Linkboks om den britiske kulminearbejderstrejke. Kampen startede 12. marts 1984 og sluttede 3. marts 1985.
(Socialistisk Bibliotek, marts 2009- )
In Danish:
Den britiske minestrejke 1984-85: Da minearbejderne blev slået. Af Charlie Lywood (Socialistisk Arbejderavis, nr. 338, 1. maj 2014). “Minearbejderstrejken i Storbritannien, som startede for 30 år siden, 6. marts 1984, var en skelsættende strejke.”
En historisk strejke i 1980’erne. Af Leif Hansen (Arbejderen.dk, 26. marts 2014). “Om læren af de engelske minearbejderes nederlag for 30 år siden – og af den nykonservative Thatcherisme.”
In English:
- UK miners’ strike (1984–1985) (Wikipedia.org). Længere artikel med mange links.
- Miners strike (Libcom.org). Archive theme.
- Topic: Great Miners’ Strike (Socialist Worker)
Articles/Books:
Here we go! Forty years on from the outbreak of the Great Strike (RS21: Revolutionary Socialism in the 21th Century, 6 March 2024)
“Forty years ago today British miners began industrial action in what became the longest and most bitter strike of the twentieth century. Here Brian Parkin, a former Research Officer for the National Union of Mineworkers, gives a brief introduction to this pivotal strike, the defeat of which has had a huge influence on the nature of class struggle in Britain since then.”
Forty years later, the Miners’ Strike leaves bitter memories. By Diarmaid Kelliher (Jacobin, March 6, 2024)
“On March 6, 1984, Britain’s coal miners began a strike against mass pit closures. Their yearlong struggle with Margaret Thatcher’s government was a defining moment in working-class history — and the miners’ eventual defeat left lasting scars.”
Continuing the false narrative (Weekly Worker, Issue 1478, 15 February 2024)
“Will Moore reviews Tom Barrow (director) ‘The miners’ strike 1984 – the battle for Britain’ Channel 4.”
Women and the miners’ strike 1984-5. By Kelly Rogers (Workers’ Liberty, 17 January 2024)
“The women’s support movement whirred into action only a few short weeks after the strike began on 6 March 1984. Support groups were set up in every coalfield by local women, predominantly the wives, sisters and daughters of miners. They would keep the strike going for 12 long months.”
Gays and miners: the enemy within (Workers’ Liberty, 17 January 2024)
“Clive Bradley … was an activist in Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), a campaign group which supported the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) during the year-long strike of 1984–5.”
The Miners’ fight in their own words. By Tom Blackburn (Jacobin, December 22, 2023)
“Based on the accounts of nearly 150 people directly involved in the 1984-85 miners’ strike, Robert Gildea’s new book [Backbone of the Nation: Mining Communities and the Great Strike of 1984-85, Yale University Press, 2023, 496 p.] is a powerful retelling of the seismic struggle that has divided Britain for decades.”
The British Miners’ Strike of 1984–85 was a landmark for women in the Labor movement. By Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Natalie Thomlinson (Jacobin, November 12, 2023)
“When Britain’s miners went on strike from 1984 to 1985, women joined the picket lines in unprecedented numbers. These women refused to be intimidated by the police or stay at home, and they left a lasting mark on the British labor movement.” Extract from their book, Women and the Miners’ Strike, 1984-1985 (Oxford University Press, 2023, 304 p.).
The real iron ladies: Women in the 1984/85 British miners’ strike (Marxist Left Review, Issue 20, Winter 2020)
“In this piece, Janey Stone draws upon the outpouring of articles, pamphlets, books, songs and poems produced by participants and supporters, many of which are completely forgotten now, to explore the role of women in the British Miners’ Strike of 1984/85.”
Miners’ Strike 35 years on (Rebel: The New Socialist Website, March 19, 2019)
“35 years on, and the impact of the great miners’ strike of 1984–85 still reverberates. Mike Simons, executive producer of the film Still the Enemy Within, takes a look back at this extraordinary struggle.”
How students supported the miners’ strike: an activist remembers (RS21: Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, 6 March 2019)
“Thirty-five years on, Colin Revolting remembers how he and his fellow students at Goldsmiths’ College offered support and solidarity to the striking miners over the year that followed.”
The long shadow of the British miners’ strike (SocialistWorker.org, April 28, 2015)
“Paul Dean remembers the struggle he supported 30 years ago, the great British miners’ strike of 1984-85, whose story is retold in a new documentary film (Still the Enemy Within, a documentary by Owen Gower.)
