Role of leadership
An essential lesson to draw from the miners' strike is the vital role of
leadership. The miners' leaders stood head and shoulders above the majority of
British trade union leaders at this time. Arthur Scargill in particular
demonstrated an unbending will to struggle in the face of the most appalling
personal abuse and character assassination. In this sense the leaders of the
union were a source of inspiration for the miners in the areas. At the same time
these leaders were inspired by the courage and determination of the rank and
file miners, of their wives and their communities. Unfortunately courage alone
is not enough to win such titanic battles. It must be accompanied by correct
tactics and strategy. Mistakes in these vital areas were made even by the best
NUM leaders.
To be clear, however, the responsibility for the eventual defeat of the
miners' struggle rests squarely upon the shoulders of the leaders of the
labour and trade union movement.
It is possible that the miners could have won even this colossal struggle
without widespread solidarity action. The determination and sacrifice of the
miners themselves was one necessary factor, and this was available in abundance.
What was also needed was the utmost unity, and correct tactics on the part of
the leadership.
With solidarity action, spreading the strike to other sectors who would soon
be facing the same attacks themselves, the miners could easily have won, more
than that they could have brought down the Tories. There would have been no
third Thatcher government.
At the very least the dispute needed to spread to the power stations, the
steel plants, the railways and the docks. Despite the initiative of workers in
each of these sectors to support the miners, the leaders of their unions
struggled might and main to prevent solidarity strikes from taking place.
There was the serious possibility of a national docks strike – the dockers
themselves were facing renewed attacks. This development would have been a
fundamental turning point for the miners. However, the dockers' leaders failed
to link up the disputes, and an important opportunity was lost. This was not the
only case. The railway workers were in dispute and Thatcher intervened
personally in their pay negotiations with management to prevent a second front
from opening up. Similarly in November 1984, following a strike at British
Leyland, the Transport and General Workers' Union were fined £200,000 under
the Tories' anti-union legislation. Instead of organising all out action in
defence of their union and in support of the miners, the leaders of the TGWU sat
back and did nothing.
It was not just the right wing union leaders who failed to organise action in
support of the miners' struggle. The left leaders too echoed the right wing's
claims that they 'could not deliver' their members, ie they passed the buck
to the rank and file who they claimed would not strike. In reality, if these
leaders had raised just their little fingers at any point in the dispute the
response would have been massive and decisive.
Instead the miners were left to fight alone, attacked not only by
the
bourgeois press, the courts and the police, but by the leaders of other
unions
and by the leaders of the Labour Party, most notably Neil Kinnock.
Desperate to
prove himself worthy before the ruling class, Kinnock refused to throw
the
immense authority of the Labour Party fully behind the miners. Instead
he made 'statesmanlike' speeches condemning picket line violence,
evenly
distributing blame between the almost paramilitary police and the
miners'
pickets.
Orgreave: "the enemy within"!
As in 1972, the mass picket of a coking plant would play a decisive role in
the 1984-85 dispute, but this time with a different outcome. The ruling class
had clearly learned from their earlier defeat at Saltley Gate.
Between the end of May and the middle of June the events at the Orgreave
coking plant near Rotherham led to the most violent confrontations witnessed by
the British labour movement since the first world war.
NUM pickets assembled on the Sheffield side of the plant while the police
gathered in their thousands at the front of the plant, with mounted brigades
lined up in an adjacent field. Police with dogs and thousands in riot gear
surrounded the pickets. As soon as the lorries had entered the plant, the riot
police launched their offensive. The mounted divisions rode into the surrounded
miners, followed by truncheon wielding foot police. This was a military
operation. For all the beatings and arrests, the miners were not cowed.
On June 18, 5000 strikers turned up to be met by an even greater number of
police and an unprecedented orgy of violence. The forces of law and order ran
riot, beating and bludgeoning the miners. From their experiences on the picket
lines, and not just the obscenity of Orgreave – the taunts and insults, officers
waving their overtime payments in miners' faces – many rank and file miners
who before the strike had respect for the law and the police who upheld it,
learned a bitter lesson from the end of a truncheon, that the law, the courts
and the police are arms of the state for the defence of private property, that
is, for the defence of the capitalist system.
The capitalist media portrayed Orgreave as the height of picket line violence…
by the miners! Thatcher infamously denounced the strikers as "the enemy within".
In the Falklands she said they had fought the enemy without, and now they would
fight the miners, this in other words was to be their 'industrial Falklands.'
Kinnock was joined by Willis – the TUC leader, both desperate to prove their
respectability – in condemning both sides 'even-handedly', reserving most of
their venom for the pickets. Doctored film footage was shown on the BBC –
which years later conceded that a 'mistake' had been made – demonstrating
that the miners attacked first.
Could the strike have spread to other workers?
