the myth of workers' control arthur scargillthe myth of workers' control arthur scargill

RewriteRule . Harpercollins Publishers, 2012. The Anatomy of Thatcherism. Page 473. you only have to look at the current state of our country after Cov19torealise that we have noindustry left! [29], In 1998, Scargill and his wife, Anne, separated.[30]. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has stripped ex-president Arthur Scargill of his voting rights - threatening to end the career of one of the most divisive figures in Britain's recent. If your blog is showing the wrong domain name in links, redirecting to another site, or is missing images and style, these are all usually related to the same problem: you have the wrong domain name configured in your WordPress blog. : S.n., 1996. Parcourez la librairie en ligne la plus vaste au monde et commencez ds aujourd'hui votre lecture sur le Web, votre tablette, votre tlphone ou un lecteur d'e-books. Person/Body (Historic): Kahn, Peggy. On 25 August 2010, it was reported that Scargill had been told that he no longer qualified for full membership of the NUM under union rules that he had helped draw up, but was only eligible for "life", "retired" or "honorary" membership, none of which carried voting rights. A History of Modern Britain. All work is written to order. Page 342. Scargill joined the Labour Party in 1962. [5] In 1957 he was elected NUM Yorkshire Area Youth Delegate, and attended the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow as a representative of the Yorkshire miners. Person/Body (Historic): A. Taylor & Sons Ltd. Page 346. In pictures: Arthur Scargill's legacy Mr Scargill's election as NUM president in 1981 had an electrifying effect on the union movement. Accessed January 06, 2019. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3503545.stm. Which makes his present-day role (such as it is) in politics all the more tragic. Milne explains how the strike was a last-ditch fight to defend jobs, mining communities and the NUM itself against a government prepared to bring into play unlimited resources and its entire panoply of coercive powers as and where necessary to break the union and its backbone of support[22]. Robert Taylor depicts Scargill as an 'industrial Napoleon' who called a strike 'at the wrong time' on the 'wrong issue', and adopted strategies and tactics that were 'impossibilist', with 'an inflexible list of extravagant non-negotiable demands' that amounted to 'reckless adventurism' that was 'a dangerous, self-defeating delusion'. On the appointment of Ian MacGregor as head of the NCB in 1983, Scargill stated, "The policies of this government are clear to destroy the coal industry and the NUM". "It's so hypocritical it's unreal," he said. Arthur Scargill, the former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), addressed a rally Saturday outside Sheffield railway station in support of the railworkers' strike. [15] How the Miners Strike Could Have Won. Socialist Worker (Britain). Somerset: Routledge, 2018. He had been a Communist and retained strong Marxist views and a penchant for denouncing anyone who disagreed with him as a traitor Scargill had indeed been elected by a vast margin and he set about turning the NUM's once moderate executive into a reliably militant group By adopting a position that no pits should be closed on economic grounds, even if the coal was exhausted more investment would always find more coal, and from his point of view, the losses were irrelevant he made sure confrontation would not be avoided. His one man mission to bring down the elected government, for a second time, and destroy Thatcherism was not only not accomplished ,it only served to strengthen the Conservative Government and Thatchers dominance of the political landscape for over a decade. Andrew Marr is one of many historians who support this view and believed that The Nottinghamshire miners turned out to be critical. Many people blame him for the failure of Miner's Strike due to his poor leadership skills and bad judgement. (1980), Scargill, Arthur, But my father never forced me to be involved in politics at all.