Miners' Strike 1984-85

Question 1

Industrial disputes under Thatcher

Answer 1

• T’s economic reforms➡️hostility from many TUs, ⬆️ militancy.
• Role of TUs limited by new laws: 1980 2° picketing outlawed + 1984 TUs under pressure to hold ballots before calling strike action🗳.
• More employers tried to keep unions out of workplace (inc Rupert Murdoch 1986).
• Longest + most symbolic industrial struggle this period was miners’ strikes ‘84-85 - T called striking miners “the enemy within”.

Question 2

How was the government prepared for the miners’ strikes 1984-85?

Answer 2

• Huge stocks of coal built up at power stations.
• Flow of North Sea oil made energy crisis (like in 1973) less likely.
• Ian MacGregor new chairman of National Coal Board (NCB), had govt backing to take tough line.
• Police had new equipment, more experience of riot control + better tactics.

Question 3

Why was the miners’ strikes called 1984-85?

Answer 3

• 1984 NCB announced need to close 20 pits.
• Arthur Scargill (President of NUM) claimed had seen secret plan to close 70 pits (cabinet papers released 2014 show this was true).

Question 4

Weaknesses of Arthur Scargill in the miners’ strike 1984-85

Answer 4

🚫Didn’t have total support for national strike.

🚫His refusal to hold strike ballot weakened his case.

🚫He failed to overcome historic regional divisions among miners➡️Nottinghamshire miners formed breakaway union UDM (Union of Democratic Mineworkers) which Scargillites accused of being ‘scabs’ + ‘traitors’.

🚫UDM accused Scargill of caring more about hard-left politics than interests of miners.

🚫Scargill himself alienated moderates + never got support of L Party🔴.

🚫Easy for T to demonise Scargill in press as being dangerous revolutionary.

Question 5

The politicisation of the police

Answer 5

• T’s critics claimed police used to defeat miners rather than being impartial protectors of law + order👮🏻‍♂️.
• Most famous confrontation⚔️= Battle of Orgreave 1984➡️over 50 picketers + 70 police officers injured➡️long-lasting controversy over accusations of police brutality.

Question 6

Outcomes of the miners’ strikes 1984-85

Answer 6

• Failure to prevent pit closures - employment in coal industry ⬇️ to 60,000 by 1990.
• Power of TUs dramatically ⬇️ - by 1990 TU membership 2/3 of what is was 1979.
• Other state industries (British Steel) reorganised w/ massive job losses.
• TUs’ ability to intimidate govts gone.
• Many Thatcherites saw defeat of strike as defining moment of Thatcherism.