There were no more mass pickets at Orgreave after this ferocious battle. Mass
pickets were not having the desired effect. The scab operation to move coal by
road was stepped up. For the miners to have won on their own would always have
been an immense task. As months passed solidarity action from other unions
became ever more decisive. Yet it was not forthcoming. Railworkers in
Leicestershire blacked coal at great personal risk. The printers at the Sun
newspaper – a filthy rag which put itself at the forefront of the propaganda
war against the miners – refused to print a front page picture portraying an
alleged Hitler salute by Scargill (actually a wave caught at an angle by a
photographer) under the despicable heading 'Mine Fuhrer.' But these were
only isolated incidents. There could be no doubt that the might of the labour
movement brought out in support of the miners would not only have secured the
future of their pits and their communities but could have brought down Thatcher
and the Tory government.
Was such support available from the rank and file of other unions? There is
an argument that the miners strike was taking place against a background of a
decline in strikes after the period of 1979-82. Nonetheless in 1984 of the 26.5
million working days lost to strike action, 4.3 million were not the miners. The
support of workers across the country was demonstrated by their tremendous
donations week after week, support which was matched by workers overseas. But
this tremendous solidarity was not matched by the union leaders who timidly
cowered behind the law to cover their bare backsides.
A whole separate article would be necessary to deal with the magnificent role
played by the miners' support groups and especially by the miners' wives.
The collection of money, organising of soup kitchens and social events was only
one side of the work of these groups. The wives played a most militant role,
including on the picket lines, indeed, it would be hard to imagine how the
miners could have endured so long without the immense sacrifice they
contributed.
In August a new opportunity raised the miners' spirits. The Coal Board had
foolishly torn up an agreement with the pit deputies represented by NACODS. In a
ballot a remarkable 82.5 percent of their members voted for strike action. If
these workers, responsible for safety in the mines, had walked out then no pit
in the country could have worked. Tragically, 24 hours before their strike was
due to begin, the NACODS leaders shamefully called it off, preferring to sign a
separate deal with the coal bosses, an agreement which the NCB bosses were quick
to renege upon. The miners were on their own again.
In September the TUC passed a mealy mouthed resolution supporting the miners
but offering no concrete action. One would search in vain in the archives of the
TUC for leaflets supporting the miners' struggle. They did not even organise a
national demonstration. Had they done so the response would have been immense.
This in turn would have put the TUC leaders under enormous pressure to organise
solidarity action, and this they were not prepared to do.
TUC leader Willis addressed a mass rally in November at the Afan Lido in
Aberavon, South Wales. Thousands were packed inside, and thousands more lined
the streets outside. The mood was electric. But Willis chose this venue, for the
sake of the watching press, to once again condemn violence by pickets. During
his speech a noose was lowered in front of him carrying a placard reading 'where
is Ramsay McKinnock'. This is just one example of the humour of the strike,
illustrating the contempt in which these leaders of the working class were
increasingly held by the miners they would not support.
When the NUM's funds were to be sequestrated – the courts and the law again
being used to try to crush the miners – the TUC had one last opportunity to
organise solidarity action. A one-day general strike would have shaken the
ground beneath the judges, the NCB and the Tories. But no such action was
forthcoming. As in 1926, the leaders of the TUC had abandoned the miners to
their fate.
War weariness
As the likelihood of serious support diminished, so too did any realistic
chance of victory. Early in 1985 Energy Secretary Peter Walker publicly
guaranteed that there would be no power cuts. On the surface it appeared that
the Tories long prepared plans of stockpiling coal and organising scab lorry
firms had worked. The import of coal from 'socialist' Poland played its part
too in maintaining coal supplies, casting shame on this Stalinist regime more
concerned with trade than with supporting the struggles of the working class.
The reality at the power stations, however, was somewhat different. After the
strike it emerged that there had indeed been power cuts – rationed out in the
middle of the night, or spread out in the countryside, with heavy industry
contributing by cutting back on its use of power. Consistent action to black
coal and prevent its movement by the TUC, and not just the brave attempts of
individual groups of workers, would have crippled the supplies to power
stations, steel plants etc.
Instead, the apparent lack of power cuts, combined with the tremendous
propaganda pouring out of every paper and TV station must have begun to
demoralise some miners.
Ironically the industrial vandalism of the British ruling class now ensures
new power cuts like the one that gripped London in September 2003. Britain
increasingly relies for its power on imported oil and gas. Despite the huge
reserves of coal which remain beneath British soil, electricity generation will
soon be dependent on gas piped from such stable countries as Iran and
Azerbaijan. This dispute was never simply about economics. It was certainly not
about the economic viability of coal mining, which could be demonstrated at
will. For the miners this was a defensive struggle to save their jobs and their
communities. For the ruling class this was not about coal mining but about
defeating the unions and preparing the ground for an all out attack on the
rights and living standards of the working class.
