{2} Also you have the NACODs ballot for strike in Sept 84 . Nacods voted with an 82% majority to come out but thier leadership made a deal with the NCB and did not adhere to thier members wishes to support the NUM and end the strike . lt seems that there was a lot of dirty work and a lot of pockets fethered by the NCB on behalf of Thatchers goverment
{1} Excellent debate .... with regards to a national ballot , a few years before the strike a NUM national ballot was held for the NCBs plan to introduce a production bonus . The national vote was overwhelmingly against acceptance , so Notts , the only coalfield with a yes majority ignored the national vote and made a seperate deal with the NCB for an area bonus . So even if the NUM had called a national ballot for strike there was every chance Notts would have ignored it.
Scargill believes in unrestricted wild cat strikes and secondary action -as all Union leaders worth their salt should. The Thatcher/Tebbit laws had been on the statute books two years before the miners strike so it wasn't like they where set in stone like the media made out. Such anti-union laws have been deemed unlawful by the EU and the UN. Scargill called for a general strike to get rid of Tebbit/Thatcher laws anyway. The Tebbit/ Thatcher laws were just a charter for the hiring of scabs.
@32peartree Sorry, you speak of "Tebbit/Thatcher" laws, but they were passed by Paliament and applied by the judiciary, which is a perfectly legitimate use of the rule of law. The fact remains that 50/70ths of the miners did not support the stikes, but he went ahead anyway. History shows he should have negotiated and better settlement (which Thather would have agreed initially) but he made the fatal error of brinkmanship in publicly taking on Thatcher to the end and he could never win.
@THthefirst The government had been building those coal stocks for up for 12 months before the strike - mostly from foreign imports - so when Scargill called the strike was irrelevant. I actually talked to Ken Capstick about this - and he told me that he knew the NUM would be fighting a losing battle without the rest of the TUC in support. And right to the bitter end - the RMT and AEEU were making noises that they were about to come out in sympathy - but, alas, the cavalry never arrived.
@THthefirst My point about the union busting Tebbit/Thatcher laws - is that they sounded the death knell for trade unionism in Britain - and, as such, should have been resisted by the TUC weather they were legal or not. Besides, just because a government creates a law doesn't mean its right. Now the Tories are threatening another raft of anti union laws - sooner or later the TUC has to stand up and show some guts like Scargill and the miners showed -otherwise there will be no unions left.
@THthefirst I dispute your figures - but even if you're right - what's it matter that some poll said the majority of miners never wanted to strike. I can't remember Thatcher holding any ballots when she sold off our utilities. And like Thatcher - Scargill won a leadership election which entitled him to call a strike when he saw fit. This talk of ballots was just divide and conquer strategy orchestrated by the Tory head office and the Murdoch press.
@32peartree You can dispute all you like, but they are not controversial figures - there are documented and there. Scargill has accepted them (in trying to justify the decision to ignore the majority) so I do not see the issue. You are also wrong in your comparison. Thatcher required parliament to enact any legislation through voting, whereas Scargill ignored the rules of his own organisation. Perhaps study the facts of the period a little more rather than the rhetoric.
@THthefirst Each mine had its own pithead ballot to come out in sympathy with Cortonwood - a national ballot was therefore unnecessary - its only the Nottingham coalfields who decided to scab as they did in the strikes of 1926 and 1972. A national ballot was an indisposition placed on the NUM by the union busting Tebbit/Thatcher laws. In fact you might say the Miners Strike its self represented a challenge to Britain's anti union legislation - the most draconian in the developed world.
@THthefirst "The issue of weather a ballot was needed for a national strike had been complicated by the actions of previous NUM leader Joe Gormley. When wage reforms were rejected by two national ballots, Gormley declared that each region could decide on these reforms on their own accord; his decisions had been upheld by the courts on appeal." UK Miners Strike (1984-1985) Wikipedia.
The rest of the trade union movement let the miners down. The dockers, train drivers, power workers - should have all have been out in support - but their cowardly leaders cared more about receiveing knighthoods rather than defending the working class against Thatcher's savage onslaught. Today's Unions should take note.
@THthefirst Thatcher was going to privatize the mining industry - with or without Scargill like she did with rail, electricity, gas, water, steel, the docks - at least Scargill had the guts to put up a fight - he lost- but the miners won a moral victory that has echoed down the subsequent decades- whereas the Tories are hated. Scargill also fought for members to get generous redundancy deals- fought endlessly for miners compensation which meant the miners did better than other laid off workers
I appreciate this is a divisive issue and respect your point of view. However, given the Tories were elected three times in succession between 1979/80s, they were hardly, as you say, "hated". And they are in power again (effectively) now. Of the 70,000 miners balloted before the dispute, 50,000 voted to keep working. Other unions failed to support him. Why did he choose to strike in the Summer, when energy demand was low? Why stop miners from exercising their legal right to work? He blew it.
The English always couch every argument in terms of economics - was this or that industry profitable etc. But the more important question to ask is profitable for who? The 84/85 miners strike was a classic class war fought entirely for political reasons. By busting the NUM the dominant bourgeois classes knew that the rest of the unions would fall into line. Moreover the Labour Party also lost a massive source of revenue with which to fight future general elections .
@32peartree Ken Howells, then a communist, visited Scargill at his Barnsley HQ, known as Arthur's Castle. He found him sitting there, behind a Mussolini-type desk, with a huge space in front of it, and behind him a huge picutre of himself, posing as Lenin on a lorry. Howells thought he was nuts, and told the South Wales Mining Executive the same. They agreed, but said he was the only one they had. Scargill, as I say, was bad leader who made bad decisions and was outwitted by Thatcher and co.
@THthefirst Kim Howells was a New Labor lap dog who when he became an MP did absolutely nothing for his Welsh constituents or the remnants of the Mining industry. He's the type of soft left mandarin who made his living off the backs of working people then falls in with the establishment. The only people who have really fought for the working class are communists and socialists not soft left careerists like Kim Howells. He also voted for the war against Iraq and university tuition fees.
@32peartree That's right, rather than deal with the points raised, simply try to rubbish and character assasinate the person putting forward those views. Howells was a communist at the time he made these comments and part of the movement. He left because of what he saw as inherent weakness in the left's leadership. I think using words like "lap dog" rather takes matters away from rational, intelligent debate and ito the murky waters of mud-slinging, which I find tedious.
@THthefirst And please - leave Kim Howells out of it - he claimed to be a communist at the time - so what - Hitler was a communist for a period - so was Mussolini. And even if he was a communist he was probably the former art student bollinger bolshevik variety. In the final analysis you judge a man by his actions - and no left winger I know was in favor of the War against Iraq or tuition fees. He's just another example of a faux socialist - the labour party's chock full of them.
@THthefirst There was no negotiating with Thatcher - she wanted to smash Trade Union Power pure and simple - this is what Scargill understood and the rest of the Unions didn't, If the dockers and railway men had took secondary action - Thatcher would have lost - this is why they banned secondary action - but they should have broke the law anyway - because their turn was next. And Thatcher never won an outright majority of the vote - under PR she would never have become Prime Minister.
@32peartree Largely agree with that, particularly the catastrophic failure to get a general strike (as in 1929). All parties face the first past the post system, so relatively speaking she still did very well to be re-elected twice. What do you say about why Scargill went ahead with 50,000 of 70,000 voting against action, and that strikers fought non-strikers to prevent them from legally working, plus the timing of the strike - off-peak (ie. less demand) and high stocks already built up?
All now closed yet very viable pits in resources will be re opened. No more miles of underground travel on a train or belt the new pits build virtually were the old one finished. Green belt who cares we must have coal All pits were opened were there was coal and that's were all new one will start Conditions of work rights wages safety ALL out the window You want a job then do as your told As some one said inn another entry eastern European work force will do it and the circle will start
the facts at the begining say it all. this is about unity and destroying communities not just a handful of people losing there jobs. the miners proved that people and community come first its not all about the individual and his wallet. torys and there banker friends should realise were not all selfish shits who think its all about money and protecting our own interests
@edd77 Cheaper for who? It might have made sense to import purely from an economic standpoint but it certainly wasn't in the wider national interest to import.
