[23] 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. Daily Mail (London), March 6, 2009. }); Arthur Scargill. [32] An internal NUM report by Gavin Lightman QC found that Scargill had used some of the Libyan money to pay for improvements to his bungalow but not to pay off his mortgage (as had been alleged),[33] and stated that Scargill's failure to make a full report on the Soviet money donated for the Welsh miners was "a remarkable breach of duty" and that he should repay the money back to the NUM. 100 0 _ a Arthur Scargill c British trade unionist (born 1938) 100 1 _ a Scargill, Arthur d (1938- ). The Guardian. [31] There was much criticism of Scargill within the NUM from the Welsh and Scottish areas, who briefly considered splitting from the NUM. [20] Ridley, Nicholas. "Two Kinds of Reform: Left Leadership in the British National Union of Mineworkers and the United Mineworkers of America, 19821990. 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]. Yet Arthur Scargill clearly sees class struggle as just British workers versus British bosses. 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. Arthur Scargill is a British trade unionist who was the president of the National Union of Mineworkers. Chris Kitchen said: "I would say it's time to walk away, Mr Scargill. I've always said that if Arthur can no longer control the NUM, he'll try and destroy it. He regularly attended Workers' Educational Association (WEA) classes and Co-operative Party educational programmes, and in 1962, undertook a three-year, part-time course at the University of Leeds, where he studied economics, industrial relations and social history. A History of Modern Britain. I think if it had been made public before then there'd have been a huge outcry. EconBiz.Logger.enable_Autocompletion_tracking(); 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. jQuery(function() { Having read the above (barely, dont like reading lies) I felt the immediate need to respond, if anything to comfort myself. [38], Film director Ken Loach subsequently made "The Arthur Legend" as part of Channel 4's Dispatches series. In the 2001 general election, he ran against Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool. Seumas Milne, who takes the Marxist view, supports Thatchers argument that government preparations werent sufficient enough to cause the failure of the strike. Page 317. Staff members suddenly taken ill, or with long-standing medical appointments, require his personal consent to be absent from the office. This Mainstream media view holds that the strike failed because of Scargills extreme beliefs and bad decisions. [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. Therefore, we must conclude that whilst Arthur Scargills leadership was an important factor in the failure of the strike, it would be wrong to assume that this was the main reason as without the lack of support, especially from the Nottinghamshire miners, as well as the governments preparations, such as the stockpiling of coal, the miners strike might not have failed. Edit the file on your computer and upload it to the server via FTP. 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]. Page 57-59. 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. Page 342. Therefore, when considering both sources, Letwins Thatcherite view isnt very convincing as the argument that the failure of the miners strike was due to Scargills bad leadership is based on factors out of his control like the timing of the strike and accusations that havent been proven. Lawson takes an objective view of the events as his book was published in 1993 after a very public dispute with Thatcher where he eventually resigned. [43] Marr, Andrew. (1998), The third way : the promise of industrial democracy, Lawrence, Dennis, Thatcher disregarded how much of an impact the WAPC would have on the strike as many of the striking ladies figured out that if they went out picketing then they would less likely be targeted by police. [9] Scargill saw this strike as a turning point in the union's attitude to militancy.[10]. However, we have to be careful when taking Nicholas Ridleys account at face value as he was a known Thatcherite and also came up with the Ridley Plan that outlined how to deal and prepare for a potential strike; Perhaps my confidential annexe had been worthwhile after all. It is reported that the police were getting between 600 and 1000 a week and many people believed that there just arent that many police available to move about. London: Vintage Books, 2008. The authorities must be using the army[32]. 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. You've been found out. He lost on both occasions, winning 2.4% of the vote in Hartlepool at the 2001 general election. Nothing good about it. Without their support, victory for the miners looked uncertain as they were the best paid, with better conditions promised by Thatcher[13]. Page 164. That is what we need to remember these days when we think of Scargill. 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. This event is held every year at the Barnsley Headquarters of the NUM and acquired particular poignancy that year as it coincided with the 30th anniversary of the strike. "Leadership in the Miners Union-Scargill, Arthur Rise to Power. However, they have conflicting views on to what extent these preparations were made in order to bring down the unions. Another factor in the failure of the miners strike, in 1984, is government involvement. For addon domains, the file must be in public_html/addondomain.com/example/Example/ and the names are case-sensitive. 