A History of Modern Britain. 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]. Nothing good about it. ", Old Labour party constiturion, Clause 4 part IV, Yorkshire Area of the National Union of Mineworkers, "Arthur Scargill joins Battle of Saltley Gate 40th anniversary celebration", "The Nottinghamshire Miners, The Union of Democratic Mineworkers and the 198485 Miners' Strike: Scabs or Scapegoats? Accessed October 11, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/jan/07/guardianletters4. In conclusion to my little rant, unions were formed for the betterment of its members, not to be used as a personal vehicle for selfish political dogma. Page 57. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty[28]. 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. After the miners' strike in 1984, there were accusations that Arthur Scargill had misappropriated National Union of Mineworkers funds and that money which sh. Not even many of the Stalinists he hangs round with. [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. 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. [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. 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 .htaccess file contains directives (instructions) that tell the server how to behave in certain scenarios and directly affect how your website functions. In the 1997 general election, he ran against Alan Howarth, a defector from the Conservative Party to Labour, who had been given the safe seat of Newport East to contest. London: Vintage, 2008. [51] Scargill criticised Poland's Solidarity calling it an "anti-socialist organisation which desires the overthrow of a socialist state", which Scargill saw as deformed but reformable. Happily, his saintly wife spent her time, during his period of madness, doing all she could to bring practical help and comfort to the hardest hit families. 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. [45] Milne, Seumas. On March 6, 1984, the National Coal Board announced its plan to cut the nation's coal output by 4 million tons, in an effort to stem a $340 million annual loss. In stories told since the strike, the president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Arthur Scargill, is strangely absent. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. All work is written to order. 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. 11: Britains Longest-serving Cabinet Member Recalls the Triumphs and Disappointments of the Thatcher Era. 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]. [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. the myth of workers' control arthur scargill the myth of workers' control arthur scargill on October 1, 2021 on October 1, 2021 Page 39. (2004) "Al Richardson (19412003): An Appreciation", David Howell, et al. [14], The vast majority of head-office staff took redundancy rather than move to Sheffield. ",email_success: "Message Sent",bulk_noitems_advice: "No items were selected. 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. However, Letwin also blames Scargill for the timing of the strike; Scargill, for his part, had timed his attack poorly, attacking in the spring when the demand for coal was decreasing. In pictures: Arthur Scargill's legacy Mr Scargill's election as NUM president in 1981 had an electrifying effect on the union movement. London: Pan Books, an Imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2017. /index.php [L] Put the custom structure back if you had one. Scargill has so burnt his bridges with the NUM and the broad left of the labour movement that his name is never mentioned at Durham miners gala or at other miners strike commemorations. [8] Beckett, Francis, and David Hencke. Woods, Alan. However, we have to be careful when using this source as evidence as Scargill may have been trying to justify his actions to save himself criticism. He had a powerful speaking capability which garnered much passionate support from those who watched or saw his speeches. Some scholars have concluded that Scargill's decisive tactical error was to substitute his famous flying picket for the holding of a national strike ballot. By 1984 however the police were ready and neutralized the tactic with superior force. Page 341. Page 346. (You may need to consult other articles and resources for that information.). of Leeds [u.a.] 100 0 _ a Arthur Scargill c British trade unionist (born 1938) 100 1 _ a Scargill, Arthur d (1938- ). Scargill has so burnt his bridges with the NUM and the broad left of the labour movement that his name is never mentioned at Durham miners' gala or at other miners' strike commemorations. The myth of workers' control; More details; The myth of workers' control . The Essay Writing ExpertsUK Essay Experts. var Logger = new EconBiz.Logger(); Page 317. This will reset the permalinks and fix the issue in many cases. [6] Marr, Andrew. This sparked an individual ballot of members, in the autumn of 1984, whereby the ballot obtained an 80% plus vote for strike action, a decision which, if implemented, would have been sufficient to save pits and jobs, and win the dispute which had been brought by the National Coal Board[35]. Seumas Milne argues that the miners had sued the police for assault, wrongful arrest, malicious persecution and false imprisonment and then went on to describe the battle of Orgreaves as an 8,000 riot police staged medieval-style mounted charges of unprecedented ferocity[33]. Page 164. Therefore, Thatcher and her governments actions could have caused the failure of the strike but to what extent these actions can be justified is still widely argued. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the trade union movement. 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. In the 1981 election for NUM president, Scargill secured around 70% of the vote. This was a complete reversal of the policy that was promised by the Labour Government before it was put into office this represents a betrayal of the mining industry. 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).. 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. Arguably, one of the most important factors in the failure of the Miner's Strike in 1984 was the leadership of the head of NUM, Arthur Scargill. Thatcher deliberately chose to make the miners who continued to work look like heroes and make the striking miners look like the public enemy. Page 343-344. On the appointment of Ian MacGregor as head of the NCB in 1983, Scargill stated, "The policies of this government are clear to destroy the coal industry and the NUM". 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. Assess the view that the main reason for the failure of the miners strike in 1984 was the leadership of Arthur Scargill. 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. In May 2009, he was a candidate for the Socialist Labour Party for one of London's seats in the European Parliament. The names of all incoming telephone callers are recorded on a central log. (1980), Scargill, Arthur, 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. These days he only gets to speak at the crankiest of Stalinist events. I was for the EU then, and was critical of this stance, but I I then came to the out view, albeit for different reasons.l, and was fully behind Brexit. That's what I believe". Accessed January 06, 2019. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3503545.stm. [14] Benn, Tony. My Style of Government: The Thatcher Years. January 07, 2000. (1978), CONTESTING THE MARKET: PAY EQUITY AND THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING, Eigart, Deborah M., [5] Benn, Tony. In 1973, Scargill was elected to the full-time post of compensation agent in the Yorkshire NUM. After looking at the evidence, I believe that the Marxist view is more valid than the Mainstream media view in the fact that it is clear that Thatcher and her government went above and beyond in order to bring down Scargill and the miners. Therefore, the fact that Scargill didnt call a National Ballot was irrelevant[11] as Tony Benn says, but the fact that Scargill authorised violent tactics that reduced public sympathy and misjudged situations may have been a factor in the failure of the miners strike. ", Gildart, Keith. The Institute for Workers' Control was formed in 1968, building on a series of conferences over several years, to act as a research and educational body, to encourage discussion and communication between workers' control groups and trade unions, and to publish important materials on industrial democracy and workers' control. National Archives: Margaret Thatcher Wanted to Crush Power of Trade Unions. The Guardian. *You can also browse our support articles here >. Still the Enemy Within (2014). IMDb. The same nationalism explains why Arthur Scargill, alongside his industrial militancy, supports a not-at-all-militant programme of import controls, withdrawal from the EEC, and siege economy. 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. Downing Street Years. 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. Somerset: Routledge, 2018. In any case, the will of the people has decided the UK will leave, we have even had a General Election over the matter. Perhaps theyre embarrassed by this reminder of how the Stalinist and reformist left squandered the power and influence it once had in British politics. 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. 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, it can be argued that government preparations werent sufficient enough in order to bring down the miners. 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. London: Verso, 2014. 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. It is possible that you may need to edit the .htaccess file at some point, for various reasons.This section covers how to edit the file in cPanel, but not what may need to be changed. Scargill joined the Labour Party in 1962. January 26. 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! Scargill recalled how after becoming a miner, the poor working conditions and "people who should never have been working, having to work to live on that first day I promised myself I would try one day to get things changed". Page 70. The authorities must be using the army[32]. [10] Still the Enemy Within (2014). IMDb. 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! 