1
There was a lot of men's lives
wrapped up in this place.
You'd walk across this gantry
and enter the airlock.
At that point you'd
entered another world.
A world of noise. There was
no music, no birds singing.
It was completely, entirely, brutally
industrial in every single aspect.
You'd get your pit gear on,
your helmet, your boots
and you'd walk across the yard...
the bells rang.
The steel doors would slam shut
and you'd descend and
you'd set off slowly
then you'd just drop like a bullet,
and at that point there was silence.
VENTILATION SHAF It's a real shock to come back
and see it all like this.
At one point well over
2,000 people worked here.
When you think that was over
2,000 breadwinners for families,
working in the bowels of
the earth producing coal,
which apparently at the time was
the future, as we thought, but...
people higher up the pecking
order thought otherwise.
THE BRITISH COAL
INDUSTRY IS THREATENED
160,000 MINERS GO ON STRIKE
VICTORY TO THE MINERS
THE LONGEST NATIONAL
STRIKE IN BRITISH HISTORY
THE MINERS ACTIVE ON THE
FRONTLINE NUMBER...
JUST 16 000
THE MEDIA DUBS THEM
ARTHUR'S ARMY
As national president of this
union I'll tell you the terms:
No pit closures,
No pit closures.
MARGARET THATCHER CALLS
THEM THE ENEMY WITHIN
THIS IS THEIR STORY
They are the enemies
of democracy,
they're trying to kill democracy
for their own purposes.
STILL THE ENEMY WITHIN
A hard, dirty,
dangerous, tough job.
When you're doing a coalface,
they have a thing called the hellhole
at one end and it's got no support.
I used to think, "I bet it collapses
when I'm going through it"
and I used to scurry
through it like a rat.
I was sitting there eating my
sandwich and drinking my tea
and I couldn't see the bloke sitting
a foot away because of the dust.
I could just see this dull
yellow glow of his lamp.
He said, "Sunderland were crap
on Saturday, weren't they?"
I said 'I know.'
Anybody watching this scene would
think 'God!' They'd run a mile.
And we're sitting as if it's the
most natural thing in the world.
Being a miner in those times
was like living politics.
It was not talking about politics,
it wasn't abstract; it was real.
If someone was sent out of the pit
for some ridiculous misdemeanour
everybody in the pit would
down tools and go out the pit.
The idea of solidarity, sticking
together was something tangible.
It really meant something to
us, it wasnt just a slogan.
Sticking together
just becomes a habit.
When I was buying my first house I
went to see a mortgage advisor.
Mortgage lenders would give you
three times your annual salary.
They said they'd
give us four times.
When I asked why he said: Your
job, unlike others, is secure.
You've got a job for life.
If you know what a
coal mine looks like,
get a job in Britain's
modern mining industry
and get more out of life.
Be a miner. Ask at your
local pit or job centre.
PEOPLE WILLALWAYS NEED COAL
A huge crowd and a huge cheer.
1979 MARGARET THATCHER IS
ELECTED BRITISH PRIME MINISTER
Her Majesty the Queen has asked me
to form a new administration...
and I have accepted.
Thatcher's intention
plainly stated by her.
She was going to change
industrial relations for good.
She was going to change
British society...
away from dependence on
state and all those things.
She was going for the throat.
MANUFACTURING TRADE BALANCE
TIME SPENT FINDING A JOB
OFFICIAL STRIKE
There has been a sharp rise in the
number of people without work.
Jobs are vanishing faster.
The number of people out of work
took a sharp turn for the worst.
I have only one thing to say:
You turn if you want to.
The lady's not for turning.
The real problem
we face today...
is we've lived through a long period
of increasing trade union power.
It's also been a period
when we've had increasing left-wing
militancy in control of the unions.
Oh yes we have and the
country knows it.
The people in the rank-and-file
of the unions know it too.
Unions meant something
in Britain and...
at the head of that movement was
the National Union of Mineworkers.
They were the best organised,
the most militant.
Part of Thatcherism, monetarism, was
to undermine organised workers.
The miners had beaten
the Tories in '72,
they'd beaten them again in '74, that
rankled in the conservative ranks.
There were massive
strikes in the '70s.
The Tory government was
chipping away at our wages.
But miners were
constantly fighting back.
And with strikes causing power cuts,
it was obvious that we were winning.
Prime Minister Ted Heath had no
choice but to put the question...
the burning question
of the day...
POWER CRISIS: EMERGENCY DECLARED
Ted Heath called a general election
because the lights were going out.
HE HAS THE NERVE TO ASK
FOR A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE!
He said "Who runs the
country, us or the miners?"
It is time to say to the extremists,
the militants and the misguided:
We've had enough, there's a lot to
be done, let's get on with it."
When Ted Heath went to the polls
and he said "Who governs?"
We told him who governed,
and it wasn't him.
EXIT HEATH
TOTAL VICTORY FOR MINERS
To win, it tastes so sweet.
What power!
Working class people, if they're
organised and show solidarity
can defeat the government and
the state that supports them.
Some of the old guys said the
Tories will be back for us.
We knew from day one we were
firmly in Thatcher's sights.
What was stopping privatisation
and letting rip with profits?
Their philosophy of a
free market economy,
the thing that stood
in the way was us.
So they started to organise...
Sir Nicholas Ridley...
Tory MP etcetera, was sent to
a right-wing think tank...
to dwell on this.
They thought long and hard
and came up with this plan.
It was a beaute, it
was a bobby dazzler!
RIDLEY PLAN CONFIDENTIAL
It outlined how to take on the
British trade union movement
COUNTERING THE POLITICAL THREA Thatcher wanted to smash
the trade unions.
She was going to use every
resource at her disposal to do it.
The police were bulked up,
were trained up in riot gear.
Ordinary plods who were mooching
round the streets were taken away
and trained up how to...
in crowd control.
LARGE, MOBILE SQUAD OF POLICE
It was like setting up
a paramilitary force.
It was all well planned,
well thought out.
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT OFFICE
Next they wanted to stop strikers
from getting access to benefits,
to force them back to work.
CUT OFF MONEY TO THE STRIKERS
They wanted to attack weaker unions
before coming for the stronger ones.
This was outlined
in the Ridley plan.
Whole groups of workers
had been attacked.
She'd attacked the health
workers, the rail workers...
the steel workers...
and we realised that we
were the next in line.
To break all the unions, they had
to break the strongest union,
which was the National
Union of Mineworkers.
She knew if she smashed our union, the
rest of the unions would crumble.
We knew what was coming,
they'd outlined it for us,
in big letters, big shiny
lights: "We're coming for you."
They started giving us more overtime,
wanted us to produce more coal.
MAXIMUM QUANTITY OF STOCKS
All so that they could outlast us if
we ever came out on strike again.
There were massive stockpiles,
never been seen before.
You had climb over it to
get in and out of work.
Saying digging our graves was never
as apt, that's what we were doing.
The Tories have
never forgotten...
the defeat inflicted
in 1972 and in 1974.
