. Dont trust anything that they say.. - Thatcher hadn't provoked miners in 81 - paid them off and gave into demands - thought with the miners out, fuel would run drive and economy would grind to a halt so Thatcher would be forced to choose between 3 day week or submission to miners demands Gov/Thatcher at fault - prepared for a showdown for a long time But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher led opposition to the strike - as she wanted to. John VarCharlie Ley/Mirrorpix/Getty Images. The days of British workers digging lumps of coal out of the ground to burn in power stations were numbered. On 19 July 1984, Thatcher said in the House of Commons that giving in to the miners would be surrendering the rule of parliamentary democracy to the rule of the mob. The 'Iron Lady' earned her reputation for toughness when coal miners called a nationwide strike in 1984. A decade after the strike, I called the book I wrote about that secret war against the miners The Enemy Within, because the phrase turned out to have multiple layers of meaning. In 1984 at the height of the strike, Dennis Skinner, MP for . The Miner's Strike has been seen as the decisive political moment in the confrontation between the Conservative government of Mrs Thatcher and the power of militant trade unionism. 55,000 walk out in protest at closure. Photographs of the . 3 key Thatcher policies to end the Miners Strike of 1984-85 Build up ample coal stocks, After a year out on strike in March 1985, the NUM leadership conceded without a deal. View our online Press Pack. Indeed, in line with her project of turning Britain into a "dependent to a self-reliant society . Three decades on, it has become ever clearer that it wasnt the miners or their leaders who were the enemy within. The miners had defeated the ruling class twice, once in 1972 when their strike drove a coach and horses through the pay policy of the day, and then again in 1974 when Tory prime minister Ted Heath . The Thatcher factor First, the miners were divided. The same day the plan was announced, miners at a colliery in South Yorkshire walked out on the job. By The Newsroom 26th Nov 2017, 3:36pm - 3 . At first, this was not a problem as local union branches had deep pockets and could pay miners at least some of money they were no longer receiving from the NCB. When the smoke cleared, 51 miners and 72 police officers had been injured in what became known as the Battle of Orgreave. Dozens of miners were arrested, but the governments prosecution of them fell apart after it emerged that the police had fabricated evidence, among other wrongdoings. Police from outside affected counties were bussed in to prevent picketing and strike action, and to ensure no disruption to supply lines. 1 at the time, prime minister margaret thatcher maintained publicly that she had no choice but to stand up to the country's most powerful union, the leaders of which, she argued, were ignoring economic necessity by trying to maintain a raft of uneconomic, nationalized industries. At the time the government depicted the conflict as one between miners and the National Coal Board, with the state neutral, simply enforcing the law. They thought, as Conservative policy chief John Redwood put it, the National Coal Board (NCB) was crumbling. "It was felt that the system was now working better than it had ever worked before", an official noted her saying. The Tory leaders eagerness to brand not only miners leaders but the Labour party as enemies of democracy was a measure of her extremism and determination for class revenge. She believed that the trade unions were harmful to both ordinary trade unionists and the public. In 1984 there were 174 deep coal mines in the UK by 1994 the year the industry was finally privatized there were just 15 left. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Confrontation between riot police and miners at the Orgreave coke works in South Yorkshire, June 1984. She had also made secret deals with non-unionized drivers to transport the coal, ensuring that power outages would not cripple the country as during previous strikes. During the first few days of the strike, on 14 March 1984, ministers pressed Home Secretary Leon Brittan to get chief constables to adopt a more vigorous interpretation of their duties. I was trying to calm things down I said its not that extreme.. British mines were largely shaft based deep mines, which are totally uncompetitive with open cast mining. Logically, coal mining had to go. The miners' strike of 19841985 was a major industrial action which saw the British coal industry shut down. