'Flying the Red Flag? Communists in the National
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1 ‘FLYING THE RED FLAG? COMMUNISTS IN THE NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS, 1945-1985’. SHERYL BERNADETTE BUCKLEY Ph.D. Thesis 2015. 2 ‘Flying the Red Flag? Communists in the National Union of Mineworkers, 1945-1985’. Volumes: I Sheryl Bernadette Buckley Submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Salford School of Arts and Media 2015 3 Contents I Communism and Coal pp.12- 38 1.0 The end p.12 1.1 Being British Communists p.13 1.2 The industrial strategy p.15 1.3 The Labour Party p.20 1.4 Building British Bolsheviks p.23 1.5 Perceptions of the strategy and party responses p.27 1.6 Perceptions of strength p.29 1.7 The CP and the NUM p.31 1.8 Self-identification p.37 II Literature Review pp.38- 61 2.0 Studying the CP and the NUM p.38 2.1 Why communist history? p.37 2.2 Ownership of the communist past p.40 2.3 Transparency p.41 2.4 Debates p.42 2.5 The CP and the Soviet Union p.44 2.6 The Cold War and industrial politics p.44 2.7 The link between King Street and coalfield Communists p.46 2.8 Proving the link: evidence p.48 2.9 Horner and the party p.49 2.1.0 Post-nationalisation changes? p.51 2.1.1 Unofficial strikes p.52 2.1.2 Official strikes p.53 2.1.3 Agitators or instigators? p.54 2.1.4 Wage militancy and surplus labour p.55 2.1.5 Economism and politicisation p.56 2.1.6 Scargillism p.58 2.1.7 Main research objectives and originality p.61 III Sources and Methods pp.62-71 3.0 The Historical Method p.62 3.1 Sources p.62 3.2 Labour History and Study Centre, Manchester p.63 3.3 Working Class Movement Library, Salford p.65 3.4 The NUM Yorkshire Area Offices, Barnsley p.67 3.5 Modern Records Centre, Warwick p.67 3.6 The National Archives p.67 3.7 The British Library p.68 3.8 South Wales’ Miners’ Library (SWML) p.68 3.9 Interviews p.68 3.1.0 Analysis p.70 3.1.1 Interpretation p.70 3.1.2 Analysis of methodology p.71 4 IV War, wages, and nationalisation, 1945-1956 pp.72-106 4.0 A national Miners’ Union p.72 4.1 The post-war CP and Labour p.73 4.2 The Cold War p.77 4.3 The construction of the CP’s industrial strategy p.78 4.4 Nationalisation and the NCB p.78 4.5 Production and Saturday working p.81 4.6 Anti-communism p.83 4.7 Countering anti-communism p.85 4.8 Building the party: project Yorkshire p.88 4.9 Wage militancy and wage restraint p.88 4.1.0 Piecework p.93 4.1.1 Unofficial strikes p.97 4.1.2 Prospects for unofficial strike action p.97 4.1.3 Dissemination of the strategy p.98 4.1.4 Other work p.103 4.1.5 Conclusions p.105 V The changing context of coal 1957-1968 pp.107-132 5.0 Response to change p.107 5.1 Pit closures p.109 5.3 The difficulty of applying wage militancy in the NUM p.111 5.4 Wage increases in a declining industry: fighting inflation p.113 5.5 Commitment to wage militancy p.114 5.6 Debates around the effectiveness of wage militancy p.115 5.7 Wage militancy in the NUM? p.115 5.8 Good trade unionists? p.118 5.9 The National Power Loading Agreement (1966) p.120 5.1.0 Winning leadership positions p.121 5.1.1 The broad left p.125 5.1.2 Scargillism: syndicalism and the broad left? p.127 5.1.3 The logistics of the national broad left p.128 5.1.4 Conclusions p.131 Chapter VI Miners on the Offensive pp.133-155 6.0 The end of acquiescence p.132 6.1 Debates within the party around strategy p.135 6.2 Economic approaches p.136 6.3 Protests p.137 6.4 Daly and Labour p.138 6.5 Elections p.138 6.6 Strikes p.140 6.7 Perceptions of 1969 p.142 6.8 1971: militants on the march? p.144 6.9 The CP and the 1972 strike p.146 6.1.0 1973 p.148 5 6.1.1 Politicising accidents p.152 6.1.2 Conclusions p.153 VII Chapter VII: Implosion 1975-1985 pp.156-180 7.0 Change p.156 7.1 Contracts and plans p.157 7.2 Piecework p.159 7.3 Wage Militancy p.160 7.4 Disunity p.165 7.5 Scargill’s manifesto p.166 7.6 Growing the party p.167 7.7 Communist divisions and the NUM’s strategy p.168 7.8 Nottinghamshire p.171 7.9 Communists criticising the union p.172 7.1.0 Challenges from the left p.176 7.1.1 Conclusions p.177 VIII Flying the Red Flag? pp.181-192 8.0 Endgame p.181 8.1 Wage militancy in the NUM p.182 8.2 Communist identities