Equally, neither
have the miners.
In '81, Scargill became president of
the National Union of Mineworkers.
We knew we were in safe hands for
when the Tories came for us.
We knew he wasn't going to
shirk his responsibility.
To the media and the Tories
Scargill became a hate figure.
He was a representative of a union
who wasn't willing to concede,
who was prepared to argue his
corner and act upon his words.
And that frightened them.
ARTHUR THE ARROGAN SCARGILL OUTRAGE
MOSCOW PLAYS SCARGILL'S
TUNE FALL OF KING ARTHUR
The Tories wanted
the NUM defeated.
The best way for them
was closing coal mines.
They needed an argument
for closing coal mines
and the argument was
they're uneconomic pits.
The coal industry was nationalised and
for years we had a plan for coal.
The policy was about Britain
having a long term energy supply,
rather than relying on
the international market
and all the insecurities
that come with that.
When Thatcher appointed MacGregor
head of the Coal Board, that was it.
It was as if the agreement had been
completely tossed to one side.
Can you work with Mr Scargill?
I haven't even tried. The
question is can he work with me?
They brought a hit-man in, he'd
done business in Leylands,
he'd done business
at British Steel,
and he was brought into the NCB
to do business with miners.
It was absolutely nothing
about the mining industry.
It was nothing about energy,
this man was a union buster.
And they gave him the top job.
Suddenly a pit closure
programme was pushed forward.
Pits full of coal were
marked down for closure
20 PIT CLOSURES
20,000 JOB LOSSES
Prior to that, they'd say "We'll
close it as it's run out of coal."
They'd say to the union "It is
running out, it'll have to close, '
but they didn't, MacGregor said "I'm
shutting that one and that one,
But we're..."', "No arguments,
I'm shutting them."
He's getting good money,
sound, secure position.
He's telling lads between 20 and
45 that there's nothing for them.
MacGregor's working at 72, I
want to be working at 27.
Mrs Thatcher said "We want
more production in the mines.
Produce more of this,
produce more coal."
We did, and when there was
coal on the ground she said:
Some of you have to go, there's
too much coal in the country."
It was the Tory government
laying down the gauntlet,
telling us that they
were coming for us.
The Tories and the media had
all sorts of figures bandied
about how much the coal industry was
costing the country and the taxpayer.
The board had an accounting system
Lehman Brothers would be proud of.
They had said they were going
to close five collieries,
that changed to 20 collieries
after a few weeks,
but we knew they had plotted
to close a lot more than that.
This was about communities and
people's future and dignity.
These people wanted to trash it.
There's only pits holding
this area together.
If this pit goes, it'll
be like a plague.
They might as well put an gate up
and say "That's your pit finished.
There's the dole office. That's
where you go after school."
There'll be nothing
left in Blythe.
Cardowan and Bedley had been closed,
Polmaise was going to close.
Kinneil was closed, which was
not far from where we worked.
With MacGregor announcing
even more pit closures,
how many pits were
going to be left?
We could see that 1984, we were going
to be forced into strike action,
these were provocative actions,
couldn't be seen as anything else.
DESTROY THE PUBLIC
SECTOR MONOPOLIES
The challenges started to
become more fast and furious.
They blockaded the office,
trapping Mr MacGregor inside,
the miners insisted he should
come out to face them all.
They came on the attack, the
Tories closed Cortonwood Colliery,
a productive pit
they'd invested in.
That was the red line where
we had to take action.
STOP THE YANKEE HIT MAN
The feeling in the Scottish
coalfield was electric.
There were incredibly bitter scenes
at the NUM headquarters in Edinburgh.
Everyone was centred
on one question,
whether to go on strike.
Ln some of the delegate conferences,
it was nearly coming to violence.
It was like we'd backed
off and backed off...
until our backs are
against the wall.
We can't go any further back, so
we've got to come out fighting.
The choice is a simple one.
You can allow them to butcher
the industry, and do nothing.
Or you can join with the rest of
us, get off your knees and fight!
And if we do it together,
we can't lose.
Our union meeting was
absolutely packed
and there was just one
thing on the agenda:
Are we going to join Cortonwood in
strike action to save the pits!
And I'll tell you there
was no hesitation,
every single hand in that hall
went bolt upright within a second.
There was talk about whether
to have a national ballot
but the strike moved
like wildfire.
Tonight all the counties'
pits are shut.
Pit after pit voted with their
feet and they joined the strike.
Scotland's out, Kent's out, Wales is
coming out, Derbyshire will be out,
this strike will be national.
The mines will be out in this country.
One out, all out.
NOW OR NEVER
And that was it, we'd started.
DAY ONE OF THE STRIKE
MARCH, 1984
Apicket line is workers on strike
standing in front of the gates
trying to persuade the workers
to support you in your struggle.
Not with violence, with chatter.
Support us. This is
why we're doing it...
Please don't go to work because
your support will help us."
I was so euphoric that finally
we had the chance to fight back,
I'd had a few pints of beer. I was...
We were picketing Monday at our pit
I couldn't wait. With three or four
other miners, I went to the gates
which wasn't sanctioned by the union
because the strike started on Monday.
A manager was going in. I
remember winding his window down.
I said "This is a picket line" He
said "It doesn't start until Monday"
I said "you're not crossing,
I want you to turn round."
He started to put his foot down,
so I jumped on his bonnet.
The car sped off down the pit lane,
I'm hanging on to his wipers
and he jerked to a stop.
I whipped his wiper off, tried to
throw it through the side window
I felt determined, I thought, we
have a good chance of winning.
We could change the
world with the strike.
Me and another lad agreed to meet at 6 a.m.
at the stockpile at Bouldon
which was huge, and lorries were
constantly taking coal away.
We'd agreed to meet there to put
a picket on, the two of us.
I turned up at six
o'clock but he didn't.
Rain was pouring down. I'm standing
in this desolate place, waiting.
Suddenly this convoy
of lorries pulled up.
I stopped the first lorry and I
said "I'm an official picket, "
he said "You don't look much like
a picket, theres just you."
I said "That's all it needs,
I am an official NUM picket.
I've got authority from
my colliery to be here
and I'm asking you not to
cross this picket line."
He said "Urg, " and they all turned
their lorries round and went back.
I was elated. To turn back
six lorries on my own.
I thought, "If I can do it on my own,
what can we do with loads of us?"
COAL NOT DOLE
IT COULD BE YOUR PIT TOMORROW
We were so optimistic, the
last strike took six weeks
and brought a government down,
so in the first days we thought
we could do that in five weeks.
NO PIT CLOSURES SCOTTISHAREA
MARCH FOR JOBS
COAL FOR BRITAIN NO DOLE FOR MINERS
SAVE OUR DADDY'S JOB
Good luck!
I think Thatcher thought the
miners would soon go back to work
because the women wouldn't stand for
the men not bringing home money,
it would be a difficult time for them
and we think that she was convinced
that the women would resolve
the strike very quickly.
This iron lady had thousands of
iron ladies in the coalfields
The women wanted to help. We knew
it was going to be a long time.
