The Enemy Within

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THE ENEMY WITHIN provides unique insight into one of the most dramatic events in British history: the 1984-85 Miners' Strike. No experts. No politicians. Thirty years on, this is the raw first-hand experience of those who lived through Britain's longest strike. Follow the highs and lows of that life-changing year.

In 1984, a Conservative government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war on Britain's unions, taking on the strongest in the country, the National Union of Mineworkers. Following a secret plan, the government began announcing the closure of coal mines, threatening not just an industry but whole communities and a way of life.
Against all the forces the government could throw at them, 160,000 coal miners took up the fight. THE ENEMY WITHIN tells the story of a group of miners and supporters who were on the frontline of that strike for an entire year. These were people that Margaret Thatcher labelled 'the enemy within'.

Using interviews and a wealth of rare and never before seen archival footage, THE ENEMY WITHIN draws together personal experiences - whether they're tragic, funny or terrifying - to take the audience on an emotionally powerful journey through the dramatic events of that year.

Contains strong language.

The feature film PRIDE is based on the LGBT community's participation in the strike.

'Gripping, timely...The miner narrators take us into the fierce heat of the battle and remind us the struggle for good jobs, livable communities, and dignity for all is far from over. This is an inspiring, beautifully-rendered film of resistance that reveals how today's economic and political crises came to be.' Dorothy Sue Cobble, Distinguished Professor of History and Labor Studies, Rutgers University

'A sympathetic and insightful portrait of one of the most important strikes in recent history...Highly recommended.' P. Hall, Video Librarian

'Moving and powerful, this movie shows how manipulative political power can be but also how passionate and irresistible the struggle for justice is. It redresses history and proves the neo-liberals are the enemies of democracy.' Nadia Urbinati, Professor of Political Theory, Columbia University

'A compelling testament to the power of solidarity...Feminist, LGBT, and Black Power organizations all had a hand in gathering money and supplies...The Enemy Within is not only a compelling account of social struggle, and the methods the miners employed to carry on, but it also serves as an inspiration towards another way of thinking about and conceiving politics.' Riad Azar, Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture

'By listening to the stories of these miners, our lives and our work can improve...This film could provoke interesting classroom conversations about the power of the people, appropriate power of the state, and the rights given to corporations. Students and community groups can also learn much from this film about tactics for nonviolent activism and its costs and rewards.' Whole Terrain Journal

'Vital and valuable...Students and community activists alike can only benefit from revisiting this prolonged clash between a trade union committed to social justice and a government prepared to use excessive force to permanently weaken the voice of labor. The unfinished agenda left to us by those battling miners is one that deserves to be renewed and pursued by a new generation of progressive activists. The Enemy Within can be an effective trigger to that renewal.' David Coates, Professor and Chair, Anglo-American Studies, Wake Forest University, Author, Prolonged Labour: The Slow Birth of New Labour Britain

'I can't express enough my admiration for Owen Gower's remarkable film. It moved and inspired me. Everyone - not only in Britain - should see this superb film.' John Pilger, Journalist and Filmmaker

'Help[s] us understand the bleak conditions that we face today...If you want to understand how we ended up with the austerity regime that prevails in all industrial countries in the West and in Japan, there are a number of strikes whose outcome would determine economic conditions for decades to come.' Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

'Highly recommended, especially for public and college library and DVD shelves.' The Midwest Book Review

'Finally, a documentary as sweeping and dramatic as the momentous strike it chronicles. Narrated by the rank-and-file miners, wives, and supporters who waged it, replete with vivid historical footage, and informed by recently uncovered documentary evidence, this film recounts a turning point defeat for trade unionism that helped usher an era of growing inequality not only in Great Britain but across the West. The struggle between Margaret Thatcher and the miners resonates down to the present day.' Joseph McCartin, Professor of History, Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, Georgetown University

'Interweaving personal stories with archival clips and reenactment footage, the film follows the miners as they walk off the job...Interesting for providing firsthand accounts of the historic strike, the film highlights the price union members paid for standing up for their beliefs and ideals.' Candace Smith, Booklist

'[The film] presents this lived experience economically and with great force, focused intently on faces and voices of men and women as they channel a wide range of decades-old emotions. They exalt in their erstwhile power, reveal sharp personal disappointment at the absence of support from other unions or the Labour Party, and cry as they recall defeat. Particularly memorable is the unanimous conviction that the strike really had stakes and really could have been won.' Tim Barker, Dissent Magazine

'A raw and moving portrait of the dispute...showing events from the perspective of those who manned the picket lines.' Jonathan Wright, BBC History Magazine's DVDs of the Year

'A powerful story...Seeing the brutal tactics deployed by the government and how the police and media went along with these crimes shocks the viewer. But the response of the miners will empower anyone who watches the film for the hope of a better future.' Dr. Eric Loomis, Assistant Professor of History, University of Rhode Island

'This film is important because if we forget what happened during the miners' strike then we are weakening ourselves and disarming ourselves for the future. Let's analyze what happened...Let's make sure we build a strong trade union and labour movement that can prevent another Margaret Thatcher.' Jeremy Corbyn, newly elected Leader of the Labour Party, Member of Parliament for Islington North

'A documentary as gripping as any thriller. Thirty years on, the strike looks like a civil war that turned into a siege, during which the insurgents were starved into submission...The Conservative government planned nothing less than the emasculation of union power by abolishing the domestic coal industry, and was quite uninterested in what all those irredeemable non-Tory voters were supposed to do for a living afterwards...Gower's film is a heartfelt tribute to the communities who were hammered by political, not economic, forces. They look bloodied, but unbowed.' Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

'Too few Americans know the story of the 1984-85 British miners' strike; The Enemy Within tells it beautifully. Drawing on colorful archival footage and lively interviews, this is an important and entertaining film, with lessons about labor, politics, and the importance of solidarity that echo with relevance today.' Erik Linstrum, Assistant Professor of History, University of Virginia, Author, Ruling Minds: Psychology in the British Empire

'An eloquent and passionate oral history about what it felt like to be on the losing side, but the side of the angels, during one of the most significant turning points in modern British social, economic and political history.' The Independent

'Historically, the collective strength of coal miners was one of the engines of 20th century democracy, essential to the British labor movement's influence...Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government understood this and decided to break the union. They succeeded ruthlessly...Three decades later, The Enemy Within tells this story vividly and movingly, as men and women from the mining communities recall their involvement against footage and photographs from the time.' Geoff Eley, Professor of Contemporary History, University of Michigan

'Tells the story...with the most impressive set of archive footage ever assembled...[T]he idea that the police could stage a mass violation of civil liberties, subjecting tens of thousands of people to arbitrary detentions and the military occupation of their villages - most of it barely reported by the mainstream media - will seem weird to young audiences now. If the miners had possessed smartphones, Twitter and the Human Rights Act - let alone Al-Jazeera and Russia Today - the outcome might have been different.' Paul Mason, The Guardian

'Lovingly made, beautifully shot and wonderfully soundtracked - this is timely, important and truthful cinema, at once bitter, nostalgic and unexpectedly uplifting.' Tom Huddlestone, Time Out

'Heartbreaking. Infuriating. Necessary. The Enemy Within offers a people's history of one of the defining events in modern British history. It should find a place in any course that covers the late-twentieth century.' Guy Ortolano, Associate Professor of History, New York University, Author, The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature, and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain

'There has been no other piece of work so far that has made this conflict feel so alive and, most crucially, relevant to our own day and age.' Gary Green, Quietus

'The complex and violent drama of the miner's strike is captured in this brilliantly calibrated British documentary...This is a well-honed people's history with little in the way of dramatization...And those who care anything for contemporary struggles can find themes that recur today across the world. In the ashes of the pits - which all disappeared within ten years of the strike - remains a little anti-establishment fire and legible notes on how to take on an adversary ten times your size.' Sophie Monks Kaufman, Little White Lies

'Brilliantly done and deadly serious, yet not without humor.' Jason Solomon, Daily Mail

'Eye-opening, often moving, sometimes funny, frequently shocking...A sober and surprisingly affirming film about then, and now.' New Internationalist

'The mainstream media didn't tell the truth about the miners' strike when it happened. And the same lies are still being told. It's therefore important that we tell this story.' Ken Loach, Filmmaker

'A superb film...For educators and general audiences, the film powerfully illustrates how an inspiring solidarity-'something to behold'-staved off ascendant capital to remind us that 'the future is still up for grabs.'' Laurie Mercier, Professor of History, Washington State University, Co-author, Mining Women: Gender in the Development of a Global Industry

Citation

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Main credits

Gower, Owen (film director)
Gower, Owen (film producer)
Kirwan, Sinead (film producer)
Lacey, Mark (film producer)
Hird, Christopher (film producer)
Simons, Mike (film producer)
Lavington, Amelia (producer)
Wilkinson, Gerard (producer)
Hadley, Malcolm (director of photography)
Edmunds, Paul (editor of moving image work)

Other credits

Executive producers, Christopher Hird and Mike Simons; edit producer, Amelia Lavington; archive producer, Gerard Wilkinson; director of photography, Malcolm Hadley; Editor, Paul Edmunds.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

British miners' strike, Margaret Thatcher, war on the unions, Britain longest strike, England, Conservative government, National Union of Mineworkers, Arthur Scargill, Ridley Plan, Ian MacGregor, National Coal Board, NACODS, picketing, Yorkshire, Nottingham, David Jones death, Ollerton, Battle of Orgreave, police brutality, South Yorkshire police, South Wales, Trades Union Congress, women's contribution, gay activists, movie Pride; "The Enemy Within"; Bullfrog Films,doc; history; sociss; economics;

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00:00:10.918 --> 00:00:17.000
There was a lot of men’s lives
wrapped up in this place.

00:00:18.125 --> 00:00:23.999
You’d walk across this gantry
and enter the airlock.

00:00:25.334 --> 00:00:29.501
At that point
you’d entered another world.

00:00:31.834 --> 00:00:37.542
A world of noise.
There was no music, no birds singing.

00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:45.501
It was completely, entirely, brutally
industrial in every single aspect.

00:00:47.417 --> 00:00:50.375
You’d get your pit gear on,
your helmet, your boots

00:00:50.542 --> 00:00:54.667
and you\'d walk across the yard...
the bells rang.

00:00:56.250 --> 00:00:58.876
The steel doors would slam shut

00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.417
and you’d descend
and you’d set off slowly

00:01:02.584 --> 00:01:08.542
then you’d just drop like a bullet,
and at that point there was silence.

00:01:08.709 --> 00:01:12.334
VENTILATION SHAFT

00:01:12.501 --> 00:01:16.584
It\'s a real shock to come back
and see it all like this.

00:01:20.667 --> 00:01:24.209
At one point
well over 2,000 people worked here.

00:01:24.375 --> 00:01:28.292
When you think that was
over 2,000 breadwinners for families,

00:01:28.542 --> 00:01:33.209
working in the bowels of the earth
producing coal,

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which apparently at the time
was the future, as we thought, but...

00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:47.959
people higher up the pecking order
thought otherwise.

00:02:01.792 --> 00:02:05.959
THE BRITISH COAL INDUSTRY
IS THREATENED

00:02:06.083 --> 00:02:09.626
160,000 MINERS GO ON STRIKE

00:02:11.083 --> 00:02:12.626
VICTORY TO THE MINERS

00:02:14.959 --> 00:02:19.334
THE LONGEST NATIONAL STRIKE
IN BRITISH HISTORY

00:02:26.083 --> 00:02:28.999
THE MINERS ACTIVE
ON THE FRONTLINE NUMBER...

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JUST 16 000

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THE MEDIA DUBS THEM

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ARTHUR\'S ARMY

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As national president of this union
I\'ll tell you the terms:

00:02:52.959 --> 00:02:55.542
No pit closures, no--

00:02:56.501 --> 00:02:59.709
MARGARET THATCHER
CALLS THEM THE ENEMY WITHIN

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THIS IS THEIR STORY

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They are the enemies of democracy,

00:03:08.292 --> 00:03:11.167
they\'re trying to kill democracy
for their own purposes.

00:03:11.709 --> 00:03:18.918
THE ENEMY WITHIN

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A hard, dirty, dangerous, tough job.

00:03:47.667 --> 00:03:50.000
When you’re doing a coalface,

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they have a thing called the hellhole
at one end and it’s got no support.

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I used to think, “I bet it collapses
when I’m going through it”

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and I used to scurry through it
like a rat.

00:04:03.876 --> 00:04:07.792
I was sitting there eating
my sandwich and drinking my tea

00:04:07.959 --> 00:04:12.125
and I couldn’t see the bloke sitting
a foot away because of the dust.

00:04:12.292 --> 00:04:14.999
I could just see
this dull yellow glow of his lamp.

00:04:15.167 --> 00:04:18.167
He said, “Sunderland were crap
on Saturday, weren’t they?”

00:04:18.334 --> 00:04:20.083
I said ‘I know.’

00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:25.584
Anybody watching this scene
would think ‘God!’ They’d run a mile.

00:04:25.999 --> 00:04:29.834
And we\'re sitting as if it’s
the most natural thing in the world.

00:04:31.792 --> 00:04:34.626
Being a miner in those times
was like living politics.

00:04:34.792 --> 00:04:38.792
It was not talking about politics,
it wasn’t abstract; it was real.

00:04:39.626 --> 00:04:45.209
If someone was sent out of the pit
for some ridiculous misdemeanour

00:04:45.375 --> 00:04:48.584
everybody in the pit would down tools
and go out the pit.

00:04:48.834 --> 00:04:55.292
The idea of solidarity, sticking
together was something tangible.

00:04:55.459 --> 00:04:59.083
It really meant something to us,
it wasn’t just a slogan.

00:05:00.209 --> 00:05:02.751
Sticking together
just becomes a habit.

00:05:05.709 --> 00:05:09.876
When I was buying my first house
I went to see a mortgage advisor.

00:05:10.542 --> 00:05:15.501
Mortgage lenders would give you
three times your annual salary.

00:05:15.667 --> 00:05:17.751
They said they’d give us four times.

00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:23.334
When I asked why he said:
Your job, unlike others, is secure.

00:05:23.626 --> 00:05:25.375
You\'ve got a job for life.

00:05:27.792 --> 00:05:30.417
If you know
what a coal mine looks like,

00:05:30.584 --> 00:05:33.334
get a job
in Britain\'s modern mining industry

00:05:33.501 --> 00:05:35.626
and get more out of life.

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Be a miner.
Ask at your local pit or job centre.

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PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS NEED COAL

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A huge crowd and a huge cheer.

00:06:03.626 --> 00:06:11.459
1979 MARGARET THATCHER
IS ELECTED BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

00:06:11.626 --> 00:06:16.751
Her Majesty the Queen has asked me
to form a new administration...