At the beginning of 1985 there was a drift back to work. The miners and their
families had fought valiantly for a whole year against everything the state
could throw at them, from the constant barrage of propaganda, to the siege of
their communities and the violent confrontations on the picket lines. Their
solidarity and sacrifice remains to this day an inspiration. They could have
done no more.
Inspiration for future generations
At a special conference on March 3, 1985 delegates voted by 98 – 91 to
return to work. On March 5, the day the strike ended there were still 27,000
miners out. Everywhere miners returned behind colliery bands and banners, heads
held high, proud of the tremendous struggle they had been engaged in.
The struggle had cost the ruling class over £5 billion. From their point of
view this was money well spent. New anti –union legislation was pushed
through. The counter-revolution on the shopfloor to drive down workers' wages
and conditions across industry went full speed ahead.
In the Autumn of 1985 the so-called Union of Democratic Mineworkers was
formed in attempt to break up the NUM. From the beginning the scabs who led this
attempted breakaway, Roy Lynk and David Prendergast, had the full backing of
Thatcher, MacGregor and the right wing press. They also had the support of the
so-called 'moderate' – read right wing – leaders of the labour movement,
especially the leaders of the EETPU (the electricians' union), who were soon
to play an equally despicable role in the printers' strike. The devastation of
the mining industry however proceeded apace, and did not differentiate between
working Nottinghamshire pits and those who had supported the strike. At its
height one third of Notts miners were on strike. The Notts miners were not
inherently right wing as some argued, the majority of Notts miners could have
been won over. After the strike whether they had worked or not they lost their
jobs. Even Roy Lynk had to admit, "I am bloody disgusted, senior Coal Board
managers and Ministers who urged us on for months on end have now conspired to
finish us off." To have saved their jobs and their pits the majority of Notts
miners would have had to have supported their brothers striking in Notts and the
rest of the country.
The leaders of the UDM meanwhile have earned more than a few pieces of silver
for their role. Neal Greatrex, today the leader of the rump of the UDM is one of
the highest paid union officials in the country despite having a minuscule
membership. His £150,000 a year comes not simply from union members' dues,
but from the compensation claims of those many miners suffering from lung
disease, vibration white finger and other consequences of this very dangerous
business of coal mining. They achieve this deft act of pickpocketing through the
use of a private company – Vendside – set up by the UDM, to handle miners'
compensation claims. Their cut is then channelled back into the UDM in Notts and
on to the bank balance of Greatrex and co. This new revelation will come as a
great shock to many miners who have made such compensation claims unaware that
they were helping to finance the UDM and the lifestyles of individuals like
Greatrex.
Better to go down fighting
Was it worth all the sacrifice? Many men lost their jobs, others
were jailed.
Thousands more were forced into heavy debts that took years to pay off.
It is
clear that without a struggle the pits would have still been closed and
the
bosses would have launched their attacks not only on mining but on all
sections
of the working class. Those attacks could not have been defeated by the
TUC's 'new realism' – in reality class collaboration. The consequence
of that
policy, as we have seen over the last twenty years, has been the
destruction of
thousands of jobs and the decimation of whole industries.
Despite the immense cost to the miners and their communities to go down
fighting has left behind a proud and inspiring tradition. Lessons were learned
during this strike that will never be forgotten. They are burned into the
consciousness of a whole layer of workers.
The consequences of the miners' defeat for the working class as a
whole
were profound. As attack after attack was launched, the mood of workers
became "if the miners can't win no-one can." The right wing
consolidated its grip
on the labour movement, leading eventually to the low point of 'social
partnership' in the TUC, and the triumph of Blair inside Labour.
The right wing always rests upon defeat and inactivity. Their triumph
however, was only temporary. Eventually the working class recovers from defeat,
and is forced by the conditions imposed upon them by capitalism to return to
struggle once more.
We have a duty to uphold the proud memory and tradition of the miners'
struggle, and not just for sentiment's sake. A new generation is now preparing
to enter the road of struggle.
The recent broadcasting of two primetime television documentaries on the
miners' strike demonstrates that the ruling class is aware of this fact. The
tawdry rubbish aired on Channel Four, and the slightly more sober-minded BBC
programme were clearly designed not as histories but as a warning to a new
generation of workers. The miners lost and so will you if you try to fight. You
will be beaten – in both senses of the word. The ruling class is preparing
through its media, and through new legislation designed to further curtail
workers' rights, for new battles. We must prepare too.
In the titanic struggles of the working class to come in Britain, a thorough
study and understanding of past struggles is of decisive importance. Alongside
the general strike of 1926 today's new generation must also study the great
miners' strike of 1984-85.
March 5, 2004
See Part One
Read more about the miners' strike and the struggles of the British working
class in Rob Sewell's History
of British Trade Unionism. You can buy a copy from Wellred
Books Online Bookshop.