So there was no sitting back and
letting things run past you
you had to get out... all
hands to the pump really.
People talk about the feeling
of the country at wartime...
That's very much what it
was like in a microcosm.
Here we go, here we go. Here
we go, here we go, here we go.
The first few weeks we were forever
at the NUM headquarters in Sheffield.
Special court hearings and lobbies.
It was an incredible time...
If you see any of the photos, the
faces of the people involved
It was just... It was awesome.
It was absolutely
awesome, what a feeling!
That general coming together, the
fact that we were on the move.
We'd moved from a defensive position,
being attacked by the Coal Board...
to an offensive position,
which felt more natural,
you're in control of your own
lives and your own future.
It was such a daunting task
that you had to organise,
that was the thing,
you had to organise.
Organisation was
the key to it all.
Thatcher would not pay money for
the miners and the families.
Thatcher was thinking, "We'll
starve them back to work."
But she was
pleasantly surprised.
We approached it from another
angle, we organised soup kitchens,
we had one in nearly
every little village.
It started with breakfast. I was
here at five a.m., doing breakfasts.
She made the best
coffee in Elmsall.
They used to send really good things.
Really good things.
We made use of every single
thing, except those snails.
They sent some snails once, that's
the only thing we never used.
- And they didn't like spinach.
- They didn't like spinach, no.
That's the only two things
I think we never used.
It was like hunter gatherers, men
went out to do the dangerous stuff
while the women were doing
what women do best,
putting a pinny on and
working in a kitchen
but it didn't stay that way.
It didn't stay that way.
It was a steep learning
curve for a lot of people
and what drove people was the moment,
the fact that it was important.
This was for a lot of
people world changing.
Their willingness to do things
outside normal routines changed.
I'll fight tooth and nail
with every one of them,
with every miner and miner's
wife to keep the NUM.
It's like being a born again
Christian spreading the gospel,
you have to speak to people,
you have to argue with people,
try and convince them what
you're saying is right.
All those thousands conversations
that must have been going off.
What was true for me was equally
as true for all those people
that were involved
in the dispute,
All those that were prepared
to step up, be counted
and get on with the job
of winning the strike.
Miners united will
never be defeated!
But from the beginning of the
strike, there was a problem.
On the Nottinghamshire coalfield
most miners ignored the instruction
to stop work from the national
and area NUM leadership.
Each area was given a choice to vote,
the Notts area voted to come to work
so that's why we're here.
Nottinghamshire miners produce 25
percent of the country's coal.
Without their support, victory
for the NUM is uncertain.
When we found out Nottingham had
refused to come out we were furious,
This is the National
Union of Mineworkers,
if the majority of the National
Union of Mineworkers are on strike,
they should have
come out on strike.
Crossing a picket line
was a massive thing.
I had grown up in an era where
you didn't cross picket lines.
If people crossed picket lines,
they were pariahs in the community.
They were scabs, nobody
wanted to be labelled a scab.
So it was incredible to us that
they were crossing picket lines.
The underground conditions in
Nottingham were very, very good.
They were paid well. The Tory's
plan was to keep them sweet.
They were told a lie,
which they swallowed,
which was they were
going to be kept safe.
Should the NUM lose this dispute
the cause could well be here.
Nottinghamshire's pits are modern,
the miners are among the best paid,
there isn't the close-nit
solidarity of South Yorkshire.
Ln Nottingham, their union leaders
didn't even know what they wanted.
They argued that the strike wasn't
valid without a national ballot.
They used the ballot as an
excuse to keep working.
The call for the ballot was trumpeted
by the media, Thatcher and MacGregor.
There was this idea that only
a national ballot counted.
This meant one man, one
vote, across the country
whether your pit was
under threat or not.
The NUM led by Scargill, was
undemocratic, we were intimidatory.
That was the basic premise.
It's surprising that they were got
out on strike without a ballot.
Why doesn't Scargill have a ballot?
The reason the miners are staying out
is they're forced
out by the mob.
The union's democracy and
credibility was being destroyed.
A national strike call requiring
a ballot is being avoided.
What would your views
be on the ballot?
Mr. Kinnock, can you
just tell me what--
To call for a ballot meant
you were against the strike.
The momentum was on our side, over
80% of miners were on strike.
We could not risk calling
the whole thing off,
a national ballot might have cost
us our jobs and our communities.
There was a real debate raging on TV,
newspapers and in the coalfields.
We want to go to work, we haven't
voted, we have the right to go.
It's morally wrong, when a man
can support a ballot vote
that makes another man lose his job
in Yorkshire or wherever he works.
The battle had begun. The
time for talking was over.
We had to get down to Nottingham
and convince our fellow miners
that the strike was right,
ballot or no ballot.
We said, "Does anybody
here work in headings?"
Yeah", "I work in headings, anybody
got kids?" "I've got a kid".
Anybody want the pit to stay
open?" "Yeah, well we all do."
They came out with us. We
were winning pit after pit.
Because we moved so
fast, rank-and-file,
we'd caught them with
their pants down
and we were already
into Nottinghamshire.
It was great, it was fantastic
to put the arguments to them.
Picketing was successful until
Thatcher sent the police in.
About 3,000 extra police were drafted
into Nottinghamshire tonight,
doubling the county's
normal strength.
The reinforcements have
come from all over Britain.
Flying pickets don't make
it to the collieries,
those that face a new
military-style police force,
keeping them away from the
Nottinghamshire miners.
The whole county of Nottingham was
completely sealed off by police,
the Nottingham miners who
stayed on strike were heroic.
I'm full of admiration for
them, it must have been awful.
The police were prepared to stop you
going up to the colliery gates,
to stop you putting the case
to Nottinghamshire miners.
- Hi, Gentlemen.
- Alright.
- Where are you off to?
- We're going to Nottingham.
- What are you going there for?
- We're on business.
- I see. What do you do?
- I'm a coalface worker.
- You're a coalface worker?
- Yeah.
Would you tell us why
you've stopped us?
Ln connection with the dispute
concerning the miners.
ls it lawful to stop us and question
us about where we're going?
It's lawful for us to stop any
motor vehicle that's on the road.
- You're absolutely sure about that?
- Oh yes. I'm absolutely sure.
- Okay.
- Don't ask me if I'm sure of the law
Turn round at the roundabout
and travel north on the A1.
If you don't the traffic car will
pursue you, you'll be arrested.
- For what?
- For obstructing the police.
I got stopped by the
cops at Nottingham,
This cop said "What's your
name?", I said "Norman Strike",
he said "And I'm Arthur Scargill",
I said "I'm Norman Strike."
He said "Don't believe you."' He had
to radio through "He's Norman Strike"
I used to carry my birth certificate
around to say "Look, Norman Strike."
Even to this day people say,
"But what's your real name?"
And who are you, might I ask?
But they never met my mate who
was actually called Will Picket.
If we carry on to Thoresby
colliery we'll be arrested?
- Any colliery?
