Published: Wednesday, 7th March, 2007 12:14
THE MINERS' STRIKE REMEMBERED
By Cumnock Chronicle Newsroom
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DEEP mining wasn’t just a job - it was a way of life; a bond, as rich as the mountains of black gold that lay firmly beneath the earth, that intrinsically linked nearly every family in communities across the district.
The death of the coalfields was the death of a way of life.
So when the thousands of local miners came out on mass strike on Friday March 9, 1984 - their fight was to preserve generations of history: a culture that held communities tightly together and for a future not blighted by poverty, unemployment and hopelessness.
The Miners Strike may have lasted 51 weeks, but its effects will take generations to put right.
This month marks the 23th anniversary of a struggle in which two great wills collided: the miner and the government.
EVERY miner in Cumnock, Doon Valley and Upper Nithsdale knew deep down what fate had in store.
There was a silent undercurrent from a strike in the early 70s which had grown more intense and all the more frightening.
AND IN 1979, WHEN BRITAIN VOTED IN ITS FIRST LADY PRIME MINISTER, MARGARET THATCHER, THE TIMEBOMB THAT WOULD DECIMATE AN INDUSTRY WAS IGNITED.
They called her the Iron Lady and it was a handle she time and again throughout her reign proved she rightly deserved. Some say she stepped into office with the mother of all grudges and a vehemence to inflict her own power on the people whose solidarity threatened her own political will.
Her predecessor, Ted Heath, had taken on the miners and lost. During the 1974 strike Miners’ Leader Arthur Scargill forced the Conservative government to pose the question “who rules the country, the government or the unions?”
This question forced Heath’s government to relinquish office and give way to a minority Labour government.
By 1979 Maggie Thatcher was determined to diminish the power of unions. Soon after, the National Coal Board revealed a hitlist which would see the closure of 20 pits and a loss of 20,000 jobs.
HOWEVER THE TRUE EXTENT OF THIS DAMNING DOCUMENT WAS YET TO BE REVEALED.
THE first to feel the pressure were Sorn and Highhouse collieries. By 1983 they were branded unviable and the miners voted with their feet and launched their own strike.
But their efforts were in vain and hundreds of miners found themselves unemployed shortly after.
The threat of this “list” was never far from the minds of the local pit men. The NCB’s declaration came to a head as three days before the strike they issued a notice refuting the extent of their plans.
AND BY THE FRIDAY, MARCH 9, NUM PRESIDENT ARTHUR SCARGILL CALLED A NATIONAL STRIKE WHEN CLOSURE PLANS FOR CORTONWOOD IN YORKSHIRE WERE REVEALED.
Killoch came out at the end of the nightshift; Barony voted with a show of hands to join the strike and men at the Lugar workshop closed their doors at the end of their working week on the Friday bringing pit operations virtually to a standstill.
The NCB plan was to develop a number of superpits producing high levels of coal using new technology and less manpower.
However this signalled the death knell for pits in Scotland, Wales, and many areas in England as Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire were tipped as the only two to benefit.
Maggie Thatcher was well prepared for going head-to-head with the miners. She had been stockpiling coal ready for the conflict. The black stuff was being imported from Poland, Australia and South Africa and it was as if God himself had a hand in it, for Britain recorded its highest temperatures for decades, thus reducing the demand throughout the strike.
The legality of the strike was a sticking point for many. Miners at Barony, after the first week, demanded the union hold a national ballot. They revealed they didn’t want to stop work, but would never break the line and cross the picket. But they called for a letter to be sent to NUM General Secretary Peter Healthfield to press their case .
Others felt Scargill was backed into a corner with no other possible option. Ballots had proved fruitless a few years before when the Nottingham branch reneged on a deal following a national ballot and this reduced much local confidence in their power.
Albert Wheeler, Scottish Area Director for the NCB, warned that “Strike action would result in heavy job losses”, but it was the threat of job losses that brought the men out in the first place.
Alex Doolan, Ayrshire delegate of the NUM, and a stalwart to the campaign despite being dogged by illness, responded: “We are not out to destroy the pits, we are trying to protect them. If anyone is going to close the pits, it’s the NCB”.
Alex died shortly after the end of the strike.
Article first appeared in the Cumnock Chronicle Friday 19th March 2004
