How bloody battle lines were drawn
TWENTY–FIVE years ago, every single coal miner across the country was urged to down tools and strike.
But why? Why did the industry, which was then the national lifeblood, see fit to walk out en masse?
Well, one year prior to National Union of Mineworkers President Arthur Scargill calling all his members out onto the picket lines, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed one Ian MacGregor as head of the National Coal Board.
Coal was then a burgeoning nationalised industry, and Thatcher saw fit to appoint a man charged with making it a more efficient and more profitable beast.
Mines that were soaking up heavy Government subsidies were earmarked for massive cuts, and in the case of 20 pits – threatening 20,000 jobs – around the country, closure.
Union leaders became incensed at the lack of consultation being undertaken, and industrial action began to gather apace at various local levels, with unions operating autonomously.
On 5th March, a ballot was taken locally at Cortonwood Colliery, Brampton, and members voted to strike.
Precisely one week later, Scargill had thrown down the gauntlet to the Thatcher administration and pulled ALL miners out of ALL mines.
Over in Worksop, Graham Crossland, President of Worksop Trades Union Council, penned a letter to the Guardian, urging members of the public not associated with the industry to lend their support to the thousands of men and their families who were out on strike.
"I would like to appeal to the general public to give due consideration to the reasons behind the miners' dispute," he said in his letter.
"Contrary to what some of the media would have us believe, no worker in his right mind would jeapordise his or her livelihoods, without feeling it is the only avenue available to them."
"On many occasions, the National Executive of the NUM has raised the issue of pit closures, and published its belief that a hit list had been drawn up by the National Coal Board."
"On each and every occasion, the NCB and the Government deny any such list existed, and stated on TV that Arthur Scargill was misleading his members."
"I would submit that in the light of recent announcements that it was the NCB and the Government who were not only misleading the miners, but the general public as well."
"Pits, unlike any other part of industry can't be shut then re-opened at will. Once a pit is shut it is lost forever."
But it quickly became apparent that the degree of autonomy which allowed Cortonwood miners to vote on a local walk-out was to be the undoing of the national strike.
As a coalfield, Notts did not have its head in MacGregor's noose to the same extent as South Yorkshire coalfield. Many miners in and around Notts felt aggrieved that their wages were in effect forcibly cut dead by an action over which they had no say.
Therein lies the seat of deep-rooted rivalry which led to such ugly scenes on the picket lines.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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