- Any colliery you'll be arrested.
It became clear that we had to
devise a different strategy.
It was a game of cat and mouse.
To get to the colliery
you had to avoid the police with
crazy schemes and shenanigans.
We used to stop before
the roadblock, get out,
and pretend we were joggers.
Jog past the roadblock and the car
would pick us up at the other side.
They used to stop cars
with four people in them.
Two in the boot, one on the back
seat, one in the floor well
If you were unlucky enough to
get in the boot of the car...
You'd hear them in the boot
saying "What's happening now?"
'We're coming up to a
roadblock, don't make a noise,
you're going to get
us all shopped."
If it was afternoon, we'd
just pull up to a pub,
and have a pint...
have a game of darts. You'd
get in the car and...
what's happening? " " 'Aye, you're
alright, we're on our way now,
we'll let you out in a bit.'
Can we go up there?
The motorway? No,
turn right here.
We got motioned off the
motorway at junction 28.
Stopped by the police, then
we were told to get back
and they led us back
on to the motorway.
We thought, "Buggerthis" so we
went abreast on the motorway,
drove at 10 miles an hour. The
police came, up the hard shoulder,
started smashing the windscreens
of the vans with truncheons,
dragging people out
and arresting them.
They were absolutely vicious.
I was terrified,
if I'm honest with you.
I never thought I'd see that here,
police are supposed to be impartial.
I know a nice young policeman,
of disposition sweet,
all the children greet him
as he patrols his beat,
impartial on the picket line,
to the striker he's a friend,
he is stainless, faultless,
peerless, conscientious to the end.
Oh, dear!
Things were starting to hot up,
a lot of fighting with police,
there were a lot lads getting
beatings off police,
the temperature was
starting to rise, rapidly.
It was becoming clear we had
a real fight on our hands.
This was not going
to be any walkover.
But for me there was a moment
early on in the strike,
when it became much more real in
terms of what we were involved in.
The atmosphere at
Ollerton was scary.
There were massive police presence,
people were hemmed in on pavements,
you knew something was
really kicking off.
Lots of scuffles with the police
who were very heavy handed.
By this time we were
demonised, we were from hell.
The local thugs in Ollerton
who'd fuelled with alcohol,
they were giving the
striking miners abuse.
There'd been some bricks thrown.
Word was coming back that they
were smashing all the cars up.
My mate Dave Jones, I'd just
been chatting to him.
He said, "I'm off down here",
because his car was down there.
As bricks and bottles were hurled
David Jones ran towards his car,
he was afraid of it
being vandalised.
And that's it, last time I saw him.
Next thing I heard he was dead.
For the third night running
Yorkshire's pickets stood duty
but it ended in tragedy.
David Jones, who'd have
been 24 today, died.
Pickets said he had been hit
in the neck by a brick.
Ln the melee of the picket
line, nothing was clear.
This is a strike for God's
sake, nobody should die.
You don't go on strike to
die, and David Jones died.
Great lad. From that moment on it was
never going to be the same again.
His funeral was massive, people
came from all over the country.
When we talk about unions, Scargill
strategies for coal and Thatcher,
it's all abstract. But when you
turn up to your mate's funeral
and there's thousands of trade
unionists with their banners
dignified, sombre, determined.
That's what the union is.
That's the union, that's
what solidarity is.
It's something to behold really,
it's something to behold.
As we reached summer, it was obvious
we weren't going back to Nottingham.
One of the major coalfields was
still working, it was hurting us.
I had no idea how the strike was
going to pan out, how to win,
but it was clear that we
had to do something quick.
The Financial Times said "If miners
stop coal getting to the steel works
car production will stop
in three to four weeks.
And for us that was
a wake-up call.
We needed to hit industry
by stopping steel.
And that meant
Orgreave in Yorkshire.
It supplied the coke that
serviced the steel works.
If we could stop steel, it would cut
the life blood of the industry.
It would have a
major, major effect.
I'd love to see every single
member of my union who's here,
every single member who's on strike,
every trade unionist supporting us
down at the Orgreave--
Every arrow was pointing towards
Orgreave, it had to happen.
It started in May,
setting up a picket.
It had to be accelerated, more
and more miners turned up.
Then the police started
to arrive in a big way
and it became more difficult
to mount that picket.
- Move. Get moving. Come on, move.
- No way. No way. No way.
The police were being
provocative, mounting charges.
We had to argue with the
leaders to send more pickets,
in order to ensure
it was a victory.
They did and the final
call came from the union,
All pickets to Orgreave."
This is an attempt to substitute the
rule of the mob for that of law
and it must not succeed!
JUNE 18, 1984
105 DAYS ON STRIKE
If only for moral,
we needed a victory,
we thought Orgreave
was going to be it.
Thousands of us went there
early on a Monday morning.
We left South Wales at midnight on
the Sunday night to get up there.
I didn't think we were going to
walk into what we walked into.
It's a day I'll never
forget as long as I live.
It was an absolutely
magnificent day.
We had our t-shirts on. We were
stripped to the waste from Scotland.
This was really incredible
weather for us.
It was strange. Usually the police
stop you and turn you back.
On this occasion it was different.
They were saying "Come in.
Park in that field. You
need to go up to there."
I knew something
was up that day.
All I could see in the distance was
just lines of cops in a field,
and in this field there were
policemen with snarling dogs,
I could see all these mounted
police behind the lines.
They knew we were coming and
they were ready for us.
They were waiting for us;
they were waiting for us.
When the lorries came the miners'
ranks had swelled to more than 5,000.
As the last lorry went
in, the trouble started.
Everything was good natured, it
was no more than a total push.
We were never, ever getting
through in a million years.
And so there was
nothing happening.
Then, all of a sudden, they
decided to clear the field.
And things changed.
It was like a dreadful movie
happening in front of you.
To think you were in
the middle of it.
I was at the front and some
of the things I witnessed,
it was absolutely incredible.
Dogs snarling and barking. Police
with truncheons and with staves out,
looking for people to hit.
They had been given carte Blanche
to do anything they wanted to us
and they did.
Get up!
Get up!
The older fellas couldn't keep
up and I passed an old bloke
and he was so terrified he was making
involuntary noises from his throat.
grabbed hold of him and said
"Calm down, it's alright."
I was trying to keep him calm, afraid
he was going to have a heart attack.
Then he was physically sick,
that's how terrified he was
and I'll never
forgive them for it.
It was madness. People lying on
the floor with blood pouring out.
The people in the houses put bricks
on the wall from their garden stones.
We were lobbing them at the police.
We heard Scargill had been injured.
All I know is this guy hit me on
the back of the head with a shield
and knocked me to the ground.
Somebody set fire to a car
and it was just chaos.
This wasn't a game, it was
us against the armed state.
This is what Margaret Thatcher and
her government had put into gear.
I thought "We're only on strike, " I
never thought they would do that.
We're not robbing anybody. I
can't understand it at all.
Figures ranged from something
like 5,000 to 7,000 miners.
If we'd had 25,000 it'd have been
a completely different outcome.