00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:18.792
and I have accepted.

00:06:19.292 --> 00:06:25.125
Thatcher\'s intention
plainly stated by her.

00:06:25.417 --> 00:06:30.834
She was going to change
industrial relations for good.

00:06:31.292 --> 00:06:36.292
She was going
to change British society...

00:06:36.501 --> 00:06:41.000
away from dependence on state
and all those things.

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She was going for the throat.

00:06:57.334 --> 00:06:59.834
MANUFACTURING TRADE BALANCE

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TIME SPENT FINDING A JOB

00:07:05.709 --> 00:07:07.083
OFFICIAL STRIKE

00:07:08.792 --> 00:07:11.834
There has been a sharp rise
in the number of people without work.

00:07:11.999 --> 00:07:13.667
Jobs are vanishing faster.

00:07:13.834 --> 00:07:17.375
The number of people out of work
took a sharp turn for the worst.

00:07:30.709 --> 00:07:35.334
I have only one thing to say:
You turn if you want to.

00:07:38.751 --> 00:07:41.584
The lady\'s not for turning.

00:07:55.292 --> 00:07:57.542
The real problem we face today...

00:07:57.709 --> 00:08:02.999
is we’ve lived through a long period
of increasing trade union power.

00:08:03.417 --> 00:08:05.209
It’s also been a period

00:08:05.375 --> 00:08:10.834
when we’ve had increasing left-wing
militancy in control of the unions.

00:08:11.876 --> 00:08:15.417
Oh yes we have
and the country knows it.

00:08:15.584 --> 00:08:20.667
The people in the rank-and-file
of the unions know it too.

00:08:21.709 --> 00:08:26.417
Unions meant something
in Britain and...

00:08:26.584 --> 00:08:31.918
at the head of that movement was
the National Union of Mineworkers.

00:08:32.209 --> 00:08:35.792
They were the best organised,
the most militant.

00:08:35.959 --> 00:08:42.250
Part of Thatcherism, monetarism,
was to undermine organised workers.

00:08:42.626 --> 00:08:46.042
The miners
had beaten the Tories in ’72,

00:08:46.209 --> 00:08:50.209
they’d beaten them again in ’74, that
rankled in the conservative ranks.

00:08:51.459 --> 00:08:53.792
There were
massive strikes in the ‘70s.

00:08:53.959 --> 00:08:57.501
The Tory government
was chipping away at our wages.

00:08:57.876 --> 00:09:00.334
But miners
were constantly fighting back.

00:09:02.417 --> 00:09:07.250
And with strikes causing power cuts,
it was obvious that we were winning.

00:09:07.834 --> 00:09:11.959
Prime Minister Ted Heath had
no choice but to put the question...

00:09:12.125 --> 00:09:13.792
the burning question of the day...

00:09:13.959 --> 00:09:16.501
POWER CRISIS: EMERGENCY DECLARED

00:09:16.667 --> 00:09:22.167
Ted Heath called a general election
because the lights were going out.

00:09:22.751 --> 00:09:24.834
HE HAS THE NERVE
TO ASK FOR A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE!

00:09:24.999 --> 00:09:31.792
He said “Who runs the country,
us or the miners?”

00:09:32.125 --> 00:09:37.959
It is time to say to the extremists,
the militants and the misguided:

00:09:38.083 --> 00:09:43.375
“We’ve had enough, there’s a lot
to be done, let’s get on with it.”

00:09:43.542 --> 00:09:47.459
When Ted Heath went to the polls
and he said “Who governs?”

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We told him who governed,
and it wasn’t him.

00:09:50.792 --> 00:09:53.542
EXIT HEATH

00:09:56.209 --> 00:09:58.876
TOTAL VICTORY FOR MINERS

00:10:01.918 --> 00:10:04.709
To win, it tastes so sweet.

00:10:05.667 --> 00:10:07.792
What power!

00:10:11.417 --> 00:10:15.584
Working class people, if they’re
organised and show solidarity

00:10:15.792 --> 00:10:21.417
can defeat the government
and the state that supports them.

00:10:25.918 --> 00:10:31.459
Some of the old guys said
the Tories will be back for us.

00:10:36.792 --> 00:10:41.167
We knew from day one
we were firmly in Thatcher’s sights.

00:10:44.459 --> 00:10:49.709
What was stopping privatisation
and letting rip with profits?

00:10:50.083 --> 00:10:53.167
Their philosophy
of a free market economy,

00:10:53.417 --> 00:10:55.501
the thing that stood
in the way was us.

00:11:01.083 --> 00:11:07.626
So they started to organise...
Sir Nicholas Ridley...

00:11:07.959 --> 00:11:13.792
Tory MP etcetera, was sent
to a right-wing think tank...

00:11:14.876 --> 00:11:16.000
to dwell on this.

00:11:16.167 --> 00:11:19.459
They thought long and hard
and came up with this plan.

00:11:19.626 --> 00:11:21.626
It was a beaute,
it was a bobby dazzler!

00:11:21.876 --> 00:11:24.209
RIDLEY PLAN CONFIDENTIAL

00:11:24.999 --> 00:11:32.584
It outlined how to take on
the British trade union movement

00:11:32.751 --> 00:11:34.542
COUNTERING THE POLITICAL THREAT

00:11:35.334 --> 00:11:38.584
Thatcher wanted
to smash the trade unions.

00:11:39.167 --> 00:11:44.125
She was going to use every resource
at her disposal to do it.

00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.459
The police were bulked up,
were trained up in riot gear.

00:11:52.626 --> 00:11:57.000
Ordinary plods who were mooching
round the streets were taken away

00:11:57.167 --> 00:12:00.584
and trained up how to...
in crowd control.

00:12:00.751 --> 00:12:05.125
LARGE, MOBILE SQUAD OF POLICE

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It was like setting up
a paramilitary force.

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It was all well planned,
well thought out.

00:12:14.709 --> 00:12:15.999
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT OFFICE

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Next they wanted to stop strikers
from getting access to benefits,

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to force them back to work.

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CUT OFF MONEY TO THE STRIKERS

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They wanted to attack weaker unions
before coming for the stronger ones.

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This was outlined in the Ridley plan.

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Whole groups of workers
had been attacked.

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She’d attacked the health workers,
the rail workers...

00:12:49.292 --> 00:12:51.417
the steel workers...

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and we realised
that we were the next in line.

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To break all the unions, they had
to break the strongest union,

00:13:02.209 --> 00:13:05.375
which was
the National Union of Mineworkers.

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She knew if she smashed our union,
the rest of the unions would crumble.

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We knew what was coming,
they’d outlined it for us,

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in big letters, big shiny lights:
“We’re coming for you.\"

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They started giving us more overtime,
wanted us to produce more coal.

00:13:24.626 --> 00:13:25.667
MAXIMUM QUANTITY OF STOCKS

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All so that they could outlast us
if we ever came out on strike again.

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There were massive stockpiles,
never been seen before.

00:13:34.959 --> 00:13:38.250
You had climb over it
to get in and out of work.

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Saying digging our graves was never
as apt, that’s what we were doing.

00:13:57.459 --> 00:13:59.834
The Tories have never forgotten...

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the defeat
inflicted in 1972 and in 1974.

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Equally, neither have the miners.

00:14:10.501 --> 00:14:16.542
In ’81, Scargill became president
of the National Union of Mineworkers.

00:14:17.083 --> 00:14:20.542
We knew we were in safe hands
for when the Tories came for us.

00:14:20.709 --> 00:14:25.334
We knew he wasn’t going
to shirk his responsibility.

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To the media and the Tories
Scargill became a hate figure.

00:14:36.417 --> 00:14:43.083
He was a representative of a union
who wasn’t willing to concede,

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who was prepared to argue his corner
and act upon his words.

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And that frightened them.

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ARTHUR THE ARROGANT
SCARGILL OUTRAGE

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MOSCOW PLAYS SCARGILL\'S TUNE
FALL OF KING ARTHUR

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The Tories wanted the NUM defeated.

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The best way for them
was closing coal mines.

00:15:10.834 --> 00:15:13.334
They needed an argument
for closing coal mines

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and the argument was
they’re uneconomic pits.

00:15:17.501 --> 00:15:22.209
The coal industry was nationalised
and for years we had a plan for coal.

00:15:22.918 --> 00:15:27.250
The policy was about Britain
having a long term energy supply,

00:15:27.667 --> 00:15:31.751
rather than relying
on the international market

00:15:31.918 --> 00:15:34.209
and all the insecurities
that come with that.

00:15:35.209 --> 00:15:41.000
When Thatcher appointed MacGregor
head of the Coal Board, that was it.

00:15:42.292 --> 00:15:46.209
It was as if the agreement had
been completely tossed to one side.

00:15:47.083 --> 00:15:49.167
Can you work with Mr Scargill?

00:15:49.417 --> 00:15:52.959
I haven’t even tried.
The question is can he work with me?

00:15:53.083 --> 00:15:58.375
They brought a hit-man in,
he’d done business in Leylands,

00:15:58.542 --> 00:16:02.792
he’d done business at British Steel,

00:16:02.959 --> 00:16:09.250
and he was brought into the NCB
to do business with miners.

00:16:10.209 --> 00:16:14.334
It was absolutely nothing
about the mining industry.

00:16:14.501 --> 00:16:21.459
It was nothing about energy,
this man was a union buster.

00:16:21.626 --> 00:16:23.959
And they gave him the top job.

00:16:25.709 --> 00:16:28.751
Suddenly a pit closure programme
was pushed forward.

00:16:28.918 --> 00:16:35.209
Pits full of coal were
marked down for closure

00:16:35.501 --> 00:16:37.542
20 PIT CLOSURES
20,000 JOB LOSSES

00:16:37.834 --> 00:16:42.417
Prior to that, they’d say “We’ll
close it as it’s run out of coal.”

00:16:42.584 --> 00:16:48.876
They’d say to the union “It is
running out, it’ll have to close,’

00:16:49.209 --> 00:16:53.501
but they didn’t, MacGregor said
“I’m shutting that one and that one,

00:16:53.667 --> 00:16:56.250
“But we’re...’”, “No arguments,
I’m shutting them.\"

00:16:56.584 --> 00:16:59.584
He’s getting good money,
sound, secure position.

00:16:59.751 --> 00:17:04.042
He’s telling lads between 20 and 45
that there’s nothing for them.

00:17:04.209 --> 00:17:07.667
MacGregor’s working at 72,
I want to be working at 27.

00:17:07.834 --> 00:17:13.417
Mrs Thatcher said “We want
more production in the mines.

00:17:13.584 --> 00:17:15.876
Produce more of this,
produce more coal.”

00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:21.083
We did, and when there was
coal on the ground she said:

00:17:21.250 --> 00:17:25.250
“Some of you have to go, there’s
too much coal in the country.”

00:17:25.709 --> 00:17:31.125
It was the Tory government
laying down the gauntlet,

00:17:31.417 --> 00:17:33.667
telling us
that they were coming for us.

00:17:33.834 --> 00:17:39.292
The Tories and the media
had all sorts of figures bandied

00:17:39.459 --> 00:17:45.209
about how much the coal industry was
costing the country and the taxpayer.

00:17:45.375 --> 00:17:49.667
The board had an accounting system
Lehman Brothers would be proud of.

00:17:49.834 --> 00:17:52.626
They had said they were going
to close five collieries,

00:17:52.792 --> 00:17:56.083
that changed to 20 collieries
after a few weeks,

00:17:56.250 --> 00:17:59.999
but we knew they had plotted
to close a lot more than that.

00:18:00.999 --> 00:18:06.709
This was about communities
and people’s future and dignity.

00:18:06.876 --> 00:18:09.209
These people wanted to trash it.

00:18:09.375 --> 00:18:11.626
There’s only pits
holding this area together.

00:18:11.834 --> 00:18:15.417
If this pit goes,
it’ll be like a plague.

00:18:15.584 --> 00:18:21.292
They might as well put an gate up
and say “That’s your pit finished.

00:18:21.459 --> 00:18:25.542
There’s the dole office.
That’s where you go after school.”

00:18:25.709 --> 00:18:27.501
There’ll be nothing left in Blythe.

00:18:27.667 --> 00:18:33.792
Cardowan and Bedley had been closed,
Polmaise was going to close.

00:18:33.999 --> 00:18:38.542
Kinneil was closed, which was not
far from where we worked.

00:18:39.167 --> 00:18:42.918
With MacGregor announcing
even more pit closures,

00:18:43.042 --> 00:18:45.167
how many pits were going to be left?

00:18:47.834 --> 00:18:54.417
We could see that 1984, we were going
to be forced into strike action,

00:18:55.250 --> 00:18:59.999
these were provocative actions,
couldn’t be seen as anything else.

00:19:00.125 --> 00:19:01.792
DESTROY THE PUBLIC SECTOR MONOPOLIES

00:19:01.959 --> 00:19:04.959
The challenges started
to become more fast and furious.

00:19:05.083 --> 00:19:09.083
They blockaded the office,
trapping Mr MacGregor inside,

00:19:09.250 --> 00:19:12.918
the miners insisted
he should come out to face them all.

00:19:14.751 --> 00:19:20.501
They came on the attack, the Tories
closed Cortonwood Colliery,

00:19:20.709 --> 00:19:23.042
a productive pit they’d invested in.

00:19:23.959 --> 00:19:26.876
That was the red line
where we had to take action.

00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.334
STOP THE YANKEE HIT MAN

00:19:30.167 --> 00:19:34.626
The feeling in the Scottish coalfield
was electric.

00:19:34.999 --> 00:19:40.709
There were incredibly bitter scenes
at the NUM headquarters in Edinburgh.

00:19:40.876 --> 00:19:44.417
Everyone was centred on one question,

00:19:44.584 --> 00:19:46.209
whether to go on strike.

00:19:46.626 --> 00:19:52.042
In some of the delegate conferences,
it was nearly coming to violence.

00:19:53.792 --> 00:19:57.501
It was like we’d backed off
and backed off...

00:19:57.667 --> 00:20:00.083
until our backs are against the wall.

00:20:00.250 --> 00:20:03.167
We can’t go any further back,
so we’ve got to come out fighting.

00:20:03.459 --> 00:20:05.751
The choice is a simple one.

00:20:06.042 --> 00:20:11.959
You can allow them to butcher
the industry, and do nothing.

00:20:12.167 --> 00:20:18.250
Or you can join with the rest of us,
get off your knees and fight!

00:20:18.417 --> 00:20:21.292
And if we do it together,
we can’t lose.

