The secretary at this time was a very good friend of mine called Jimmy Reid, and we're still close friends. [1] Letwin, Shirley Robin. Therefore government preparations was definitely a factor in the failure of the miners strike but to what extent, can be argued. Eric Evans described him as aggressive and charismatic, but vain and politically limited[42], therefore showing his limitations as the head of NCB. Margaret Thatcher even described McGregor as lacking in guile as he was used to dealing with financial difficulties and hard bargaining and had no experience with dealing with trade union leaders[25]. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com. Assess the view that the main reason for the failure of the miners strike in 1984 was the leadership of Arthur Scargill. Barnsley: Wharncliffe, 2002. Accessed October 12, 2018. In this example the file must be in public_html/example/Example/. [53], Scargill still occasionally gives interviews and makes appearances. "[28] This was in the Prime Minister's rejection of Labour calls for an apology for government actions during the 19841985 miners' strike. This was a complete reversal of the policy that was promised by the Labour Government before it was put into office this represents a betrayal of the mining industry. My father was a Communist. Arthur Scargill was in attendance but it was noteworthy (and significant) that he remained a peripheral figure being greeted by only a few of those attending. [he fails to see that] the working class is a world class. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. The myth of workers' control by Arthur Scargill 0 Ratings 0 Want to read 0 Currently reading 0 Have read Overview View 2 Editions Details Reviews Lists Related Books Publish Date 1980 Publisher University of Leeds, University of Nottingham Language English Pages 22 This edition doesn't have a description yet. [37], The South Wales area leader, Des Dutfield, moved that Scargill should stand down and face re-election, but the motion was defeated. Paul Hampton and Martin Thomas respond to Eric Lee on Clara Zetkin. If it wasnt for Thatchers continued support for the Nottinghamshire miners, the strike would have had their support which may have been vital in the success of the strike. [21] Many politicians, including the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock, believed Scargill had made a huge mistake in calling the strike in the summer rather than in the winter. This was denied by the government at the time, although papers released in 2014 under the thirty-year rule suggest that Scargill was right. Nothing good about it. Andrew Marr is one of many historians who support this view and believed that The Nottinghamshire miners turned out to be critical. Arthur Scargill, the former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), addressed a rally Saturday outside Sheffield railway station in support of the railworkers' strike. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. The Miners Strike Day by Day: The Illustrated 1984-85 Diary of Yorkshire Miner Arthur Wakefield. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. The View from No. This had great implications for regional relations in the NUM; the executive was described as dominated by "Gormley's rotten boroughs", since every region even quite small ones had one delegate, and the larger regions had only a few more (Scotland and South Wales had two delegates each, Yorkshire had three). In 1973, Scargill was elected to the full-time post of compensation agent in the Yorkshire NUM. She makes some bold accusations about when Scargill and his cohorts were accused of serious irregularities in the handling of union funds but this is unconvincing as it has never been proven true. Page 57. He has contested two parliamentary elections. In any case, the will of the people has decided the UK will leave, we have even had a General Election over the matter. The editor of the Daily Mirror at the time, Roy Greenslade, wrote an article in The Guardian in May 2002 to apologise to Scargill for the false claims about paying off the mortgage and for putting too much trust in Roger Windsor, who at the time had still not repaid the 29,500 that he had taken from the Miners' Welfare Fund and that the Lightman Report had asked that he repay. I really do not care what you think of Mr Scargill today, where elseis a man supposed to go after he was betrayed by the system and vilified by the media to agullible population, a media that was run by the government of the day. On March 6, 1984, the National Coal Board announced its plan to cut the nation's coal output by 4 million tons, in an effort to stem a $340 million annual loss. If not, correct the error or revert back to the previous version until your site works again. This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here. During this time, he earned the esteem of significant sections of the left and the British working class, who saw him as honest, hard-working and genuinely concerned with their welfare,[12] and he was also respected for improving the administration of the compensation agent's post. The 84/5 miners strike brought great hardship, but achieved nothing. [4] He joined the Young Communist League in 1955, becoming its Yorkshire District Chair in 1956 and shortly after a member of its National Executive Committee. Seumas Milne argues that the miners had sued the police for assault, wrongful arrest, malicious persecution and false imprisonment and then went on to describe the