@MrJanesaddiction I obviously know more than you. If you knew anything about '84 then you'd understand that the country was in a state and to save money Thatcher stopped the government subsidy to miners. It was just cheaper to import the coal
@MrJanesaddiction blame conservatives why don't you. The country was in a mess that people like you vote for. Imagine this. You have a credit card so you buy shitloads, what you bought is good and everything but you need to pay it back. Same as what britain was. To fill the gap the country needed money and having the mines on a heavy subsidy when it was cheaper to import coal was not the way forward. You wont take note of this comment though, you'll just blame the evil righties
@Dialectican Not really. I wasn't around when Thatcher was in power but i've done my research. Why the lefties keep moaning about how they or their dad was out of a job from a business that was relying on government subsidy i'll never know. I suppose it's far easier to blame someone else
Some of these faggot "real men" killed themselves after the iron lady got them out of a job because a woman broke their fragile male ego. Don't tell their families that mining wasn't making any money though, for them it's easier to blame conservatives
@MrJanesaddiction when my mates are either ex miners or still work at the pit they bragged about how little they did.they brag about their big false compensation claims.they brag about how they're planning to retire at 50. i have half a dozen mates still at a pit in coventry and they hardly ever make a monday day shift cos they get pissed sunday. as i type this now i've just left one of them bladdered in my local and guess what....he's failing work tomorrow! you're a wanker
@MrJanesaddiction before the pits shut miners often bragged how little they did flor their big pay packet.once the pits shu they were described as hardworking, salt of the earth men who we should be grateful to for risking their lives digging up our coal.from my experience having lived in a mining community all my life i know the truth. pits shut cos miners cut their own throats. no sympthay at all for them! now fuck off!
@MrJanesaddiction people havnt moved on. the ex miners got poorly paid factory jobs,until the factories shut. many ex mining towns have high unemployment. hence the single mother,living of benefits culture we have now. a whole generation of useless bastards living off the state and abusing the system set up for genuine people in hardship.the only jobs in these mining towns are minimum rate. the locals dont want them so immigrants are doing the work cos our lot are too lazy
@MrJanesaddiction ffs. you're probably a university educated twat who's studied the working class as part of your enlightening to the real world. you know fuck all and probably weren't around in 84. the closest you've been to a pit village is driving up the m1 through yorkshire on your way to the airport. my dad was miner and the tales i heard about hard working miners doing fuck all all week then gpoing in weekend to change a lightbulb were common.
@in2u2b most of my mates openly bragged about doing fuck all,sleeping on shift and skiving off at every opportunity. having monday off cos they got pissed sundaywas common,fridays saw an avalanche of yellow perils cos they all wanted a night out.then when they shut the pits they were shitting themselves cos they had to work for shit money.a lot of ex miners i know are retiring at 50. they've paid their pensions and saved thousands from bogus claims. i've no symptahy at all for miners
@MrJanesaddiction wow you spat your dummy out didnt you?you sound like all you've done is read about the strike. you know fuck all about what really happened. i was unemployed in 83 and joined various picket lines just for the laugh. miners were being bullied into strikiing. people living in pit villages went on strike because they knew if they didnt they'd get their windows smashed,car vandalised and spat at in the street.
@in2u2b striking was ok if you were single. many younger miners took the strike as an opportunity to have a long hot summer off work. sitting in the pub everyday. they didnt give a toss about some poor middle aged man with 4 kids and a mortgage who they bullied into joining the strike.the bullying got sobad i know at least one miner was killed when hit in the facve with a brick. is that what your union stands for?
pits gave the local idiots a chance of employment. now the pits are shut the local idiots are all on the dole,hooked on drink and drugs.truth is miners became lazy,they got paid for doing nothing and took as much as they could without working for it. even today they are claiming for every phantom illness they can get money for.when these lazy bastards retire at 50 but see their grandkids unemployed cos the pits are shut ..i hope they feel ashamed
@MrJanesaddiction with views like yours no wonder unions are almost powerless.you think workers want to pay into a union which is led by idiots who think they can make decisions for you? union reps are their to represent the workers,not tell them what to do. scargill tried to bully the miners into going on strike,thats why he lost!
@MrJanesaddiction you said earlier "fact is you pay into a union to have decisions made for you by the people you elect" ......which is totally wrong!
@MrJanesaddiction you do not pay into a union to have people to make decisions for you.you pay to be represented in disputes/disciplinary at work. you pay for a vote in ballots.the union leaders are supposed to do what the majority of membes in a ballot r tell them,not tell the members what to do
@MrJanesaddiction scargill wanted the miners support to take strike action so he could take thatcher on. he didnt give a shit about the miners,just wanted his bit of fame and to line his own pockets. the union is there for everyone.members pay their money week in week out to entitle themselves to a vote. the militants supporting scargill denied everyone a vote in what should ahve been a national ballot
most of this is true. one thing false is that the strike was official. in fact it was unofficial. a national strike required a national ballot. scargill and his cronies called everybody out before a ballot had been held. sending pickets and bullyboys down to working pits trying to force miners out on strike. i've no sympathy for miners anyway,they caused their own downfall
you left wing muppets, it was the unions that ruined this country. strike after strike, demand after demand. All Thatcher did was correct many years of Labour abuse, let us not forget he 'winter of discontent'...That was Labour. Not Thatcher. Unions ruined Manufacturing. Furthermore, what did this strike achieve? absolutely nothing. Waste of time and effort and lost the UK untold £millions in revenue - as all strikes do. Pointless.
@carlberg34 your retarded mate. Unions were fighting to keep open the mines, steel works and factories. Do you even know what a Trade Union is? The UK didn't lose anything because they were getting shut down...so how would they have had made money with no jobs, on the dole. Demand after Demand? There was only one demand...keep open the heavy industries that employed the vast majority of the North...but Margaret Milksnatcher got here way...and Mass Unemployment in the North followed.
Since when do working miners persuade courts to take issue? I thought that was the role of a barrister?? Surely it was something to do with not having an official ballot??
We'll never forget what Thatcher and her mob have done to the working class! How can we, we're still living with the ramifications of her criminal policies to this very day.
@MrJanesaddiction Yes i see where your coming from i have the greatest respect for all ex miners but some of them weren't exactly nice to policeman shall we say.
I was a young boy growing up in County durham during the strikes! My father was a police officer and had his work cut out all the time i remember he used to come home late at night with bruises or cuts sometimes with sore legs occasionally THINK OF WHAT THE POLICE WENT THROUGH ASWELL!
Hard times brought on by a vicious tory government. May Thatcher Die in agony, so as to feel the pain that the mining communities went through. The pits may be gone in the North east of England, but never forgotten. A fight my father and thousands lost, but better to have tried than not at all. Unlike the NACODS scum!
@ashingtonlad ln all fairness to NACODS {and l have no love for them} they did ballot to come out on strike by a very large majority , l think it was about Aug/Sept..6 months into the strike . lf they had there is no doubt the miners would have won...but for some reason the NACODS leadership went against the vote and did a deal with the NCB
Take a look at the film Dole Not Coal,its available on Amazon.It is awesome,It really opens your eyes.Its told from the miners side and it is fucking brilliant.
Coal is an out of date fossil fuel and could never be classed as 'green', thats ludicrous.
As for the striking miners and the NUM, just yobs of the time with no future vision, an industry doomed anyway so a completely pointless fight. Those still harping on about loyalty, fighting to the end and never a scab etc etc need to move on and get a life, twats...
@Draxindustries1You really have no idea . The strike of 84 was orchestrated by Thatcher to destroy a legal trade union , the NUM . She was obsessed with with destroying the trade union movement which gave a voice to thousands of workers throughout the country . These " yobs " as you call them , were fighting for thier jobs and the future of an industry that , with better management , could become viable again . They were good , hard working people who deserve better coments from the likes of you
@Draxindustries1 You just KNOW that Draxindustries1 has never done a hard days work in his life (oh he'll claim he has but basically, lifting a telephone is as hard as it ever got). You're one of the Thatcherite "We don't need to work, we pay someone else to do that then take the profits from what they do".