00:20:23.209 --> 00:20:27.751
Our union meeting
was absolutely packed

00:20:27.918 --> 00:20:30.626
and there was just one thing
on the agenda:

00:20:30.918 --> 00:20:35.959
Are we going to join Cortonwood
in strike action to save the pits!

00:20:36.083 --> 00:20:39.375
And I’ll tell you
there was no hesitation,

00:20:39.542 --> 00:20:44.501
every single hand in that hall
went bolt upright within a second.

00:20:45.417 --> 00:20:48.042
There was talk about
whether to have a national ballot

00:20:48.209 --> 00:20:51.626
but the strike moved like wildfire.

00:20:52.375 --> 00:20:54.626
Tonight
all the counties’ pits are shut.

00:20:55.292 --> 00:20:59.667
Pit after pit voted with their feet
and they joined the strike.

00:20:59.834 --> 00:21:04.918
Scotland’s out, Kent’s out, Wales is
coming out, Derbyshire will be out,

00:21:05.042 --> 00:21:07.459
this strike will be national.

00:21:11.125 --> 00:21:14.876
The mines will be out
in this country. One out, all out.

00:21:17.959 --> 00:21:19.417
NOW OR NEVER

00:21:19.792 --> 00:21:23.209
And that was it, we’d started.

00:21:25.626 --> 00:21:28.167
DAY ONE OF THE STRIKE

00:21:28.334 --> 00:21:31.626
MARCH, 1984

00:21:31.876 --> 00:21:38.626
A picket line is workers on strike
standing in front of the gates

00:21:38.792 --> 00:21:44.042
trying to persuade the workers
to support you in your struggle.

00:21:44.209 --> 00:21:48.334
Not with violence, with chatter.

00:21:48.667 --> 00:21:51.626
“Support us.
This is why we’re doing it...

00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:56.209
Please don’t go to work
because your support will help us.”

00:22:00.125 --> 00:22:04.334
I was so euphoric that finally
we had the chance to fight back,

00:22:04.501 --> 00:22:10.250
I’d had a few pints of beer. I was...
We were picketing Monday at our pit

00:22:10.417 --> 00:22:16.792
I couldn’t wait. With three or four
other miners, I went to the gates

00:22:16.959 --> 00:22:22.292
which wasn’t sanctioned by the union
because the strike started on Monday.

00:22:23.375 --> 00:22:29.042
A manager was going in.
I remember winding his window down.

00:22:29.209 --> 00:22:33.125
I said “This is a picket line” He
said “It doesn’t start until Monday”

00:22:33.292 --> 00:22:37.250
I said “you’re not crossing,
I want you to turn round.”

00:22:37.501 --> 00:22:40.959
He started to put his foot down,
so I jumped on his bonnet.

00:22:43.250 --> 00:22:47.876
The car sped off down the pit lane,
I’m hanging on to his wipers

00:22:49.250 --> 00:22:51.626
and he jerked to a stop.

00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:57.626
I whipped his wiper off, tried
to throw it through the side window

00:22:57.792 --> 00:23:04.292
I felt determined, I thought,
we have a good chance of winning.

00:23:04.834 --> 00:23:07.834
We could change the world
with the strike.

00:23:08.876 --> 00:23:13.375
Me and another lad agreed to meet
at 6 a.m. at the stockpile at Bouldon

00:23:13.542 --> 00:23:18.542
which was huge, and lorries
were constantly taking coal away.

00:23:18.792 --> 00:23:23.334
We’d agreed to meet there
to put a picket on, the two of us.

00:23:23.501 --> 00:23:27.501
I turned up at six o’clock
but he didn’t.

00:23:27.834 --> 00:23:33.042
Rain was pouring down. I’m standing
in this desolate place, waiting.

00:23:33.209 --> 00:23:36.584
Suddenly this convoy
of lorries pulled up.

00:23:48.542 --> 00:23:52.375
I stopped the first lorry
and I said “I’m an official picket,”

00:23:52.542 --> 00:23:56.709
he said “You don’t look much
like a picket, there’s just you.”

00:23:56.876 --> 00:24:00.709
I said “That’s all it needs,
I am an official NUM picket.

00:24:00.876 --> 00:24:03.417
I’ve got authority
from my colliery to be here

00:24:03.584 --> 00:24:08.083
and I’m asking you
not to cross this picket line.”

00:24:08.918 --> 00:24:14.000
He said “Urg,” and they all turned
their lorries round and went back.

00:24:15.999 --> 00:24:19.626
I was elated. To turn back
six lorries on my own.

00:24:21.375 --> 00:24:26.709
I thought, “If I can do it on my own,
what can we do with loads of us?”

00:24:27.083 --> 00:24:29.000
COAL NOT DOLE

00:24:32.667 --> 00:24:35.876
IT COULD BE YOUR PIT TOMORROW

00:24:54.042 --> 00:24:59.709
We were so optimistic,
the last strike took six weeks

00:24:59.876 --> 00:25:01.792
and brought a government down,

00:25:01.999 --> 00:25:09.999
so in the first days we thought
we could do that in five weeks.

00:25:13.999 --> 00:25:15.792
NO PIT CLOSURES SCOTTISH AREA

00:25:22.959 --> 00:25:25.250
MARCH FOR JOBS

00:25:25.459 --> 00:25:28.000
COAL FOR BRITAIN
NOT DOLE FOR MINERS

00:25:28.167 --> 00:25:30.709
SAVE OUR DADDY\'S JOB

00:25:38.959 --> 00:25:40.626
Good luck!

00:25:46.626 --> 00:25:50.834
I think Thatcher thought
the miners would soon go back to work

00:25:50.999 --> 00:25:54.667
because the women wouldn’t stand
for the men not bringing home money,

00:25:54.918 --> 00:26:00.626
it would be a difficult time for them
and we think that she was convinced

00:26:00.792 --> 00:26:04.209
that the women would
resolve the strike very quickly.

00:26:04.375 --> 00:26:09.918
This iron lady had thousands
of iron ladies in the coalfields

00:26:10.626 --> 00:26:15.083
The women wanted to help. We knew
it was going to be a long time.

00:26:15.250 --> 00:26:19.417
So there was no sitting back
and letting things run past you

00:26:19.584 --> 00:26:23.584
you had to get out...
all hands to the pump really.

00:26:23.751 --> 00:26:28.667
People talk about the feeling
of the country at wartime...

00:26:28.834 --> 00:26:32.334
That’s very much
what it was like in a microcosm.

00:26:33.667 --> 00:26:40.042
Here we go, here we go.
Here we go, here we go, here we go.

00:26:46.501 --> 00:26:52.959
The first few weeks we were forever
at the NUM headquarters in Sheffield.

00:26:55.626 --> 00:27:02.167
Special court hearings and lobbies.
It was an incredible time...

00:27:02.334 --> 00:27:07.834
If you see any of the photos,
the faces of the people involved

00:27:11.459 --> 00:27:15.876
It was just... It was awesome.

00:27:16.626 --> 00:27:19.209
It was absolutely awesome,
what a feeling!

00:27:28.834 --> 00:27:37.501
That general coming together,
the fact that we were on the move.

00:27:38.792 --> 00:27:45.501
We’d moved from a defensive position,
being attacked by the Coal Board...

00:27:46.999 --> 00:27:51.584
to an offensive position,
which felt more natural,

00:27:52.792 --> 00:27:58.876
you’re in control of your own lives
and your own future.

00:28:02.250 --> 00:28:08.250
It was such a daunting task
that you had to organise,

00:28:08.417 --> 00:28:10.999
that was the thing,
you had to organise.

00:28:11.125 --> 00:28:13.876
Organisation was the key to it all.

00:28:15.667 --> 00:28:22.999
Thatcher would not pay money
for the miners and the families.

00:28:23.584 --> 00:28:28.000
Thatcher was thinking,
“We’ll starve them back to work.”

00:28:28.375 --> 00:28:31.334
But she was pleasantly surprised.

00:28:34.834 --> 00:28:39.501
We approached it from another angle,
we organised soup kitchens,

00:28:39.667 --> 00:28:42.542
we had one
in nearly every little village.

00:28:44.667 --> 00:28:50.626
It started with breakfast. I was here
at five a.m., doing breakfasts.

00:28:50.959 --> 00:28:53.584
She made the best coffee in Elmsall.

00:28:55.918 --> 00:28:59.999
They used to send really good things.
Really good things.

00:29:00.542 --> 00:29:03.999
We made use of every single thing,
except those snails.

00:29:05.459 --> 00:29:08.876
They sent some snails once, that’s
the only thing we never used.

00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:13.125
- And they didn’t like spinach.
- They didn’t like spinach, no.

00:29:13.501 --> 00:29:16.792
That’s the only two things
I think we never used.

00:29:17.667 --> 00:29:26.209
It was like hunter gatherers, men
went out to do the dangerous stuff

00:29:26.501 --> 00:29:30.417
while the women were doing
what women do best,

00:29:30.584 --> 00:29:33.876
putting a pinny on
and working in a kitchen

00:29:34.125 --> 00:29:38.000
but it didn’t stay that way.
It didn’t stay that way.

00:29:56.292 --> 00:30:00.542
It was a steep learning curve
for a lot of people

00:30:00.751 --> 00:30:08.626
and what drove people was the moment,
the fact that it was important.

00:30:08.918 --> 00:30:15.834
This was for a lot of people
world changing.

00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:22.584
Their willingness to do things
outside normal routines changed.

00:30:22.918 --> 00:30:26.584
I’ll fight tooth and nail
with every one of them,

00:30:26.751 --> 00:30:31.918
with every miner and miner\'s wife
to keep the NUM.

00:30:32.709 --> 00:30:36.292
It’s like being a born again
Christian spreading the gospel,

00:30:36.459 --> 00:30:39.083
you have to speak to people,
you have to argue with people,

00:30:39.584 --> 00:30:42.250
try and convince them
what you’re saying is right.

00:30:42.417 --> 00:30:48.626
All those thousands conversations
that must have been going off.

00:30:48.792 --> 00:30:54.709
What was true for me was equally
as true for all those people

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:57.292
that were involved in the dispute,

00:30:57.459 --> 00:31:01.584
All those that were prepared
to step up, be counted

00:31:01.751 --> 00:31:04.501
and get on with the job
of winning the strike.

00:31:04.751 --> 00:31:08.417
Miners united will never be defeated!

00:31:08.584 --> 00:31:11.667
But from the beginning of the strike,
there was a problem.

00:31:22.250 --> 00:31:26.959
On the Nottinghamshire coalfield
most miners ignored the instruction

00:31:27.083 --> 00:31:30.584
to stop work from the national
and area NUM leadership.

00:31:30.751 --> 00:31:35.792
Each area was given a choice to vote,
the Notts area voted to come to work

00:31:35.959 --> 00:31:37.459
so that’s why we’re here.

00:31:38.209 --> 00:31:41.667
Nottinghamshire miners produce
25 percent of the country’s coal.

00:31:41.834 --> 00:31:45.667
Without their support,
victory for the NUM is uncertain.

00:31:47.292 --> 00:31:51.751
When we found out Nottingham had
refused to come out we were furious,

00:31:51.918 --> 00:31:56.751
This is the National Union
of Mineworkers,

00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:01.000
if the majority of the National Union
of Mineworkers are on strike,

00:32:01.167 --> 00:32:03.250
they should have come out on strike.

00:32:04.999 --> 00:32:08.167
Crossing a picket line
was a massive thing.

00:32:08.459 --> 00:32:11.375
I had grown up in an era
where you didn’t cross picket lines.

00:32:11.542 --> 00:32:15.501
If people crossed picket lines,
they were pariahs in the community.

00:32:15.709 --> 00:32:20.125
They were scabs,
nobody wanted to be labelled a scab.

00:32:20.292 --> 00:32:24.626
So it was incredible to us
that they were crossing picket lines.

00:32:26.751 --> 00:32:31.083
The underground conditions
in Nottingham were very, very good.

00:32:32.375 --> 00:32:37.083
They were paid well. The Tory’s plan
was to keep them sweet.

00:32:38.792 --> 00:32:42.667
They were told a lie,
which they swallowed,

00:32:43.667 --> 00:32:46.334
which was they were
going to be kept safe.

00:32:46.501 --> 00:32:52.000
Should the NUM lose this dispute
the cause could well be here.

00:32:52.334 --> 00:32:57.125
Nottinghamshire’s pits are modern,
the miners are among the best paid,

00:32:57.417 --> 00:33:01.417
there isn’t the close-nit
solidarity of South Yorkshire.

00:33:01.584 --> 00:33:07.000
In Nottingham, their union leaders
didn’t even know what they wanted.

00:33:08.083 --> 00:33:12.167
They argued that the strike wasn’t
valid without a national ballot.

00:33:14.459 --> 00:33:17.542
They used the ballot
as an excuse to keep working.

00:33:18.292 --> 00:33:25.334
The call for the ballot was trumpeted
by the media, Thatcher and MacGregor.

00:33:25.501 --> 00:33:29.375
There was this idea
that only a national ballot counted.

00:33:29.999 --> 00:33:32.999
This meant one man, one vote,
across the country

00:33:33.209 --> 00:33:36.209
whether your pit was
under threat or not.

00:33:37.918 --> 00:33:43.834
The NUM led by Scargill, was
undemocratic, we were intimidatory.

00:33:43.999 --> 00:33:45.459
That was the basic premise.

00:33:45.626 --> 00:33:50.501
It’s surprising that they were
got out on strike without a ballot.

00:33:50.667 --> 00:33:55.584
Why doesn’t Scargill have a ballot?
The reason the miners are staying out

00:33:55.751 --> 00:33:57.250
is they’re forced out by the mob.

00:33:57.542 --> 00:34:00.167
The union’s democracy
and credibility was being destroyed.

00:34:00.375 --> 00:34:04.292
A national strike call requiring
a ballot is being avoided.

00:34:04.459 --> 00:34:05.999
What would your views
be on the ballot?

00:34:06.125 --> 00:34:08.000
Mr. Kinnock,
can you just tell me what--

00:34:08.167 --> 00:34:12.834
To call for a ballot meant
you were against the strike.

00:34:13.751 --> 00:34:19.375
The momentum was on our side,
over 80% of miners were on strike.

00:34:19.667 --> 00:34:22.501
We could not risk
calling the whole thing off,

00:34:22.667 --> 00:34:27.000
a national ballot might have cost us
our jobs and our communities.

00:34:27.626 --> 00:34:35.292
There was a real debate raging on TV,
newspapers and in the coalfields.

00:34:35.876 --> 00:34:39.417
We want to go to work, we haven’t
voted, we have the right to go.

00:34:39.626 --> 00:34:45.751
It’s morally wrong, when a man
can support a ballot vote

00:34:45.918 --> 00:34:49.417
that makes another man lose his job
in Yorkshire or wherever he works.