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. [9] At the subsequent enquiry, he used notebooks of underground working from the 19th century, retrieved from the Institute of Geological Sciences in Leeds, to argue that the National Coal Board could have prevented the disaster had they acted on the information available. The strict trade union laws have also been credited for the failure of the strike with Norman Tebbit, who introduced the trade union law reforms, saying because of my reforms, if these other unions had joined an illegal strike, the Coal Board could have asked the court to confiscate their funds[23]. 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. [9] This performance strengthened his popularity with the Yorkshire miners. He stepped down from leadership of the NUM at the end of July 2002, to become the honorary president. 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. [41] Campbell, John. He cannot resist pointing out parallels in all times and places. Essay Writing Service. I then thought of things rather differently. The motto, An injury to one is an injury to all, applies world-wide. 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. We also remember his relatively principled role within the UK labour movement of the 1970s and 80s. //--> [14] Benn, Tony. Page 150-152, [2] Campbell, John. [53] He was not attending any of the events to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the 1984 strike at the NUM. Scargill joined the Labour Party in 1962. The properties will tell you the path and file name that cannot be found. Arrow, 1994. He also represented the Barnsley Co-op at Cooperative congresses. "Our communities are now just about dead on their feet." The strike started in Yorkshire in March . 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).. Thats why he can write one third of the worlds workers those who live in the Stalinist states out of the class struggle, allotting them no role but to support their socialist rulers. [53] Following Margaret Thatcher's death in April 2013, ITN made Scargill several offers for a five-minute interview, with the final offer reaching 16,000, but Scargill refused all the offers and did not speak to any media organisation. This is supported by Margaret Thatcher herself; His (Ian McGregor) impression was that the police were failing to uphold criminal law and that the pickets had been able to prevent people going to work[38]. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/37592/How the Miners Strike could have won. The Enemy Within: M15, Maxwell and the Scargill Affair. A5 format. Ridley may have been trying to take credit for the failure of the strike by saying that the strike failed due to the governments preparations that included the plan he came up with. [52], The Guardian in February 2014 said that Scargill had become a recluse. London: Verso, 2014. Notice that the CaSe is important in this example. But my father never forced me to be involved in politics at all.[5]. The Socialist Labour Party ( SLP) is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. Copyright 2003 - 2023 - UKEssays is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. 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. London: Verso, 2014. [8], Scargill was a leader of the unofficial strike in 1969, which began in Yorkshire and spread across the country. 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. Either way, please contact your web host immediately. [17], The government announced on 6 March 1984 its intention to close 20 coal mines, revealing as well the plan in the long-term to close over 70 pits. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! Thatcher, herself, advances this view in her memoirs The Downing Street Years and echoed by many other Thatcherites such as Nigel Lawson, Shirley Letwin and historians such as John Campbell. Your TV show 'White Light' presenter James Maw speaks to Union leader Arthur Scargill about what Trade unions can do for the youth of today. Therefore, Milnes interpretation is supported by Ridleys in the fact that government preparations led to the downfall of the miners. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. Nevertheless, this shows that the strike didnt fail from the lack of support in general, but rather the lack of support from key figures such as the Neil Kinnock from the Labour Party, as well as the Nottinghamshire miners who, if they had supported the miners, would have guaranteed a different outcome for the strike. Page 317. The strike was called under Rule 41 of the NUM rule book, which said that local strikes can be made official by the National Executive without a ballot. (2004) "Al Richardson (19412003): An Appreciation", David Howell, et al. 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. [15] However, Scargill's statements in the years after becoming NUM president divided left-wing opinion with his support of the Soviet Union, most notably when he refused to support the TUC's positions on the Solidarity union in Poland or on the Soviet shooting down of the Korean Air Lines Flight 007. Kim Howells discusses how Neil Kinnock argued that real power lay at the ballot box[4]. Just click. "Scargill" redirects here. [7] Scargill, Arthur. Andrew Marrs view on why the Miners strike failed is much more convincing as it gives credit to Scargills leadership skills while also saying not even he would be able to persuade every part of the industry to strike showing that Marr believes that Scargill was the best man for the job. Page 151. Therefore, the overwhelming support for the strike could not be denied. Scargill led the union in the 19841985 miners' strike. 