[37] Campbell, John. [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. [9] Scargill saw this strike as a turning point in the union's attitude to militancy.[10]. Eric Evans described him as aggressive and charismatic, but vain and politically limited[42], therefore showing his limitations as the head of NCB. [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. Page 414. 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. 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. [36] In September 1990, the Certification Officer brought criminal charges against Scargill and Heathfield for wilfully neglecting to perform the union's duty to keep proper accounting records. This only reinforces the idea that it was Scargills decision not to call a ballot that lost him valuable support. Still the Enemy Within (2014). IMDb. [47], In 1996, Scargill founded the Socialist Labour Party after the Labour Party abandoned the original wording of Clause IV advocating the public democratic ownership[48] of key industries and utilities from their constitution. An article published in The Times in August 2015 stated that Scargill had spoken to the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union conference in June 2015, and that he was due to appear alongside Jeremy Corbyn at the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign in September 2015. You may need to scroll to find it. The Anatomy of Thatcherism. 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. 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. The Miners Strike Day by Day: The Illustrated 1984-85 Diary of Yorkshire Miner Arthur Wakefield. My Style of Government: The Thatcher Years. Page 22. Page 317. (You may need to consult other articles and resources for that information.). London: Pan Books, an Imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2017. ",confirmEmpty: "Are you sure you want to empty your clipboard? "Scargill" redirects here. This strengthens Milnes argument that the police brutality, authorised by Thatcher, was unjustified. Margaret Thatcher. 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. [16] One branch of the NUM, at Annesley in Nottinghamshire, put forward a vote of no confidence in Scargill in autumn 1983 following his comments on these matters, but Scargill defeated this at a December meeting and won a vote of confidence instead. Scargill, Arthur, (1978) CONTESTING THE MARKET: PAY EQUITY AND THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC . It is rather ironic that his view on the EEC was shared by Tjatcher, deep down, and it is a Tory Govt that has taken us out. ",email_success: "Message Sent",bulk_noitems_advice: "No items were selected. Therefore, Milnes interpretation is supported by Ridleys in the fact that government preparations led to the downfall of the miners. [57] Scargill supported the 2022 United Kingdom railway strike, joining an RMT picket line in Wakefield on 21 June 2022. The Enemy Within", Verso 2014. However, In , He was right. So that was my initial introduction into socialism and into political militancy. Downing Street Years. In 1958, he attended the World Federation of Trade Unions youth congress in Prague. 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 coal stocks at power stations held out[20]. 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! Written authorization is required for the purchase of tea and coffee. Their support would have been vital if they were to win the strike; this is presented by Cabinet minutes which show that Thatchers priority was to settle the dock strike as quickly as possible in order to allow the government to concentrate on winning the miners strike[15]. All work is written to order. This Mainstream media view holds that the strike failed because of Scargills extreme beliefs and bad decisions. Thatcher deliberately chose to make the miners who continued to work look like heroes and make the striking miners look like the public enemy. 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. [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. Robert Taylor depicts Scargill as an 'industrial Napoleon' who called a strike 'at the wrong time' on the 'wrong issue', and adopted strategies and tactics that were 'impossibilist', with 'an inflexible list of extravagant non-negotiable demands' that amounted to 'reckless adventurism' that was 'a dangerous, self-defeating delusion'. Without their support, victory for the miners looked uncertain as they were the best paid, with better conditions promised by Thatcher[13]. The Anatomy of Thatcherism. Strike: When Britain Went to War. In Defence of Marxism. That's what I believe". He lost on both occasions, winning 2.4% of the vote in Hartlepool at the 2001 general election. The striking miners didnt have the support of the Nottinghamshire miners, dock workers or even the Labour Party, including Neil Kinnock, and many historians believe that the strikes failure was down to the fact that it was so poorly supported; such as Eric Evans who takes the mainstream media view and believed the appearance of a much more conciliatory breakaway union representing the profitable East Midlands mining arealed to collapse of the strike[12] This we know to be true as the Nottinghamshire miners alone produced 25% of the Nations coal. That is what we need to remember these days when we think of Scargill. Kim Howells discusses how Neil Kinnock argued that real power lay at the ballot box[4]. [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! Many people blame him for the failure of Miners Strike due to his poor leadership skills and bad judgement. [5] In 1957 he was elected NUM Yorkshire Area Youth Delegate, and attended the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow as a representative of the Yorkshire miners. 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. Person/Body (Historic): A. Taylor & Sons Ltd. [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. Marching to the Fault Line: The 1984 Miners Strike and the Battle for Industrial Britain. Right click on the X and choose Properties. 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. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! Page 340. In any case, the will of the people has decided the UK will leave, we have even had a General Election over the matter. