so near - so far: a history of the british miners (2005) A Selective History of Miners' (and a few other) Struggles Up To And Including The 1984-5 Strike (Completed in June 2005) Preamble We have re-organised this text in March 2006, cutting out ³Miner Conflicts - Major Contradictions´ as a separate text, putting it in as one chapter (chapter 13) in the whole text, and thus changing this preamble, which was originally an introduction. Unlike the ³Miner Conflicts«´ text, this text takes place in a vacuum: it cannot influence any specific movement, and has no intention of doing so. Unlike most of the reflections on the strike 20 years after, and on the history of miners struggles in general, its aim is to contribute to developing an analysis of the strike and the present day situation in Britain in order to extract a few pointers to a possible future practical use, just as analyses of, for example, the Spanish Revolution (1936-37), contributed to a supercession of anarchist ideology and an attack on Stalinism. In the present desert of practical opposition to this increasingly suicidal world, this may seem over-ambitious. But if you don't aim high you always end up low. Although I sometimes use ³we´, this text has essentially been put together by just one person, though with considerable help, advice, and encouragement from a good friend. CHAPTERS \Introduction \Chapter 1: 1926 to the early 60s: The General Strike«Spencerism«A.J.Cook and the project of nationalisation«World War II« Nationalisation«wildcats against the NUM«Industrial capital v. Finance capital« \Chapter 2: A True Story of A Young Miner in the 60s. \Chapter 3: The Late 60s to early 70s: 1969 wildcats«In Place Of Strife«1970 wildcats« \Chapter 4: A Look at Dave Douglass's View of Miners Trade Union History Up Till The'72 Strike \Chapter 5: The 1972 Miners Strike \Chapter 6: 1973 - 1980: 1974 strike«a conversation with miners«Labour government«Benn helps divide miners«Tory plan for defeating working class« \Chapter 7: The 1980 Steel Strike \Chapter 8: 1980 - 1983: Tories test water«'All Lies' leaflet«NUM collaborates in closures« \Chapter 9: The Printworkers Struggle At Warrington, 1983. \Chapter 10: The run-up to the Great Strike. \Chapter 11: March - April 1984: The inevitable' strike«from wildcat strike to official strike«ballots and bourgeois democracy« cop repression«killing of David Jones«imaginative actions«Ravenscraig« Edlington schoolkids«'Misery of Unions' leaflet & the Barcelona dockers« \Chapter 12: May- June 1984: More imaginative actions«Orgreave«Central London comes to halt«Maltby riot«shops looted« \Chapter 13: Beginning of July 1984: The text ³Miner Conflicts - Major Contradictions´. \Chapter 14: July - August 1984: 1st dockers strike«Fitzwilliam riot«hit squads and more local riots« \Chapter 15: September - October 1984: 2nd dockers strike«TUC Brighton Conference«pathetic Leftism«niceness and urgency«Contradictions of the NUM«.More attacks on NCB property and on cops«Thatcher almost caves in«IRA bombs Thatcher« unpublished leaflet«NACODS and the almost strike«MI5ƍs dirty tricks«Thatcher almost lost«almost almost« \Chapter 16: November - beginning of December 1984: A divided ruling class«NCB bribe«more rage against the State«Willis attacked«NCB figures for scabbing«death of scab driver «Kinnock«discussion on class violence« \Chapter 17: The Last Three Months - December to beginning of March: Collections, charity and the Band Aid spectacle«strikers Christmas«Snow fun«Power cuts«the subtle sell-out«contradictions of low level NUM officials«increasing scabbing«Tony Benn«indifference towards the strike«Paul Foot«the bitter end« \Chapter 18: The End of the Strike - March 1985 \Chapter 19: The Period Up To The Present. \Chapter 20: Now and the Future: Atmosphere in pit villages«media images of strike«gang psychosis of daily life«suicide«comparisons with France« Introduction All useful, radical, analysis of the history of class struggle comes down to recognising how we, the masses of individuals, failed to make that leap in the past so as to ´ learn the lessons ´ of this failure in order to help make that leap in some possible future (whether it be next week or in ten years time). However, the miners strike was unique and such an opportunity will not arise in anything like such historical circumstances ever again: history does not repeat itself at this level, but clarifying the past is a necessary moment in helping us see and confront the present afresh. It 's certainly not essential in itself but such reflection is one of the essentials. Sure, we have some misgivings about writing about the history of the miners, and in particular, the Great Strike, when there are very few miners left. It's a bit like fighting ghosts - even