Because of the lack of numbers
we were walked into a massacre.
We didn't have a chance against
highly armed, trained policemen.
We were there with our shirts
wrapped round our middles.
It was a turning point, the brutality
the violence that was meted out.
I realised that you'll never win the
state over to your point of view,
that these people
are our enemies.
I remember the face of my father
as he walked back
home from the mine
He'd laugh and he'd say,
that's one more day
and it's good to
feel the sun shine.
Take me home, let me sing again.
Anybody that was left you were
assaulted, charged, arrested.
Fortunately for us they're
poor liars the police.
Not one single miner was
found guilty of anything.
Get in there and see
what they're doing.
We wanted to go back, we
should have never gone away.
We wanted to go back and
our union leaders said,
No, that one's lost, we're
not sending you back in."
We tried to say: "We have
to go back and try again,
take more people this time, "
but they wouldn't have it.
Tonight's sixty
minutes headlines:
The worst violence so far on
the Orgreave picket lines.
And for weeks after it, Orgreave
and the miners violence...
it was everyplace. "This is the
real face of these Luddites."
As industrial relations
descent to scenes of riot...
The worst violence of
the strikes so far...
They were hurling rocks
and stones and bottles...
- In no way is this picketing.
- They are breaking the law.
It made an impression on me
that if they could do that
and get away with it, the miners be
vilified as the cause of the violence
it meant we were
really in trouble.
We took Orgreave on the chin
but we weren't down and out.
We were prepared to
go full 15 rounds,
never mind going down on to our
knees in the fourth round,
and staying down. We got up, we
were spurred on to do better,
to do more to win the strike.
We couldn't act on our own, we needed
support from the rest of the movement
like we'd never
needed it before.
One of the things the
Tories were terrified about
was action spreading from the
miners to other groups of workers.
Throughout that whole
year they did their best
to offer workers, whether it was
health or rail workers, electricians,
slightly above the
expected pay rise.
Liverpool city council got a
better deal than they expected.
These were all fronts we'd
been hoping might open up
and help us beat Thatcher.
There were still opportunities,
like the dock strikes.
If there was workers the Tories
wanted to beat as much as the miners,
it was the dockers.
But deals were cobbled up,
and the chance was lost.
We know for a fact we were set up
to be taken on by the government,
the only reason they're not
provoking us at the moment
with the attacks on the
national dock labour scheme,
is that they want to deal
to the miners first.
Every week that came could have
seen the end of the strike,
There was no planning ahead.
The miners knew that there weren't
only us feeling the pinch,
there were ten million plus strong
trade union movement out there.
The longer the strike
went on the more chance
that another significant group of workers
was going to challenge the government
for their own ends.
The problem was that
we needed money,
claiming social security
benefits was very difficult.
Laws were changed. It had been a long
time since anyone had been paid.
If we were going to remain on
strike, winter was coming,
we had a 150,000 miners and
their families on strike
so we had to turn to our
colleagues in the working class,
to all sorts of people.
Thankfully there were support
groups sprung all over the country.
It was inspiring, it was
incredibly inspiring.
THEY SHALL NOT STARVE
SOGAT '82 SUPPORTS THE MINERS
The first thing that needs to be
said is hatred's all very well
But hatred must be organised
if dreams are to be realised
And anger is no substitute
for disciplined rebellion
To unionise is to organise
Unionise!
Fight back! Unionise! Stop!
Strike! Unionise!
Unionise!
It's difficult to conceive the huge
impact the strike had on our culture
it really divided the country.
It kind of drove a
wedge between people,
you were either for the
miners or against them.
There was many connections. Many had
been battered by this government
so when they were taking on
the miners, people understood
this was a life or death struggle
in terms of what happens here,
ls it going to be the rich getting
richer or the poor getting poorer?
Why did students identify
with workers fighting back?
Well, if you're young, you're meant
to be rebellious, aren't you?
What the miners were experiencing
was similar to what we were.
We were used to the media telling
lies about lesbians and gay men,
to the police harassing us, to the
courts being used against us.
What the miners were going through
we could identify with completely.
There was the question of turning the
sympathy and that passive support
into something more.
As well as collecting money and food,
we also stood on the picket lines
But I'm sure when the miners saw us
they probably thought understandably,
Very nice of you to come but
do we really need your help?"
I mean, hundreds of burley miners in
front of you, and say possibly not
but another side thought, "Why are
these people identifying with us?"
We built up respect by turning
up and being alongside them.
Other miners and industrial workers
tended to look down on students
as lazy good for nothings-Yeah.
But I always I admired students,
they were something that I
wasn't, they were intellectual,
they were educated in a
way I could never be.
I went to York University
to sway the student union
to donate a bus to
go picketing in.
I went to the university thinking,
"God, I'm out of my depth here,
I'm going to be speaking to them
and I'll come over as a buffoon,
with my cloth cap and my
begging bowl asking for money.
But I found out it
wasn't like that.
Ln a way I was their equal and it
was a big personal moment for me.
That I could hold my own in debate,
it was quite a seminal moment for me.
Support the miners!
When we'd collected
about 500 quid,
we had to ponder about
where to send it
and this lad said "Why
not my community?"
and we just went "Alright, what's
it called and where is it?"
Ln that part of South Wales
it's pits and sheep.
We were quite conspicuous. 27
lesbians and gays from London.
We were wearing what you might
call charity shop chic,
nobody had any money
but we got style.
We'd been invited to meet at
the local miners welfare hall,
and it's a big welfare hall,
the Onllwyn miners welfare.
This was another one of those things
that will always stick in my mind
as one of the proudest
moments in my life
when we walked into the hall, there
were already people in there,
every generation, grandmas,
granddads, kids, as we walked in...
the volume of people
chatting away dropped...
and it was a really tense
moment for a second or two.
Because we knew what that was a
response to us walking in the room.
Somebody started clapping, and
then everybody started clapping.
Every hair stood up on my body, I
thought "We're making history."
Also, for me personally, I come
from that working class background,
it did feel like coming home for
me-- it, it... whoops, here we go
I just felt like that acceptance,
that's all I ever wanted.
It was fantastic, and it
strengthened you even more.
I thought, "To stop me supporting
the miners, you'll have to kill me
because... I'm there
now completely."
It was a beacon. It attracted people,
they wanted to show solidarity,
because they'd experienced gay,
racial or female oppression,
could find an expression by
working with people in struggle.
Women were pushed to do things
they never thought they would do.
By going out and collecting money,
it was an opportunity almost
to speak at meetings, to
go out on the streets
and people wanted to listen and
that had never happened before.
Miners' wives are as determined
as any Margaret Thatchers,
she will not beat us.
You think your life is normal and
suddenly your life is not normal.
And you realise there's
a big world out there.
If anyone had told
me last year...
that I would be going around
marching, going to conferences,
speaking in front of people, I'd
have thought they were crazy.
But this strike of 1984 got
more than me motivated.
We knew what our men
were doing was right,
and so women have risen up...
into... and organised themselves,
and we'll never be the same again.
