The Miners' Strike 1984/85

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has announced it will not mount a formal investigation into the policing of the so called "Battle of Orgreave" and its aftermath during the 1984-85 Miners Strike. The IPCC's own initial investigation found evidence of police brutality, officers fabricating evidence and committing perjury. The IPCC's argument for not continuing the investigation — that its too long ago and they don’t have the resources to investigate Orgreave and the Miner's Strike whilst its conducting two other major investigations into South Yorkshire Police over...

The second edition of Class against Class, the miners' strike 1984-5 is now available. New items include a review of “The Battle for Orgreave” by the late Rob Dawber, an account of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, and retrospective analysis of the importance of the strike. From the introduction: Between March 1984 and March 1985, British miners fought one of the great epics of working-class history. In scope, intensity and duration their strike is unique in the history of the British labour movement. At issue in that strike was the fate of the “social democratic” welfare-state “compromise...

I was born in 1974 and grew up in the north east of England in the 70s and 80s. Part of a properly matriarchal family, my mother was one of six sisters, their deceased father and their mother had been solid Labour supporters. I was told stories by Lesley (my mother) of them stitching rosettes for the party when they were young “until their fingers bled” — there may have been some exaggeration, maybe not! There were also socialist feminist politics about — my auntie Anna had been involved in Scarlet Women, a socialist feminist zine, copies were knocking about the house. We had posters of Victor...

The writer, Stephen Beresford, first heard the story of LGSM from a friend. He told a pre-screening audience that it inspired him greatly — the film is clearly a work of care and love. The characters are the real members of LGSM. Mike Jackson and others input into the writing and production, infusing the personalities, lives and experiences of the LGSM activists. Refreshingly, Beresford does not consider it necessary to provide background to justify the miners’ strike; it is accepted in the film that the strike was valid. That lesbians and gay men and miners share a common enemy in the ruling...

This a welcome re-issue of a booklet published shortly after the miners’ strike by Socialist Organiser (a forerunner of Workers' Liberty). Alongside the original articles and illustrations there are updates and a new introduction. As a compact but highly readable account of the strike and the lessons to be drawn from it, I can recommend Class Against Class unreservedly. The reader is taken through a, more-or-less, blow by blow narrative of the strike with many eye-witness accounts from NUM activists and their supporters. The important debates that raged at the time are all discussed in depth...

Ed Miliband has called for a “proper investigation” into police conduct during the bloody confrontation at Orgreave during the 1984-85 miners' strike. The 'Battle of Orgreave' saw thousands of police violently confront picketing miners in South Yorkshire, leading to many injuries. Almost a hundred pickets were then arrested and charged with riot, unlawful assembly and other offences. However, when the cases came to trial, all collapsed and were dropped, undermined by fabricated or non-existent evidence. Since then, campaigners have been waging a long fight for justice for the miners and their...

The AWL believes that socialist organisations must be the “memory of the working class”. A big part of our job is to preserve, rediscover, discuss and spread the lessons and inspiration of past struggles, victorious and defeated. Our annual event, Ideas for Freedom (3-6 July), will include many discussions on working-class history, with a focus on the First World War and the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike. IFF will open on the evening of Thursday 3 July with a Radical Walking Tour of East London, looking at how working-class, socialist and women’s liberation activists organised in the East End in the...

Facebook event Thirty years ago, between 29 May and 18 June 1984, thousands of striking miners and heavily armoured police fought pitched battles at Orgreave, near Sheffield, as the miners sought to prevent coal being delivered to the coking plant there. The “battle of Orgreave” on 18 June, at which the police carried out hundreds of assaults and unlawful arrests to defeat the miners, was a turning point in the strike. Could the miners have won? What are the lessons for the working class today? All are welcome to this public meeting organised by Workers' Liberty Speakers: Jean Lane, Workers'...

Look Back in Anger by Harry Paterson is published by Five Leaves, Nottingham. It describes the events of the 1984-5 miners' strike in Nottinghamshire, one of the areas where many, though not all, miners scabbed. The overtime ban that was going from November 1983 was strong in Notts and the coal stocks were nowhere near as high as the Tories had hoped for. When the first closures of a handful of pits were announced, thousands of Yorkshire miners were already on strike and insisted on solidarity. MacGregor had already met with Thatcher six months before the strike to discuss kickstarting the...

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the great miners' strike. A new book by Workers’ Liberty, out this week, tells the story of how working-class communities fought a Tory ruling-class government. But how did the left conduct itself? The Labour Party, led then by the former "soft left" Neil Kinnock, refused to indict the government and brand its activities for the vicious class war they were. Many thousands of rank and file Labour Party activists were, however, active organisers of the miners’ support groups. If the organised revolutionary socialist left had worked together seriously —...