00:34:50.751 --> 00:34:55.250
The battle had begun.
The time for talking was over.

00:34:56.876 --> 00:35:00.292
We had to get down to Nottingham
and convince our fellow miners

00:35:00.459 --> 00:35:04.542
that the strike was right,
ballot or no ballot.

00:35:05.751 --> 00:35:10.375
We said, “Does anybody here
work in headings?”

00:35:10.542 --> 00:35:13.918
“Yeah”, “I work in headings,
anybody got kids?” “I’ve got a kid”.

00:35:14.042 --> 00:35:17.042
“Anybody want the pit to stay open?”
“Yeah, well we all do.”

00:35:17.334 --> 00:35:22.292
They came out with us.
We were winning pit after pit.

00:35:23.375 --> 00:35:28.167
Because we moved
so fast, rank-and-file,

00:35:28.334 --> 00:35:31.501
we’d caught them
with their pants down

00:35:31.667 --> 00:35:33.501
and we were already
into Nottinghamshire.

00:35:33.667 --> 00:35:36.959
It was great, it was fantastic
to put the arguments to them.

00:35:37.334 --> 00:35:42.042
Picketing was successful
until Thatcher sent the police in.

00:35:43.626 --> 00:35:47.584
About 3,000 extra police were drafted
into Nottinghamshire tonight,

00:35:47.751 --> 00:35:49.999
doubling the county\'s
normal strength.

00:35:50.125 --> 00:35:52.459
The reinforcements
have come from all over Britain.

00:36:25.417 --> 00:36:28.209
Flying pickets
don’t make it to the collieries,

00:36:28.375 --> 00:36:31.417
those that face a new
military-style police force,

00:36:31.626 --> 00:36:34.000
keeping them away
from the Nottinghamshire miners.

00:36:34.167 --> 00:36:38.501
The whole county of Nottingham
was completely sealed off by police,

00:36:38.834 --> 00:36:42.042
the Nottingham miners
who stayed on strike were heroic.

00:36:42.292 --> 00:36:45.999
I’m full of admiration for them,
it must have been awful.

00:37:03.626 --> 00:37:10.542
The police were prepared to stop you
going up to the colliery gates,

00:37:10.709 --> 00:37:14.542
to stop you putting the case
to Nottinghamshire miners.

00:37:16.584 --> 00:37:18.042
- Hi, Gentlemen.
- Alright.

00:37:18.209 --> 00:37:20.667
- Where are you off to?
- We’re going to Nottingham.

00:37:20.834 --> 00:37:23.999
- What are you going there for?
- We’re on business.

00:37:24.334 --> 00:37:26.834
- I see. What do you do?
- I’m a coalface worker.

00:37:26.999 --> 00:37:28.876
- You’re a coalface worker?
- Yeah.

00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:30.999
Would you tell us
why you’ve stopped us?

00:37:31.125 --> 00:37:34.959
In connection with the dispute
concerning the miners.

00:37:35.083 --> 00:37:38.292
Is it lawful to stop us and question
us about where we’re going?

00:37:38.459 --> 00:37:42.959
It’s lawful for us to stop
any motor vehicle that’s on the road.

00:37:43.083 --> 00:37:46.501
- You’re absolutely sure about that?
- Oh yes. I’m absolutely sure.

00:37:46.667 --> 00:37:50.792
- Okay.
- Don’t ask me if I’m sure of the law

00:37:51.459 --> 00:37:55.334
Turn round at the roundabout
and travel north on the A1.

00:37:55.792 --> 00:38:01.501
If you don’t the traffic car
will pursue you, you’ll be arrested.

00:38:02.167 --> 00:38:06.834
- For what?
- For obstructing the police.

00:38:07.751 --> 00:38:11.209
I got stopped
by the cops at Nottingham,

00:38:11.501 --> 00:38:13.959
This cop said “What’s your name?”,
I said “Norman Strike”,

00:38:14.083 --> 00:38:17.751
he said “And I’m Arthur Scargill”,
I said “I’m Norman Strike.”

00:38:17.918 --> 00:38:22.417
He said “Don’t believe you.’” He had
to radio through “He’s Norman Strike”

00:38:22.709 --> 00:38:28.417
I used to carry my birth certificate
around to say “Look, Norman Strike.”

00:38:28.584 --> 00:38:31.626
Even to this day people say,
“But what’s your real name?”

00:38:32.999 --> 00:38:34.751
And who are you, might I ask?

00:38:34.999 --> 00:38:38.834
But they never met my mate
who was actually called Will Picket.

00:38:41.167 --> 00:38:44.667
If we carry on to Thoresby colliery
we’ll be arrested?

00:38:45.501 --> 00:38:48.709
- Any colliery?
- Any colliery you’ll be arrested.

00:38:48.959 --> 00:38:52.999
It became clear that we had
to devise a different strategy.

00:38:53.167 --> 00:38:57.959
It was a game of cat and mouse.
To get to the colliery

00:38:58.083 --> 00:39:03.751
you had to avoid the police
with crazy schemes and shenanigans.

00:39:03.918 --> 00:39:08.584
We used to stop before the roadblock,
get out,

00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:11.501
and pretend we were joggers.

00:39:11.918 --> 00:39:16.918
Jog past the roadblock and the car
would pick us up at the other side.

00:39:17.417 --> 00:39:23.751
They used to stop cars
with four people in them.

00:39:23.918 --> 00:39:27.626
Two in the boot, one on the back
seat, one in the floor well

00:39:28.292 --> 00:39:31.834
If you were unlucky enough
to get in the boot of the car...

00:39:32.042 --> 00:39:37.334
You’d hear them in the boot
saying “What’s happening now?”

00:39:38.459 --> 00:39:42.709
\'We’re coming up to a roadblock,
don’t make a noise,

00:39:42.876 --> 00:39:45.167
you’re going to get us all shopped.”

00:39:45.334 --> 00:39:50.167
If it was afternoon,
we’d just pull up to a pub,

00:39:50.959 --> 00:39:53.167
and have a pint...

00:39:55.334 --> 00:39:59.083
have a game of darts.
You’d get in the car and...

00:39:59.792 --> 00:40:04.999
“what’s happening?” ‘“Aye, you’re
alright, we’re on our way now,

00:40:05.292 --> 00:40:07.167
we’ll let you out in a bit.’

00:40:15.751 --> 00:40:18.083
Can we go up there?

00:40:18.250 --> 00:40:21.209
The motorway? No, turn right here.

00:40:21.667 --> 00:40:25.250
We got motioned off the motorway
at junction 28.

00:40:25.417 --> 00:40:29.042
Stopped by the police,
then we were told to get back

00:40:29.209 --> 00:40:31.292
and they led us
back on to the motorway.

00:40:31.542 --> 00:40:37.334
We thought, “Bugger this”
so we went abreast on the motorway,

00:40:37.501 --> 00:40:42.250
drove at 10 miles an hour. The police
came, up the hard shoulder,

00:40:42.417 --> 00:40:46.626
started smashing the windscreens
of the vans with truncheons,

00:40:47.542 --> 00:40:50.000
dragging people out
and arresting them.

00:40:51.417 --> 00:40:53.959
They were absolutely vicious.

00:40:54.709 --> 00:40:57.125
I was terrified,
if I’m honest with you.

00:40:58.542 --> 00:41:03.709
I never thought I’d see that here,
police are supposed to be impartial.

00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:11.000
I know a nice young policeman,
of disposition sweet,

00:41:11.417 --> 00:41:15.375
all the children greet him
as he patrols his beat,

00:41:15.542 --> 00:41:20.417
impartial on the picket line,
to the striker he’s a friend,

00:41:20.584 --> 00:41:27.083
he is stainless, faultless, peerless,
conscientious to the end.

00:41:43.209 --> 00:41:44.751
Oh, dear!

00:41:44.999 --> 00:41:50.417
Things were starting to hot up,
a lot of fighting with police,

00:41:50.584 --> 00:41:55.000
there were a lot lads
getting beatings off police,

00:41:55.167 --> 00:41:59.083
the temperature
was starting to rise, rapidly.

00:41:59.375 --> 00:42:03.167
It was becoming clear
we had a real fight on our hands.

00:42:04.167 --> 00:42:06.292
This was not going
to be any walkover.

00:42:07.501 --> 00:42:11.709
But for me there was a moment
early on in the strike,

00:42:11.876 --> 00:42:17.792
when it became much more real
in terms of what we were involved in.

00:42:19.083 --> 00:42:25.083
The atmosphere at Ollerton was scary.

00:42:25.250 --> 00:42:29.876
There were massive police presence,
people were hemmed in on pavements,

00:42:30.876 --> 00:42:33.626
you knew something
was really kicking off.

00:42:36.375 --> 00:42:40.501
Lots of scuffles with the police
who were very heavy handed.

00:42:43.042 --> 00:42:47.417
By this time we were demonised,
we were from hell.

00:42:50.083 --> 00:42:55.542
The local thugs in Ollerton
who’d fuelled with alcohol,

00:42:57.876 --> 00:43:01.417
they were giving
the striking miners abuse.

00:43:01.584 --> 00:43:04.417
There’d been some bricks thrown.

00:43:06.999 --> 00:43:10.375
Word was coming back that
they were smashing all the cars up.

00:43:10.584 --> 00:43:13.751
My mate Dave Jones,
I’d just been chatting to him.

00:43:13.918 --> 00:43:18.083
He said, “I’m off down here”,
because his car was down there.

00:43:19.292 --> 00:43:24.417
As bricks and bottles were hurled
David Jones ran towards his car,

00:43:24.584 --> 00:43:26.375
he was afraid of it being vandalised.

00:43:26.542 --> 00:43:32.542
And that’s it, last time I saw him.
Next thing I heard he was dead.

00:43:38.792 --> 00:43:44.292
For the third night running
Yorkshire’s pickets stood duty

00:43:44.459 --> 00:43:46.209
but it ended in tragedy.

00:43:46.375 --> 00:43:50.292
David Jones, who’d have been
24 today, died.

00:43:50.459 --> 00:43:52.792
Pickets said he had been hit
in the neck by a brick.

00:43:53.459 --> 00:43:56.209
In the melee of the picket line,
nothing was clear.

00:43:58.125 --> 00:44:01.334
This is a strike for God\'s sake,
nobody should die.

00:44:01.501 --> 00:44:09.501
You don’t go on strike to die,
and David Jones died.

00:44:09.792 --> 00:44:17.709
Great lad. From that moment on it was
never going to be the same again.

00:44:26.999 --> 00:44:34.375
His funeral was massive, people came
from all over the country.

00:44:34.999 --> 00:44:42.542
When we talk about unions, Scargill
strategies for coal and Thatcher,

00:44:43.042 --> 00:44:48.125
it’s all abstract. But when you
turn up to your mate’s funeral

00:44:48.584 --> 00:44:55.250
and there’s thousands
of trade unionists with their banners

00:44:56.000 --> 00:45:02.792
dignified, sombre, determined.
That’s what the union is.

00:45:02.999 --> 00:45:07.375
That’s the union,
that’s what solidarity is.

00:45:31.292 --> 00:45:35.876
It’s something to behold really,
it’s something to behold.

00:45:46.083 --> 00:45:51.167
As we reached summer, it was obvious
we weren’t going back to Nottingham.

00:45:51.792 --> 00:45:56.834
One of the major coalfields
was still working, it was hurting us.

00:45:57.125 --> 00:46:02.459
I had no idea how the strike was
going to pan out, how to win,

00:46:02.626 --> 00:46:09.334
but it was clear that we had
to do something quick.

00:46:14.834 --> 00:46:21.209
The Financial Times said “If miners
stop coal getting to the steel works

00:46:21.584 --> 00:46:24.834
car production
will stop in three to four weeks.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.667
And for us that was a wake-up call.

00:46:30.626 --> 00:46:36.751
We needed to hit industry
by stopping steel.

00:46:36.918 --> 00:46:39.292
And that meant Orgreave in Yorkshire.

00:46:41.459 --> 00:46:46.000
It supplied the coke
that serviced the steel works.

00:46:46.167 --> 00:46:50.834
If we could stop steel, it would
cut the life blood of the industry.

00:46:51.375 --> 00:46:54.000
It would have a major, major effect.

00:46:54.292 --> 00:46:59.417
I’d love to see every single member
of my union who’s here,

00:46:59.667 --> 00:47:04.999
every single member who’s on strike,
every trade unionist supporting us

00:47:05.125 --> 00:47:07.751
down at the Orgreave--

00:47:08.751 --> 00:47:13.751
Every arrow was pointing
towards Orgreave, it had to happen.

00:47:17.918 --> 00:47:21.918
It started in May,
setting up a picket.

00:47:22.167 --> 00:47:27.792
It had to be accelerated,
more and more miners turned up.

00:47:28.375 --> 00:47:32.584
Then the police started
to arrive in a big way

00:47:32.751 --> 00:47:36.375
and it became more difficult
to mount that picket.

00:47:36.667 --> 00:47:42.626
- Move. Get moving. Come on, move.
- No way. No way. No way.

00:47:45.584 --> 00:47:50.000
The police were being provocative,
mounting charges.

00:47:51.626 --> 00:47:54.834
We had to argue with the leaders
to send more pickets,

00:47:55.167 --> 00:47:57.876
in order to ensure it was a victory.

00:47:59.542 --> 00:48:03.167
They did and the final call
came from the union,

00:48:03.334 --> 00:48:05.083
“All pickets to Orgreave.”

00:48:06.167 --> 00:48:13.918
This is an attempt to substitute
the rule of the mob for that of law

00:48:14.042 --> 00:48:16.834
and it must not succeed!

00:48:20.709 --> 00:48:23.792
JUNE 18, 1984

00:48:23.999 --> 00:48:27.584
105 DAYS ON STRIKE

00:48:30.709 --> 00:48:34.918
If only for moral,
we needed a victory,

00:48:35.167 --> 00:48:38.792
we thought Orgreave
was going to be it.

00:48:39.250 --> 00:48:45.375
Thousands of us went there
early on a Monday morning.

00:48:45.667 --> 00:48:51.334
We left South Wales at midnight
on the Sunday night to get up there.

00:48:52.417 --> 00:48:56.459
I didn’t think we were going
to walk into what we walked into.

00:48:57.584 --> 00:49:01.501
It’s a day I’ll never forget
as long as I live.

00:49:01.959 --> 00:49:04.876
It was an absolutely magnificent day.

00:49:05.292 --> 00:49:08.709
We had our t-shirts on. We were
stripped to the waste from Scotland.

00:49:08.876 --> 00:49:11.542
This was really
incredible weather for us.