[5]. Industrial Democracy in Italy: Workers Co-ops and the Self-management Debate Mark Holmstrom, Mark Holmstrm Snippet view - 1989. Your TV show 'White Light' presenter James Maw speaks to Union leader Arthur Scargill about what Trade unions can do for the youth of today. Page 158. Page 317. var Logger = new EconBiz.Logger(); Without them the power stations, even with the mix of nuclear and oil and the careful stockpiling, might have begun to run short and the government would have been in deep trouble[43] Therefore, showing that the lack of support from the Nottinghamshire miners was a more important factor in the failure of the Miners strike than government preparations. A5 format. [55], In 2017, Scargill spoke at an event in Cardiff setting out how British manufacturing could be rebuilt after Britain had left the European Union. Accessed October 12, 2018. "Scargill" redirects here. Therefore, this portrays the feelings of the majority of the miners who were on strike as they realised that this lack of support could determine the outcome of the strike. This varies by browser, if you do not see a box on your page with a red X try right clicking on the page, then select View Page Info, and goto the Media Tab. Arguably, one of the most important factors in the failure of the Miner's Strike in 1984 was the leadership of the head of NUM, Arthur Scargill. Wilsher, Peter, Donald Macintyre, and Michael CE Jones, eds. [45] Milne, Seumas. Page 51, [9] Lawson, Nigel. Page 340. Margaret Thatcher. It is reported that the police were getting between 600 and 1000 a week and many people believed that there just arent that many police available to move about. For addon domains, the file must be in public_html/addondomain.com/example/Example/ and the names are case-sensitive. Downing Street Years. [29] Thatcher, Margaret. The Myth of Workers' Control (booklet) Person/Body (Historic): Scargill, Arthur. If it wasnt for Thatchers continued support for the Nottinghamshire miners, the strike would have had their support which may have been vital in the success of the strike. The Miners Strike Day by Day: The Illustrated 1984-85 Diary of Yorkshire Miner Arthur Wakefield. Travis, Alan. July 31, 2013. Margaret Thatcher began a media campaign in order to win over the public and demonise the miners. In May 2009, he was a candidate for the Socialist Labour Party for one of London's seats in the European Parliament. [16] Wakefield, Arthur, and Brian Elliot. Can you add one ? London: Routledge, 2019. Scargill's first mistake was refusing to call a National Ballot . Margaret Thatcher. In 1974, he was instrumental in organising the miners' strike that led Prime Minister Edward Heath to call a February general election.[13]. Was this national or local? Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world . London: Fontana, 1992. In the event, it turned out to be the exact blueprint that the government followed[21]. Page 341. After looking at the evidence, I believe that the Marxist view is more valid than the Mainstream media view in the fact that it is clear that Thatcher and her government went above and beyond in order to bring down Scargill and the miners. On the other hand, the Marxist/Left Wing view suggests that the strike was part of Thatchers wider attack on political consensus and suggest that the miners could have won the strike had it not been for the concerted, illegal government campaign to smash the miners union, something they had been planning for some time. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com. The best work on Scargill was Michael Crick, Scargill and the Miners (1985). ", R.R. Airport staff at Leeds-Bradford Airport identified Scargill attempting to travel under a false name (Arthur Fenn) wearing a disguise on 20 July, and turned him away to purchase a genuine ticket with his true identity. This confirms the fact that Thatcher and Ian McGregor often didnt see eye-to-eye, an example of this is the issue with the NACODs strike. ", Howell, David, et al. [17] Still the Enemy Within (2014). IMDb. . [8] Beckett, Francis, and David Hencke. When you have a missing image on your site you may see a box on your page with with a red X where the image is missing. Without their support, victory for the miners looked uncertain as they were the best paid, with better conditions promised by Thatcher[13]. It turned into a confrontation with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in which the miners' union was defeated. Page 57-59. Accessed October 12, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn. Page 57. With Fay Hauser, Olivia Haller, Doris Morgado, Chrystee Pharris. 100 0 _ a Arthur Scargill c British trade unionist (born 1938) 100 1 _ a Scargill, Arthur d (1938- ). In this example the image file must be in public_html/cgi-sys/images/. of Leeds [u.a.] He gained fame for using the tactic to win the Battle of Saltley Gate in 1972, and made it his main tactical device in the 1984 strike. John Campbell argues that It was the job of the police to protect the freedom to work, and the job of the government to support the police[37]. London: Vintage Books, 2008. When you encounter a 404 error in WordPress, you have two options for correcting it. It's easy to mock Arthur Scargill. April 23, 2022 the myth of workers' control arthur scargill . We may criticise some of the tactics he used in the 1984-5 miners strike, but we cannot dispute that he gave real leadership and was serious