battle of Orgreaves as an 8,000 riot police staged medieval-style mounted charges of unprecedented ferocity[33]. Arrow, 1994. However, many people argue that there was a lot of support for the strike so therefore it couldnt have been such an important factor in its failure in 1985. London: Vintage, 2008. April 23, 2022 the myth of workers' control arthur scargill . [51] Scargill criticised Poland's Solidarity calling it an "anti-socialist organisation which desires the overthrow of a socialist state", which Scargill saw as deformed but reformable. He also represented the Barnsley Co-op at Cooperative congresses. [9] This performance strengthened his popularity with the Yorkshire miners. [13] Still the Enemy Within (2014). IMDb. His legacy is one of shame and ignominy. [60][61], London Assembly elections (entire London city). [39] Benn, Tony. [31] In addition, it was alleged that he had taken 1,000,000 of cash donated by the Soviet Union for the Welsh miners and placed it in a Dublin bank account for the "International Miners' Organisation", where it stayed until a year after the strike had finished. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has stripped ex-president Arthur Scargill of his voting rights - threatening to end the career of one of the most divisive figures in Britain's recent. Page 342. The appointment of Ian McGregor as head of the NCB can be seen as a failure on Thatchers behalf showing that the governments preparations were insufficient to cause the strike to fail. Barnsley: Wharncliffe, 2002. He did not. [16] Wakefield, Arthur, and Brian Elliot. Scargill never balloted NUM members for a strike; this was seen as an erosion of democracy within the union, but the role of ballots in decision-making had been made very unclear after previous leader, Joe Gormley, had ignored two ballots over wage reforms, and his decisions had been upheld after appeals to court were made. After a Labour Party conference speech on energy policy by Richard Marsh in July 1967, Scargill said: I can honestly say that I never heard flannel like we got from the Minister he said that we have nuclear power stations with us, whether we like it or not. Change the settings back to the previous configuration (before you selected Default). Scargill, along with veteran left-wing Labour MP Tony Benn, campaigned to free strikers Russell Shankland and Dean Hancock from prison. [58][59] Scargill's appearance on the picket line was alluded to by Prime Minister Boris Johnson the next day at Prime Minister's Questions, accusing the Labour Party of "literally holding hands with Arthur Scargill". EconBiz.Logger.enable_Autocompletion_tracking(); It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the trade union movement. Having read the above (barely, dont like reading lies) I felt the immediate need to respond, if anything to comfort myself. Travis, Alan. Margaret Thatcher. Before you do anything, it is suggested that you backup your website so that you can revert back to a previous version if something goes wrong. //-->, Unions on the board : an experiment in industrial democracy, Batstone, Eric, The issue of Scargills leadership is argued as the main reason that the miners strike failed. Scargill has so burnt his bridges with the NUM and the broad left of the labour movement that his name is never mentioned at Durham miners gala or at other miners strike commemorations. One source described them as the iron ladies of the coal fields[17]. The motto, An injury to one is an injury to all, applies world-wide. [14] The section under "staff procedures" details how Scargill monitored head office staff: Mr. Scargill's vendetta against Head Office staff has at times descended to the most puerile and paranoic [sic] levels. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! BATTLE FOR BRITAIN; on the 25th Anniversary of the Miners Strike, NORMAN TEBBIT, Reveals Why He Believes Defeat Would Have Been the Death of Democracy.. The miners had already built up a fearsome reputation as the shock troops for organised labour and during his time as leader of the Yorkshire coalfield, Mr Scargill had rarely been out of the news. After the miners' strike, Scargill was elected to lifetime presidency of the NUM by an overwhelming national majority, in a controversial election in which some[who?] Therefore, government preparations are more important than other factors, such as Arthur Scargills leadership and support for the strike, in the failure of the miners strike. : A Review of Literature on the 1984/5 Miners' Strike.". "It was Thatcher's legislation, actually giving council tenants the right to buy their own houses. Arthur Wakefield, a striking miner, presents the Marxist view that the failure of the strike couldnt have been down to the lack of support and instead must have been due to other factors. [7] Scargill, Arthur. Therefore, Thatcher and her governments actions could have caused the failure of the strike but to what extent these actions can be justified is still widely argued. [9] He had challenged Sam Bullough, the President of the Yorkshire area NUM, to act on the working hours of surface workers, given that the union's conference had passed a resolution that their hours be shortened the previous year. In fact, stocks were much higher[27]. Therefore, the overwhelming support for the strike could not be denied. Another important factor in the failure of the miners strike was Thatcher and her governments actions during the strike such as using the police force. I then thought of things rather differently. [41] Campbell, John. Amazingly the electorate resent being told they're either racist or stupid or both, if the remain campaign had been more mature in it's approach, almost certainly a different decision would have been reached. Ian White talks exclusively to Arthur Scargill, 84, on 50th anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gate in Birmingham This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 23:36. 