Newly released Thatcher documents show that miners could have won. By Simon Basketter (Socialist Worker, Issue 2435, 6 January 2015)
“A Downing Street report into the aftermath of the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike showed how close Margaret Thatcher’s government ‘came to disaster’. The National Archives released the document under the 30-year rule.”
Thirty years on: the Socialist Workers Party and the Great Miners’ Strike. By Dave Hayes (International Socialism, Issue 142, Spring 142)
“Some 30 years on it is important for a new generation of activists to understand the historical context in which the year-long struggle took place and how its bitter legacy still shapes the political and social landscape in Britain today.”
Miners strike: Militants and scabs. By David Douglass (Weekly Worker, Issue 1005, April 10, 2014). Review of Harry Paterson, Look back in anger: the miners’ strike in Nottinghamshire 30 years on (Five Leaves Publishing, 2014, 298 p.)
“To date this is the first serious attempt at an analytical history of the central role of that coalfield in the dispute – although, of course, there have been autobiographical accounts of the strike there.”
How Thatcher plotted our defeat. By David Douglass (Weekly Worker, Issue 1003, March 27, 2014). Review of Granville Williams (ed.), Settling scores: the media, the police and the miners’ strike (Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, 2014, 139 p.)
“Settling scores may be short, but it is an explosive exposition, drawing out the hidden truths revealed by the cabinet papers.”
Miners against Thatcherism. By Sean Ledwith (Counterfire, 20 March 2014)
“The year-long miners dispute changed the face of Britain and confirmed Margaret Thatcher’s status as a hate figure for the left.”
30 years since the Miner’s Strike (pdf) (Socialist Worker, 3 March 2014; online at Internet Archive). Special 12-page souvenir issue.
The strike that could have beaten Thatcher (Socialist Review, Issue 389, March 2014)
“… Sheila McGregor argues we could have won but for betrayal by trade union officials and Labour leaders.”
How the Miners’ Strike could have won (Socialist Worker, Issue 2393, 4 March 2014)
“Thirty years after the miners’ strike ended, Mike Simons takes issue with those who say the fight was doomed – and explains how miners could have beaten Thatcher.”
Miners: Record of tragedy. By David Douglass (Weekly Worker, Issue 992, January 9, 2014). Review of Peter Tuffrey, South Yorkshire people and coal: the gallant struggle and final decline (Fonthill Media, 2013, 176 p.)
“This is another in the pictorial series by Peter Tuffrey, this time charting the Yorkshire coalfield in what he has designated the South Yorkshire collieries, and communities, from start to finish.”
Looking back in anger: The Miners’ Strike 30 years on (Anticapitalist Initiative, Jauary 5, 2014; online at Internet Archive)
Interview with Harry Paterson (author of the upcoming book Look Back in Anger) about the new papers released by the National Archives.
Thatcher planned to send in troops to break miners. By Simon Basketter (Socialist Worker, Issue 2365, 6 August 2013)
“Newly released government documents shed light on secret Tory plans to target miners, Northern Ireland and England’s flood defences.”
25 years after the Great Miners’ Strike (International Socialism, Issue 126, Spring 2010, p.121-157)
“Jack Robertson places this epic contest in the context of of the development of the class struggle in Britain during the last decades of the 20th century.”
How the miners shook Thatcher (Socialist Worker, Issue 2191, 6 March 2010)
“Mark L Thomas talks to workers in Doncaster in Yorkshire about the enduring impact of the Great Miners’ Strike on the area.” With links to Photos.
The Miners’ Campaign Tapes: shocking film of the war waged against Britain’s miners. By Jack Robertson (Socialist Worker, Issue 2183, 9 January 2010)
“Newly released footage of the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike shows what the media buried.”
Britain: Remembering the great miners’ strike 1984-85 (In Defence of Marxism, 2 April 2009)
“Mick Brooks looks back at the 1984-85 miners’ strike (see also The Ridley Report). The British ruling class consciously prepared to take on the miners after they had suffered humiliation in 1972 and 1974.”
Remembering Britain’s forgotten civil war. By Mike Hume (The Spiked Review of Books, No.22, March 2009; online at Internet Archive)
“The history of the 1984-85 miners’ strike has been either rewritten or erased altogether. The miners, and history, deserve better.”
The Miner’s strike coul have won (Issue 2142, 10 March 2009).