about wanting to defeat the Tories. However, we have to be careful when using this source as evidence as Scargill may have been trying to justify his actions to save himself criticism. Therefore, the fact that Scargill didnt call a National Ballot was irrelevant[11] as Tony Benn says, but the fact that Scargill authorised violent tactics that reduced public sympathy and misjudged situations may have been a factor in the failure of the miners strike. Soup kitchens were set up to save miners and their families from starvation in nearly every small village[18]. Arthur Scargill: We Could Surrender or Stand and Fight. The Guardian. //--> Page 317. March 10, 2004. "[46] Kitchen says that Scargill "has had 30 years of decent living out of the union, and he's got a pension that's second to none. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984-85), a major event in the history of the British labour movement. Scargills first mistake was refusing to call a National Ballot after the strike started to gain support. July 31, 2013. [21] Ridley, Nicholas. Scargill opposed civilian nuclear power and, during the first Wilson ministry, became highly critical of the government's energy policy. Absolute nonsense on all accords above. This Mainstream media view holds that the strike failed because of Scargills extreme beliefs and bad decisions. Scargill recalled how after becoming a miner, the poor working conditions and "people who should never have been working, having to work to live on that first day I promised myself I would try one day to get things changed". [14], Scargill was a very vocal opponent of Thatcher's Conservative government, frequently appearing on television to attack it. Another factor in the failure of the miners strike, in 1984, is government involvement. An example of this is the NACODs strike whereby Ian McGregor ordered colliery overmen to cross violent picket lines if they were to get paid. The Enemy Within: The Secret War against the Miners. [40] Tony Benn. Wikipedia. The issue of Scargills leadership is argued as the main reason that the miners strike failed. This led to McGregor and the NCB negotiating a settlement with NACODS in order for them to call off the strike which could have seriously affected the outcome of the miners strike. He was not addressed or greeted from the platform, though as Honorary Life President of the NUM it might be expected, as a courtesy if nothing else, that his presence would be acknowledged. In 1973, Scargill was elected to the full-time post of compensation agent in the Yorkshire NUM. ",confirmEmpty: "Are you sure you want to empty your clipboard? Read online at https://workersliberty.org/node/34498, Submitted by AWL on 18 September, 2019 - 11:48, Letters: Hands off Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg, Holodomor: the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33, Tubeworker (London Underground) (bulletin), Off the Rails (national rail workers) (bulletin), Off the Rails (national rail workers) (blog), Notts Off the Rails (Nottingham rail workers) (bulletin), On Guard (Sheffield rail workers) (bulletin). Edit the file on your computer and upload it to the server via FTP. "Goodbye to all that? You may need to scroll to find it. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. You've been found out. These days he only gets to speak at the crankiest of Stalinist events. London: Verso, 2014. However, Kenneth OMorgan may be overemphasising the amount of support that the miners had as we know that Thatcher continuously demonised the miners in the media calling them the enemy within and this reduced a lot of public support for the strike. I really do not care what you think of Mr Scargill today, where elseis a man supposed to go after he was betrayed by the system and vilified by the media to agullible population, a media that was run by the government of the day. Some historians have provided interpretations and explanations of the defeat. Therefore, Tony Benns argument is more convincing than Eric Evans as he takes into account the failures of the miners as well as giving credit to the amount of support the strike had as well. The End of an Era Diaries 1980-90. This will reset the permalinks and fix the issue in many cases. It was alleged that, of the money donated from Libya, Scargill took 29,000 for his own bridging loan and 25,000 for his home in Yorkshire, but gave only 10,000 to the striking Nottinghamshire miners. The names of all incoming telephone callers are recorded on a central log. ", "Cabinet papers reveal 'secret coal pits closure plan', "Cameron rejects Labour call for miners' strike apology", "SCARGILL LEAVES HIS WIFE AFTER 37 YEARS; My marriage is over he tells pals", "Scargill used Thatcherite policy in bid to buy London flat", "National Union of