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]. Accessed October 12, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn. 404 means the file is not found. He then goes on to say with incidents of appalling violence on both sides showing that even Campbell who takes the mainstream media view is forced to acknowledge the unnecessary violence of the police force when facing the miners. Many people blame him for the failure of Miners Strike due to his poor leadership skills and bad judgement. Add the following snippet of code to the top of your .htaccess file: # BEGIN WordPress [8], Scargill was a leader of the unofficial strike in 1969, which began in Yorkshire and spread across the country. EconBiz.Logger.logPageView(); 11: Memoirs of a Tory Radical. [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]. 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. Paul Hampton and Martin Thomas respond to Eric Lee on Clara Zetkin. ",confirmDelete: "Are you sure you want to delete this? The Anatomy of Thatcherism. [38] Thatcher, Margaret. He also represented the Barnsley Co-op at Cooperative congresses. [37] Scargill reached an agreement to repay money to the NUM shortly after this. In a 1975 interview with New Left Review Scargill said: I was in the Young Communist League for about six or seven years and I became a member of its National Executive Committee responsible for industrial work. Page 342. The properties will tell you the path and file name that cannot be found. The Enemy Within", Verso 2014. Was this national or local? Bone figurines of waterbirds made about 16,000 B. C., which were found in Mal'ta in Siberia, share the symbolism of the wild gander . It's easy to mock Arthur Scargill. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. His nationalist backwardness on Brexit (and immigration, to judge by a letter published in the Guardian on 29 August 2017) cannot be forgiven. Which makes his present-day role (such as it is) in politics all the more tragic. Somerset: Routledge, 2018. Scargill, Arthur (1938- ) English trade union leader. Page 158. 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. . London: Verso, 2014. Many people also argue that the police werent as brutal as some other accounts made them out to be and that they were just doing their jobs in maintaining law and order. [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. It was not , and will not ever be the liberator of the working Class, but their oppressors. you only have to look at the current state of our country after Cov19torealise that we have noindustry left! [32] The documentary suggests that the claims against Scargill were untrue. Scargill, Arthur. On any measure, Scargill was a failure who brought hardship down on those who followed him, now a pitiful figure. In the 2001 general election, he ran against Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool. It is also possible that you have inadvertently deleted your document root or the your account may need to be recreated. McIlroy, J. [22][23], Many found Scargill inspiring; many others found him frankly scary. //-->, Unions on the board : an experiment in industrial democracy, Batstone, Eric, This is because had the NUM come out nationally in favour of the strike, Nottinghamshire area would have won permission for its own ballot and remained at work. 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. This was seen as violent and was deemed illegal. Downing Street Years. Read online at https://workersliberty.org/node/34498, Submitted by AWL on 18 September, 2019 - 11:48, Letters: Hands off Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg, Holodomor: the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33, Tubeworker (London Underground) (bulletin), Off the Rails (national rail workers) (bulletin), Off the Rails (national rail workers) (blog), Notts Off the Rails (Nottingham rail workers) (bulletin), On Guard (Sheffield rail workers) (bulletin). Uncategorized > the myth of workers' control arthur scargill. Staff members suddenly taken ill, or with long-standing medical appointments, require his personal consent to be absent from the office. [4] UK | Politics | Head to Head: The Miners Strike. BBC News. [34] Wakefield, Arthur, and Brian Elliot. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. Some historians have provided interpretations and explanations of the defeat. He lost on both occasions, winning 2.4% of the vote in Hartlepool at the 2001 general election. RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d A lot of other people on the National Executive at that time went on and became very respectable Labour MPs in Parliament. 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. The Museum at Work; Health, Wellbeing and Amgueddfa Cymru ; Collections Online. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/jan/07/guardianletters4, https://www.marxist.com/britain-when-britain-went-to. [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. [21] Many politicians, including the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock, believed Scargill had made a huge mistake in calling the strike in the summer rather than in the winter. March 10, 2004. Page 316, [3] Harris, Robert. Scargill never balloted NUM members for a strike; this was seen as an erosion of democracy within the union, but the role of ballots in decision-making had been made very unclear after previous leader, Joe Gormley, had ignored two ballots over wage reforms, and his decisions had been upheld after appeals to court were made.