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BUT ...

But all this begs a question. The miners proved that British Coal's estimate of the potential of its pits was wrong; and they proved that the miners themselves could run the enterprise efficiently and profitably. So why was Tower colliery unique? Why did no one else attempt something similar? Why did the success of Tower colliery not inspire a general policy of worker management throughout the NUM or other parts of the trade union movement? Why, indeed, was it not itself the product of a general policy of encouraging different forms of worker management in the NUM and other parts of the Trade Union movement?

We can turn the question on its head. Why did the NUM, which had previously been sternly opposed to any form of worker involvement in management, not oppose the Tower Colliery initiative? Which was clearly quite in harmony with the Tory government's privatisation policy - hence the support of John Redwood - and which could be said to have proved not just that workers were capable of managing and profiting from a purely capitalist enterprise, but also that a purely capitalist enterprise was capable of serving the interests and inspiring the enthusiastic support of the workers.

In September 1984 - at the height of the miners' strike, the Ernest Bevin Society (responsible for producing the Labour and Trade Union Review) published The Miners Debate Workers Control, an account of a meeting organised by the NUM in Harrogate in December 1977 to discuss the Bullock Report on Industrial Democracy. [3] Most of the speakers supported the idea of Industrial Democracy but it was opposed, vigorously, by Arthur Scargill. He said:

"It is impossible to have workers control within a capitalist society. Capitalism by its very nature, produces contradictions which cannot be resolved until and unless we change the system of society. We have to change the system, otherwise workers control cannot be obtained.

"What we can have within our society is class collaboration and compromise with the mixed economy ...

"Participation will only perpetuate capitalism. The NUM should not be misled into supporting the theory of workers control within our existing society.

"It cannot work and it is against the basic constitution of our Union and the wider labour movement. Our constitution calls not for collaboration with capitalism, but for a change of society ... "

[3] The pamphlet is reproduced elsewhere on this website.

Scargill reaffirmed this position in 1992 when, addressing the NUM National conference, he said: 'Britain's miners have attempted 'buy-outs' or co-operatives before with disastrous results ... the co-operatives failed to recognize that they were operating in a hostile capitalist environment.'

On Scargill's reckoning, then, the Tower colliery adventure was a despicable piece of class collaboration. It is therefore surprising to learn from O'Sullivan's account that he was actually in Scargill's house when the news came through that Michael Heseltine had announced at the Conservative conference that the TEBO team had become the preferred the bidders for the Tower Colliery. 'I told Arthur the fantastic news and he congratulated me and we shook hands ...'  Not a word about class collaboration or holding back the working class in its advance towards a socialist Britain. We might note that after the failure of the 1984 strike, when Arthur Scargill was widely accused of leading the miners to disaster, Tyrone O'Sullivan was one of the main organisers of the campaign to secure his re-election as President of the Union.

Of course a worker controlled enterprise operating in a predominately capitalist society in a fully capitalist manner is far from ideal. But it was better than the alternatives on offer when the opportunity for operating worker controlled enterprises in a largely socialised economy had been thrown away.

Privatisation was designed as a means by which management - declared by the likes of Arthur Scargill to be eternally alien to the interests of the workforce - could acquire yet more untrammelled power over the workforce. In Tower colliery it became something else - a means by which a coalmining community could thrive and prosper, and profit could be made to serve a collective interest. If it had occurred within a general working class culture willing to be inspired by it and to learn from the example it could have opened the door to many other possibilities. As it is, it was a great experience for those who were involved in it. It would be very sad if it was never to be anything more than that.