@AlexisCapri Ive done more for this countyr than you'll ever know mate, ive fought for this country! What have the likes of yourself ever done? Stood on a picket line shouting scab and terrorising your mates? Should have just been grateful for a job at the time. Thatcher never killed the coal industry, its just victorian out of date dirty fuel, you need to move on...
l commend you for fighting for your country , but ...l stood on the picket line , and called those people crossing the line scabs , but they were not mates {as you say} , they were the scum of the earth , traitors to thier class and fellow miners . As for being grateful for a job , what do you think we were fighting for ?. As for Thatcher , she destroyed the coal industry because of her obsession with destroying the NUM and she did'nt give a dam about the suffering of those who got in her way
It's called de-industrialisation and moving with the times. If we didn't move on in life then Britian would still be a feudal system. If it was down to Scargill we'd still have people dragging coal out of pits and stockpiled with no purpose. Maggie had the vision to take Britain forward. God bless her
@MrJanesaddiction ok mate,you win,yr never gonna live in the real world.keep wallowing in the past.but do me a favour,if ever you come down south lmk it would be nice to meet ya. apart from that my amusment has wained so fuck off...l8r
@MrJanesaddiction fuck me that was nearly an insult...a little more intelligence and you could do a good job,maybe even leave the past behind and get a job,,,
@MrJanesaddiction did I wind you up!!!! ha ha If my warehouse closed I would just get a job and not waste my time telling everyone on you tube how hard done by I am
@MrJanesaddiction sorry mate,I am a warehouse manager that works hard to keep costs down (units per man hour) something the miners never done...as for having no grasp of history...I work to live not live to work and I have a good family life...I do not care about you or your offspring and I get wound up by twats like you banging on about how hard life is...I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!! TWAT
@MrJanesaddiction I have roots.my relatives were boxing champs for 5 generations but I don't bang on about it cos it is history am I proud..of course but IT IS HISTORY...GET THE FUCK OVER IT!!!!!!!!!
@MrJanesaddiction lol, I don't care about your 'roots' if your coal is to dear because you don't produce enough per man hour then we will buy it elsewhere.get over it.I am sure burger king or someone will employ you.
Ultimatley the pits have to close if they are no longer profitable, but not replacing the jobs lost with something else is ridiculous and still hasn't been sorted to this day
@MrJanesaddiction maggie rocks...she was supreeme,sorted you lot out good enough for yr manhood to still be battered that is why you won't let it go,cos yr bollocks are smaller than maggie's
@MrJanesaddiction we don't want yr coal it was to dear!!!!!!! would you pay £20 for fish and chips when you can get it down the road for a tenner??????? no you would not so just get over it!!!!
scargill was a twat,he took on thatcher and got bitch slapped.why should we pay for people to produce coal when we don't need it? it is sad but all those that were violent...fuck you
Nowt do with that, the unions got too greedy and got undercut by more efficient operations overseas. They were making the pits run at a loss and union members stood by and watched. A quarter of a century is enough time for anybody to find another job. Thatcher was a megalomaniac to be sure, but if the unions didn't give her the chance she couldn't have kicked them in the bollocks.
This got me emotional its soo sad right now i am learning about the strike in 1984 and it was so harsh and cruel i hope this wont happen again with another sisuation.
I wasnt a miner - Paternal Grandad made sure his lads didnt have to go down the pit , no miner's wife ever wanted that for her lads !
But family for about 6 generations were miners. Hard work, hard play, and and stand up for yourselves are my personal legacy of mining.
The town I still live and work in is now described as 'deprived' which hacks me off no end. No jobs to peak of , drug addiction, chav culture and shopping centres ar Thatchers legacy for the destruction of mining .
I come from a family of miners, me uncle worked down brodsworth pit donny, i wasnt born at the time and didnt affect me but i dont talk to the scabby bastards who fucked it all up for the miners. Never forgive and never forget. Honour the miners that suffered and fought for their jobs.
ey up mate, all i can say is = in the strike i was very fortunate to have friends and workmates who stuck it out to the bitter end even though we all knew we was doomed.
what was the real reason the thatcher miners strike happened and did it have to happen and did other countries like france and germany have 2 go through this i bet they didnt and did the miners strike make any difference to how the united kingdom has turned out today
nobody in my family has ever been a miner but the strike happened as i was growing up and i felt an effinity with the striking miners.fighting a morally corrupt government and trying to save their livihoods and to keep food on the tables for their children.Have been a committed communist all my life and will never change , the working class get shafted at every opportunity.I salute all youse brave men that didnt buckle under the dictator Thatcher The Snatcher victory to the working class
The ideology of the tories is to repress the working class. The miners strike is proof of this. If you need any more proof, google "UK coal imports" to how much coal we are now importing.
The tories devastated vast areas of the North of England and South Wales. They are only interested in the rich and wealthy in the South East and don't care about communities.
why do you think the provisional ira tried to kill thacher and her cabinet, it was because she treated the catholic community in northern ireland like fucking shite , i salute the miner who stood by each other , fuck all scabs.
my dad was on strike for 2 years, the next door neighbour nocked the door after 14months and said he was going back would my dad be ok with him. he said IF YOU FLEE WAE THE CROSS YE DEE WAE THE CRAWS.
I would like to thank everyone for the comments on this video i made this video because its something that is very close to my heart as i was a child growing up during the strike and i could see first hand the effect it caused to the villages and towns and city's then, and the affect that it still has on most of these communitys up and down the country now. this video was made to reflect the struggle of a past generation for our future generations to learn and understand about the 1984 strike
@MinersStrike25Years thank you for this vid, my dad is 72 an spent 34 yrs of his life down penallta pit, he told me some crazy stories about is time but honestly i need to get intouch with u, my email is leepopedj@hotamil.com thank u so much if u could find out a lil bit more about south wales evean better thanks
Whatever the left like to pretend about it now, this strike wasn't about preserving working mens jobs, or energy independance or pit closures, or subsidies. It was about a group of marxist union bosses who decided that they, and not the democratically elected government should rule the country.
I feel very sorry for all those who lost their livelihoods, but union bosses should not be able to bring down elected governments at will. The outcome of the strike meant they couldn't do so again.
I lived in Fitzwilliam in the strike and my dad was one of the picketter's that went to every picket line no matter where.I grew up believing the conservaties are rubbish and still believe it.I remember the riot of 1984 outside my house and seeing the police hitting people and knowing my dad was in there.But even after this it was the best of times as my dad was around.We survived all 6 of us with my dad getting potatoes from the farmers field and my mum been creative.I'm proud of my dad.
the mines shut due the bloody free market allowing the power stations to buy Polish coal and homeowners switch to gas fuck Thatcher etc. Gonna close this window now and book another Spanish holiday on my Taiwanese laptop then go out in my German car to pick up a Chinese to heat up in my Korean microwave...........
i,ve got to say,i lived in wakefield,its true thatcher fucked our sources of power up,she got rid of the coal from british mines to then import foreghn coal,now,i worked on pipelines for 7years,thats fucked up cos the gas comes from russia!wot happens when they put the price up.brilliant forward thinking thatcher!god bless all miners past and present.look forward to the big thatcher party,it,ll make glastonbury festivall look like a village fete!
@oorgary Mate, I agree 100%! Yet "buy British" in today's global economy is a completely naive concept as I illustrated in my earlier mssg. Maggie actually relinquished the state's power and allowed ppl to make their own choices. All the same, state funeral? not on my taxes!
State Funeral?........£3 Million should buy us all 3 million shovels so we can dig a hole so deep we can deliver her body personally straight to Satan himself
The song was "Mad World" by ( in this case) Gary Jules.
The fight was not worhless. They reminded all of us that it is our right to fight for our communities other than following the "rules" without questioning the gov. After all, it is our job to have the gov in check.
Bitch...She closed my community down and I cant wait for her to choke on her pit closures....Not long before I dance on her grave......Avin a party, when Thatcher dies
i was a welsh miner from lady windsor ynysybwl and when the evil cunt thatcher dies i think i may just break the world record for the longest smile ps i ill get drunk too celebrating her happy demise
I was a Miner from 86-89. My father was a striking Miner from 84-85. Thanks for taking the time to put this montage together.
I was a young teenager when my Dad went on strike to save his job, his colleagues jobs, and the future jobs of his and his colleagues sons. I well remember the hardship we endured.
cheers matt for sticking up for the working class. to be fair to Arthur he stood on picket lines, collected food and tried his best to point out that the working class are reasonable people. Fair crack for a working wage. I actually think that you sent this message to annoy real working men..God bless you...And dont vote for Thatcher....or her legacy. And make sure that you claim your bank charges back.
Was anyone in your family ever a miner? Probably not. The strike was because of the treatment and miners pay was low. Do you know anything about mining? Probably not. Do you know all the risks associated with mining? Probably not. Do you know the meaning of hard work and wanting to protect the working class? Probably not. Don't even try and insult the men who worked so hard every day of their lives to be suddenly told they were no longer needed after they complained. Just a simple fuck you.
Funny how there are so many people here who live in the past going on about how Thatcher ruined our country when look at it now! Thatcher hasn't been in power for nearly 20 years and Labour have been in power for 12 & a half years! They have had 13 years to get it right.
Calling a fellow working man a 'scab' because they didn't agree with you is perfetic!