“Socialist Worker commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Great Miners’ Strike.”
The Great Miners Strike 1984-5: Twelve months that shook Britain: the story of the strike. By Sean Matgamna and Martin Thomas (Workers Liberty, 4 November, 2008)
“In the great miners’ strikes of 1972 and 1974, miners had picketed coke depots and power stations. In 1984, for reasons which we examine, it had to be miners picketing out miners. That fact dominated and shaped the course of the strike.”
Strategic confrontation in the making (Weekly Worker, Issue 519, March 11, 2004)
“In the first of a series of articles Ian Donovan examines the background to the miners’ Great Strike.”
Pickets, ballots and workers’ defence (Issue 520, March 18)
“Ian Donovan continues his series on the miners’ Great Strike of 1984-85 by examining the key tactical and political questions.”
Solidarity squandered (Issue 521, March 25)
“Ian Donovan looks at the attempts to coordinate action alongside the miners.”
Miners Great Strike: Aftermath of defeat (Issue 522, April 1)
“In the last of his series on the miners’ Great Strike, Ian Donovan looks at its effects in the years that followed.”
Miners Strike: Activists remember the effects of the Great Miners’ Strike (Socialist Review, Issue 283, March 2004; online at Internet Archive)
“The Great Miners‘ Strike mobilised whole communities and transformed lives. Sally Campbell speaks to some of the many fighters about what they did at the time.”
Revisiting the miners’ strike. By Ken Smith (Socialism Today, Issue 81, March 2004)
“A look back at a struggle which still impacts on political, social and economic developments today.”
Britain: 20 years since the year-long miners’ strike, Part 1. By Chris Marsden and Julie Hyland (World Socialist Web Site, 5 March 2004) + Part 2 (6 March 2004)
“The year-long miners’ strike of 1984-85 was a watershed in political life in Britain. The worst single defeat suffered by the working class in the post-war period, its results continue to resonate to this day.”
The great miners’ strike, 1984-85 (League for the 5th International, 30 April 2004; online at Internet Archive)
“Mark Hoskisson looks back at this contest between the British state and the thousands of working class men and women, whom the Tory prime minister of the time, Margaret Thatcher, famously described as ‘the enemy within’.”
Twenty years on: the lessons of the 1984-85 miners’ strike, Part 1-2. By Phil Mitchinson (In Defense of Marxism, 5 March 2004)
“Twenty-five years ago on March 5, 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) embarked upon the most important class struggle in Britain since the general strike of 1926.”
‘The Enemy Within’ + Aftermath of Defeat Chapter 24 and 25 in Rob Sewell: In the Cause of Labour: A History of British Trade Unionism (Wellred Publications, 2003). See the book online.
Shifting Horizons. By Lynn Beaton (Canary Press, 1985, 265 p.; online at Marxists Internet Archive)
“In 1984 [Lynn Beaton was in] Britain in the midst of the British miners’ strike. Lynn went to Blidworth in Nottinghamshire, where she immersed herself for a year in the struggles of the miners’ wives.”
The 1984-85 miners’ strike. Part 3 in: Patterns of mass strike. By Tony Cliff (International Socialism, Issue 29, Summer 1985)
“The 1984-85 miners’ strike was radically different to that of 1972. The level of activity of rank-and-file miners was lower, and, crucially, they showed much less initiative and independence of the bureaucracy.”
The Miners’ Strike: A balance sheet (pdf) (Marxism Today, April 1985)
“A roundtable discussion: The outcome of the miners’ strike was a major setback. Now is the time to ask some questions.”
The Great Strike: The miner’s strike of 1984-5 and its lessons. By Alex Callinicos and Mike Simons (International Socialism, Issue 27/28, April 1985, 256 p.)
“This is the story of the longest major strike in the history of the British working class movement …”
Se også:
In 1972, Britain’s miners showed the power of the working class. By Ewan Gibbs (Jacobin, February 27, 2022)
“Fifty years ago today, British miners concluded a national strike after defeating their Conservative government. The 1972 victory opened up a decade of working-class radicalism, before Margaret Thatcher’s counterrevolution crippled organized labor.”
British miners built their own power and culture. Deindustrialization wiped it away. By Piper Winkler (Jacobin, October 30, 2021)
An interview with Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson: “Miners’ labor militancy transformed British politics and culture in the twentieth century. Then neoliberalism destroyed coal miners’ institutions and communities, upending British politics at the entire working class’s expense.”