p.183 8.3 ‘Scargillism’ p.184 8.4 Communists in the NUM: future research p.185 8.5 Communist politics p.186 8.6 Research questions and originality p.192 9.0 Bibliography pp.193-228 9.1 The National Archives p.193 9.2 The Miners’ Offices p.193 9.3 Working Class Movement Library p.223 9.4 Labour History Centre p.201 9.5 British Library p.212 9.6 South Wales Miners’ Library p.213 9.7 Diaries, Memoirs and Autobiographies p.213 9.8 Secondary works- books and thesis p.214 9.9 Secondary works- articles and papers p.226 9.1.0 Television, internet, miscellaneous p.232 6 Acknowledgements I am really privileged to get to the stage where I am writing the acknowledgements to my PhD thesis, and it is a humbling task. A doctorate, paradoxically, creates an individual who manages to be a strange hybrid of terrific isolation and neurotic dependency; at least, that’s my experience of it. For that reason, I am immensely grateful to so many people who have supported and put up with me. As a child, post-16 education was never on the cards; my biggest wish during school was to escape and find some fruitful source of employment that would allow me to indulge my passion for horses. But, somewhere between there and my current age, numerous people have helped me, developed my confidence, and inspired me to undertake a doctorate. There are too many to mention individually, but I am grateful to them all. Thank you to the University of Salford for funding my research through the ‘Graduate Teaching Assistant’ programme, and additionally funding some conferences and archive trips. I would not have been able to undertake my degree without this generous opportunity. I would like to thank my supervisory team, Professor John Callaghan and Dr Ben Harker. John’s expertise in, and passion for, the British left has inspired me to continually strive to do my best in my own research; I am grateful for his support and knowledge. Ben has shown me enduring patience, encouragement, and kindness; his ongoing support is the reason why the thesis is being presented for examination. Both my supervisors have allowed me to manage my PhD, giving me enough freedom to be able to develop my ideas and research interests; they have also encouraged me to pursue other opportunities outside of the PhD, such as conferences and papers. I would like to thank them both. All of this, I hope, has helped me to become a better researcher. Any errors or omissions are, however, all mine. Thank you also to my interviewees, Dr Hywel Francis and Graham Stevenson. Darren and Julie at the People’s History Museum in Manchester and Lynette and her team of volunteers at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford were hospitable, encouraging, and knowledgeable during my numerous visits! Thanks also to the staff at the Modern Records Centre in Warwick; the National Archives in Kew; the British Library in London; the South Wales’ Miners’ Library; and the NUM office in Barnsley. I am also grateful to those who gave guidance on journal papers and conference papers, all of whom have helped clarify and shape issues within the thesis. My gratitude also extends to the numerous academics who I have contacted via email, with particular questions or discussions around a shared interest. Special 7 thanks should also go to the Royal Historical Society, who generously funded my contribution to a conference in Denmark. How do I thank my parents, who have supported me so much? Perhaps completing (and hopefully passing!) my degree will go some way towards doing that. As the first person in my family to go to university, I’m not sure that they imagined I’d still be at it into my early thirties. My Dad remains my greatest inspiration, for reasons he knows, and he has been the constant rock throughout my PhD. My Mum, too, has been a constant source of support, guidance, and encouragement. Both have helped stave off complete destitution during my post-funding period. I would also like to thank John, my finance, for his support and for shouldering more than his fair share of domestic and equine duties, neither of which he particularly enjoys! Living with somebody doing a PhD has probably not always been easy.