00:49:11.999 --> 00:49:15.999
It was strange. Usually the police
stop you and turn you back.

00:49:16.125 --> 00:49:19.501
On this occasion it was different.
They were saying “Come in.

00:49:19.667 --> 00:49:22.375
Park in that field.
You need to go up to there.”

00:49:22.542 --> 00:49:24.459
I knew something was up that day.

00:49:24.999 --> 00:49:31.459
All I could see in the distance
was just lines of cops in a field,

00:49:31.709 --> 00:49:36.334
and in this field there were
policemen with snarling dogs,

00:49:36.501 --> 00:49:39.792
I could see all these mounted police
behind the lines.

00:49:40.375 --> 00:49:44.459
They knew we were coming
and they were ready for us.

00:49:44.959 --> 00:49:49.709
They were waiting for us;
they were waiting for us.

00:49:53.626 --> 00:49:58.417
When the lorries came the miners’
ranks had swelled to more than 5,000.

00:49:59.083 --> 00:50:02.292
As the last lorry went in,
the trouble started.

00:50:02.751 --> 00:50:08.042
Everything was good natured,
it was no more than a total push.

00:50:09.834 --> 00:50:12.584
We were never, ever
getting through in a million years.

00:50:13.417 --> 00:50:15.709
And so there was nothing happening.

00:50:16.334 --> 00:50:20.584
Then, all of a sudden,
they decided to clear the field.

00:50:21.751 --> 00:50:23.292
And things changed.

00:50:36.209 --> 00:50:40.999
It was like a dreadful movie
happening in front of you.

00:50:41.334 --> 00:50:44.209
To think you were
in the middle of it.

00:50:48.334 --> 00:50:53.125
I was at the front
and some of the things I witnessed,

00:50:53.292 --> 00:50:55.375
it was absolutely incredible.

00:50:56.167 --> 00:51:02.584
Dogs snarling and barking. Police
with truncheons and with staves out,

00:51:02.751 --> 00:51:04.834
looking for people to hit.

00:51:10.417 --> 00:51:15.125
They had been given carte blanche
to do anything they wanted to us

00:51:15.709 --> 00:51:17.417
and they did.

00:51:20.626 --> 00:51:22.250
Get up!

00:51:23.125 --> 00:51:24.667
Get up!

00:51:29.751 --> 00:51:34.459
The older fellas couldn’t keep up
and I passed an old bloke

00:51:34.626 --> 00:51:38.542
and he was so terrified he was making
involuntary noises from his throat.

00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:42.334
grabbed hold of him
and said “Calm down, it’s alright.”

00:51:42.501 --> 00:51:45.459
I was trying to keep him calm, afraid
he was going to have a heart attack.

00:51:47.751 --> 00:51:52.751
Then he was physically sick,
that’s how terrified he was

00:51:53.042 --> 00:51:54.626
and I’ll never forgive them for it.

00:52:08.542 --> 00:52:15.083
It was madness. People lying
on the floor with blood pouring out.

00:52:15.792 --> 00:52:21.292
The people in the houses put bricks
on the wall from their garden stones.

00:52:21.459 --> 00:52:25.542
We were lobbing them at the police.
We heard Scargill had been injured.

00:52:25.709 --> 00:52:29.709
All I know is this guy hit me
on the back of the head with a shield

00:52:29.876 --> 00:52:31.209
and knocked me to the ground.

00:52:31.375 --> 00:52:34.918
Somebody set fire to a car
and it was just chaos.

00:52:36.083 --> 00:52:40.918
This wasn’t a game,
it was us against the armed state.

00:52:41.501 --> 00:52:46.209
This is what Margaret Thatcher
and her government had put into gear.

00:52:46.918 --> 00:52:52.667
I thought “We’re only on strike,”
I never thought they would do that.

00:52:52.918 --> 00:52:57.709
We’re not robbing anybody.
I can’t understand it at all.

00:52:58.959 --> 00:53:05.834
Figures ranged from something
like 5,000 to 7,000 miners.

00:53:06.125 --> 00:53:11.709
If we’d had 25,000 it’d have been
a completely different outcome.

00:53:13.834 --> 00:53:19.334
Because of the lack of numbers
we were walked into a massacre.

00:53:20.083 --> 00:53:26.459
We didn’t have a chance against
highly armed, trained policemen.

00:53:26.626 --> 00:53:29.167
We were there with our shirts
wrapped round our middles.

00:53:29.542 --> 00:53:34.667
It was a turning point, the brutality
the violence that was meted out.

00:53:34.876 --> 00:53:41.667
I realised that you’ll never win
the state over to your point of view,

00:53:41.834 --> 00:53:43.999
that these people are our enemies.

00:54:05.375 --> 00:54:10.459
I remember the face of my father

00:54:10.876 --> 00:54:15.792
as he walked back home from the mine

00:54:16.626 --> 00:54:21.584
He’d laugh and he’d say,
that’s one more day

00:54:21.751 --> 00:54:26.584
and it’s good to feel the sun shine.

00:54:27.083 --> 00:54:32.125
Take me home, let me sing again.

00:54:53.959 --> 00:55:01.167
Anybody that was left you were
assaulted, charged, arrested.

00:55:01.417 --> 00:55:06.459
Fortunately for us
they’re poor liars the police.

00:55:07.501 --> 00:55:11.209
Not one single miner
was found guilty of anything.

00:55:11.918 --> 00:55:14.042
Get in there
and see what they’re doing.

00:55:14.209 --> 00:55:17.542
We wanted to go back,
we should have never gone away.

00:55:17.709 --> 00:55:21.542
We wanted to go back
and our union leaders said,

00:55:21.709 --> 00:55:26.083
“No, that one’s lost,
we’re not sending you back in.”

00:55:26.250 --> 00:55:31.542
We tried to say: “We have
to go back and try again,

00:55:31.709 --> 00:55:34.667
take more people this time,”
but they wouldn’t have it.

00:55:34.834 --> 00:55:37.501
Tonight’s sixty minutes headlines:

00:55:39.542 --> 00:55:43.584
The worst violence so far
on the Orgreave picket lines.

00:55:46.167 --> 00:55:53.417
And for weeks after it,
Orgreave and the miners violence...

00:55:54.834 --> 00:56:00.709
it was everyplace. “This is
the real face of these luddites.”

00:56:00.959 --> 00:56:03.584
As industrial relations
descent to scenes of riot...

00:56:03.751 --> 00:56:06.000
The worst violence
of the strikes so far...

00:56:06.167 --> 00:56:09.959
They were hurling rocks
and stones and bottles...

00:56:10.083 --> 00:56:14.292
- In no way is this picketing.
- They are breaking the law.

00:56:14.501 --> 00:56:19.792
It made an impression on me
that if they could do that

00:56:20.417 --> 00:56:25.667
and get away with it, the miners be
vilified as the cause of the violence

00:56:25.834 --> 00:56:28.542
it meant we were really in trouble.

00:56:34.709 --> 00:56:40.375
We took Orgreave on the chin
but we weren’t down and out.

00:56:40.542 --> 00:56:43.334
We were prepared
to go full 15 rounds,

00:56:43.709 --> 00:56:47.667
never mind going down
on to our knees in the fourth round,

00:56:47.834 --> 00:56:53.834
and staying down. We got up,
we were spurred on to do better,

00:56:53.999 --> 00:56:55.959
to do more to win the strike.

00:56:56.709 --> 00:57:03.209
We couldn’t act on our own, we needed
support from the rest of the movement

00:57:03.375 --> 00:57:05.334
like we’d never needed it before.

00:57:05.501 --> 00:57:07.626
One of the things
the Tories were terrified about

00:57:07.792 --> 00:57:11.375
was action spreading from the miners
to other groups of workers.

00:57:11.751 --> 00:57:16.000
Throughout that whole year
they did their best

00:57:16.167 --> 00:57:22.375
to offer workers, whether it was
health or rail workers, electricians,

00:57:23.167 --> 00:57:27.167
slightly above the expected pay rise.

00:57:27.334 --> 00:57:31.959
Liverpool city council got
a better deal than they expected.

00:57:32.250 --> 00:57:36.292
These were all fronts
we’d been hoping might open up

00:57:36.501 --> 00:57:39.417
and help us beat Thatcher.

00:57:40.042 --> 00:57:45.334
There were still opportunities,
like the dock strikes.

00:57:47.292 --> 00:57:51.876
If there was workers the Tories
wanted to beat as much as the miners,

00:57:52.125 --> 00:57:54.083
it was the dockers.

00:57:56.542 --> 00:58:00.834
But deals were cobbled up,
and the chance was lost.

00:58:01.042 --> 00:58:05.459
We know for a fact we were set up
to be taken on by the government,

00:58:05.918 --> 00:58:09.459
the only reason they’re not
provoking us at the moment

00:58:09.626 --> 00:58:12.542
with the attacks
on the national dock labour scheme,

00:58:12.709 --> 00:58:15.375
is that they want
to deal to the miners first.

00:58:17.626 --> 00:58:22.459
Every week that came could have
seen the end of the strike,

00:58:22.626 --> 00:58:25.542
There was no planning ahead.

00:58:25.876 --> 00:58:29.459
The miners knew that there weren’t
only us feeling the pinch,

00:58:29.626 --> 00:58:34.501
there were ten million plus strong
trade union movement out there.

00:58:35.334 --> 00:58:39.542
The longer the strike went on
the more chance

00:58:39.751 --> 00:58:45.417
that another significant group of workers
was going to challenge the government

00:58:45.626 --> 00:58:48.125
for their own ends.

00:58:49.125 --> 00:58:51.918
The problem was that we needed money,

00:58:52.292 --> 00:58:55.542
claiming social security benefits
was very difficult.

00:58:55.709 --> 00:59:01.167
Laws were changed. It had been a long
time since anyone had been paid.

00:59:01.792 --> 00:59:04.959
If we were going to remain on strike,
winter was coming,

00:59:05.083 --> 00:59:09.584
we had a 150,000 miners
and their families on strike

00:59:09.751 --> 00:59:16.209
so we had to turn to our colleagues
in the working class,

00:59:16.375 --> 00:59:18.751
to all sorts of people.

00:59:18.999 --> 00:59:23.792
Thankfully there were support groups
sprung all over the country.

00:59:24.042 --> 00:59:26.959
It was inspiring,
it was incredibly inspiring.

00:59:39.209 --> 00:59:42.584
THEY SHALL NOT STARVE

00:59:43.250 --> 00:59:45.375
SOGAT \'82 SUPPORTS THE MINERS

01:00:03.918 --> 01:00:07.125
The first thing that needs to be said
is hatred\'s all very well

01:00:09.834 --> 01:00:14.375
But hatred must be organised
if dreams are to be realised

01:00:16.375 --> 01:00:20.709
And anger is no substitute
for disciplined rebellion

01:00:22.459 --> 01:00:25.876
To unionise is to organise

01:00:31.292 --> 01:00:32.751
Unionise!

01:00:33.792 --> 01:00:39.167
Fight back! Unionise!
Stop! Strike! Unionise!

01:00:40.292 --> 01:00:44.584
Unionise!

01:00:48.999 --> 01:00:55.542
It’s difficult to conceive the huge
impact the strike had on our culture

01:00:55.709 --> 01:00:57.959
it really divided the country.

01:00:58.125 --> 01:01:00.959
It kind of drove
a wedge between people,

01:01:01.083 --> 01:01:05.501
you were either
for the miners or against them.

01:01:05.667 --> 01:01:10.167
There was many connections. Many
had been battered by this government

01:01:10.792 --> 01:01:13.083
so when they were taking
on the miners, people understood

01:01:13.250 --> 01:01:18.417
this was a life or death struggle
in terms of what happens here,

01:01:18.584 --> 01:01:22.584
Is it going to be the rich getting
richer or the poor getting poorer?

01:01:23.167 --> 01:01:26.542
Why did students identify
with workers fighting back?

01:01:26.709 --> 01:01:29.959
Well, if you’re young, you’re meant
to be rebellious, aren’t you?

01:01:30.209 --> 01:01:34.542
What the miners were experiencing
was similar to what we were.

01:01:35.334 --> 01:01:40.999
We were used to the media telling
lies about lesbians and gay men,

01:01:41.918 --> 01:01:48.334
to the police harassing us,
to the courts being used against us.

01:01:49.083 --> 01:01:54.042
What the miners were going through
we could identify with completely.

01:01:54.250 --> 01:01:59.542
There was the question of turning
the sympathy and that passive support

01:01:59.709 --> 01:02:01.125
into something more.

01:02:01.417 --> 01:02:06.125
As well as collecting money and food,
we also stood on the picket lines

01:02:08.459 --> 01:02:14.334
But I’m sure when the miners saw us
they probably thought understandably,

01:02:15.083 --> 01:02:19.292
“Very nice of you to come
but do we really need your help?.”

01:02:19.459 --> 01:02:25.042
I mean, hundreds of burley miners
in front of you, and say possibly not

01:02:25.501 --> 01:02:32.125
but another side thought, “Why are
these people identifying with us?”

01:02:32.999 --> 01:02:37.876
We built up respect by turning up
and being alongside them.

01:02:38.209 --> 01:02:42.042
Other miners and industrial workers
tended to look down on students

01:02:42.292 --> 01:02:47.918
as lazy good for nothings— Yeah.
But I always I admired students,

01:02:48.167 --> 01:02:51.667
they were something that I wasn\'t,
they were intellectual,

01:02:51.959 --> 01:02:54.125
they were educated
in a way I could never be.

01:02:54.667 --> 01:02:59.459
I went to York University
to sway the student union

01:02:59.626 --> 01:03:02.501
to donate a bus to go picketing in.

01:03:02.709 --> 01:03:07.167
I went to the university thinking,
“God, I’m out of my depth here,

01:03:07.334 --> 01:03:11.459
I’m going to be speaking to them
and I’ll come over as a buffoon,

01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:16.459
with my cloth cap and my begging bowl
asking for money.

01:03:16.959 --> 01:03:18.999
But I found out it wasn’t like that.

01:03:19.125 --> 01:03:26.083
In a way I was their equal and it was
a big personal moment for me.

01:03:26.250 --> 01:03:32.709
That I could hold my own in debate,
it was quite a seminal moment for me.

01:03:33.709 --> 01:03:35.626
Support the miners!

01:03:35.792 --> 01:03:38.999
When we’d collected about 500 quid,

01:03:39.125 --> 01:03:42.751
we had to ponder
about where to send it

01:03:42.999 --> 01:03:45.584
and this lad said
“Why not my community?”

01:03:45.751 --> 01:03:48.626
and we just went “Alright,
what’s it called and where is it?”