Not even when this is won we'll
never be the same again.
Because win it, we will.
Prior to the strike, when I would
go to the working men's club,
I used to be ignored. The only words
spoken to me were "Another drink?
During the strike the guys would
say "Where've you been picketing?"
What happened on the picket lines?"
You were being involved with miners
some of whom didn't even
go on the picket line.
A lot were left to run the house
while we went and did our own thing.
I was going places I never went,
meeting people I'd never have met.
Like people from the arts and...
they're far removed from us.
Or, that's what we thought.
They offered to come on, we'll
put a show on here, raise funds
just to raise the profile
and [INDISTINCT],
you can't knock them man.
A journalist got in touch with
me from the New Musical Express.
He had a band called
The Redskins.
Norm, " he said, "we're on the
tube, do you want to come along?"
I said " yeah."
We composed this speech about how
many miners had been arrested,
despite that people were supporting
us all over the country.
I was nervous, my legs shaking.
I'm banging the tambourine
and then Chris says: "And on strike
for 35 weeks, a Durham miner,"
and I made my speech.
We found out they'd switched the mike
off and nothing had gone out live,
which really pissed me off.
I go back to the green room where you
can have a triple Southern Comfort,
or a bottle of whisky. I'd
been on strike for 35 weeks.
I'm drinking triple Southern Comforts
trying to get the lager down as well
Holland said: "They're complaining
about "Why did they censor him?"
If you told us-" I said
"Fuck off you little twat."
Victory to the miners!
And then I was thrown out.
We can't afford to sit down without
supporting the miner's cause.
When you're fighting
to protect jobs,
it's not only a case of
fighting for the wages
it's a fighting for
the right to work.
That's why you find every community
all supporting the miners' cause.
Solidarity shown to us by
working people of this country,
it's absolutely fantastic.
Not just the level or the amounts
but the way it was given.
Pensioners dropping their pension
book in a collection tin,
and having to say "I've got a mother.
You can't afford this."
There was this tramp
who came up to us
and he opened his purse and he
had nine pence, nine pence!
He gave us five pence and he kept
the four pence for a cup of coffee.
So I went in the bucket, I
got a handful of coins out
I said "Take this. You need it
more than we do" And I gave him,
gave him a handful of change
I've started to fill up.
Avery emotional time that,
very emotional time.
He said "Keep the fight up."
Something you can't forget.
Can we move on to the main issue
which is the miner's dispute?
You said that you thought it
would run a little while yet,
how long do you think
it's going to run now?
I don't know how much
longer it will run,
I don't feel it'll be
settled immediately.
It has been a very long time.
ls the government prepared to sit out
however long this strike will take?
If any group of people,
or any government,
gave in to violence and
intimidation of this kind
there'll be no future for democracy
or for any moderate trade unionist
if we were to give in to that.
ls this what you meant
by 'the enemy within'?
This kind of violence
should never have happened.
It is the work of extremists,
it is the enemy within.
Forget the propaganda and rhetoric
that Thatcher came out with.
Not only was she wobbling, but
the markets were wobbling.
The media were saying "She
could lose this one."
We knew wed got to up our game.
The money and the food parcels
were great, very grateful for them
but what we really wanted was the
trade unionists to go on strike.
Ln September that year
the TUC was meeting,
where all the trade union leaders
were going to get together.
We hoped they'd see
the sense of it
and finally force
Thatcher to back down.
We hadn't stopped Nottingham
We hadn't stopped Nottingham
we needed solidarity from other
workers, it was our chance.
Scargill gets up. Standing ovation.
No problem.
We all support you.
Ahem, financially.
Despite all the applause, they
didn't call for strike action.
I just knew it was
the kiss of death.
If they were serious they'd have
challenged the anti-trade union laws.
But they weren't serious.
The leaders supported miners but
wanted to negotiate their way out.
But the Coal Board under
the tutelage of MacGregor
under his authority;
didn't want to negotiate.
That was an opportunity missed,
absolutely, absolutely.
I'd love to see the TUC get off
the fence and do some business.
I know shouldn't be saying
it but they should,
they should really show
solidarity with the miners.
Because if they lose, we've all lost.
There will be no going back.
The Trade Union Congress said to me
that we're going to struggle to win.
Something would drastically
have to go wrong for MacGregor.
It would have to be an
accident at that point.
NACODs, deputies, these are
like the foreman in a factory
taking care of safety, organising
work at the same time.
NACODS weren't part of the dispute,
but they got paid for staying at home
NCB sends out a circular,
talk about stupid...
NCB sends out a circular, instructing
them to turn up at pits.
Because pits open if there's
one working miner attend.
And you've got to go
through the picket lines,
you've got to attend
your place of work.
That threw them in a spin.
None at NACODs wanted this,
lots of them lived
in pit communities.
They lived close enough to see
the damage that was being done.
We made it our aim to go out
and see individual deputies.
said to them "This is your chance,
these are your communities,
you have more in common with us
than with a Tory in Downing Street.
They had to have a
response and they did.
Number of votes
cast 'for': 11658
Number of votes 'against': 2400-
Percentage of the votes in
favour of strike was 92.5%
Out on strike by Monday.
The cat was amongst the pigeons.
Thatcher saw what was happening.
There will be recriminations getting
tough with the deputies backfired.
NACODs has now given the NUM
enormous support over the issue.
When NACODs said "it's a strike,
" it was a national strike.
Even the few pits in
Nottingham would have shut.
So it'd done our job for us,
it would have shut the pits.
NCB and LAN MacGregor dropped
a right bollock there.
It was an opportunity
like no more.
One of their leaders
went in to this meeting
he was just going to pull them
out, it was like: this is it.
I remember watching the news thinking
"It's really going to happen."
He went in to this meeting
and he came out and said:
The NEC expressed satisfaction with
the result of those negotiations
and agreed to call off the strike,
due on Thursday the 25th of October.
- Unconditionally Mr McNefferey
- It's off.
What can I say about him?
We picked up like that and
we were flattened like that.
They negotiated different terms;
NACODs called their strike off.
They'd come up with some new
review procedure for pit closures.
As if that was going to alter the
government's plan to close pits.
It was enough for them to call off
the strike, and they kept working
and thinking they were
going to be safe.
UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL
After the failure of another
strike to materialise,
we felt that cold
wind of isolation.
There were those who thought the
miners could win it on their own
we were a breed apart etc.
They continued
with the illusion,
We can go it alone, in the
face of all material facts.
We can go it alone and come
out triumphant in the end."
Thatcher smelt blood after
the TUC conference.
She was determined to
press home her advantage.
It was clear that the miners
were going to be left isolated.
Thatcher could see that,
everybody could see that.
The state stepped in and
really tightened the grip.
The government tried to do whatever
they could to demoralise us.
The court seized
our union assets,
miners on bail were banned off picket
lines up and down the country.
You've got hundreds arrested
and some had been sacked.
On top of that you've got the media,
courts, police chiefs, politicians.
