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The Pit Strike in Perspective

A critical account published in December 1984 by the Ernest Bevin Society


A mass rally of striking miners in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire in May 1984.


A copy of this article can be downloaded as a Word document here


Introduction - Plan for Coal - Opposition in the Labour Movement
A strike doomed to failure.

Solidarity - The Development of Modern Trade Unionism - A successful Union Strategy
How the working class historically has seen the relationship between trade union activity and politics.

Defeat and "New Realism" - Arthur Scargill’s View of the World
'Moderation' v 'class war' in the Labour movement. Class war wins.

The Attitude of the Working Class to the Miners’ Strike - No Sympathy
But not in the working class as a whole. 

The Class Accommodation - The Unpalatable History - Kinnock and the TUC have No Answers
The post war consensus both Thatcher and Scargill want to break.

Neither Maggie nor Arthur - The Refusal to Develop Working Class Power - The 1926 Strike - What We Do Now
The alternative. Aiming for responsibility.


Appendix 1 - Uneconomic Pits and The Agreed Plan for Coal

What the 'plan for coal' actually says.

Appendix 2 - The NCB & the NUM
A tradition of partnership, not enmity.