When the miners returned
March 3 1985 brought the longest trade union strike in UK history to an end and the country was to change irreversibly
In March 1984 thousands of UK coal miners downed tools and began strike action that was in direct response to government plans to close collieries across the country. Although few of them would have expected the standoff to last 12 months, the determination across the country to fight against a government that wanted to starve them back to work is something that should be held in high regard.
When miners went on strike in 1984, they didn’t do so for better pay. They did it to protect their industry and their communities. The closure of a pit would mean the loss of wages for hundreds of men, wages which went into local economies located around villages. The knock-on effect of colliery closures wasn’t fully realised at the time, and only decades later has the scale of financial and emotional turmoil been truly realised.
The 12 months of the strike saw a systematic attack on working-class communities, with the government, police, and media aiming at miners during their struggle. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to stamp out the efforts of the National Union of Mineworkers as a lesson to other trade unions in the country. For months the union’s members had endured a strike that would go down in history, and upon finally returning to work they were encouraged to do so with heads held high- and that’s exactly what they did.
At colliery gates across the country, March 1985 saw miners return to work with a sense of pride. People lined the streets, and brass bands played as workers prepared for what they hoped was a return to reality. Unfortunately, the strike would mean life would never be the same for miners.
The decision to strike split communities and even families in two. Regions of the UK turned their back on each other over the action, but the decimation of the mining industry wasn’t discriminative. Whether for or against the strike, by the turn of the century, all but a handful of collieries had been closed. Those who remained at work or went back early were in the same boat as those who stayed on the picket line for the entire strike.
NUM chief executive Arthur Scargill is a figure who splits opinion when it comes to the strike. For many miners, he was the charismatic leader who helped to get under the skin of a Conservative government. To others, he made the strike a personal vendetta against Margeret Thatcher- something which is argued clouded his judgment.
The most noticeable decision was not to have a national ballot on whether or not to strike. This left a feeling of resentment as large areas of the membership were opposed, meaning that a united effort was hamstrung before it had even begun. Many miners who didn’t strike
The legacy of this strike has left scars on communities across the country. Villages were left behind when their colliery went. A whole way of life was extinguished, and thousands of workers were left in need to find alternative employment.
The social impact of the strike will likely never be seen again in the UK. The need for coal was depleting, and environmental awareness made it so cleaner forms of energy were required. But the systematic and at times devastating closure of collieries hit communities so hard that recovery is still likely years away.
There are arguments that the strike became a battle of personalities between Scargill and Thatcher, which is true. Yet it's the mining communities, the sacrifices they made, and the struggles they endured, that need to be remembered as the central focus of this bitter year-long struggle between the working class and the establishment.