Mineworkers 'expels' Arthur Scargill", "Arthur Scargill wins 13,000 union damages", "Why Arthur Scargill is reluctant to leave his 1.5m Barbican flat", "In search of Arthur Scargill: 30 years after the miners' strike", "List of candidates for the EU Parliamentary elections", "Stalin apologists drink to the memory of Uncle Joe", "Scargill angers unions with Solidarity attack", "Old comrades rub hands with glee at return of hard left", "Scargill highlights policy differences with Jeremy Corbyn", "Brexit means we can reopen the mines and cotton mills, says Arthur Scargill", "Ex-miners' leader Arthur Scargill announced among speakers for 'Rebel Town Festival' in South Tyneside", "Arthur Scargill joins RMT picket at Wakefield", "Arthur Scargill joins striking rail workers on picket line", "Engagements - Debated on Wednesday 22 June 2022", "Johnson and Starmer spar over rail strikes at PMQs", "National Assembly for Wales Election Results 19992007", "Arthur Scargill and the Battle of Saltley Gate" BBC News 10 February 2012, Review of BBC Radio Play: "The Duel", by Michael Samuels the struggle for control of the UK coal industry in 1984, Trade Union International of Energy Workers, Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom, List of political parties in the United Kingdom, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arthur_Scargill&oldid=1137688669, Young Communist League of Britain members, Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, Presidents of the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain), Short description is different from Wikidata, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from April 2021, Articles with dead external links from October 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. The strict trade union laws have also been credited for the failure of the strike with Norman Tebbit, who introduced the trade union law reforms, saying because of my reforms, if these other unions had joined an illegal strike, the Coal Board could have asked the court to confiscate their funds[23]. I was for the EU then, and was critical of this stance, but I I then came to the out view, albeit for different reasons.l, and was fully behind Brexit. Scargill also cleverly manipulated the NUM rule book creating a serious constitutional debate. He claimed that the government had a long-term strategy to destroy the industry by closing unprofitable pits, and that it listed pits it wanted to close each year. Lawson also takes the mainstream media view that everything Thatcher did during the strike was to maintain law and order. vufindString = {bulk_email_success: "Your item(s) were e-mailed",bulk_save_success: "Your item(s) were saved successfully",close: "close",loading: "Loading",sms_success: "Message sent. [39] Benn, Tony. In January 2014, the Prime Minister, David Cameron stated, "I think if anyone needs to make an apology for their role in the miners' strike it should be Arthur Scargill for the appalling way that he led the union. Downing Street Years. The End of an Era Diaries 1980-90. Dont forget that Labours manifesto at Kinnocks last election included a policy of leaving the bloc, and who knows what t was under Corbyn. It is possible that you may need to edit the .htaccess file at some point, for various reasons.This section covers how to edit the file in cPanel, but not what may need to be changed. [38], Film director Ken Loach subsequently made "The Arthur Legend" as part of Channel 4's Dispatches series. The Enemy Within: M15, Maxwell and the Scargill Affair. Arrow, 1994. Downing Street Years. Seumas Milne argues that the miners had sued the police for assault, wrongful arrest, malicious persecution and false imprisonment and then went on to describe the battle of Orgreaves as an 8,000 riot police staged medieval-style mounted charges of unprecedented ferocity[33]. A debate on workers' control. The strike ended on 3 March 1985 following an NUM vote to return to work. However, another reason that many people blame Scargill for the downfall of the miners is due to the fact that Scargill authorised the flying picket strategy in order to stop miners going to work. The Enemy Within: The Secret War against the Miners. These days he only gets to speak at the crankiest of Stalinist events. After a Labour Party conference speech on energy policy by Richard Marsh in July 1967, Scargill said: I can honestly say that I never heard flannel like we got from the Minister he said that we have nuclear power stations with us, whether we like it or not. Accessed October 11, 2018. Therefore, without support from key groups such as the Nottinghamshire miners and the dock workers, the striking miners were isolated which may have led to the failure of the strike itself. My father was a Communist. Nevertheless, this shows