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]. He gained fame for using the tactic to win the Battle of Saltley Gate in 1972, and made it his main tactical device in the 1984 strike. 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. The End of an Era Diaries 1980-90. 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. Former Scargill loyalist Jimmy Kelly, a miner at the Edlington Main pit near Doncaster in the 1980s, said he was astonished to learn of the attempt to buy the flat. The NUM is not your personal bank account and never will be again. ",viewBookBag: "View clipboard",addBookBag: "Add to clipboard",removeBookBag: "Remove from clipboard",itemsAddBag: "item(s) added to your clipboard",itemsInBag: "item(s) are either already in your clipboard or could not be added",bookbagMax: "100",bookbagFull: "Your clipboard is Full",bookbagStatusFull: "Full",no_tags: "No Tags"}; [55], In 2017, Scargill spoke at an event in Cardiff setting out how British manufacturing could be rebuilt after Britain had left the European Union. At the time, Britain had 170 working. [26] Milne, Seumas. His father, Harold, was a miner and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. This will reset the permalinks and fix the issue in many cases. Margaret Thatcher: Volume Two The Iron Lady. 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 .htaccess file contains directives (instructions) that tell the server how to behave in certain scenarios and directly affect how your website functions. RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L] Downing Street Years. After the Miners were beaten into submission in 1984and the rest of uscheated and swindled by that government and successive government afterwards. The myth of workers' control The myth of workers' control by Arthur Scargill, Peggy- Kahn Filter Results Shipping Eligible for Free Shipping Expedited Shipping Available Item Condition Seller Rating Other Options Change Currency + Add to Wishlist All All Copies ( 0 ) Currently there are no copies available. However, we have to be careful when using this as evidence as Tebbit may have been trying to take credit for the failure of the strike. Page 341. National Archives: Margaret Thatcher Wanted to Crush Power of Trade Unions. The Guardian. If like me you lived through that period of the early seventies, constant strike action, the mid seventies when Britain effectively went bust aided by constant strikes and was branded sick man of Europe going through the winter of discontent where it seemed everybody was on strike, building up to the miners strike in 84/85, you look back and struggle to convince even yourself that we allowed such selfish destructive idealism to ruin the lives of so many in this country. 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. Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984-85), a major event in the history of the British labour movement. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. London: Fontana, 1992. vufindString = {bulk_email_success: "Your item(s) were e-mailed",bulk_save_success: "Your item(s) were saved successfully",close: "close",loading: "Loading",sms_success: "Message sent. . Please click on a checkbox next to an item and try again. Scargill's first mistake was refusing to call a National Ballot . Accessed October 12, 2018. *You can also browse our support articles here >. January 07, 2000. A dialogue box may appear asking you about encoding. The strike of 1984 was covered in detail by the press. [39], During the media controversy, the antiperspirant Mitchum used Scargill's image, without his consent, under the slogan "Mitchum, for when you're really sweating! Riddled with Stalinist politics and practice and some of the worst sectarianism imaginable, it has no meaningful existence today. [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]. Darlington, "There is no alternative: Exploring the options in the 1984-5 miners' strike. [37] Campbell, John. Arrow, 1994. . Scargills first mistake was refusing to call a National Ballot after the strike started to gain support. This is given credence by the fact that Scargill authorised these violent tactics, which decreased public sympathy for the Miners which was actually their greatest asset[10]. His policy alienated most of the Nottinghamshire miners, undermined his position with the leaders of the trade union movement, hurt the union's reputation in British public opinion, and led to violence along the picket line. 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). [33] Milne, Seumas. In 1990, Scargill was accused in a series of Daily Mirror articles of mishandling money donated for the striking miners during the 19841985 strike, with many of the sources being those who had previously worked with him in the NUM such as Kim Howells, Jim Parker and Roger Windsor. The easiest way to edit a .htaccess file for most people is through the File Manager in cPanel. Arrow, 1994. Accessed September 16, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. [37] Scargill reached an agreement to repay money to the NUM shortly after this. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. The staff at headquarters issued a press statement in January 1983 to deny this and to list twelve grievances against Scargill's treatment of his staff. 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. 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. 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 media characterised the strike as "Scargill's strike" and his critics accused him of looking for an excuse for industrial action since becoming union president. Downing Street Years. Although he never worked at Barrow Colliery in his home village, he was involved in the politics of the branch, where the membership was much more left-wing than in the conservative Woolley Colliery. Arrow, 1994. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. If not, correct the error or revert back to the previous version until your site works again. var Logger = new EconBiz.Logger(); Clearly, Scargill did fall out of favour with the Socialist movement, perhaps because it became evident that he was only happy when he was in the limelight. His post-1985 decision to try and build a political organisation the so-called Socialist Labour Party turned out to be a disaster and created nothing more than a pathetic, personal bandwagon which spluttered briefly before the wheels fell off. London: Vintage, 2008. He mentions how the strikers overtime ban was biting deep into power-station coal stocks and goes on to say If it was allowed to continue until the autumn, managers warned, a twelve-week strike would be enough to put the countrys lights out[26]. It is also possible that you have inadvertently deleted your document root or the your account may need to be recreated. He had been a Communist and retained strong Marxist views and a penchant for denouncing anyone who disagreed with him as a traitor Scargill had indeed been elected by a vast margin and he set about turning the NUM's once moderate executive into a reliably militant group By adopting a position that no pits should be closed on economic grounds, even if the coal was exhausted more investment would always find more coal, and from his point of view, the losses were irrelevant he made sure confrontation would not be avoided. Page 343-344. The strike gained momentum quickly and calling a ballot may have broken down this early support. If you have already uploaded the file then the name may be misspelled or it is in a different folder. Scargill opposed civilian nuclear power and, during the first Wilson ministry, became highly critical of the government's energy policy. It was a major political victory for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party. RewriteEngine On "Analysing the British miners' strike of 19845.". Accessed October 12, 2018. 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. July 31, 2013. [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. Page 345. 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. Arthur Scargill: We Could Surrender or Stand and Fight. The Guardian. 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. He had a powerful speaking capability which garnered much passionate support from those who watched or saw his speeches. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. [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". The View from No. On platforms that enforce case-sensitivity example and Example are not the same locations. Margaret Thatcher. Page 414. 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. However, Scargill was well known for being a formidable organiser and conference-hall speaker[6]. Milne explains how the strike was a last-ditch fight to defend jobs, mining communities and the NUM itself against a government prepared to bring into play unlimited resources and its entire panoply of coercive powers as and where necessary to break the union and its backbone of support[22]. Page 57. Ian White talks exclusively to Arthur Scargill, 84, on 50th anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gate in Birmingham [4] UK | Politics | Head to Head: The Miners Strike. BBC News. Yet he was a trade union leader who helped lead a strike that brought down a Tory government (1974) and correctly understood that Thatcher was out to smash the unions and that they needed to fight back. Somerset: Routledge, 2018. [54] He gave a rare television interview to ITV News at that time. We also know that lots of support groups popped up to encourage the miners on in their fight. Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) [1] is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. The most notable of these being the Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC) mainly made up of miners wives or women that grew up in mining communities. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the trade union movement. A debate on workers' control. Can you add one ? [21] Ridley, Nicholas. Which makes his present-day role (such as it is) in politics all the more tragic. [53], Scargill still occasionally gives interviews and makes appearances. London, 1984. He called for the cotton mills, steel plants and mines to be re-opened and that under EU rules, the government had not been able to subsidise the coal mines.