I DID NOT SCAB will be on my head stone. i was one of the many who stood and had a go, i wish the youth of today had my balls to stand and fight to make this shit hole of a country great again, LONG LIVE SCARGILL.
smoogie7 has been in touch with me he is a stupid boy of 22 who thinks us miners are stupid and know nothing. good on you mate i never scabbed either, and i agree with what you say, that little shit of 22 years telling me whats what. little freak at home with mammy. list his hobbies as listening to music, ground breaking stuff eh ! people like him make me vomit, know nothing, done nothing, seen nothing.yet now everything, i forgot more than he knows .
@roblufc60 By staying out you had no money/food etc but at least no one was going to put a brick through your window or kick your head in. I live in S wales and since those days i've had several ppl admit 2 me that though they knew the game was up from the Nov. onwards but it was fear that kept them OUT
Sir, I am 20 years old right now and I wasn't around to see the strikes. I was brought up in the era of hyper capitalism and superficial superstars and plastic consumer crap. This video made my break down for the first time in my life. My entire family has been heavily involved in the left in various forms since as far back as I can trace. You did not scab, nobody in my family ever was a scab, and I will not scab.
Goverments should be defending the rights of there people.
Not charging them down on horse back as they fight for there right to earn a living.
A dark chapter in British history.
May this be the legend of Prime Minster Thatcher, a tratior of ther people, just like her liying cheating dog of a son. They should be shearing a cell in prison.
so really the minors ruined the whole thing by striking and because of how they behaved shut down the mining industry down for good and people are still proud to this today,im sorry but thats not right. How can you be proud of destroying your life and your loved ones
no we striked against Thatcher and her import rules, the only thing is that she had stock piled 30 years worth of coal to makes sure we quit in the meantime. Only thing was to imprort and pay wages to do so DID cost more so she just sold Britain out and she's loved for it to this day, the woman killed britain and it's industries. Thatcher killed the Uk economy, no-one else. However, nobody was more prouder than a miners kid
or a miner, you ask a northerner how shit it was......... you ask how when the southern police came up and beat up our famiies cos our coppers couldnt do it, you ask how many years I saw mates on jam sandwiches and banana's cos the miners strike was on......... Im not mad, I just wish you'd understand it all
i did 12 months on strike and iam very proud of it barnsley is now a town with nothing thanks to that witch and notts scabs i will in my hart always be a miner
i was just leaving school in 1984 and had 2 brothers that worked at allerton bywater, both stuck it out til the end. . PROUD. i myself was then on strike in 2002 as a fireman, we were shafted too
Allerton pit and mining village is where I am from, in retrospect we were one of the lucky one's who didnt close down until the mid 90's.... but still Thatcher got what she was after.
I just remember growing up thinking men wore eyeliner and it was cool, which was actually coal dust from the blasts. Memories of the village fares with your norm mates 'posh' parents dressed up as a massive toothbrush and toothpaste while the floats and band went through the village = memories treasured forever.
of course Scargill led the battle to defend the pit communities against the ruling class/Thatcher onslaught on organised british workers;
the BBC famously (tho not famously enough) openly lied about the strike, including the key events like reversing the footage of the Orgreave events - each arm of the brit state was bought to bear upon the miners, and it's hard to believe there remains any question over this!
the miners lost because they were left isolated by the Labour Movement
maybe that was all Mr Scargill was after but the video was about the miners there familys and the struggle that they went through in the year long battle.
{2} Also you have the NACODs ballot for strike in Sept 84 . Nacods voted with an 82% majority to come out but thier leadership made a deal with the NCB and did not adhere to thier members wishes to support the NUM and end the strike . lt seems that there was a lot of dirty work and a lot of pockets fethered by the NCB on behalf of Thatchers goverment
alunhughes147 1 week ago
{1} Excellent debate .... with regards to a national ballot , a few years before the strike a NUM national ballot was held for the NCBs plan to introduce a production bonus . The national vote was overwhelmingly against acceptance , so Notts , the only coalfield with a yes majority ignored the national vote and made a seperate deal with the NCB for an area bonus . So even if the NUM had called a national ballot for strike there was every chance Notts would have ignored it.
alunhughes147 1 week ago
Scargill believes in unrestricted wild cat strikes and secondary action -as all Union leaders worth their salt should. The Thatcher/Tebbit laws had been on the statute books two years before the miners strike so it wasn't like they where set in stone like the media made out. Such anti-union laws have been deemed unlawful by the EU and the UN. Scargill called for a general strike to get rid of Tebbit/Thatcher laws anyway. The Tebbit/ Thatcher laws were just a charter for the hiring of scabs.
32peartree 2 weeks ago
@32peartree Sorry, you speak of "Tebbit/Thatcher" laws, but they were passed by Paliament and applied by the judiciary, which is a perfectly legitimate use of the rule of law. The fact remains that 50/70ths of the miners did not support the stikes, but he went ahead anyway. History shows he should have negotiated and better settlement (which Thather would have agreed initially) but he made the fatal error of brinkmanship in publicly taking on Thatcher to the end and he could never win.
THthefirst 1 week ago
@THthefirst The government had been building those coal stocks for up for 12 months before the strike - mostly from foreign imports - so when Scargill called the strike was irrelevant. I actually talked to Ken Capstick about this - and he told me that he knew the NUM would be fighting a losing battle without the rest of the TUC in support. And right to the bitter end - the RMT and AEEU were making noises that they were about to come out in sympathy - but, alas, the cavalry never arrived.
32peartree 1 week ago
@THthefirst My point about the union busting Tebbit/Thatcher laws - is that they sounded the death knell for trade unionism in Britain - and, as such, should have been resisted by the TUC weather they were legal or not. Besides, just because a government creates a law doesn't mean its right. Now the Tories are threatening another raft of anti union laws - sooner or later the TUC has to stand up and show some guts like Scargill and the miners showed -otherwise there will be no unions left.
32peartree 1 week ago
@THthefirst I dispute your figures - but even if you're right - what's it matter that some poll said the majority of miners never wanted to strike. I can't remember Thatcher holding any ballots when she sold off our utilities. And like Thatcher - Scargill won a leadership election which entitled him to call a strike when he saw fit. This talk of ballots was just divide and conquer strategy orchestrated by the Tory head office and the Murdoch press.
32peartree 1 week ago
@32peartree You can dispute all you like, but they are not controversial figures - there are documented and there. Scargill has accepted them (in trying to justify the decision to ignore the majority) so I do not see the issue. You are also wrong in your comparison. Thatcher required parliament to enact any legislation through voting, whereas Scargill ignored the rules of his own organisation. Perhaps study the facts of the period a little more rather than the rhetoric.
THthefirst 1 week ago
@THthefirst Each mine had its own pithead ballot to come out in sympathy with Cortonwood - a national ballot was therefore unnecessary - its only the Nottingham coalfields who decided to scab as they did in the strikes of 1926 and 1972. A national ballot was an indisposition placed on the NUM by the union busting Tebbit/Thatcher laws. In fact you might say the Miners Strike its self represented a challenge to Britain's anti union legislation - the most draconian in the developed world.
32peartree 1 week ago
@THthefirst "The issue of weather a ballot was needed for a national strike had been complicated by the actions of previous NUM leader Joe Gormley. When wage reforms were rejected by two national ballots, Gormley declared that each region could decide on these reforms on their own accord; his decisions had been upheld by the courts on appeal." UK Miners Strike (1984-1985) Wikipedia.
32peartree 1 week ago
The rest of the trade union movement let the miners down. The dockers, train drivers, power workers - should have all have been out in support - but their cowardly leaders cared more about receiveing knighthoods rather than defending the working class against Thatcher's savage onslaught. Today's Unions should take note.
32peartree 3 months ago
@32peartree Scargill completely fucked it up and brought down the mining industry with it. History is not kind.
THthefirst 2 weeks ago
@THthefirst Thatcher was going to privatize the mining industry - with or without Scargill like she did with rail, electricity, gas, water, steel, the docks - at least Scargill had the guts to put up a fight - he lost- but the miners won a moral victory that has echoed down the subsequent decades- whereas the Tories are hated. Scargill also fought for members to get generous redundancy deals- fought endlessly for miners compensation which meant the miners did better than other laid off workers
32peartree 2 weeks ago
I appreciate this is a divisive issue and respect your point of view. However, given the Tories were elected three times in succession between 1979/80s, they were hardly, as you say, "hated". And they are in power again (effectively) now. Of the 70,000 miners balloted before the dispute, 50,000 voted to keep working. Other unions failed to support him. Why did he choose to strike in the Summer, when energy demand was low? Why stop miners from exercising their legal right to work? He blew it.