that the strike didnt fail from the lack of support in general, but rather the lack of support from key figures such as the Neil Kinnock from the Labour Party, as well as the Nottinghamshire miners who, if they had supported the miners, would have guaranteed a different outcome for the strike. Accessed October 12, 2018. [53] He was not attending any of the events to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the 1984 strike at the NUM. (The Yorkshire Left had already decided to stand him as their candidate even before the strike.) [49], After stepping down from leadership of the NUM, Scargill became active in the UK's Stalin Society[50] saying that the "ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin explain the real world". : Univ. Chris Kitchen said: "I would say it's time to walk away, Mr Scargill. Amazingly the electorate resent being told they're either racist or stupid or both, if the remain campaign had been more mature in it's approach, almost certainly a different decision would have been reached. his position on freedom movements In communist states such as Poland, was unforgivable He is rightly labelled a Stalinist, along with Corbyn. Accessed October 11, 2018. Either way, please contact your web host immediately. March 07, 2009. He says Support for the strike was virtually solid not only in old militant areasbut also (at first) in traditionally moderate Lancashire, Durham and Northumberland[19]. Accessed September 16, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3815426/. The Labour Party was opposed to membership of the EU to begin with wasn't it, so what happened, are its current membership more enlightened. The myth of workers' control; More details; The myth of workers' control . Articles like the above, years later are actually a compliment to Arthur. The .htaccess file contains directives (instructions) that tell the server how to behave in certain scenarios and directly affect how your website functions. Joining the NUM at the age of 19 in 1957, Scargill was one of its leading activists by the late 1960s. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/jan/07/guardianletters4, https://www.marxist.com/britain-when-britain-went-to. Campbell, Adrian, and Malcolm Warner. [7] Scargill, Arthur. Arthur Scargill emerged from semi-retirement from politics to speak at a meeting of the Communist Party of Britains wretched little pro-Brexit front organisation Leave Fight Transform (LeFT) in Brighton on 11 September, alongside Eddie Dempsey (the man who said Tommy Robinson supporters were right to hate the liberal left) and other assorted xenophobes, nationalists and social conservatives. He had no means of calling a strike in Yorkshire.[27]. Scargill, once the hero of the miners, now cuts a rather sad, isolated figure and this is a complex post-1985 story. Thatcher, herself, advances this view in her memoirs The Downing Street Years and echoed by many other Thatcherites such as Nigel Lawson, Shirley Letwin and historians such as John Campbell. Therefore, the argument that Scargills leadership could have been one of the reasons that the miners strike failed is partly true as we know that due to Scargills decision to not call a national ballot he ended up losing key supporters such as the Labour party and many members of the public who couldnt support the strike as it was unofficial and didnt favour Scargills violent tactics. If being ignored is the ultimate retribution forscargill, then he is a lucky man, for if he had espoused his views in some of the countrieswith which he wanted to align us, his best outcome would have been breaking rocks but more likely he would have disappeared never to be heard of again. I've always said that if Arthur can no longer control the NUM, he'll try and destroy it. Ridley may have been trying to take credit for the failure of the strike by saying that the strike failed due to the governments preparations that included the plan he came up with. Page 151. [24] Letwin, Shirley Robin. He was also on the hard-left of the Labour Party, often disagreeing with Neil Kinnock who couldnt support the strike due to its illegitimacy after Scargills failure to call a ballot. [18], Miners were split between those who supported the strike and those who opposed it (see Union of Democratic Mineworkers). . Tony Benn opposes Evans view by saying the extent of the support in the NUM as a whole was evidenced by the overwhelming majority of miners who remained on strike until it ended in 1985[14]. Arrow, 1994. [5] Benn, Tony. [9] At the subsequent enquiry, he used notebooks of underground working from the 19th century, retrieved from the Institute of Geological Sciences in Leeds, to argue that the National Coal Board could have prevented the disaster had they acted on the information available. //