In the 2001 general election, he ran against Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool. London: Verso, 2014. [24] Letwin, Shirley Robin. If being ignored is the ultimate retribution forscargill, then he is a lucky man, for if he had espoused his views in some of the countrieswith which he wanted to align us, his best outcome would have been breaking rocks but more likely he would have disappeared never to be heard of again. Accessed September 16, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. In stories told since the strike, the president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Arthur Scargill, is strangely absent. Back in 1983 (even before the great miners strike) the forunner of Solidarity (Socialist Organiser) condemned Scargills attacks on the independent Polish union movement Solidarnosc, but also identified the root cause of Scargills tragic error (nationalism) and denounced the hypocrisy of many of his critics within the labour movement: Its no news that Scargill has a scandalous attitude to Solidarnosc. 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. Nevertheless, Government intervention such as the use of police and the actions of Ian McGregor was not the most important factor in the failure of the strike as many people openly criticised McGregor, including Thatcher herself. I think if it had been made public before then there'd have been a huge outcry. If you go to your temporary url (http://ip/~username/) and get this error, there maybe a problem with the rule set stored in an .htaccess file. So that was my initial introduction into socialism and into political militancy. ", 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? Yet he was a decisive figure in the great strike of 1984-85. Having examined a range of factors which led to the failure of the miners strike in 1984, it has become clear that it was easy to just blame the leadership of Arthur Scargill as the ultimate factor that led to the strikes failure. Page 341. [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. Right click on the X and choose Properties. This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here. Written authorization is required for the purchase of tea and coffee. Therefore, the argument that Scargills leadership could have been one of the reasons that the miners strike failed is partly true as we know that due to Scargills decision to not call a national ballot he ended up losing key supporters such as the Labour party and many members of the public who couldnt support the strike as it was unofficial and didnt favour Scargills violent tactics. When you have a missing image on your site you may see a box on your page with with a red X where the image is missing. 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. Scargill, Arthur. A secret record is kept of the time at which all workers arrive and leave each day. March 07, 2009. of the other candidates claimed that they were given very little time to prepare. 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 . 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. My father was a Communist. The union is known for leading the longest as well as the most violent miners` strike in the history of British history. [31] There was much criticism of Scargill within the NUM from the Welsh and Scottish areas, who briefly considered splitting from the NUM. Therefore, without support from key groups such as the Nottinghamshire miners and the dock workers, the striking miners were isolated which may have led to the failure of the strike itself. Either way, please contact your web host immediately. Therefore, this portrays the feelings of the majority of the miners who were on strike as they realised that this lack of support could determine the outcome of the strike. Page 57. London: Vintage, 2008. However, we have to be careful when using Thatcher as a source as she may be trying to give more credit to her successes and deflecting her failures onto other people such as Ian McGregor. [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. [33], In July 1990, the NUM executive voted unanimously to sue Scargill and general secretary Peter Heathfield. This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 23:36. Perhaps theyre embarrassed by this reminder of how the Stalinist and reformist left squandered the power and influence it once had in British politics. 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. He led an unofficial strike in 1969, and played a key organising role during strikes of 1972 and 1974, the latter of which played a part in the downfall of Edward Heath's Conservative government. RewriteEngine On London: Vintage, 2008. The Anatomy of Thatcherism. Page 342. The names of all incoming telephone callers are recorded on a central log. [7], Scargill became involved in the Yorkshire Left, a group of left-wing activists involved in the Yorkshire region of the NUM, its largest region. [11] Benn, Tony. Scargill, Arthur, (1978) CONTESTING THE MARKET: PAY EQUITY AND THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC . [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. Neil Kinnock even compared Scargill with a general who wanted another Gallipoli[3]. This source is reliable as Kim Howells was a member of the NUM at the time of the strike but still discredits Scargills tactics. Notice that the CaSe is important in this example. Scargill was often accompanied by his then wife Anne Harper to speak at picket lines and to media appearances; Harper was simultaneously involved in founding and leading the National Women Against Pit Closures movement. 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. March 10, 2004. [19] Morgan, Kenneth O.Britain since 1945: The Peoples Peace. Page 22. Scargill had condemned the killing at the time. 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. This is portrayed by Kenneth OMorgan, who takes a clear mainstream media view. 