THthefirst 2 weeks ago
The English always couch every argument in terms of economics - was this or that industry profitable etc. But the more important question to ask is profitable for who? The 84/85 miners strike was a classic class war fought entirely for political reasons. By busting the NUM the dominant bourgeois classes knew that the rest of the unions would fall into line. Moreover the Labour Party also lost a massive source of revenue with which to fight future general elections .
32peartree 3 months ago
@32peartree Ken Howells, then a communist, visited Scargill at his Barnsley HQ, known as Arthur's Castle. He found him sitting there, behind a Mussolini-type desk, with a huge space in front of it, and behind him a huge picutre of himself, posing as Lenin on a lorry. Howells thought he was nuts, and told the South Wales Mining Executive the same. They agreed, but said he was the only one they had. Scargill, as I say, was bad leader who made bad decisions and was outwitted by Thatcher and co.
THthefirst 2 weeks ago
@THthefirst Kim Howells was a New Labor lap dog who when he became an MP did absolutely nothing for his Welsh constituents or the remnants of the Mining industry. He's the type of soft left mandarin who made his living off the backs of working people then falls in with the establishment. The only people who have really fought for the working class are communists and socialists not soft left careerists like Kim Howells. He also voted for the war against Iraq and university tuition fees.
32peartree 2 weeks ago
@32peartree That's right, rather than deal with the points raised, simply try to rubbish and character assasinate the person putting forward those views. Howells was a communist at the time he made these comments and part of the movement. He left because of what he saw as inherent weakness in the left's leadership. I think using words like "lap dog" rather takes matters away from rational, intelligent debate and ito the murky waters of mud-slinging, which I find tedious.
THthefirst 1 week ago
@THthefirst And please - leave Kim Howells out of it - he claimed to be a communist at the time - so what - Hitler was a communist for a period - so was Mussolini. And even if he was a communist he was probably the former art student bollinger bolshevik variety. In the final analysis you judge a man by his actions - and no left winger I know was in favor of the War against Iraq or tuition fees. He's just another example of a faux socialist - the labour party's chock full of them.
32peartree 1 week ago
@THthefirst There was no negotiating with Thatcher - she wanted to smash Trade Union Power pure and simple - this is what Scargill understood and the rest of the Unions didn't, If the dockers and railway men had took secondary action - Thatcher would have lost - this is why they banned secondary action - but they should have broke the law anyway - because their turn was next. And Thatcher never won an outright majority of the vote - under PR she would never have become Prime Minister.
32peartree 2 weeks ago
@32peartree Largely agree with that, particularly the catastrophic failure to get a general strike (as in 1929). All parties face the first past the post system, so relatively speaking she still did very well to be re-elected twice. What do you say about why Scargill went ahead with 50,000 of 70,000 voting against action, and that strikers fought non-strikers to prevent them from legally working, plus the timing of the strike - off-peak (ie. less demand) and high stocks already built up?
THthefirst 1 week ago
All now closed yet very viable pits in resources will be re opened. No more miles of underground travel on a train or belt the new pits build virtually were the old one finished. Green belt who cares we must have coal All pits were opened were there was coal and that's were all new one will start Conditions of work rights wages safety ALL out the window You want a job then do as your told As some one said inn another entry eastern European work force will do it and the circle will start
rothwellss 4 months ago
the facts at the begining say it all. this is about unity and destroying communities not just a handful of people losing there jobs. the miners proved that people and community come first its not all about the individual and his wallet. torys and there banker friends should realise were not all selfish shits who think its all about money and protecting our own interests
petehall1985 5 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction Why subsidise when it's cheaper to import? From an economical standpoint it makes perfect sense
edd77 5 months ago
@edd77 using that same logic why was farming and fishing not left to market forces; they were making massive losses.
petehall1985 5 months ago
@edd77 Cheaper for who? It might have made sense to import purely from an economic standpoint but it certainly wasn't in the wider national interest to import.
aeronuk1 4 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction It seems to have eluded you that coal isn't the only source of power
edd77 5 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction If you'd have done your research you'd know that government subsidy was losing the country money
edd77 5 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction You are blind and deluded my friend. I'll let you believe whatever you want
edd77 5 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction I obviously know more than you. If you knew anything about '84 then you'd understand that the country was in a state and to save money Thatcher stopped the government subsidy to miners. It was just cheaper to import the coal
edd77 5 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction blame conservatives why don't you. The country was in a mess that people like you vote for. Imagine this. You have a credit card so you buy shitloads, what you bought is good and everything but you need to pay it back. Same as what britain was. To fill the gap the country needed money and having the mines on a heavy subsidy when it was cheaper to import coal was not the way forward. You wont take note of this comment though, you'll just blame the evil righties
edd77 5 months ago
@Dialectican Not really. I wasn't around when Thatcher was in power but i've done my research. Why the lefties keep moaning about how they or their dad was out of a job from a business that was relying on government subsidy i'll never know. I suppose it's far easier to blame someone else
edd77 5 months ago
Some of these faggot "real men" killed themselves after the iron lady got them out of a job because a woman broke their fragile male ego. Don't tell their families that mining wasn't making any money though, for them it's easier to blame conservatives
edd77 5 months ago
hi was wondering if i could use this moving video for a song i have wirtten about the miners strike - called 25 years on - what do you think ?
themightybosscats 6 months ago
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themightybosscats 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction when my mates are either ex miners or still work at the pit they bragged about how little they did.they brag about their big false compensation claims.they brag about how they're planning to retire at 50. i have half a dozen mates still at a pit in coventry and they hardly ever make a monday day shift cos they get pissed sunday. as i type this now i've just left one of them bladdered in my local and guess what....he's failing work tomorrow! you're a wanker
in2u2b 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction before the pits shut miners often bragged how little they did flor their big pay packet.once the pits shu they were described as hardworking, salt of the earth men who we should be grateful to for risking their lives digging up our coal.from my experience having lived in a mining community all my life i know the truth. pits shut cos miners cut their own throats. no sympthay at all for them! now fuck off!
in2u2b 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction people havnt moved on. the ex miners got poorly paid factory jobs,until the factories shut. many ex mining towns have high unemployment. hence the single mother,living of benefits culture we have now. a whole generation of useless bastards living off the state and abusing the system set up for genuine people in hardship.the only jobs in these mining towns are minimum rate. the locals dont want them so immigrants are doing the work cos our lot are too lazy
in2u2b 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction ffs. you're probably a university educated twat who's studied the working class as part of your enlightening to the real world. you know fuck all and probably weren't around in 84. the closest you've been to a pit village is driving up the m1 through yorkshire on your way to the airport. my dad was miner and the tales i heard about hard working miners doing fuck all all week then gpoing in weekend to change a lightbulb were common.
in2u2b 6 months ago
@in2u2b most of my mates openly bragged about doing fuck all,sleeping on shift and skiving off at every opportunity. having monday off cos they got pissed sundaywas common,fridays saw an avalanche of yellow perils cos they all wanted a night out.then when they shut the pits they were shitting themselves cos they had to work for shit money.a lot of ex miners i know are retiring at 50. they've paid their pensions and saved thousands from bogus claims. i've no symptahy at all for miners
in2u2b 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction wow you spat your dummy out didnt you?you sound like all you've done is read about the strike. you know fuck all about what really happened. i was unemployed in 83 and joined various picket lines just for the laugh. miners were being bullied into strikiing. people living in pit villages went on strike because they knew if they didnt they'd get their windows smashed,car vandalised and spat at in the street.
in2u2b 6 months ago
@in2u2b striking was ok if you were single. many younger miners took the strike as an opportunity to have a long hot summer off work. sitting in the pub everyday. they didnt give a toss about some poor middle aged man with 4 kids and a mortgage who they bullied into joining the strike.the bullying got sobad i know at least one miner was killed when hit in the facve with a brick. is that what your union stands for?
in2u2b 6 months ago
pits gave the local idiots a chance of employment. now the pits are shut the local idiots are all on the dole,hooked on drink and drugs.truth is miners became lazy,they got paid for doing nothing and took as much as they could without working for it. even today they are claiming for every phantom illness they can get money for.when these lazy bastards retire at 50 but see their grandkids unemployed cos the pits are shut ..i hope they feel ashamed
in2u2b 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction with views like yours no wonder unions are almost powerless.you think workers want to pay into a union which is led by idiots who think they can make decisions for you? union reps are their to represent the workers,not tell them what to do. scargill tried to bully the miners into going on strike,thats why he lost!
