Arthur Scargill and The Union Fight Back

Who is Arthur Scargill?

Athur Scargill lead the national union of mine workers, during his epic strike against Margaret Thatcher's attempt to smash the union in 1984-85. For this he remains a heroic figure to a generation of activists.

• He was the son and grandson of coal miners, at the age of 15, when he left school he followed his Fathers footsteps into the pits.
  He became a representative of The Daily Worker who convinced him, at the age of 17, to join the Young Communist League of Britain. 
• Within 18 months Scargill was sitting on the executive board of that organisation.
• At the age of 19 Scargill attended the 1957 world youth festival in Moscow as the representative of the Yorkshire miners.
• He was a British trade unionist, President of the National Union of mineworkers from 1982-2002
• The chair of Yorkshire NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) said that the working hours of workers, would be cut. Arthur Scargill was not happy with this, as well as many other miners and the chair was voted out, declaring a strike. 

"Yet what you need is not marches, demonstrations, rallies or wide associations, all of them are important. What you need is direct action. The sooner people understand that, the sooner we will begin to change things."

The Strike of 1984

• Scargill played the key role in the 1972 miners strike, when he was a miner, and a union rep in Yorkshire. Crucially he called upon other workers to strike in solidarity with miners. This then lead to a number of strikes, including 1984, where again Scargill lead the union fight back.
• Tens of thousands of Britain's miners stopped work in what looked like becoming a long battle against job losses after the pits where closed.
• The miners strike will always be remembered in British working class history as the most significant turning point in the power relationship between the working class organisations of the trade unions.
• The strike, which began on March 12, 1984, lasted for a year before ending in failure. Scargill and his wife were among the hundreds of strikers arrested. 
• Despite the fail of the strike, he still remained popular among people.
• His year-long stand off with Margaret Thatcher in the 1984 miner's strike was one of the defining events of the era.
• The miners are still to this day attempting to rebuild their shattered communities. 

• More than 187,000 miners came out on strike and this was the start of the most confrontational strikes ever seen, with a clash between miners and police. 
• Arthur Scargill took on the government, but Thatcher wouldn't negotiate.