For us, at the centre of it, it
sent like we were bang, slap
in the middle of a war
with our own government.
We haven't been fighting pit
closures, but the government
they're determined to smash
the trade union movement.
Once they've smashed the NUM,
they'll go through the others.
We had no idea where this was going.
I mean...
it was only when the picketing
started to get quite bad.
You knew that everybody
had to do more.
This idea blossomed that women
could have a picket of their own.
Maybe the police wouldn't be
as vicious if women went.
Bu it didn't turn out that way.
Glory, glory oh you miners
Stand together, not divided
Together we will win and
we'll stop MacGregor LAN
And we'll all go marching on!
Disperse. Go away. Disperse.
Clear the area.
You're arresting a woman.
[INDISTINCT]
The forces are capable
of terrible things,
the police, the government, you know
that these forces have the power
but it's not until
you're faced with it
that it becomes
this scary thing.
And I think that's what... one of
the real issues with people...
was other parts of the
country didn't realise that.
They didn't realise that
they were breaking the law,
that the police and the government
were breaking the laws.
The enormity of it. Going to a
picket line to see riot police,
now they were parked at
the end of your street,
they were following you home
from the pub on a weekend.
They were permanently around and
for us it felt like a siege.
Some villages just got locked down,
they sent in thousands of them.
The government was throwing
everything that they had at us.
I see somebody marching
Marching down the street, yeah.
I see somebody marching.
Marching down the street.
This time we stop and pray...
to have a better day.
I see somebody marching.
Marching
Marching down the street, yeah.
I hear somebody crying.
Crying.
Crying in the street.
I hear somebody praying.
They're down on their knees
266 DAYS ON STRIKE
It was winter. It was cold.
People hadn't got much fuel left.
People were chopping down trees and
scavenging for bits of coal...
We didn't get anything for a year.
To have an idea of what it was like,
get your salary and don't touch it
for a year and see how you get on.
That's what it was for
us, we had nothing.
My granny tells me that
she's seen it all before
and at 94 she's
seen a thing or two
She's seen the stockbrokers crying
and the speculators sighing
and the millionaires relying
on a war to pull them through.
And they're turning the clock back
and I can hear my granny say,
Yes, they're turning the clock back
and the working man will pay...
One chap came to the
strike centre in tears.
He didn't have anything, he was
struggling with everything.
And that was the case everywhere.
People were struggling.
They had nothing in the cupboard,
they had no fire in the grate,
they're having these heavy letters
and they can't see no way out of it.
It was just amazing to think that
men had been out for so long.
They had mortgages, car loans, kids.
They had Christmas to think about.
They had all sorts of things, they
gave up everything for a year,
they ran their cars
into the ground,
the effect it must have had
on individual relationships.
They were trying to
starve us back to work
and that's why after ten months
some of the men did crack,
some people couldn't
take it anymore.
There was a lad I worked
with down at the pit.
He was on the picket lines with me,
he went to Orgreave and everything.
His marriage was breaking up,
he's in mountains of debt.
He came into the soup kitchen, had his
dinner, walked out, went to work.
He said 'I 've got a wife and
three kids, " I said " Same here.
I've got the same, we've
all got wife and kids.
we've all got families to support
but we're not scabbing."
You scab, you should be
ashamed of yourselves!
That was all really messy
and heart-breaking.
Scabs, scabs!
People wanted to think that
the strike was crumbling.
It was gutted wasn't I? Things seemed
to be getting desperate, out of hand.
People didn't want to give
in, they wanted to go...
How could you give in?
Because what was left?
What else is there in this community
apart from mining? There's nothing.
There is absolutely nothing to do.
That's why we're going to fight,
we'll fight, and we shall win. I'm
absolutely convinced of that.
It's worth fighting to try and
get jobs for your children
Anywhere you go, young kids leaving
school and there's no jobs,
its just hopeless for them.
I don't want that for mine.
They'll end up on the dole.
if they shut the pits down.
Human beings get tired
but organisations don't.
TO MINERS STILL ON STRIKE
They were adding pressure, both
financially and psychologically.
Every way they possibly could.
The pit manager offered me 500 quid
if I went back to work on Monday
They'd pay for a holiday,
they'd pay your debts for you
you know, if you'd
just back to work.
It was like somebody dying of thirst,
offering them a drink of water,
and all you'd got to do
was cross a picket line.
It made lots of people angry, others
thought it was the last straw.
And they'd gulp
their pride back,
and they'd turn up for the
bus to go back to work.
According to the national coal board,
a further 218 miners returned today.
That brings the week's
total to 2,870,
and a total of nearly 6,000
since the resumption of work.
You used to have on
the news everyday:
the background to the presenter was
"31 pits working, 32 pits working, "
if one miner went in with his dog,
they would be deemed to be working.
A massive police escort signalled
the arrival of a green coach
carrying just one man, back to work
for the first time at the small--
Almost unnoticed, Cortonwood's lone
miner was escorted into the pit.
A deliberate police tactic
to guarantee his safety.
National news, one more
man going to work.
That's what they were trying to
do, to chip away and chip away.
That was part of the NCB strategy.
They wanted to show
that not only was Nottinghamshire
not going to come out
that the strike was crumbling in
Yorkshire, Wales and Scotland.
We'd be only talking
about handfuls of men.
A pit employing 2,000 men might
have four people go back to work.
The NCB are confident by the end of
week there'll be men in every pit
in the Northumberland
- Durham coalfield.
The pickets tried to turn out in
force but the strike is over.
The men will start to come
back and in big numbers.
You bastards!
They were sending coaches in. You
thought, "50 in that bus, plus
but there wasn't, there'd be three
in that bus, two in the bus behind
and nobody in the
bus behind that.
The board says another 128
miners returned to work today.
A dramatic rise in the number
of NUM members at work.
The NCB points to men returning
to work in all 12 areas.
They might as well say, "Out of 181,000,
203,000 have returned to work."
They were claiming so many miners
had returned back to a coal mine
and it had been closed about
20 years before that.
The coal board can't say how much
more coal, if any, has been produced-
There was no trouble as the buses
carrying 200 men into the colliery.
The pit manager says he's getting
calls from miners wanting to return.
His relief that production
has restarted is evident.
It was announced that another 99
new starters reported for work.
Work at Ellington brought
the total to 470,
That's 380 more--
Scene of the most violent clashes,
three quarters of the NUM workforce--
Return to work continues,
strikers may soon be a minority.
It's not just
numbers that count.
The volume of it got so loud, like
somebody screaming in the corner
Really angry, "Why don't
you get back to work?".
Everything's against you,
you've lost, go back to work."
There's no way we can win now.
No chance.
The vast majority of the men
want to come back to work.
It's not fair on your families to be
without fuel, money at Christmas,
youve just got to make up your
mind and you're going back to work.
It was unsustainable even if there
was only 55 working miners at my pit
you could see that the
writing was on the wall.
Each time they go in, it's them
that are knocking us down.
There's no way the board is
going to meet us on any terms
as long as these
people are going in.