11: Britains Longest-serving Cabinet Member Recalls the Triumphs and Disappointments of the Thatcher Era. March 07, 2009. [49], After stepping down from leadership of the NUM, Scargill became active in the UK's Stalin Society[50] saying that the "ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin explain the real world". The appointment of Ian McGregor as head of the NCB can also be argued as a factor in the failure of the strike as he was known to be notoriously formidable had no pity for the poor miners, and was determined to keep them working and living in conditions that no human being should be made to endure[24]. He was also on the hard-left of the Labour Party, often disagreeing with Neil Kinnock who couldnt support the strike due to its illegitimacy after Scargills failure to call a ballot. [21] Ridley, Nicholas. Scargill won widespread applause for his response to the disaster at Lofthouse Colliery in Outwood, West Yorkshire, at which he accompanied the rescue teams underground and was on site for six days with the relatives of the seven deceased. The strike ended on 3 March 1985 following an NUM vote to return to work. The strike started in Yorkshire, and he was not present at the delegate Council meeting in Barnsley. The two men had been convicted of the murder of David Wilkie, a taxi driver, by throwing a block of concrete from a bridge onto his car. Person/Body (Historic): Kahn, Peggy. However, it can be argued that the government limited its role in upholding law and order in a dispute between the NUM and the NCB. He is looking for socialism in one country, and since that is impossible he ends up with a recipe of capitalism in one country. [31] Campbell, John. This sparked an individual ballot of members, in the autumn of 1984, whereby the ballot obtained an 80% plus vote for strike action, a decision which, if implemented, would have been sufficient to save pits and jobs, and win the dispute which had been brought by the National Coal Board[35]. To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below: If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have your work published on UKEssays.com then please: Our academic writing and marking services can help you! When you get a 404 error be sure to check the URL that you are attempting to use in your browser.This tells the server what resource it should attempt to request. Following these results, Thatcher urged Ian McGregor to fix the problem, she describes how time and time again he (Ian McGregor) and his colleagues were outmanoeuvred by Arthur Scargill and the NUM leadership[36]. In the 1997 general election, he ran against Alan Howarth, a defector from the Conservative Party to Labour, who had been given the safe seat of Newport East to contest. Accessed October 11, 2018. Absolute nonsense on all accords above. Love him or hate him a lot that Mr Scargill and the Minors stood against in the1970/80s has now come to fruition, the uprise ofThatcherism,greed is good, stand on your neighbour to get a head! [54] He gave a rare television interview to ITV News at that time. Nevertheless, Government intervention such as the use of police and the actions of Ian McGregor was not the most important factor in the failure of the strike as many people openly criticised McGregor, including Thatcher herself. Page 473. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! Atvery lease Mr Scargill was a leader of man and lead them unlike our current prime minister who couldn't lead a pack of sheep out of a field even though he resemble one. However, Wakefield also mentions the betrayal he felt by the Nottinghamshire miners who continued to work by saying The lads are in good spirits even if the majority of scabs are working. [34] Scargill accepted Lightman's statement that many of his actions suffered from a lack of professional advice, which he was unwilling to be bound by. John Campbell argues that It was the job of the police to protect the freedom to work, and the job of the government to support the police[37]. He was the President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1981 to 2002 and has served as leader of the Socialist Labour Party, a political party he founded, since 1996. ",confirmEmpty: "Are you sure you want to empty your clipboard? Test your website to make sure your changes were successfully saved. The Guardian. Articles like the above, years later are actually a compliment to Arthur. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984-85), a major event in the history of the British labour movement. of the other candidates claimed that they were given very little time to prepare. Vast majority of people work retail or asBarristersselling fancycoffee to people on the way to work in offices, most of them on single hour contracts working in retail parks or business parks built on the ground of old mine, steelworks and potteries that used to employ tens of thousands of men and now employ the best part of 100. Joining the NUM at the age of 19 in 1957, Scargill was one of its leading activists by the late 1960s. This shows that even someone who takes the traditional mainstream media view, that because of Scargills actions the strike was poorly supported and doomed to fail, you cant deny the amount of support that the miners had. The Enemy Within: The Secret War against the Miners. Tony Benn opposes Evans view by saying the extent of the support in the NUM as a whole was evidenced by the overwhelming majority of miners who remained on strike until it ended in 1985[14]. Riddled with Stalinist politics and practice and some of the worst sectarianism imaginable, it has no meaningful existence today. [9][11], A few months later, the president of the Yorkshire NUM died unexpectedly, and Scargill won the election for his replacement; the two posts were then combined and he held them until 1981. [20] Ridley, Nicholas. Study for free with our range of university lectures! Accessed October 12, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn. Page 39. [27] Thatcher, Margaret. Therefore, the argument that Scargills leadership could have been one of the reasons that the miners strike failed is partly true as we know that due to Scargills decision to not call a national ballot he ended up losing key supporters such as the Labour party and many members of the public who couldnt support the strike as it was unofficial and didnt favour Scargills violent tactics. Downing Street Years. Scargill subsequently decided to move to Sheffield, and said that he had spoken to each member of staff to ask them to move to Sheffield. On any measure, Scargill was a failure who brought hardship down on those who followed him, now a pitiful figure. Scargill admitted there was 'bad blood' between him and the NUM general secretary Chris Kitchen, who said, "I honestly do believe that Arthur, in his own world, believes that the NUM is here to afford him the lifestyle that he's become accustomed to. In the event, it turned out to be the exact blueprint that the government followed[21]. Carrying the Fire in The Road T he dystopian world of Cormac McCarthy's The Road is best summarized by the following lines from the novella: "Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. the myth of workers' control arthur scargill the myth of workers' control arthur scargill on October 1, 2021 on October 1, 2021 September 09, 2018. Accessed September 16, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. [22][23], Many found Scargill inspiring; many others found him frankly scary. Somerset: Routledge, 2018. (1983), Restructuring the employment relationship, Gallie, Duncan, The party was established in 1996 and is led by Arthur Scargill, a former Labour Party member and the former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. However, if the outcome of the 84-5 strike can be regarded, at one level, as a tragedy, then Scargills post-85 trajectory can only be viewed as an even deeper tragedy. I suggest to this Conference that we have coal mines with us but they did something about this problem: they closed them down. If you have already uploaded the file then the name may be misspelled or it is in a different folder. S.l. "[44] However, in December 2012, Scargill lost a similar case concerning rent on his flat in the Barbican, London. [14] Benn, Tony. By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. It is also possible that you have inadvertently deleted your document root or the your account may need to be recreated. The myth of workers' control: We are fighting for the survival of our culture: Selected Co-authors Countries and Regions of . Scargill, Solidarity and Workers Revolutionary Party ( Book ) Margaret Thatcher, face aux mineurs : 1972-1985, treize annes qui ont chang l'Angleterre by Pierre-Franois Gouiffs ( Book ) The judge Sir Sydney Templeman held that it was unlawful that union members were disciplined by the NUM disciplinary panel, which Scargill chaired, for appearing as witnesses testifying against Scargill in a libel case. Page 39. He cannot resist pointing out parallels in all times and places. Arthur Scargill emerged from semi-retirement from politics to speak at a meeting of the Communist Party of Britains wretched little pro-Brexit front organisation Leave Fight Transform (LeFT) in Brighton on 11 September, alongside Eddie Dempsey (the man who said Tommy Robinson supporters were right to hate the liberal left) and other assorted xenophobes, nationalists and social conservatives. On the 20th of July 1984, Thatcher gave a speech to the 1922 committee where she deemed the miners as the enemy within going on to say We had to fight the enemy without, in the Falklands. The End of an Era Diaries 1980-90. Accessed October 11, 2018. (1978), CONTESTING THE MARKET: PAY EQUITY AND THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING, Eigart, Deborah M., This was to begin the argument of whether the actions of Thatcher and the state during the strike led to its failure. Arrow, 1994. His comments followed a question in the Commons from Labour MP Lisa Nandy, who said the miners and their families deserved an apology for the mine closures. Arthur Scargill (born January 11, 1938) is a British trade unionist. RewriteEngine On Accessed October 10, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. Accessed January 06, 2019. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3503545.stm. [14], The vast majority of head-office staff took redundancy rather than move to Sheffield. Logger.logCoid("61c4e44a-8d58-45d2-8bc5-5fc2bd749aae"); Scargill said himself that the real reason that the NUM areas such as Nottinghamshire, South Derbyshire and Leicestershire wanted a national strike ballot was that they wanted the strike called off, believing naively that their pits were safe[7]. The End of an Era Diaries 1980-90. Therefore, without support from key groups such as the Nottinghamshire miners and the dock workers, the striking miners were isolated which may have led to the failure of the strike itself. Downing Street Years. [24] Letwin, Shirley Robin. Some historians have provided interpretations and explanations of the defeat. It was not , and will not ever be the liberator of the working Class, but their oppressors. [56], In July 2021 he spoke at the Rebel Town Festival in Jarrow. [57] Scargill supported the 2022 United Kingdom railway strike, joining an RMT picket line in Wakefield on 21 June 2022. Page 317. For addon domains, the file must be in public_html/addondomain.com/example/Example/ and the names are case-sensitive. [37] The prosecution brought by the Certification Officer was rejected in July 1991 on the grounds that it would be inappropriate to use the material provided in confidence to Lightman's enquiry. A former Labour Party member, Scargill is now leader of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP), founded by him in 1996. In the 2001 general election, he ran against Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool. He had no means of calling a strike in Yorkshire.[27]. On the other hand, the Marxist/Left Wing view suggests that the strike was part of Thatchers wider attack on political consensus and suggest that the miners could have won the strike had it not been for the concerted, illegal government campaign to smash the miners union, something they had been planning for some time. See also V. L. Allen, The Militancy of the British Miners (1981); N. Hagger, Scargill the Stalinist (1984); and "What Drives Arthur Scargill?"The Sunday Times of London (July 15, 1984).. [19] The NUM had previously held three ballots on a national strike, all of which rejected the proposal: 55% voted against in January 1982, and 61% voted against in both October 1982 and March 1983.[20]. you only have to look at the current state of our country after Cov19torealise that we have noindustry left! Scargill, Arthur. [45] Milne, Seumas. Aucun commentaire n'a t trouv aux emplacements habituels. It's easy to mock Arthur Scargill. We also know that lots of support groups popped up to encourage the miners on in their fight. His one man mission to bring down the elected government, for a second time, and destroy Thatcherism was not only not accomplished ,it only served to strengthen the Conservative Government and Thatchers dominance of the political landscape for over a decade. Kim Howells discusses how Neil Kinnock argued that real power lay at the ballot box[4]. In stories told since the strike, the president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Arthur Scargill, is strangely absent. Page 342. [32] The documentary suggests that the claims against Scargill were untrue. Yet he still gives credit to Thatcher and her government for their actions during the strike which legitimises his view. This confirms the fact that Thatcher and Ian McGregor often didnt see eye-to-eye, an example of this is the issue with the NACODs strike. The Anatomy of Thatcherism. Unlike the strikes in the 1970s, the later strike ended with the miners' defeat and the Thatcher government was able to consolidate its fiscally conservative programme. In this example the image file must be in public_html/cgi-sys/images/. Les avis ne sont pas valids, mais Google recherche et supprime les faux contenus lorsqu'ils sont identifis, Industrial Democracy in Italy: Workers' Co-ops and the Self-management Debate. My Style of Government: The Thatcher Years. Just click. National Archives: Margaret Thatcher Wanted to Crush Power of Trade Unions.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Read online at https://workersliberty.org/node/34498, Submitted by AWL on 18 September, 2019 - 11:48, Letters: Hands off Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg, Holodomor: the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33, Tubeworker (London Underground) (bulletin), Off the Rails (national rail workers) (bulletin), Off the Rails (national rail workers) (blog), Notts Off the Rails (Nottingham rail workers) (bulletin), On Guard (Sheffield rail workers) (bulletin). Seumas Milne, who takes the Marxist view, supports Thatchers argument that government preparations werent sufficient enough to cause the failure of the strike. Darlington, "There is no alternative: Exploring the options in the 1984-5 miners' strike. [43] Marr, Andrew. A secret record is kept of the time at which all workers arrive and leave each day. . Tony Benn. Wikipedia. T he council chamber at the Barnsley HQ of the National Union of Mineworkers is a jaw-dropping sight: a huge, oak-panelled room, draped with banners that were once kept at collieries across. Another controversial action that Thatcher took was giving the police ultimate power during the strike. # End WordPress. You may need to scroll to find it. Essay Writing Service. London: Routledge, 2019. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. Add the following snippet of code to the top of your .htaccess file: # BEGIN WordPress The strike became a symbolic struggle, as the NUM was one of the strongest unions in the country, viewed by many, including Conservatives in power, as having brought down the Heath government in the union's 1974 strike. //