01:03:51.751 --> 01:03:55.375
In that part of South Wales
it’s pits and sheep.

01:03:56.667 --> 01:04:02.083
We were quite conspicuous.
27 lesbians and gays from London.

01:04:02.999 --> 01:04:07.751
We were wearing what you might
call charity shop chic,

01:04:07.918 --> 01:04:10.459
nobody had any money
but we got style.

01:04:13.292 --> 01:04:17.334
We’d been invited to meet
at the local miners welfare hall,

01:04:17.918 --> 01:04:22.542
and it’s a big welfare hall,
the Onllwyn miners welfare.

01:04:23.125 --> 01:04:30.250
This was another one of those things
that will always stick in my mind

01:04:30.417 --> 01:04:33.292
as one of the proudest moments
in my life

01:04:33.876 --> 01:04:38.584
when we walked into the hall,
there were already people in there,

01:04:38.751 --> 01:04:46.501
every generation, grandmas,
granddads, kids, as we walked in...

01:04:46.709 --> 01:04:53.876
the volume of people
chatting away dropped...

01:04:55.083 --> 01:04:58.834
and it was a really tense moment
for a second or two.

01:04:59.375 --> 01:05:02.667
Because we knew what that was
a response to us walking in the room.

01:05:03.042 --> 01:05:09.250
Somebody started clapping,
and then everybody started clapping.

01:05:14.918 --> 01:05:20.999
Every hair stood up on my body,
I thought “We’re making history.”

01:05:21.667 --> 01:05:29.000
Also, for me personally, I come
from that working class background,

01:05:29.375 --> 01:05:35.209
it did feel like coming home for me--
it, it... whoops, here we go

01:05:35.626 --> 01:05:42.209
I just felt like that acceptance,
that’s all I ever wanted.

01:05:44.042 --> 01:05:49.375
It was fantastic,
and it strengthened you even more.

01:05:49.584 --> 01:05:54.709
I thought, “To stop me supporting
the miners, you’ll have to kill me

01:05:54.876 --> 01:05:58.083
because... I’m there now completely.”

01:05:58.292 --> 01:06:05.209
It was a beacon. It attracted people,
they wanted to show solidarity,

01:06:05.584 --> 01:06:13.542
because they’d experienced gay,
racial or female oppression,

01:06:13.918 --> 01:06:18.709
could find an expression
by working with people in struggle.

01:06:18.876 --> 01:06:23.542
Women were pushed to do things
they never thought they would do.

01:06:23.959 --> 01:06:28.375
By going out and collecting money,
it was an opportunity almost

01:06:28.542 --> 01:06:33.542
to speak at meetings,
to go out on the streets

01:06:33.709 --> 01:06:39.501
and people wanted to listen
and that had never happened before.

01:06:39.667 --> 01:06:45.042
Miners’ wives are as determined
as any Margaret Thatchers,

01:06:45.209 --> 01:06:46.999
she will not beat us.

01:06:47.125 --> 01:06:52.250
You think your life is normal
and suddenly your life is not normal.

01:06:52.709 --> 01:06:55.542
And you realise
there’s a big world out there.

01:06:57.167 --> 01:07:00.292
If anyone had told me last year...

01:07:00.459 --> 01:07:06.417
that I would be going around
marching, going to conferences,

01:07:06.751 --> 01:07:12.834
speaking in front of people,
I’d have thought they were crazy.

01:07:13.751 --> 01:07:20.626
But this strike of 1984
got more than me motivated.

01:07:20.999 --> 01:07:25.292
We knew what our men
were doing was right,

01:07:25.459 --> 01:07:28.334
and so women have risen up...

01:07:28.542 --> 01:07:34.167
into... and organised themselves,
and we’ll never be the same again.

01:07:34.501 --> 01:07:37.584
Not even when this is won
we’ll never be the same again.

01:07:37.751 --> 01:07:40.042
Because win it, we will.

01:07:44.334 --> 01:07:48.209
Prior to the strike, when I would go
to the working men’s club,

01:07:48.375 --> 01:07:54.167
I used to be ignored. The only words
spoken to me were “Another drink?

01:07:54.417 --> 01:08:00.459
During the strike the guys would say
“Where’ve you been picketing?”

01:08:00.626 --> 01:08:07.083
What happened on the picket lines?”
You were being involved with miners

01:08:07.250 --> 01:08:09.959
some of whom
didn’t even go on the picket line.

01:08:10.292 --> 01:08:15.375
A lot were left to run the house
while we went and did our own thing.

01:08:16.584 --> 01:08:21.501
I was going places I never went,
meeting people I’d never have met.

01:08:22.626 --> 01:08:24.999
Like people from the arts and...

01:08:25.709 --> 01:08:29.626
they’re far removed from us.
Or, that’s what we thought.

01:08:30.250 --> 01:08:35.250
They offered to come on,
we’ll put a show on here, raise funds

01:08:35.709 --> 01:08:39.042
just to raise the profile
and [INDISTINCT],

01:08:40.584 --> 01:08:42.918
you can’t knock them man.

01:08:47.709 --> 01:08:51.542
A journalist got in touch with me
from the New Musical Express.

01:08:51.792 --> 01:08:54.501
He had a band called The Redskins.

01:08:54.876 --> 01:08:58.999
“Norm,” he said, “we’re on the tube,
do you want to come along?”

01:08:59.250 --> 01:09:01.250
I said “yeah.”

01:09:02.584 --> 01:09:08.167
We composed this speech about
how many miners had been arrested,

01:09:08.334 --> 01:09:11.459
despite that people were supporting
us all over the country.

01:09:11.959 --> 01:09:16.209
I was nervous, my legs shaking.
I’m banging the tambourine

01:09:16.375 --> 01:09:20.459
and then Chris says: ”And on strike
for 35 weeks, a Durham miner,”

01:09:20.626 --> 01:09:22.209
and I made my speech.

01:09:26.626 --> 01:09:32.292
We found out they’d switched the mike
off and nothing had gone out live,

01:09:35.250 --> 01:09:37.501
which really pissed me off.

01:09:39.125 --> 01:09:44.417
I go back to the green room where you
can have a triple Southern Comfort,

01:09:44.584 --> 01:09:48.167
or a bottle of whisky.
I’d been on strike for 35 weeks.

01:09:48.459 --> 01:09:53.209
I’m drinking triple Southern Comforts
trying to get the lager down as well

01:09:53.584 --> 01:09:58.626
Holland said: “They’re complaining
about “Why did they censor him?”

01:09:59.125 --> 01:10:01.709
If you told us—“
I said “Fuck off you little twat.”

01:10:02.501 --> 01:10:04.417
Victory to the miners!

01:10:05.375 --> 01:10:07.626
And then I was thrown out.

01:10:11.250 --> 01:10:14.626
We can\'t afford to sit down
without supporting the miner’s cause.

01:10:15.167 --> 01:10:18.000
When you’re fighting to protect jobs,

01:10:18.292 --> 01:10:21.250
it’s not only a case
of fighting for the wages

01:10:21.417 --> 01:10:24.667
it’s a fighting
for the right to work.

01:10:24.834 --> 01:10:29.042
That’s why you find every community
all supporting the miners’ cause.

01:10:29.876 --> 01:10:34.125
Solidarity shown to us
by working people of this country,

01:10:34.375 --> 01:10:37.709
it’s absolutely fantastic.

01:10:38.250 --> 01:10:44.667
Not just the level or the amounts
but the way it was given.

01:10:45.083 --> 01:10:49.709
Pensioners dropping their pension
book in a collection tin,

01:10:49.918 --> 01:10:54.959
and having to say “I’ve got a mother.
You can’t afford this.”

01:10:57.584 --> 01:11:03.417
There was this tramp
who came up to us

01:11:03.626 --> 01:11:11.709
and he opened his purse
and he had nine pence, nine pence!

01:11:11.876 --> 01:11:19.083
He gave us five pence and he kept
the four pence for a cup of coffee.

01:11:19.834 --> 01:11:25.584
So I went in the bucket,
I got a handful of coins out

01:11:25.918 --> 01:11:32.042
I said “Take this. You need it
more than we do” And I gave him,

01:11:32.792 --> 01:11:38.042
gave him a handful of change—
I’ve started to fill up.

01:11:38.876 --> 01:11:42.334
A very emotional time that,
very emotional time.

01:11:43.125 --> 01:11:50.876
He said “Keep the fight up.”
Something you can\'t forget.

01:11:51.626 --> 01:11:56.542
Can we move on to the main issue
which is the miner’s dispute?

01:11:56.709 --> 01:12:00.375
You said that you thought
it would run a little while yet,

01:12:00.542 --> 01:12:03.042
how long do you think
it’s going to run now?

01:12:03.751 --> 01:12:06.501
I don’t know
how much longer it will run,

01:12:07.083 --> 01:12:09.876
I don’t feel
it’ll be settled immediately.

01:12:10.542 --> 01:12:12.417
It has been a very long time.

01:12:12.792 --> 01:12:17.501
Is the government prepared to sit out
however long this strike will take?

01:12:18.751 --> 01:12:26.209
If any group of people,
or any government,

01:12:26.584 --> 01:12:32.999
gave in to violence
and intimidation of this kind

01:12:33.125 --> 01:12:39.876
there’ll be no future for democracy
or for any moderate trade unionist

01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:41.542
if we were to give in to that.

01:12:41.709 --> 01:12:43.834
Is this what you meant
by ‘the enemy within’?

01:12:43.999 --> 01:12:48.167
This kind of violence
should never have happened.

01:12:48.334 --> 01:12:52.209
It is the work of extremists,
it is the enemy within.

01:12:52.626 --> 01:12:58.792
Forget the propaganda and rhetoric
that Thatcher came out with.

01:12:59.584 --> 01:13:04.918
Not only was she wobbling,
but the markets were wobbling.

01:13:05.125 --> 01:13:09.542
The media were saying
“She could lose this one.”

01:13:10.709 --> 01:13:13.417
We knew we’d got to up our game.

01:13:13.709 --> 01:13:19.667
The money and the food parcels
were great, very grateful for them

01:13:20.501 --> 01:13:27.417
but what we really wanted was
the trade unionists to go on strike.

01:13:29.834 --> 01:13:34.751
In September that year
the TUC was meeting,

01:13:34.918 --> 01:13:37.626
where all the trade union leaders
were going to get together.

01:13:37.918 --> 01:13:44.334
We hoped they’d see the sense of it

01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:49.209
and finally force
Thatcher to back down.

01:13:50.125 --> 01:13:56.626
We hadn’t stopped Nottingham
We hadn’t stopped Nottingham

01:13:56.999 --> 01:14:01.250
we needed solidarity from other
workers, it was our chance.

01:14:14.751 --> 01:14:19.959
Scargill gets up.
Standing ovation. No problem.

01:14:21.417 --> 01:14:26.125
We all support you.
Ahem, financially.

01:14:28.542 --> 01:14:34.375
Despite all the applause,
they didn’t call for strike action.

01:14:35.250 --> 01:14:38.083
I just knew it was the kiss of death.

01:14:38.292 --> 01:14:44.751
If they were serious they’d have
challenged the anti-trade union laws.

01:14:44.918 --> 01:14:46.501
But they weren’t serious.

01:14:46.667 --> 01:14:52.792
The leaders supported miners but
wanted to negotiate their way out.

01:14:53.042 --> 01:14:59.999
But the Coal Board
under the tutelage of MacGregor

01:15:00.459 --> 01:15:04.709
under his authority;
didn’t want to negotiate.

01:15:04.999 --> 01:15:09.709
That was an opportunity missed,
absolutely, absolutely.

01:15:09.876 --> 01:15:13.918
I’d love to see the TUC get
off the fence and do some business.

01:15:14.999 --> 01:15:17.959
I know shouldn’t be saying it
but they should,

01:15:18.125 --> 01:15:24.000
they should really
show solidarity with the miners.

01:15:24.375 --> 01:15:29.250
Because if they lose, we’ve all lost.
There will be no going back.

01:15:32.542 --> 01:15:37.542
The Trade Union Congress said to me
that we’re going to struggle to win.

01:15:38.083 --> 01:15:40.999
Something would drastically
have to go wrong for MacGregor.

01:15:42.125 --> 01:15:45.125
It would have to be
an accident at that point.

01:15:47.417 --> 01:15:53.459
NACODs, deputies, these are
like the foreman in a factory

01:15:53.834 --> 01:15:58.167
taking care of safety,
organising work at the same time.

01:15:58.334 --> 01:16:05.584
NACODS weren’t part of the dispute,
but they got paid for staying at home

01:16:06.417 --> 01:16:10.459
NCB sends out a circular,
talk about stupid...

01:16:10.918 --> 01:16:17.375
NCB sends out a circular,
instructing them to turn up at pits.

01:16:18.167 --> 01:16:23.167
Because pits open
if there’s one working miner attend.

01:16:23.542 --> 01:16:26.209
And you’ve got to go
through the picket lines,

01:16:26.792 --> 01:16:29.209
you’ve got to attend
your place of work.

01:16:31.751 --> 01:16:38.584
That threw them in a spin.
None at NACODs wanted this,

01:16:39.042 --> 01:16:41.959
lots of them
lived in pit communities.

01:16:42.375 --> 01:16:46.375
They lived close enough to see
the damage that was being done.

01:16:46.792 --> 01:16:51.501
We made it our aim to go out
and see individual deputies.

01:16:51.709 --> 01:16:58.501
said to them “This is your chance,
these are your communities,

01:16:58.667 --> 01:17:05.083
you have more in common with us
than with a Tory in Downing Street.

01:17:06.000 --> 01:17:09.417
They had to have a response
and they did.

01:17:09.876 --> 01:17:13.334
Number of votes cast ‘for’: 11658

01:17:13.501 --> 01:17:17.042
Number of votes ‘against’: 2400—

01:17:20.167 --> 01:17:23.999
Percentage of the votes
in favour of strike was 92.5%

01:17:26.417 --> 01:17:28.083
Out on strike by Monday.

01:17:28.375 --> 01:17:33.918
The cat was amongst the pigeons.
Thatcher saw what was happening.

01:17:34.417 --> 01:17:39.626
There will be recriminations getting
tough with the deputies backfired.

01:17:39.792 --> 01:17:44.334
NACODs has now given the NUM
enormous support over the issue.

01:17:44.876 --> 01:17:50.501
When NACODs said “it’s a strike,”
it was a national strike.

01:17:51.000 --> 01:17:55.375
Even the few pits in Nottingham
would have shut.

01:17:56.459 --> 01:18:01.042
So it’d done our job for us,
it would have shut the pits.

01:18:01.417 --> 01:18:06.042
NCB and Ian MacGregor
dropped a right bollock there.