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. The authorities must be using the army[32]. Scargill led the union in the 19841985 miners' strike. Lawson also takes the mainstream media view that everything Thatcher did during the strike was to maintain law and order. In 1974, he was instrumental in organising the miners' strike that led Prime Minister Edward Heath to call a February general election.[13]. 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. Woods, Alan. [9] This performance strengthened his popularity with the Yorkshire miners. [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". By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. 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. 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?] 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).. : Univ. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. The issue of Scargills leadership is argued as the main reason that the miners strike failed. Page 158. jQuery(function() { [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. }); Not even many of the Stalinists he hangs round with. How the Miners Strike Could Have Won. Socialist Worker (Britain). Edit the file on your computer and upload it to the server via FTP. London: Vintage, 2008. The End of an Era Diaries 1980-90. A dialogue box may appear asking you about encoding. His application was refused because the flat in the Barbican Estate's Shakespeare Tower was not Scargill's primary residence. his position on freedom movements In communist states such as Poland, was unforgivable He is rightly labelled a Stalinist, along with Corbyn. 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. 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. Historian, John Campbell, described the battle at Orgreave; They were beaten back by even greater numbers of mounted and heavily armoured police[41]. 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. 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. Accessed January 06, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/07/arthur-scargill-miners-strike. Many people blame him for the failure of Miner's Strike due to his poor leadership skills and bad judgement. Dont forget that Labours manifesto at Kinnocks last election included a policy of leaving the bloc, and who knows what t was under Corbyn. 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. [32] Benn, Tony. "The strike wasn't just about Arthur Scargill or Margaret Thatcher, it was about a way of life. 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. 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. This view is supported to some extent by Labour minister Tony Benn, one of Thatchers fiercest critics, and historian, Seumas Milne who argued that the governments extensive preparations and actions during the strike led to its failure in 1984. Arthur Scargill and Peggy Kahn. The Myth of Workers' Control Issue 5 of Occasional papers in industrial relations Author Arthur Scargill Publisher University of Leeds, 1980 Original from Cornell University Digitized Apr. 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. Downing Street Years. Milne, Seumas. " We also know that lots of support groups popped up to encourage the miners on in their fight. Downing Street Years. This included Norman Tebbits radical reforms[39] as put by Tony Benn, who was newly elected to the mining seat and a clear supporter of the 1984-85 Miners strike[40]. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/37592/How the Miners Strike could have won. It's easy to mock Arthur Scargill. The NUM is not your personal bank account and never will be again. The easiest way to edit a .htaccess file for most people is through the File Manager in cPanel. Exciting, witty Arthur Scargill brought coalmining to a close in Britain far faster than would have happened had the NUM been led by some prevaricating, dreary old-style union hack. Page 342. 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). This source is reliable as Kim Howells was a member of the NUM at the time of the strike but still discredits Scargills tactics. [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. Page 317. "[46] Kitchen says that Scargill "has had 30 years of decent living out of the union, and he's got a pension that's second to none. [21] Ridley, Nicholas. He also represented the Barnsley Co-op at Cooperative congresses. [5] Benn, Tony. 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. However, if it had gone the other way the Yorkshire area would have come out and other areas would have to decide whether to give support. There was some controversy in February 1985 when Times journalist Paul Routledge engaged the Queen in discussion on the strike, and the Queen said that the strike was "all about one man", which Routledge objected to. Scargill also cleverly manipulated the NUM rule book creating a serious constitutional debate. [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. [8] Beckett, Francis, and David Hencke. [33], In July 1990, the NUM executive voted unanimously to sue Scargill and general secretary Peter Heathfield. [he fails to see that] the working class is a world class. [41], In 1993, Scargill tried to use Thatcher's flagship Right to Buy scheme to buy a flat on the Barbican estate in central London. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Accessed October 11, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/jan/07/guardianletters4. Beyond Service: State Workers, Public Policy, and the Prospects for Tous les rsultats Google Recherche de Livres». "It's so hypocritical it's unreal," he said. 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. 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! I then thought of things rather differently. I could write a million words and not be able to adequately describe the misery,hardship and dispare these leaders bought upon the people of this nation. Notice that the CaSe is important in this example. /index.php [L] It can be argued that both Marxist and Mainstream Media view give credit to the fact that government preparations were a factor in the failure of the miners strike but they have opposing views on to what extent. In his diary he documents the battle at Orgreave on Monday 18th of June, 1984; Ive never seen so many of our lads altogether, it brought tears to my eyes[16]. 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. 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]. [35] Negotiations between Scargill and the NUM took place in France. 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