And for them to keep saying "These
are the people, " is rubbish,
these people are slashing
everybody's throats.
One minute you were thinking
"We're going to win"
and then "Oh god,
we're going to lose."
We definitely could have won if
we'd had support from other unions
led by Norman Wallace, Len
Murray and other trade unionists
We could have won in January and in March.
Absolutely no doubt.
You can make arguments to a thinking
head, I was talking to empty bellies,
tired men and women,
who'd been beaten.
It seems that meeting will finally
order the remaining strikers back.
MARCH 3, 1985 363 DAYS ON STRIKE
The feeling in that conference
today is very clear...
that we go back on Tuesday,
we go back together
this union fights to retain
pits, jobs and communities.
The movement, with a few exceptions,
left this union isolated,
to their eternal shame.
We faced not an employer, but a
government, aided and abetted
by the judiciary, the police
and you people in the media.
At the end of this time, our people
are suffering tremendous hardship.
It has been the considered view of
conference, by a very narrow vote,
that we should return on Tuesday
and continue the fight.
I remember I was having a little nap,
my partner coming up to me in tears.
You'll have to--
Sad time, sad time.
Some of us thought it would go
on forever, and I didn't mind.
I didn't mind at all, I'm
not saying it was fun,
but... I got a really,
really lovely feeling
of being able to have
a bash at the state.
I don't think there is
words to put it into...
Sorry.
I think it was anger. I think
it was knowing that...
she'd won. These evil,
vicious, pitiless people...
had won, and...
looking into the future
was a bit bleak.
The day that lads went back, they
had the lodge banner and the band.
They all marched in and I
stood and watched them.
They went to get changed, I went to
the office, handed my notice in.
My marriage was over, my
marriage broke up in November,
it was a shock. I was happily married
with kids when the strike started
and unhappily married... I had
to move out the family home
so she could get social security,
because she'd be a single mum.
I didn't want my marriage to end,
I didn't want to leave my kids.
I didn't want to be defeated, and...
I was.
But, if I had my time over
again I'd do the same thing.
It's more important than my marriage,
more important than my life.
It was the future of the trade
union movement in this country.
We were right, we lost,
but we were right.
Coal executives delivering the worst
message on the future of the industry
While they spoke of job
losses and pit closures,
thousands of miners in Britain
waited to hear their fate.
30,000jobs are to be lost and
31 pits will cease production.
Five pits exist in the North-East,
four are to go leaving just one.
Pits in Yorkshire will be halved
by the closure of 11 collieries.
The same applies to Nottingham:
13 now but seven are to go.
There are eight pits in the Midlands
and North-West, six will be axed.
Wales has four and three are
going, leaving just one.
Ln Scotland its single
mine remains open.
- It's a waste of talent, resources.
- What will you do?
Struggle, same as
everybody else.
It's devastating,
you know it is.
Not a lot we can do. 27 years
in the pit, on the dole now.
Like most Nottinghamshire miners John
Brown worked through the strike.
Today he says
Scargill was right.
He'd seen this coming. Our
union must wear blindfolds.
They never told us this is going to happen.
He predicted it years ago,
we should have
listened to Arthur.
We got beat, we got beat. And...
we paid a heavy price. Ln 10 years
they'd shut nearly every pit down
that was worth talking about.
The mining industry wiped out.
That was their endgame. They were
prepared to lose an industry
to defeat that beacon of hope
that organised group of workers,
a beacon to millions of
workers all over the world.
It's 30 years since the
strike and I am so angry.
I'm probably angrier now
than I was at the time.
We live in a country that
produces absolutely nothing.
What it's meant for generations of
working people in these villages.
It wasnt just us that was
beat, families were destroyed.
The number of guys I've known
that committed suicide.
I'm so angry.
And it could have
been different.
There was a man at the pit
who, when they shut the pit,
went to his house with petrol, poured
it over himself and set fire to it.
They'd shut his pit down
and he couldn't face it.
It was more than a
defeat for the miners,
it was a defeat for trade
unionism in Britain.
If miners lost, then
what chance have we?
That rippled out throughout the
working class institutions.
We were the enemy of the
state and political elites,
we recognised they wanted
to tame the trade unions
so they wouldn't interfere
with profit making.
It was about defeating the miners
so they could boost their profits
when the miners were defeated,
we're suffering from that defeat.
record levels of unemployment,
wages being driven down,
conditions, ridden roughshod over,
they're the scars of defeat.
It wasnt just coal mines that were
closed, all sorts of factories
and breweries, everything
was closed down.
30 years later they talk about how
much social security is costing.
These people haven't worked for two
generations, "Whose fault's that?"
All the things that have happened can
be traced back the Great Strike,
that we lost and we should
never have lost it.
One union, rail workers, dockers,
if just one union had joined us,
we would have won that strike.
But we didn't
and our defeat changed everything
for the next three decades.
INDUSTRIAL DECLINE
JOB LOSSES
LEADING BRITAIN INTO THE 1990S
Ln the British economy, there will be
no no-go areas for free enterprise.
PRIVATISATION TIMETABLE
BRITISH GAS ENERGY
IS OUR BUSINESS
One question about privatisation
is how prices will be regulated.
POWER BILLS WILL SOAR UNTIL 2030
The shares in privatised industries
pushed the stock exchange-
Does enterprise and liberty rise from
the dead ashes of state control?
The assets sold read like a roll call
from Britain's industrial heritage.
We've laid the economic foundations
of a decent and prosperous future.
FTSE SEEN OPENING HIGHER
5,000 JOBS AXED IN BANK CRASH
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFI THOU SHALT NOT STEAL
With the knowledge of the past we can
try to do something about the future.
Our strike shone as a beacon, that
even if the state is against you
you can fight back.
And that side of it
has lingered on,
they've not defeated us, we've
lost a battle, not the war.
It's certainly not beautiful,
its just scrub land
really, isn't it?
I don't feel sad about losing
machinery and conveyor belts.
It's what that machinery meant
and what it enabled us to do.
That runs through the veins of
the communities and it's lost.
That's what happens when you lose, if
we'd won, it'd have been different
If we'd won it'd have been a
better world for everybody.
It definitely would have been
a better world for everybody.
Who knows, come back in 100 years
and things might be different.
The future's still up for grabs.
DOCUMENTS PROVE THATCHER HAD
INTERVENED IN THE STRIKE.
DESPITE PUBLIC DENIALS IN 1984,
GOVERNMENT PLANNED TO CLOSE 75 PITS.
THE CAUSE OF DAVID JONES'
DEATH WAS NEVER ESTABLISHED
DURING THE STRIKE, JOE GREEN
ALSO DIED ON THE PICKET LINE
TAXI DRIVER, DAVID WILKIE, WAS
KILLED TAKING AMINER TO WORK
THREE CHILDREN DIED
SCAVENGING FOR COAL
AS OF 2013, 40 % OF UK ELECTRICITY
IS GENERATED BY COAL.
80 PERCENT IS IMPORTED