01:18:06.417 --> 01:18:09.584
It was an opportunity like no more.

01:18:10.083 --> 01:18:14.334
One of their leaders
went in to this meeting

01:18:14.501 --> 01:18:20.417
he was just going to pull them out,
it was like: this is it.

01:18:20.751 --> 01:18:26.584
I remember watching the news thinking
“It’s really going to happen.”

01:18:26.876 --> 01:18:31.999
He went in to this meeting
and he came out and said:

01:18:32.167 --> 01:18:37.000
The NEC expressed satisfaction
with the result of those negotiations

01:18:37.334 --> 01:18:44.042
and agreed to call off the strike,
due on Thursday the 25th of October.

01:18:44.209 --> 01:18:45.999
- Unconditionally Mr McNefferey
- It\'s off.

01:18:48.709 --> 01:18:50.501
What can I say about him?

01:18:51.918 --> 01:18:58.918
We picked up like that
and we were flattened like that.

01:18:59.334 --> 01:19:05.959
They negotiated different terms;
NACODs called their strike off.

01:19:06.542 --> 01:19:12.709
They’d come up with some new review
procedure for pit closures.

01:19:12.876 --> 01:19:17.209
As if that was going to alter
the government’s plan to close pits.

01:19:17.542 --> 01:19:22.125
It was enough for them to call off
the strike, and they kept working

01:19:22.292 --> 01:19:25.751
and thinking
they were going to be safe.

01:19:25.918 --> 01:19:27.792
UNITED WE STAND
DIVIDED WE FALL

01:19:27.959 --> 01:19:32.542
After the failure
of another strike to materialise,

01:19:32.709 --> 01:19:39.083
we felt that cold wind of isolation.

01:19:40.375 --> 01:19:45.667
There were those who thought
the miners could win it on their own

01:19:46.167 --> 01:19:48.459
we were a breed apart etc.

01:19:50.167 --> 01:19:53.542
They continued with the illusion,

01:19:53.876 --> 01:19:58.250
“We can go it alone,
in the face of all material facts.

01:19:58.417 --> 01:20:01.999
We can go it alone
and come out triumphant in the end.”

01:20:12.792 --> 01:20:15.751
The state stepped in
and really tightened the grip.

01:20:16.959 --> 01:20:20.834
The government tried to do
whatever they could to demoralise us.

01:20:21.292 --> 01:20:23.792
The court seized our union assets,

01:20:24.083 --> 01:20:29.584
miners on bail were banned off
picket lines up and down the country.

01:20:30.042 --> 01:20:33.667
You’ve got hundreds arrested
and some had been sacked.

01:20:34.083 --> 01:20:41.167
On top of that you’ve got the media,
courts, police chiefs, politicians.

01:20:41.584 --> 01:20:45.999
For us, at the centre of it,
it sent like we were bang, slap

01:20:46.125 --> 01:20:50.584
in the middle of a war
with our own government.

01:20:50.751 --> 01:20:56.459
We haven’t been fighting
pit closures, but the government

01:20:56.626 --> 01:20:59.292
they’re determined
to smash the trade union movement.

01:20:59.459 --> 01:21:03.876
Once they’ve smashed the NUM,
they’ll go through the others.

01:21:04.000 --> 01:21:08.042
We had no idea
where this was going. I mean...

01:21:09.334 --> 01:21:16.417
it was only when the picketing
started to get quite bad.

01:21:17.083 --> 01:21:22.334
You knew that everybody
had to do more.

01:21:24.083 --> 01:21:29.167
This idea blossomed that women
could have a picket of their own.

01:21:29.334 --> 01:21:35.125
Maybe the police wouldn’t be
as vicious if women went.

01:21:35.292 --> 01:21:37.042
Bu it didn’t turn out that way.

01:21:38.999 --> 01:21:42.584
Glory, glory oh you miners

01:21:42.876 --> 01:21:46.292
Stand together, not divided

01:21:46.459 --> 01:21:49.709
Together we will win
and we\'ll stop MacGregor Ian

01:21:49.959 --> 01:21:52.876
And we\'ll all go marching on!

01:21:53.000 --> 01:21:56.083
Disperse. Go away.
Disperse. Clear the area.

01:21:56.250 --> 01:21:58.292
You’re arresting a woman.

01:22:00.042 --> 01:22:07.083
[INDISTINCT]

01:22:08.417 --> 01:22:16.501
The enormity of it. Going
to a picket line to see riot police,

01:22:16.667 --> 01:22:20.125
now they were parked
at the end of your street,

01:22:20.334 --> 01:22:26.459
they were following you home
from the pub on a weekend.

01:22:26.667 --> 01:22:32.626
They were permanently around
and for us it felt like a siege.

01:22:33.334 --> 01:22:39.209
Some villages just got locked down,
they sent in thousands of them.

01:22:40.209 --> 01:22:43.250
The government was throwing
everything that they had at us.

01:22:49.999 --> 01:22:54.167
I see somebody marching

01:22:57.918 --> 01:23:02.125
Marching down the street, yeah.

01:23:05.459 --> 01:23:11.918
I see somebody marching.

01:23:13.626 --> 01:23:18.125
Marching down the street.

01:23:21.125 --> 01:23:27.375
This time we stop and pray...

01:23:29.125 --> 01:23:33.542
to have a better day.

01:23:37.209 --> 01:23:42.667
I see somebody marching.

01:23:47.834 --> 01:23:50.209
Marching

01:23:53.792 --> 01:23:58.209
Marching down the street, yeah.

01:24:01.542 --> 01:24:06.751
I hear somebody crying.

01:24:11.876 --> 01:24:14.292
Crying.

01:24:17.626 --> 01:24:21.417
Crying in the street.

01:24:25.375 --> 01:24:32.167
I hear somebody praying.
They’re down on their knees

01:24:55.751 --> 01:24:59.417
266 DAYS ON STRIKE

01:25:00.876 --> 01:25:07.250
It was winter. It was cold.
People hadn’t got much fuel left.

01:25:07.876 --> 01:25:13.542
People were chopping down trees
and scavenging for bits of coal...

01:25:16.375 --> 01:25:21.751
We didn’t get anything for a year.
To have an idea of what it was like,

01:25:22.125 --> 01:25:29.375
get your salary and don’t touch it
for a year and see how you get on.

01:25:29.542 --> 01:25:32.334
That’s what it was for us,
we had nothing.

01:25:34.375 --> 01:25:38.167
My granny tells me
that she\'s seen it all before

01:25:38.709 --> 01:25:42.000
and at 94 she\'s seen a thing or two

01:25:42.792 --> 01:25:47.125
She\'s seen the stockbrokers
crying and the speculators sighing

01:25:47.292 --> 01:25:51.334
and the millionaires relying
on a war to pull them through.

01:25:52.709 --> 01:25:56.999
And they\'re turning the clock back
and I can hear my granny say,

01:25:57.125 --> 01:26:02.834
Yes, they\'re turning the clock back
and the working man will pay...

01:26:04.876 --> 01:26:11.083
One chap came
to the strike centre in tears.

01:26:12.501 --> 01:26:17.834
He didn’t have anything,
he was struggling with everything.

01:26:17.999 --> 01:26:22.250
And that was the case everywhere.
People were struggling.

01:26:23.292 --> 01:26:26.834
They had nothing in the cupboard,
they had no fire in the grate,

01:26:26.999 --> 01:26:30.834
they’re having these heavy letters
and they can’t see no way out of it.

01:26:32.626 --> 01:26:36.334
It was just amazing to think
that men had been out for so long.

01:26:36.501 --> 01:26:42.834
They had mortgages, car loans, kids.
They had Christmas to think about.

01:26:43.250 --> 01:26:46.584
They had all sorts of things,
they gave up everything for a year,

01:26:46.792 --> 01:26:49.167
they ran their cars into the ground,

01:26:51.292 --> 01:26:56.792
the effect it must have had
on individual relationships.

01:26:59.083 --> 01:27:01.542
They were trying
to starve us back to work

01:27:01.709 --> 01:27:06.709
and that’s why after ten months
some of the men did crack,

01:27:06.876 --> 01:27:11.000
some people couldn’t take it anymore.

01:27:12.584 --> 01:27:16.542
There was a lad I worked with
down at the pit.

01:27:16.709 --> 01:27:20.167
He was on the picket lines with me,
he went to Orgreave and everything.

01:27:21.167 --> 01:27:24.709
His marriage was breaking up,
he’s in mountains of debt.

01:27:25.125 --> 01:27:29.584
He came into the soup kitchen, had
his dinner, walked out, went to work.

01:27:29.751 --> 01:27:36.167
He said ‘I’ve got a wife
and three kids,” I said “Same here.

01:27:36.834 --> 01:27:40.751
I’ve got the same,
we’ve all got wife and kids.

01:27:40.959 --> 01:27:43.292
we’ve all got families to support
but we’re not scabbing.”

01:27:43.584 --> 01:27:48.501
You scab, you should be
ashamed of yourselves!

01:27:48.834 --> 01:27:52.876
That was all really messy
and heart-breaking.

01:27:53.292 --> 01:27:57.125
Scabs, scabs!

01:27:57.542 --> 01:28:02.999
People wanted to think
that the strike was crumbling.

01:28:03.334 --> 01:28:10.459
It was gutted wasn’t I? Things seemed
to be getting desperate, out of hand.

01:28:11.292 --> 01:28:16.375
People didn’t want to give in,
they wanted to go...

01:28:16.709 --> 01:28:21.083
How could you give in?
Because what was left?

01:28:22.167 --> 01:28:26.375
What else is there in this community
apart from mining? There’s nothing.

01:28:26.709 --> 01:28:30.459
There is absolutely nothing to do.
That’s why we’re going to fight,

01:28:30.667 --> 01:28:35.292
we’ll fight, and we shall win.
I’m absolutely convinced of that.

01:28:35.459 --> 01:28:38.709
It’s worth fighting to try
and get jobs for your children

01:28:38.876 --> 01:28:43.584
Anywhere you go, young kids
leaving school and there’s no jobs,

01:28:43.751 --> 01:28:46.375
it’s just hopeless for them.
I don’t want that for mine.

01:28:46.999 --> 01:28:51.083
They’ll end up on the dole.
if they shut the pits down.

01:28:51.334 --> 01:28:55.209
Human beings get tired
but organisations don’t.

01:28:55.375 --> 01:28:56.834
TO MINERS STILL ON STRIKE

01:28:56.999 --> 01:29:01.918
They were adding pressure,
both financially and psychologically.

01:29:02.501 --> 01:29:05.626
Every way they possibly could.

01:29:06.834 --> 01:29:11.250
The pit manager offered me 500 quid
if I went back to work on Monday

01:29:11.542 --> 01:29:16.918
They’d pay for a holiday,
they’d pay your debts for you

01:29:17.042 --> 01:29:19.083
you know, if you’d just back to work.

01:29:21.125 --> 01:29:26.292
It was like somebody dying of thirst,
offering them a drink of water,

01:29:26.459 --> 01:29:29.667
and all you’d got to do
was cross a picket line.

01:29:31.334 --> 01:29:36.501
It made lots of people angry,
others thought it was the last straw.

01:29:38.876 --> 01:29:43.417
And they’d gulp their pride back,

01:29:44.083 --> 01:29:47.876
and they’d turn up
for the bus to go back to work.

01:29:48.375 --> 01:29:52.999
According to the national coal board,
a further 218 miners returned today.

01:29:53.125 --> 01:29:56.375
That brings the week’s total
to 2,870,

01:29:56.542 --> 01:30:01.250
and a total of nearly 6,000
since the resumption of work.

01:30:01.667 --> 01:30:04.834
You used to have
on the news everyday:

01:30:04.999 --> 01:30:11.501
the background to the presenter was
“31 pits working, 32 pits working,”

01:30:11.709 --> 01:30:18.626
if one miner went in with his dog,
they would be deemed to be working.

01:30:18.792 --> 01:30:21.709
A massive police escort signalled
the arrival of a green coach

01:30:21.876 --> 01:30:25.626
carrying just one man, back to work
for the first time at the small--

01:30:25.792 --> 01:30:30.959
Almost unnoticed, Cortonwood’s
lone miner was escorted into the pit.

01:30:31.083 --> 01:30:33.918
A deliberate police tactic
to guarantee his safety.

01:30:34.042 --> 01:30:36.834
National news,
one more man going to work.

01:30:37.417 --> 01:30:42.626
That’s what they were trying to do,
to chip away and chip away.

01:30:43.125 --> 01:30:47.292
That was part of the NCB strategy.
They wanted to show

01:30:47.501 --> 01:30:52.125
that not only was Nottinghamshire
not going to come out

01:30:52.292 --> 01:30:57.334
that the strike was crumbling
in Yorkshire, Wales and Scotland.

01:31:00.375 --> 01:31:03.250
We’d be only talking
about handfuls of men.

01:31:03.501 --> 01:31:10.542
A pit employing 2,000 men might
have four people go back to work.

01:31:10.959 --> 01:31:15.250
The NCB are confident by the end
of week there’ll be men in every pit

01:31:15.417 --> 01:31:17.709
in the Northumberland
-Durham coalfield.

01:31:17.918 --> 01:31:23.125
The pickets tried to turn out
in force but the strike is over.

01:31:23.292 --> 01:31:27.918
The men will start to come back
and in big numbers.

01:31:28.375 --> 01:31:30.083
You bastards!

01:31:30.250 --> 01:31:37.626
They were sending coaches in.
You thought, “50 in that bus, plus—

01:31:37.792 --> 01:31:41.584
but there wasn’t, there’d be three
in that bus, two in the bus behind

01:31:41.751 --> 01:31:43.501
and nobody in the bus behind that.

01:31:43.667 --> 01:31:49.000
The board says another 128 miners
returned to work today.

01:31:49.167 --> 01:31:53.334
A dramatic rise
in the number of NUM members at work.

01:31:53.501 --> 01:31:56.999
The NCB points to men
returning to work in all 12 areas.

01:31:57.167 --> 01:32:03.542
They might as well say, “Out of 181,000,
203,000 have returned to work.”

01:32:03.709 --> 01:32:07.834
They were claiming so many miners
had returned back to a coal mine

01:32:07.999 --> 01:32:10.542
and it had been closed
about 20 years before that.

01:32:10.999 --> 01:32:15.209
The coal board can’t say how much
more coal, if any, has been produced—

01:32:15.375 --> 01:32:19.999
There was no trouble as the buses
carrying 200 men into the colliery.

01:32:20.751 --> 01:32:24.709
The pit manager says he’s getting
calls from miners wanting to return.