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty.". In the first half of the 20th century the UK had more than 1,000 collieries - but by . She opposed the strike, believing trade unions to be harmful organisations, and wanted to reduce their . The Prime Minister said the coal mine shutdowns that led to strikes mayhem in the 1980s had boosted the climate battle now faced by the UK. It had all been for nothing. The chilling catchphrase embodied her governments scorched earth onslaught on Britains mining communities and gave the green light for the entire state to treat the miners union as outlaws. On March 6, 1984, the National Coal Board announced its plan to cut the nations coal output by 4 million tons, in an effort to stem a $340 million annual loss. By the early 1980s, domestic coal production was becoming ever more unprofitable. The task facing the left today is almost exactly analogous to the one Ridley was set in 1977. His use of so-called flying pickets striking miners sent to specific plants, usually to prevent the transportation of coal had been a notable success in the strike of 1974, and his forceful personality had brought him to national attention. Margaret Thatcher went head-to-head with the NUM during the 1984-5 miners' strike "The cut went so deep, people have never been able to forget about it. Recherche parmi 277 000+ dissertations. Get this The Guardian page for free from Friday, May 17, 1985 iday May 17 1985 ESS Stephen Cook oh the main proposals in the public order white paper. "The miners' strike was the central political event of the second Thatcher Administration. Answer (1 of 9): That's sort of true, with a few asterisks. Get this The Observer page for free from Sunday, June 3, 1984 1984 OP in Reagan praises Ireland Forum by HUGO DAVENPORT ON HIS first full dav Ireland yesterday, President Reagan chose the historic . In that time, Thatcher's battle with the unions would continue, most notably during the 1984-1985 miners' strike. Dont trust them is the lesson. Life for the residents of Grimethorpe got worse following the closure. Dissertation : The miners strike. An orgy of police violence was followed by a failed attempt to prosecute 95 miners for riot on the basis of false evidence. Photograph: Photofusion/Rex, Thatcher was to call Labour and miners enemy within in abandoned speech, Thatcher papers reveal attack on Kinnock toned down after IRA bomb, Margaret Thatcher and the 1984 conference speech that never was in pictures, Hilary Mantel reveals she fantasised about killing Margaret Thatcher, Move to name Madrid square after Thatcher criticised as 'disrespectful', 40k Margaret Thatcher portrait sparks Tory party donation query, the Tory prime minister intended to extend the charge of seditious insurrection, police and security services to infiltrate and undermine the miners union, the book I wrote about that secret war against the miners The Enemy Within, most infamously at the Orgreave coking plant, the miners strike was more than a defence of jobs and communities. The striking miners faced off against police forces backed by Thatcher's government, in clashes that often turned violent. In the years since, Thatcher and her former ministers and intelligence mandarins have defended such covert action by insisting the NUM leaders were subversive because they wanted to bring down the government. Thatcher was told by the then cabinet secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, there was nothing he could do about it. The fact that he had not called for a national ballot first would soon come back to haunt him. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. The 1984 Brighton bomb forced Margaret Thatcher to tear up what would have been the most divisive speech of her premiership, in which she planned to accuse not only militant miners but the. On the 5th of March 1985, a crowd gathered in a South Yorkshire pit village to watch a sight none of them had seen in a year. Deep mining for coal was already on its death bed by 1984 as cheaper exports from abroad combined with a reluctance on the part of government to continue with subsidies, a changing energy culture and a rising environmental movement all conspired against the industry. And the trade unions believed the government had a long-term strategy to close more than 70 pits. The military analogy with which I opened my remarks is pertinent to what I want to say. The miners' strike was seen at least through the eyes of the news media as a fight to the finish between Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher. That fact dominated and shaped the course of the strike. BORIS Johnson was blasted last night for claiming Margaret Thatchers hated pit closures gave the UK a big early start in the race for net zero emissions. Its an attitude towards government that is common now, but was not common then. But the truth on paper still has the power to shock. Where once there had been a steady source of employment for generations of men, there was now nothing. In the years following 1984-5, Margaret Thatcher acknowledged that "the coal strike was always about far more than uneconomic pits. document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) what did thatchers enemies believe about her handling of the miners strikes Davey Hopper, General Secretary of the Durham Miners' Association, looks at the role of the Thatcher government and the state in the Great Miners' Strike of 1984-85, when the full force of the police, the courts, the law, and the media was used to crush the magnificent movement of the miners and their families. However, as funds ran dry and families found it harder and harder to put food on the table, destitute miners started to trickle back to