in2u2b 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction you said earlier "fact is you pay into a union to have decisions made for you by the people you elect" ......which is totally wrong!
in2u2b 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction you do not pay into a union to have people to make decisions for you.you pay to be represented in disputes/disciplinary at work. you pay for a vote in ballots.the union leaders are supposed to do what the majority of membes in a ballot r tell them,not tell the members what to do
in2u2b 6 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction scargill wanted the miners support to take strike action so he could take thatcher on. he didnt give a shit about the miners,just wanted his bit of fame and to line his own pockets. the union is there for everyone.members pay their money week in week out to entitle themselves to a vote. the militants supporting scargill denied everyone a vote in what should ahve been a national ballot
in2u2b 6 months ago
most of this is true. one thing false is that the strike was official. in fact it was unofficial. a national strike required a national ballot. scargill and his cronies called everybody out before a ballot had been held. sending pickets and bullyboys down to working pits trying to force miners out on strike. i've no sympathy for miners anyway,they caused their own downfall
in2u2b 6 months ago
ahhh, thanks, that has answered all my questions:)
chrisbloy123 7 months ago
I know this sounds like a stupid question, but why did maggie want to close the pits?:L
chrisbloy123 7 months ago
you left wing muppets, it was the unions that ruined this country. strike after strike, demand after demand. All Thatcher did was correct many years of Labour abuse, let us not forget he 'winter of discontent'...That was Labour. Not Thatcher. Unions ruined Manufacturing. Furthermore, what did this strike achieve? absolutely nothing. Waste of time and effort and lost the UK untold £millions in revenue - as all strikes do. Pointless.
carlberg34 7 months ago
@carlberg34 your retarded mate. Unions were fighting to keep open the mines, steel works and factories. Do you even know what a Trade Union is? The UK didn't lose anything because they were getting shut down...so how would they have had made money with no jobs, on the dole. Demand after Demand? There was only one demand...keep open the heavy industries that employed the vast majority of the North...but Margaret Milksnatcher got here way...and Mass Unemployment in the North followed.
98raza20 7 months ago
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carlberg34 7 months ago
Gormley was far too clever to allow a mess like this. Scargill was always a poor leader.
MickeyLove01 9 months ago
Since when do working miners persuade courts to take issue? I thought that was the role of a barrister?? Surely it was something to do with not having an official ballot??
MickeyLove01 9 months ago
We'll never forget what Thatcher and her mob have done to the working class! How can we, we're still living with the ramifications of her criminal policies to this very day.
Joey69G 9 months ago 2
@MrJanesaddiction Yes i see where your coming from i have the greatest respect for all ex miners but some of them weren't exactly nice to policeman shall we say.
Jonny30284 10 months ago
I was a young boy growing up in County durham during the strikes! My father was a police officer and had his work cut out all the time i remember he used to come home late at night with bruises or cuts sometimes with sore legs occasionally THINK OF WHAT THE POLICE WENT THROUGH ASWELL!
Jonny30284 10 months ago
Hard times brought on by a vicious tory government. May Thatcher Die in agony, so as to feel the pain that the mining communities went through. The pits may be gone in the North east of England, but never forgotten. A fight my father and thousands lost, but better to have tried than not at all. Unlike the NACODS scum!
ashingtonlad 10 months ago
@ashingtonlad ln all fairness to NACODS {and l have no love for them} they did ballot to come out on strike by a very large majority , l think it was about Aug/Sept..6 months into the strike . lf they had there is no doubt the miners would have won...but for some reason the NACODS leadership went against the vote and did a deal with the NCB
alunhughes147 10 months ago
the line starts here to piss on that bitches grave !
dave2806 11 months ago
damn that Thatcher bitch to hell for what she did to the mining industry
TigerIPanzer 11 months ago
Take a look at the film Dole Not Coal,its available on Amazon.It is awesome,It really opens your eyes.Its told from the miners side and it is fucking brilliant.
timezonecinema 11 months ago
My only regret with the miner's strike was that as a country, we didn't go the whole way and take over.
AlexisCapri 11 months ago
Coal is an out of date fossil fuel and could never be classed as 'green', thats ludicrous.
As for the striking miners and the NUM, just yobs of the time with no future vision, an industry doomed anyway so a completely pointless fight. Those still harping on about loyalty, fighting to the end and never a scab etc etc need to move on and get a life, twats...
Draxindustries1 11 months ago
@Draxindustries1You really have no idea . The strike of 84 was orchestrated by Thatcher to destroy a legal trade union , the NUM . She was obsessed with with destroying the trade union movement which gave a voice to thousands of workers throughout the country . These " yobs " as you call them , were fighting for thier jobs and the future of an industry that , with better management , could become viable again . They were good , hard working people who deserve better coments from the likes of you
alunhughes147 11 months ago
@Draxindustries1 You just KNOW that Draxindustries1 has never done a hard days work in his life (oh he'll claim he has but basically, lifting a telephone is as hard as it ever got). You're one of the Thatcherite "We don't need to work, we pay someone else to do that then take the profits from what they do".
AlexisCapri 11 months ago
@AlexisCapri Ive done more for this countyr than you'll ever know mate, ive fought for this country! What have the likes of yourself ever done? Stood on a picket line shouting scab and terrorising your mates? Should have just been grateful for a job at the time. Thatcher never killed the coal industry, its just victorian out of date dirty fuel, you need to move on...
Draxindustries1 11 months ago
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alunhughes147 11 months ago
l commend you for fighting for your country , but ...l stood on the picket line , and called those people crossing the line scabs , but they were not mates {as you say} , they were the scum of the earth , traitors to thier class and fellow miners . As for being grateful for a job , what do you think we were fighting for ?. As for Thatcher , she destroyed the coal industry because of her obsession with destroying the NUM and she did'nt give a dam about the suffering of those who got in her way
alunhughes147 11 months ago
@Draxindustries1 nice one lad, the price of petrols still going up though. you've fought for fuck all but oil, don't ever forget that.
mrtunegoon 11 months ago
@MrJanesaddiction Oneinoneon showed you, i read your whole argument and he has so much more of a valid point to make than you.
TheClarksFarm 1 year ago
It's called de-industrialisation and moving with the times. If we didn't move on in life then Britian would still be a feudal system. If it was down to Scargill we'd still have people dragging coal out of pits and stockpiled with no purpose. Maggie had the vision to take Britain forward. God bless her
TheClarksFarm 1 year ago
shame on you maggie shame on us all for not supporting them and letting them win
johnboy156 1 year ago
due to the hypocrisy i endured during the strike i havnt ever voted...what a legacy
checl1two 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction ok mate,you win,yr never gonna live in the real world.keep wallowing in the past.but do me a favour,if ever you come down south lmk it would be nice to meet ya. apart from that my amusment has wained so fuck off...l8r
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction fuck me that was nearly an insult...a little more intelligence and you could do a good job,maybe even leave the past behind and get a job,,,
oneinoneon 1 year ago
only 966 sacked? i would have got rid of them all, every last one of them
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction nah boxing good quality foreign coal!!!!!!
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction mmmmmmmm maybe a job there for you! ever boxed anything apart from a big mac?
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction ooooooooooooooh touchy are you.ha ha
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction did I wind you up!!!! ha ha If my warehouse closed I would just get a job and not waste my time telling everyone on you tube how hard done by I am
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction wow I bet yr fun at parties ha ha ha
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction sorry mate,I am a warehouse manager that works hard to keep costs down (units per man hour) something the miners never done...as for having no grasp of history...I work to live not live to work and I have a good family life...I do not care about you or your offspring and I get wound up by twats like you banging on about how hard life is...I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!! TWAT
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction I have roots.my relatives were boxing champs for 5 generations but I don't bang on about it cos it is history am I proud..of course but IT IS HISTORY...GET THE FUCK OVER IT!!!!!!!!!