01:32:24.959 --> 01:32:27.334
His relief that production
has restarted is evident.

01:32:27.501 --> 01:32:31.000
It was announced that another 99
new starters reported for work.

01:32:31.167 --> 01:32:35.209
Work at Ellington brought
the total to 470,

01:32:35.375 --> 01:32:36.876
That’s 380 more--

01:32:37.042 --> 01:32:42.375
Scene of the most violent clashes,
three quarters of the NUM workforce--

01:32:42.542 --> 01:32:47.501
Return to work continues,
strikers may soon be a minority.

01:32:47.876 --> 01:32:49.459
It’s not just numbers that count.

01:32:49.709 --> 01:32:55.959
The volume of it got so loud,
like somebody screaming in the corner

01:32:56.250 --> 01:33:02.042
Really angry,
“Why don’t you get back to work?”.

01:33:02.209 --> 01:33:05.375
“Everything’s against you,
you’ve lost, go back to work.”

01:33:05.542 --> 01:33:08.918
There’s no way we can win now.
No chance.

01:33:09.042 --> 01:33:13.250
The vast majority of the men
want to come back to work.

01:33:13.417 --> 01:33:19.250
It’s not fair on your families to be
without fuel, money at Christmas,

01:33:19.501 --> 01:33:24.667
you’ve just got to make up your mind
and you’re going back to work.

01:33:25.083 --> 01:33:31.000
It was unsustainable even if there
was only 55 working miners at my pit

01:33:31.167 --> 01:33:33.709
you could see
that the writing was on the wall.

01:33:33.876 --> 01:33:37.000
Each time they go in,
it’s them that are knocking us down.

01:33:37.167 --> 01:33:41.250
There’s no way the board is going
to meet us on any terms

01:33:41.417 --> 01:33:43.334
as long as these people are going in.

01:33:43.626 --> 01:33:48.459
And for them to keep saying
“These are the people,” is rubbish,

01:33:48.626 --> 01:33:53.292
these people are
slashing everybody’s throats.

01:33:53.459 --> 01:33:57.834
One minute you were thinking
“We’re going to win”

01:33:58.125 --> 01:34:00.834
and then
“Oh god, we’re going to lose.”

01:34:01.125 --> 01:34:06.501
We definitely could have won
if we’d had support from other unions

01:34:06.751 --> 01:34:09.876
led by Norman Wallace, Len Murray
and other trade unionists

01:34:10.000 --> 01:34:13.959
We could have won in January
and in March. Absolutely no doubt.

01:34:14.375 --> 01:34:21.250
You can make arguments to a thinking
head, I was talking to empty bellies,

01:34:22.417 --> 01:34:26.292
tired men and women,
who’d been beaten.

01:34:28.375 --> 01:34:34.792
It seems that meeting will finally
order the remaining strikers back.

01:34:34.959 --> 01:34:36.584
MARCH 3, 1985
363 DAYS ON STRIKE

01:34:44.083 --> 01:34:48.918
The feeling in that conference
today is very clear...

01:34:49.417 --> 01:34:53.834
that we go back on Tuesday,
we go back together

01:34:54.375 --> 01:35:00.459
this union fights
to retain pits, jobs and communities.

01:35:01.000 --> 01:35:06.918
The movement, with a few
exceptions, left this union isolated,

01:35:07.334 --> 01:35:09.501
to their eternal shame.

01:35:09.751 --> 01:35:14.083
We faced not an employer,
but a government, aided and abetted

01:35:14.250 --> 01:35:18.542
by the judiciary, the police
and you people in the media.

01:35:19.459 --> 01:35:24.375
At the end of this time, our people
are suffering tremendous hardship.

01:35:24.626 --> 01:35:28.876
It has been the considered view
of conference, by a very narrow vote,

01:35:29.417 --> 01:35:35.751
that we should return on Tuesday
and continue the fight.

01:35:51.959 --> 01:35:59.751
I remember I was having a little nap,
my partner coming up to me in tears.

01:36:13.417 --> 01:36:15.667
You’ll have to--

01:36:18.542 --> 01:36:21.584
Sad time, sad time.

01:36:22.000 --> 01:36:26.667
Some of us thought it would go
on forever, and I didn’t mind.

01:36:27.125 --> 01:36:33.751
I didn’t mind at all,
I’m not saying it was fun,

01:36:33.999 --> 01:36:40.667
but... I got a really,
really lovely feeling

01:36:41.209 --> 01:36:44.334
of being able
to have a bash at the state.

01:36:45.584 --> 01:36:50.209
I don’t think there is
words to put it into...

01:36:58.918 --> 01:37:00.501
Sorry.

01:37:03.584 --> 01:37:09.417
I think it was anger.
I think it was knowing that...

01:37:10.375 --> 01:37:16.751
she’d won. These evil,
vicious, pitiless people...

01:37:17.125 --> 01:37:20.125
had won, and...

01:37:21.792 --> 01:37:24.834
looking into the future
was a bit bleak.

01:37:50.459 --> 01:37:55.834
The day that lads went back, they had
the lodge banner and the band.

01:37:56.042 --> 01:37:58.584
They all marched in
and I stood and watched them.

01:37:58.834 --> 01:38:05.209
They went to get changed, I went
to the office, handed my notice in.

01:38:13.375 --> 01:38:16.959
My marriage was over,
my marriage broke up in November,

01:38:17.876 --> 01:38:21.999
it was a shock. I was happily married
with kids when the strike started

01:38:22.334 --> 01:38:27.584
and unhappily married...
I had to move out the family home

01:38:27.999 --> 01:38:34.375
so she could get social security,
because she’d be a single mum.

01:38:35.042 --> 01:38:40.125
I didn’t want my marriage to end,
I didn’t want to leave my kids.

01:38:40.459 --> 01:38:45.250
I didn’t want to be defeated,
and... I was.

01:38:49.042 --> 01:38:52.501
But, if I had my time over again
I’d do the same thing.

01:38:53.125 --> 01:38:59.167
It’s more important than my marriage,
more important than my life.

01:38:59.334 --> 01:39:03.834
It was the future of the trade union
movement in this country.

01:39:04.709 --> 01:39:09.334
We were right,
we lost, but we were right.

01:39:11.250 --> 01:39:16.959
Coal executives delivering the worst
message on the future of the industry

01:39:17.083 --> 01:39:22.167
While they spoke
of job losses and pit closures,

01:39:22.334 --> 01:39:25.417
thousands of miners in Britain
waited to hear their fate.

01:39:25.584 --> 01:39:31.125
30,000 jobs are to be lost
and 31 pits will cease production.

01:39:31.375 --> 01:39:35.834
Five pits exist in the North-East,
four are to go leaving just one.

01:39:35.999 --> 01:39:40.584
Pits in Yorkshire will be halved
by the closure of 11 collieries.

01:39:40.751 --> 01:39:45.042
The same applies to Nottingham:
13 now but seven are to go.

01:39:45.250 --> 01:39:49.292
There are eight pits in the Midlands
and North-West, six will be axed.

01:39:49.459 --> 01:39:53.209
Wales has four and three
are going, leaving just one.

01:39:53.459 --> 01:39:56.959
In Scotland its single mine
remains open.

01:39:57.083 --> 01:40:01.459
- It’s a waste of talent, resources.
- What will you do?

01:40:01.709 --> 01:40:03.125
Struggle, same as everybody else.

01:40:03.292 --> 01:40:06.125
It’s devastating, you know it is.

01:40:07.999 --> 01:40:11.667
Not a lot we can do.
27 years in the pit, on the dole now.

01:40:12.209 --> 01:40:16.584
Like most Nottinghamshire miners
John Brown worked through the strike.

01:40:16.751 --> 01:40:18.584
Today he says Scargill was right.

01:40:18.751 --> 01:40:24.959
He’d seen this coming.
Our union must wear blindfolds.

01:40:25.876 --> 01:40:30.542
They never told us this is going
to happen. He predicted it years ago,

01:40:30.709 --> 01:40:32.292
we should have listened to Arthur.

01:40:32.459 --> 01:40:36.751
We got beat, we got beat. And...

01:40:37.375 --> 01:40:44.250
we paid a heavy price. In 10 years
they’d shut nearly every pit down

01:40:44.417 --> 01:40:49.751
that was worth talking about.
The mining industry wiped out.

01:40:50.000 --> 01:40:57.209
That was their endgame. They were
prepared to lose an industry

01:40:57.375 --> 01:41:04.000
to defeat that beacon of hope
that organised group of workers,

01:41:04.167 --> 01:41:08.000
a beacon to millions
of workers all over the world.

01:41:18.000 --> 01:41:23.876
It’s 30 years since the strike
and I am so angry.

01:41:24.000 --> 01:41:27.542
I’m probably angrier now
than I was at the time.

01:41:28.542 --> 01:41:32.334
We live in a country
that produces absolutely nothing.

01:41:33.000 --> 01:41:37.751
What it’s meant for generations
of working people in these villages.

01:41:39.375 --> 01:41:44.542
It wasn’t just us that was beat,
families were destroyed.

01:41:45.999 --> 01:41:50.000
The number of guys I’ve known
that committed suicide.

01:41:50.292 --> 01:41:52.167
I’m so angry.

01:41:53.292 --> 01:41:55.459
And it could have been different.

01:41:55.751 --> 01:42:01.000
There was a man at the pit
who, when they shut the pit,

01:42:01.250 --> 01:42:07.417
went to his house with petrol, poured
it over himself and set fire to it.

01:42:08.459 --> 01:42:11.501
They’d shut his pit down
and he couldn’t face it.

01:42:16.375 --> 01:42:19.083
It was more
than a defeat for the miners,

01:42:19.459 --> 01:42:23.209
it was a defeat
for trade unionism in Britain.

01:42:24.417 --> 01:42:29.667
If miners lost,
then what chance have we?

01:42:30.334 --> 01:42:37.000
That rippled out throughout
the working class institutions.

01:42:41.709 --> 01:42:46.250
We were the enemy
of the state and political elites,

01:42:46.417 --> 01:42:51.709
we recognised they wanted
to tame the trade unions

01:42:51.876 --> 01:42:56.292
so they wouldn’t interfere
with profit making.

01:42:56.459 --> 01:43:02.584
It was about defeating the miners
so they could boost their profits

01:43:02.751 --> 01:43:08.250
when the miners were defeated,
we’re suffering from that defeat.

01:43:08.417 --> 01:43:13.667
record levels of unemployment,
wages being driven down,

01:43:13.918 --> 01:43:19.584
conditions, ridden roughshod over,
they’re the scars of defeat.

01:43:19.959 --> 01:43:25.209
It wasn’t just coal mines that were
closed, all sorts of factories

01:43:25.375 --> 01:43:29.918
and breweries,
everything was closed down.

01:43:31.334 --> 01:43:37.584
30 years later they talk about
how much social security is costing.

01:43:38.626 --> 01:43:46.334
These people haven’t worked for two
generations, “Whose fault’s that?”

01:43:48.000 --> 01:43:55.459
All the things that have happened
can be traced back the Great Strike,

01:43:55.918 --> 01:43:59.667
that we lost
and we should never have lost it.

01:44:00.125 --> 01:44:05.709
One union, rail workers, dockers,
if just one union had joined us,

01:44:06.042 --> 01:44:09.083
we would have won that strike.
But we didn’t

01:44:09.250 --> 01:44:12.250
and our defeat changed everything
for the next three decades.

01:44:50.375 --> 01:44:54.542
JOB LOSSES

01:44:56.083 --> 01:44:57.167
LEADING BRITAIN INTO THE 1990S

01:44:57.334 --> 01:45:03.459
In the British economy, there will be
no no-go areas for free enterprise.

01:45:08.209 --> 01:45:10.250
PRIVATISATION TIMETABLE

01:45:10.417 --> 01:45:12.083
BRITISH GAS ENERGY IS OUR BUSINESS

01:45:12.584 --> 01:45:16.626
One question about privatisation
is how prices will be regulated.

01:45:17.584 --> 01:45:19.417
POWER BILLS WILL SOAR UNTIL 2030

01:45:23.375 --> 01:45:28.918
The shares in privatised industries
pushed the stock exchange—

01:45:35.959 --> 01:45:42.167
Does enterprise and liberty rise
from the dead ashes of state control?

01:45:42.459 --> 01:45:48.042
The assets sold read like a roll call
from Britain’s industrial heritage.

01:45:48.626 --> 01:45:52.959
We’ve laid the economic foundations
of a decent and prosperous future.

01:45:54.876 --> 01:45:57.292
FTSE SEEN OPENING HIGHER

01:46:09.292 --> 01:46:11.584
5,000 JOBS AXED IN BANK CRASH

01:46:25.876 --> 01:46:29.125
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT

01:46:31.417 --> 01:46:33.834
THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

01:46:50.501 --> 01:46:55.626
With the knowledge of the past we can
try to do something about the future.

01:46:56.375 --> 01:47:01.167
Our strike shone as a beacon,
that even if the state is against you

01:47:01.459 --> 01:47:03.459
you can fight back.

01:47:04.626 --> 01:47:08.209
And that side of it has lingered on,

01:47:08.417 --> 01:47:12.876
they’ve not defeated us,
we’ve lost a battle, not the war.

01:47:36.792 --> 01:47:38.834
It’s certainly not beautiful,

01:47:40.250 --> 01:47:43.375
it’s just scrubland really, isn’t it?

01:47:43.959 --> 01:47:49.584
I don’t feel sad about losing
machinery and conveyor belts.

01:47:50.083 --> 01:47:55.542
It’s what that machinery meant
and what it enabled us to do.

01:47:57.209 --> 01:48:03.667
That runs through the veins
of the communities and it’s lost.

01:48:05.626 --> 01:48:10.959
That’s what happens when you lose,
if we’d won, it’d have been different

01:48:12.501 --> 01:48:18.999
If we’d won it’d have been
a better world for everybody.

01:48:19.125 --> 01:48:22.042
It definitely would have been
a better world for everybody.

01:48:24.000 --> 01:48:28.292
Who knows, come back in 100 years
and things might be different.

01:48:29.125 --> 01:48:32.083
The future’s still up for grabs.

01:48:41.042 --> 01:48:44.626
DOCUMENTS PROVE THATCHER
HAD INTERVENED IN THE STRIKE.

01:48:44.792 --> 01:48:52.000
DESPITE PUBLIC DENIALS IN 1984,
GOVERNMENT PLANNED TO CLOSE 75 PITS.

01:48:56.542 --> 01:48:59.292
AS OF 2013, 40 % OF UK ELECTRICITY
IS GENERATED BY COAL.

01:48:59.459 --> 01:49:03.459
80 PERCENT IS IMPORTED

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The Enemy Within

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