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. I think people would be astounded if they knew that."[42]. 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. It turned into a confrontation with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in which the miners' union was defeated. This is unfair as after the NCB accidently announced pit closures, the strike gained momentum very quickly forcing Scargill to just go along with it. Page 345. Milne, Seumas. " 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. Downing Street Years. "[44] However, in December 2012, Scargill lost a similar case concerning rent on his flat in the Barbican, London. Seumas Milne, who takes the Marxist view, supports Thatchers argument that government preparations werent sufficient enough to cause the failure of the strike. At the risk of paraphrasing, Karl Marx once wrote that the great figures of history appear first as tragedy and then as farce. Scargill also cleverly manipulated the NUM rule book creating a serious constitutional debate. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. [20] Ridley, Nicholas. In this example the file must be in public_html/example/Example/. ." It is a world of despair, of ashes, and coldness, and darkness, and the setting acts as a . [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]. [18] Still the Enemy Within (2014). IMDb. 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. Some historians have provided interpretations and explanations of the defeat. 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. It was alleged that, of the money donated from Libya, Scargill took 29,000 for his own bridging loan and 25,000 for his home in Yorkshire, but gave only 10,000 to the striking Nottinghamshire miners. Page 317. [6] In 1970, he was elected a member of the regional committee of the Co-operative Retail Services in Barnsley and a delegate to its national conference. 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. This strengthens Milnes argument that the police brutality, authorised by Thatcher, was unjustified. The failure of the miners strike in 1984 has been seen by many as the result of bad leadership of the head of the NUM, Arthur Scargill, the lack of support for the strike as well as giving credit to the governments preparations. 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. This lack of support can be blamed on the leadership of Arthur Scargill; therefore, the leadership of Arthur Scargill is a more important factor in the failure of the miners strike in 1985. The miners also failed to gain the support of the dock workers in strike effort. [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. 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. . 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. Arrow, 1994. Arthur Scargill (born January 11, 1938) is a British trade unionist. Woods, Alan. The editor of the Daily Mirror at the time, Roy Greenslade, wrote an article in The Guardian in May 2002 to apologise to Scargill for the false claims about paying off the mortgage and for putting too much trust in Roger Windsor, who at the time had still not repaid the 29,500 that he had taken from the Miners' Welfare Fund and that the Lightman Report had asked that he repay. 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. (1980), Scargill, Arthur, London: Pan Books, an Imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2017. In pictures: Arthur Scargill's legacy Mr Scargill's election as NUM president in 1981 had an electrifying effect on the union movement. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/37592/How the Miners Strike could have won. Yet he still gives credit to Thatcher and her government for their actions during the strike which legitimises his view. She even admitted to appointing Peter Walker as Secretary of State for Energy because of his negotiating skills and said he was also a skilled communicator, something in which I knew would be important if we were to retain public support in the coal strike[29]. [36] Thatcher, Margaret. 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. [14], Scargill was a very vocal opponent of Thatcher's Conservative government, frequently appearing on television to attack it. Arrow, 1994. He is looking for socialism in one country, and since that is impossible he ends up with a recipe of capitalism in one country. Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. Just click. [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. Before you do anything, it is suggested that you backup your website so that you can revert back to a previous version if something goes wrong. The Truth of Nacods Shameful Sell-out. The Guardian. You can try renaming that file to .htaccess-backup and refreshing the site to see if that resolves the issue. 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 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. John Campbell sums up the mainstream media view by saying The Governments only role was to uphold the liberty of those miners and others who wanted to work[31]. Downing Street Years. Page 18. London, 1984. Page 150-152, [2] Campbell, John. EconBiz.Logger.enable_Autocompletion_tracking(); [9] Scargill saw this strike as a turning point in the union's attitude to militancy.[10]. Assess the view that the main reason for the failure of the miners strike in 1984 was the leadership of Arthur Scargill. Page 70. Registered office: Creative Tower, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE. At the time, Britain had 170 working. My mother was strictly non-political. Many of us started in the 1950s in the Young Communist League. [43] In February 2012, Scargill won 13,000 in a court action against the NUM, primarily for car expenses, and for the earlier temporary denial of membership. These days he only gets to speak at the crankiest of Stalinist events.

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