work through picket lines where they were branded scabs and sometimes physically assaulted. Shes scribbled: 13 RoRo, 1,000 tons a day, 50 lorries a day. Without the coal mines, the communities that had been built up around them, that were staffed with undereducated, working class men, were left destitute. The NUMs strategy for thwarting McGregors plan was simple. All Rights Reserved. Working miners in Nottinghamshire and South Leicestershire started a rival union, the Democratic Union of Mineworkers, and many miners across the country gradually started returning to work. 21.1m members in the explainlikeimfive community. But unlike in the 1970s, Thatcher had taken steps to stockpile enough coal and coke to keep the country supplied for at least six months in case of a strike. The miner went on strike in 1984 in an attempt to prevent colliery closures. Malcolm Dean explains hew grptmti broken in . 3rd January, 2014, 7:15 pm How Thatcher lied to the country during the Miners' Strike Ian Lavery After thirty years of collecting dust, the declassification of secret government papers has finally exposed Margaret Thatcher's and senior cabinet ministers' true role in the 1984-85 miners' strike. The. Margaret Thatcher The miners had gone on strike twice in the previous decade. And their coal seams were relativel. Scargill had risen through the ranks of the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1970s. In 1984 the Conservative government challenged the strikes as being unlawful on various grounds that I won't go into, and they succeeded in England (but failed in Scotland. A generation on, it is clear that the miners strike was more than a defence of jobs and communities. Celtic fans in Amsterdam clashes were 'provoked' Dutch police arrested 44 people . Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Signs of strikers read "Save the Pits!" Thatcher refused to meet the union's demands and compared the miners' dispute to the Falklands War. After coming to power in 1979, she had her ministers and civil servants draw up secret plans that would keep coal moving around the country were the miners to attempt another strike. That's sort of true, with a few asterisks. There are two separate possible things that this could refer to. Mr Redwood told me: I was very much against using the army. The strike cost the economy at least 1.5billion. If you were there I was it was more complicated. The report was produced in the aftermath of the Heath government's being brought down by the 1973-74 coal strike. Students at a Durham University college have provoked a storm of criticism after planning a social night recreating the animosity of the Miners' Strike. At the end of the strike Thatcher said that "if anyone has won" it was "the miners who stayed at work" and all those "that have kept Britain going". . Facilities once maintained by the NCB fell into a state of disrepair and several local businesses closed their doors. Targeted by the state - The 1984 British miners' strike BY FERN LANE Twenty years ago this month, on 5 March 1984, the National Union of Mineworkers, together with the communities from which it drew its membership, embarked on an epic confrontation with the Thatcher government. Learn faster with spaced repetition. Of course quite a lot of them decent mineworkers very worried about their jobs, and I understand that but there was another element in this strike as well.. But galloping over the horizon would be the woman who would prove to be their nemesis Margaret Thatcher. The villagers, many of them in tears, cheered and clapped as the men of Grimethorpe Colliery marched back to work accompanied by the villages world-famous brass band. The Miners Strike was the longest industrial strike action in history, it lasted from 1984 to 1985. To do this, Thatcher focused on privatizing state-owned industriessuch as steel and coalthat relied heavily on government subsidies, as well as curbing the power of Britains trade unions. It would take years and millions of pounds of investment before the situation in Grimethorpe was reversed. Where once there had been a steady source of employment for generations of men, there was now nothing. The chilling catchphrase embodied her government's scorched earth onslaught on Britain's mining communities -. The first casualty of the strike was David Gareth Jones, a 24-year-old miner from Yorkshire, who died after receiving a fatal injury on a picket line. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. It was the secret state and those who wielded it against people defending their livelihoods across Britain. Two words made Margaret Thatcher provoke that strike; one was Arthur, the other was Scargill - and it was coal industry boss Ian MacGregor's job to bring the miners down at any cost. A 1994 European Union report named Grimethorpe the poorest village in England. Arthur Scargill, the miners leader, was criticised afterwards for beginning a conflict he could never win. The fevered extremism of her comments Labours leader Neil Kinnock was even absurdly described as a puppet of the miners president Arthur Scargill are a reminder of the vengeful class fury of her government.