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction lol, I don't care about your 'roots' if your coal is to dear because you don't produce enough per man hour then we will buy it elsewhere.get over it.I am sure burger king or someone will employ you.
oneinoneon 1 year ago
Ultimatley the pits have to close if they are no longer profitable, but not replacing the jobs lost with something else is ridiculous and still hasn't been sorted to this day
wranglers575 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction maggie rocks...she was supreeme,sorted you lot out good enough for yr manhood to still be battered that is why you won't let it go,cos yr bollocks are smaller than maggie's
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@MrJanesaddiction we don't want yr coal it was to dear!!!!!!! would you pay £20 for fish and chips when you can get it down the road for a tenner??????? no you would not so just get over it!!!!
oneinoneon 1 year ago
scargill was a twat,he took on thatcher and got bitch slapped.why should we pay for people to produce coal when we don't need it? it is sad but all those that were violent...fuck you
oneinoneon 1 year ago
Nowt do with that, the unions got too greedy and got undercut by more efficient operations overseas. They were making the pits run at a loss and union members stood by and watched. A quarter of a century is enough time for anybody to find another job. Thatcher was a megalomaniac to be sure, but if the unions didn't give her the chance she couldn't have kicked them in the bollocks.
industrialfun 1 year ago
Get over it. 25 years ago.
industrialfun 1 year ago
This got me emotional its soo sad right now i am learning about the strike in 1984 and it was so harsh and cruel i hope this wont happen again with another sisuation.
demonmoo 1 year ago
tha still called scabs now
smi88y 1 year ago
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alunhughes147 1 year ago
@smi88y Once a scab always a scab......and when a scab enter's Hell ...as all scabs do.... even Satan turns his back on him and vomits in disgust
alunhughes147 1 year ago 2
I wasnt a miner - Paternal Grandad made sure his lads didnt have to go down the pit , no miner's wife ever wanted that for her lads !
But family for about 6 generations were miners. Hard work, hard play, and and stand up for yourselves are my personal legacy of mining.
The town I still live and work in is now described as 'deprived' which hacks me off no end. No jobs to peak of , drug addiction, chav culture and shopping centres ar Thatchers legacy for the destruction of mining .
staffordshireman 1 year ago
God Bless the Miners
OrwellEDL 1 year ago
i was a kid in 84 and my dad was a yorkshire miner, it was a tough time but got some good memories. unions are a waste of space these days.
jonbec90 1 year ago
I come from a family of miners, me uncle worked down brodsworth pit donny, i wasnt born at the time and didnt affect me but i dont talk to the scabby bastards who fucked it all up for the miners. Never forgive and never forget. Honour the miners that suffered and fought for their jobs.
richo5634 1 year ago
kill that cunt maggie thatcher dirty slut miners strike an hunger strikers cut her an her familys heads off C.I.R.A
fi5ht4nk 1 year ago
ey up mate, all i can say is = in the strike i was very fortunate to have friends and workmates who stuck it out to the bitter end even though we all knew we was doomed.
roblufc60 1 year ago
what was the real reason the thatcher miners strike happened and did it have to happen and did other countries like france and germany have 2 go through this i bet they didnt and did the miners strike make any difference to how the united kingdom has turned out today
CastleSnowflake 1 year ago
nobody in my family has ever been a miner but the strike happened as i was growing up and i felt an effinity with the striking miners.fighting a morally corrupt government and trying to save their livihoods and to keep food on the tables for their children.Have been a committed communist all my life and will never change , the working class get shafted at every opportunity.I salute all youse brave men that didnt buckle under the dictator Thatcher The Snatcher victory to the working class
cliftonspursboy 1 year ago
The ideology of the tories is to repress the working class. The miners strike is proof of this. If you need any more proof, google "UK coal imports" to how much coal we are now importing.
The tories devastated vast areas of the North of England and South Wales. They are only interested in the rich and wealthy in the South East and don't care about communities.
m1trekker 1 year ago
@m1trekker never a truer statement .
thanks to that bitch the steel industry was doomed after she closed the pits .
now we're at the mercy of foreign nations for are everyday energy needs.
i wonder if her rich friends owned these overseas pits .
germanicdogman 1 year ago
@germanicdogman if you fuckers had worked harder and made the pits more efficient maybe you would still have a job
oneinoneon 1 year ago
@oneinoneon fuck you i have had job since i was 16
germanicdogman 1 year ago
WE NEVER WENT ON STRIKE 4 MORE MONEY,,,WE JUST WANTED 2 HAVE A JOB 4 GOD SAKE,
elviskevinb 1 year ago
That made me cry‚ So strong are my emotions, 26 years on still mining‚ and now our numbers are well below 2000. How sad is that!
thebrumster 1 year ago
Thankyou I was there with my father and two brothers and none of us would have had it any other way tory scum ruined us and they will do it again
nogarange 1 year ago
Shirebrook Colliery still lives on in the memories of all
the ex-miners and i wished i still worked there too.
I go there twice a year and look at the place and feel
a sence of saddness and joy of the good days.
long live big S
jimjamsssssssss 1 year ago
why do you think the provisional ira tried to kill thacher and her cabinet, it was because she treated the catholic community in northern ireland like fucking shite , i salute the miner who stood by each other , fuck all scabs.
ardoynejune27th1970 1 year ago
Great video, brave people.
Our day will come. Workers of the world UNITE!
echogonewrong 1 year ago
solidarity forever,victory to strikers everywhere ,scabs live in shame forever.
ironpirate69 1 year ago
my dad was on strike for 2 years, the next door neighbour nocked the door after 14months and said he was going back would my dad be ok with him. he said IF YOU FLEE WAE THE CROSS YE DEE WAE THE CRAWS.
proud of ya dad.
daisydooker 1 year ago 2
thatcher was scum,camerons worse
dannydannydaanny 1 year ago
State terrorism against working class people
cammyl39 1 year ago
I would like to thank everyone for the comments on this video i made this video because its something that is very close to my heart as i was a child growing up during the strike and i could see first hand the effect it caused to the villages and towns and city's then, and the affect that it still has on most of these communitys up and down the country now. this video was made to reflect the struggle of a past generation for our future generations to learn and understand about the 1984 strike
MinersStrike25Years 1 year ago 8
@MinersStrike25Years
Thatcher is an evil person. Liberating people from what? their jobs, their livelyhood, or just human dignity?
poleske 1 year ago
@MinersStrike25Years thank you for this vid, my dad is 72 an spent 34 yrs of his life down penallta pit, he told me some crazy stories about is time but honestly i need to get intouch with u, my email is leepopedj@hotamil.com thank u so much if u could find out a lil bit more about south wales evean better thanks
joop4147 1 year ago
God bless Arthur and the heroic men and women who fought with such courage--you remain the best of us.
vivascargill 1 year ago 2
Whatever the left like to pretend about it now, this strike wasn't about preserving working mens jobs, or energy independance or pit closures, or subsidies. It was about a group of marxist union bosses who decided that they, and not the democratically elected government should rule the country.
I feel very sorry for all those who lost their livelihoods, but union bosses should not be able to bring down elected governments at will. The outcome of the strike meant they couldn't do so again.
DavidUK84 1 year ago
thatcher should be thrown darn a fuckin pit an covered in the stuff britain was stopped from producing!!
bugatti9000 1 year ago
@bugatti9000 let me know when maggot thatcher is dead and rotting in hell!!
vivascargill 1 year ago
I lived in Fitzwilliam in the strike and my dad was one of the picketter's that went to every picket line no matter where.I grew up believing the conservaties are rubbish and still believe it.I remember the riot of 1984 outside my house and seeing the police hitting people and knowing my dad was in there.But even after this it was the best of times as my dad was around.We survived all 6 of us with my dad getting potatoes from the farmers field and my mum been creative.I'm proud of my dad.
MsAj30 1 year ago
check out ( john mccullagh "ill dance on your grave mrs thatcher" ......on youtube or myspace,well worth a listen
LARRSON77 2 years ago
the mines shut due the bloody free market allowing the power stations to buy Polish coal and homeowners switch to gas fuck Thatcher etc. Gonna close this window now and book another Spanish holiday on my Taiwanese laptop then go out in my German car to pick up a Chinese to heat up in my Korean microwave...........
dimgwalltameiben 2 years ago 3
i,ve got to say,i lived in wakefield,its true thatcher fucked our sources of power up,she got rid of the coal from british mines to then import foreghn coal,now,i worked on pipelines for 7years,thats fucked up cos the gas comes from russia!wot happens when they put the price up.brilliant forward thinking thatcher!god bless all miners past and present.look forward to the big thatcher party,it,ll make glastonbury festivall look like a village fete!
oorgary 2 years ago
@oorgary Mate, I agree 100%! Yet "buy British" in today's global economy is a completely naive concept as I illustrated in my earlier mssg. Maggie actually relinquished the state's power and allowed ppl to make their own choices. All the same, state funeral? not on my taxes!
dimgwalltameiben 2 years ago
State Funeral?........£3 Million should buy us all 3 million shovels so we can dig a hole so deep we can deliver her body personally straight to Satan himself
redkat100 1 year ago 8
Closing the mines when there's 200 years of coal left and selling off the oil and gas was a brilliant idea from Twatcher.
