25 years of the miners strike 1984-1985

true facts and pictures of the 1984-1985 miners strike
by: apache76@live.co.uk

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• miners
• strike
• arthur
• scargill
• 25
• years
• margaret
• thatcher
• coal
• pits
• cortonwood
• colliery
• yorkshire
• south
• wales

[alunhughes147]

{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} 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.

[32peartree]

@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]

@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]

@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.

[32peartree]

@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]

@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]

@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]

@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]

@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.