though the '84-'85 strike haunts us in the present, it 's clearly also dead. For some, recounting these past details of a semi-revolutionary movement might seem like pornography for the celibate - a vicarious pleasure in past passions to console for the lack of real excitement between people in the present. So if it doesn't incite something really good between people, then much of this is not much better than an erotic memory. For this reason, we hope that this is not just treated as a curiosity, informative and interesting to read: we hope it will have some use - sometimes in its general insights, sometimes in its details, for people in the world (if not in the UK for the moment) who might yet find - or put - themselves in a situation of mass struggle, even though obviously no struggle is ever the same. We trust that there will be some things in this text, and not just banalities (e.g. a critique of trade unions), which are still applicable for other places in another epoch. What is the relation of the past to the present? Marx famously said ³the traditions of the past weigh like a nightmare on the brains of the living´. Clearly, analysis of the past and of your relation to it is part of breaking through to a more experimental and subversive life in the present. But, contrary to what radical historians say, you only begin to understand the past, to uncover and use it, when you attack the present. Psychologists claim an individual must first of all understand their past in order to supercede it. But this is a task without end and if one is always looking for the cause one remains stuck in an introspective retreat from action. Moreover, one only discovers which aspects of the past need to be focussed on in finding out how to use this knowledge in the present, in confronting the obstacles to one 's desires. What 's true of individuals ' pasts is also true for the pasts of the masses of individuals, the pasts of social movements. So, even on the level of preparing for an attack to come, the extent to which a thorough critical knowledge of struggles from 20 years ago plays a part is fairly tenuous. Though some general and even very specific lessons can certainly be applied to possible present and future struggles, such knowledge doesn't play the essential part - the essential theories relate to events which can be influenced by the theories - anyone can be right ' 20 years too late. Theory in the present is always made on the hoof: sadly, so many of those that claim to be revolutionary think they can wait till a struggle is over before they can provide some analysis, because they are fearful of making mistakes. Maybe better late than never, but like those involved directly in the practical risks of the moment, far better to make new mistakes with all the risks of imperfection they entail, than to wait till it all becomes a largely abstract question. For this reason, amongst others, this text should have been written in the few years after the strike, when such a reflection could have influenced miners when there still were some (although it was very difficult to see clearly the enormous extent of the coming devastation until it was too late). In fact, one of the main reasons for writing this is to feed a subjective need: to help exorcise the obsession of the miners strike that has churned through my head - and other people 's - for the last 20 years, to off-load the traditions of the past weighing like a nightmare on my brain. Of course, as I have just said, the limitations of psychoanalysis show that obsessions can only seriously be exorcised by some practical supercession. And most of the essential aspects of practice depend on not so much just individual will (say, by writing this bit of critical history, for example) but on the will of the masses of individuals, on a social will, which advances and - at this moment in history - enormously retreats. For this reason this writing will have achieved some real exorcism only by influencing the mass action of individuals a little. Ambitious maybe, but this would be the only satisfactory overcoming of the constant niggles that the miners failure still causes people, because the results of this failure are still in the world about us and still desperately need to be corrected. There is no moving on', to use the psychological buzz word beloved by our beloved Prime Minister, until the practical situation is changed. The effects of the miners' defeat were global. Just as it severely weakened and demoralised the working class, particularly in Britain, so it boosted the confidence of the ruling class immeasurably, and was one of the major factors ushering in privatization, the roll-back of the welfare state and all the horrors of a world apparently without exit.