Now we get to import all our energy at sky high prices with an energy crisis round the corner.
Tin pot fucking policies landing the country in shit.
Even for all of Labour's failures anyone who votes for Cameron really does need to take the past into consideration.. that or be sectioned.
d0m93 2 years ago
The song was "Mad World" by ( in this case) Gary Jules.
The fight was not worhless. They reminded all of us that it is our right to fight for our communities other than following the "rules" without questioning the gov. After all, it is our job to have the gov in check.
danigon4050098 2 years ago
Bitch...She closed my community down and I cant wait for her to choke on her pit closures....Not long before I dance on her grave......Avin a party, when Thatcher dies
yorvik21 2 years ago
i was a welsh miner from lady windsor ynysybwl and when the evil cunt thatcher dies i think i may just break the world record for the longest smile ps i ill get drunk too celebrating her happy demise
benaborkowski 2 years ago
amen to ya brother.
I'm a young commie (trotskyist) fromy Liverpool and I totally agree witth you.
BOOM BOOM MAGGIE MAGGIE BOOM BOOM.
Jakkeo1 2 years ago
I was a Miner from 86-89. My father was a striking Miner from 84-85. Thanks for taking the time to put this montage together.
I was a young teenager when my Dad went on strike to save his job, his colleagues jobs, and the future jobs of his and his colleagues sons. I well remember the hardship we endured.
Thatcher did not break my family.
FrancisPGalvin 2 years ago
Scargill was a disgrace who conned alot of people.
He went into the strike with a small house and large Union and came out of it with a large house and a small union.
typical hypocritical socialist, I bet his family never went hungry during the strike.
mattdavies1971 2 years ago 2
Spot on mate!
123Scears123 2 years ago
cheers matt for sticking up for the working class. to be fair to Arthur he stood on picket lines, collected food and tried his best to point out that the working class are reasonable people. Fair crack for a working wage. I actually think that you sent this message to annoy real working men..God bless you...And dont vote for Thatcher....or her legacy. And make sure that you claim your bank charges back.
yorvik21 2 years ago
"lose" their jobs, not "loose" their jobs.
Nice vid though.
blairomatic 2 years ago
Was anyone in your family ever a miner? Probably not. The strike was because of the treatment and miners pay was low. Do you know anything about mining? Probably not. Do you know all the risks associated with mining? Probably not. Do you know the meaning of hard work and wanting to protect the working class? Probably not. Don't even try and insult the men who worked so hard every day of their lives to be suddenly told they were no longer needed after they complained. Just a simple fuck you.
acledmaiden 2 years ago 10
Funny how there are so many people here who live in the past going on about how Thatcher ruined our country when look at it now! Thatcher hasn't been in power for nearly 20 years and Labour have been in power for 12 & a half years! They have had 13 years to get it right.
Calling a fellow working man a 'scab' because they didn't agree with you is perfetic!
smoogie7 2 years ago
I DID NOT SCAB will be on my head stone. i was one of the many who stood and had a go, i wish the youth of today had my balls to stand and fight to make this shit hole of a country great again, LONG LIVE SCARGILL.
roblufc60 2 years ago 14
smoogie7 has been in touch with me he is a stupid boy of 22 who thinks us miners are stupid and know nothing. good on you mate i never scabbed either, and i agree with what you say, that little shit of 22 years telling me whats what. little freak at home with mammy. list his hobbies as listening to music, ground breaking stuff eh ! people like him make me vomit, know nothing, done nothing, seen nothing.yet now everything, i forgot more than he knows .
dadswizz 2 years ago 4
@roblufc60 By staying out you had no money/food etc but at least no one was going to put a brick through your window or kick your head in. I live in S wales and since those days i've had several ppl admit 2 me that though they knew the game was up from the Nov. onwards but it was fear that kept them OUT
dimgwalltameiben 1 year ago
@roblufc60
Sir, I am 20 years old right now and I wasn't around to see the strikes. I was brought up in the era of hyper capitalism and superficial superstars and plastic consumer crap. This video made my break down for the first time in my life. My entire family has been heavily involved in the left in various forms since as far back as I can trace. You did not scab, nobody in my family ever was a scab, and I will not scab.
anessenator 1 year ago
@roblufc60 tough man eh! done you a lot of fucking good eh! stupid man
oneinoneon 1 year ago
How did this happen?
Goverments should be defending the rights of there people.
Not charging them down on horse back as they fight for there right to earn a living.
A dark chapter in British history.
May this be the legend of Prime Minster Thatcher, a tratior of ther people, just like her liying cheating dog of a son. They should be shearing a cell in prison.
abigfartstain 2 years ago
the thatcher you slag not long now the miners and the scousers got the champgne on ice .
roadend78 2 years ago
Hey nice video, whats the name of the song and who sings it?
thanx
cmegala 2 years ago
so many spelling errors - do you suggest that the miners were not too educated?
zapisywacz 2 years ago 2
i have a list of the scabs in the seatondelaval area, one by one they get crossed off ! !
dadswizz 2 years ago
wow, your a big man arn't you! Talk about working class pride...
smoogie7 2 years ago
jamescobley 1 its miners not minors,no we didn,t shut the pits, we got off our knee,s tried but failed,against overwhelming odds (forces)
wiganjoe 2 years ago
do you know cos of all this I STILL wont vote Conservative ................... (tune) Mad World (indeed)
Bevvii 2 years ago
That's the same as me. I will NEVER vote Conservative because of what they did to my community and the people of Britain in the name of profit.
SittingDownWith 2 years ago
I'm 17 and even reading about what happend makes me anti conservative..I'm with you
etjustice 2 years ago
so really the minors ruined the whole thing by striking and because of how they behaved shut down the mining industry down for good and people are still proud to this today,im sorry but thats not right. How can you be proud of destroying your life and your loved ones
jamescobley1 2 years ago
no we striked against Thatcher and her import rules, the only thing is that she had stock piled 30 years worth of coal to makes sure we quit in the meantime. Only thing was to imprort and pay wages to do so DID cost more so she just sold Britain out and she's loved for it to this day, the woman killed britain and it's industries. Thatcher killed the Uk economy, no-one else. However, nobody was more prouder than a miners kid
Bevvii 2 years ago
or a miner, you ask a northerner how shit it was......... you ask how when the southern police came up and beat up our famiies cos our coppers couldnt do it, you ask how many years I saw mates on jam sandwiches and banana's cos the miners strike was on......... Im not mad, I just wish you'd understand it all
Bevvii 2 years ago
i did 12 months on strike and iam very proud of it barnsley is now a town with nothing thanks to that witch and notts scabs i will in my hart always be a miner
chrissiepearson 2 years ago
it was not worthless, im proud of what i did
wiganjoe 2 years ago
Im proud of you too, you all deserved so much better
Bevvii 2 years ago
thank you,everyone deserves better hope it will happen.
wiganjoe 2 years ago
i was just leaving school in 1984 and had 2 brothers that worked at allerton bywater, both stuck it out til the end. . PROUD. i myself was then on strike in 2002 as a fireman, we were shafted too
lufctildie 2 years ago 2
Allerton pit and mining village is where I am from, in retrospect we were one of the lucky one's who didnt close down until the mid 90's.... but still Thatcher got what she was after.
I just remember growing up thinking men wore eyeliner and it was cool, which was actually coal dust from the blasts. Memories of the village fares with your norm mates 'posh' parents dressed up as a massive toothbrush and toothpaste while the floats and band went through the village = memories treasured forever.
Bevvii 2 years ago
of course Scargill led the battle to defend the pit communities against the ruling class/Thatcher onslaught on organised british workers;
the BBC famously (tho not famously enough) openly lied about the strike, including the key events like reversing the footage of the Orgreave events - each arm of the brit state was bought to bear upon the miners, and it's hard to believe there remains any question over this!
the miners lost because they were left isolated by the Labour Movement
stevieRevo 2 years ago
brill video and very true video at that. ps the last bit of video of the pit wheel being pulled down is my valleys pit nantymoel
1983toby19947N531 2 years ago
maybe that was all Mr Scargill was after but the video was about the miners there familys and the struggle that they went through in the year long battle.
MinersStrike25Years 2 years ago
"The greatest achievement is the struggle" - Arthur Scargill.
That's the talk of an anarchist, not the talk of someone who gives a fuck about jobs.
His actions if anything probably hastened the end of Britain's coal industry. Made quite a name for himself though - I think that's all he was after.
wattage2007 2 years ago
They ripped the heart out of every town and village surrounding the pits. Still dealing with the repercussions.
wapdink 2 years ago