Strike! The Village That Fought Back (2024)

[bunniefuu]

That's me at the front there.

I'm only, what? 20 then.

I had a bit more hair in those days.

I was a bit of an Iron Maiden buff.

I was 23.

It was more like a fun day out.

Everybody's smiling.

Oh, there's quite a few who have

passed away now in that photograph.

You'll never see a gathering

like that again.

I must say....

..I didn't realise

what was in front of us.

I didn't realise what was, how...

How rotten it was going to turn.

The men in this area, you could say

we're right militant.

We all know one another.

There's no way that anybody

would let anybody else down.

There was a hit list

and Polmaise was on it.

The miners at Polmaise

never wasted any time

in trying to do something about it.

If they try and close down Polmaise,

which they are intending,

I can assure them, there'll be

the biggest, biggest wrestle

they ever had in their life.

CHEERING

They were the first pit out

on strike, actually...

This is where it all began.

..and the last pit to go back.

It's been called the most

militant pit in Scotland,

and the first rumblings of a

national strike were heard here.

The significance of the

Polmaise miners

was their determination.

They were a little bit scary,

actually, at times

because they were so determined.

MARGARET THATCHER: I must tell you

that what we have got

is an attempt to substitute

the rule of the mob

for the rule of law.

And it was not successful.

AUDIENCE CHEERS

We would go anywhere

and do what we needed to do

to try and get our message across.

You're fighting for your livelihood,

you're fighting for your jobs,

you're fighting for your community.

Polmaise was 100% solid.

No scab workers.

Everybody was on strike for a year.

Every single man.

COMMENTARY: Try as it may,

a Scotch mist cannot camouflage

the beauty of Scotland's daughters.

Sheena Drummond is today's

Miss United Kingdom.

Scotland's Coal Queen

is Joyce Brown.

Both girls live near Stirling,

so, more suitably clad

against the weather, Joyce takes

Sheena with her to meet

some of the men at nearby

Polmaise Colliery,

the men who helped to vote her in

as the country's Coal Queen.

It's a long time fae I've been here.

But there was three shafts -

three, four and five.

The men went down one,

the coal came up one

and supplies went down the other.

And it was a busy, busy place.

Busy. About 200 men.

DOG BARKS

Oh, what comes back to me is just

getting up in the morning

and coming out on a day shift and

not realising how good a job it was.

It was a great, a great job.

And all these guys that went

down the pits were brave guys,

and it was a brilliant atmosphere.

It was a laugh a minute with them,

and I've never seen nothing

like it since.

PROMO COMMENTARY: If you know

what a coal mine looks like,

get a job in Britain's modern mining

industry and get more out of life.

# Hey there, miner

# Live a life the way

you want it to be

# Come on now, miner

# There's money, lots of money

and security. #

I left the school right away.

And my dad took me down

on a pit visit.

And I thought to myself, "Aye.

This'll do me, aye.

"I'll have a bash at this."

I wasnae academic at school.

Dennis Canavan,

before he became an MP,

was a maths teacher

and he pulled me oot in the corridor

and says, "You want

to go down the pit?"

And I'd already seen a poster says

job security for life.

Join the NCB.

I says, "Aye, that'll do for me."

Well, my dad worked there.

My grandad worked there.

My dad's brother worked there.

All the, most of the Rennies,

the Rennie family worked there

in some capacity in their day.

So it was like, "I've got

a job, I'm leaving school.

"I'm going to a job."

Growing up in the '80s

in a mining village,

it actually was a really happy time

for a child of four.

Everybody knew each other and

everybody looked out for each other.

You just felt like you were in one

great, big, huge family growing up.

Gala days were huge in the '80s.

And if you were in the gala,

you really decorated

your house all up,

so when the procession was passing,

they knew all the people

who were in the gala.

So this is my mum and dad's house,

which my mum's still in.

It was a great place, and it just,

everybody looked out for each other.

I mean, there was gala days,

there was parties for the bairns

in the club,

and loads and loads of stuff.

And it was a tight, tight community.

If you were brought up in Fallin,

nine times out of ten,

you would have been a miner.

You'd have went doon the pit.

Everybody worked there,

full families worked there.

You had the likes of maybe three

sons and the father worked there,

the mum worked in the canteen.

It was a village pit.

It was built first

and then they built the houses.

Fallin and Polmaise

go hand-in-hand.

They always have, fae when the pit

started to when the pit shut.

It was a militant pit and I think

that was down to the people

that worked here. They were so

united in their beliefs

and what they thought

was right and wrong.

It was born of just the industry

itself, you know, it was so tough,

and you had to fight for everything

that you could get.

Scotland was one of the most

productive coalfields in the UK.

The goal was always to get as much

production

out of the ground as you could get.

Then when we came into the '80s,

another dimension came along.

It didn't matter how much

you produced,

it was - what was the cost

of that production?

The Coal Board described their

latest financial results

as disastrous.

They lost 875 million in 1983.

Ian MacGregor had already

been employed with British Steel.

He had a reputation for cutting jobs

and reducing loss makers.

And that's the way

that Mrs Thatcher saw it.

A man who would come along

and defeat the unions.

The MacGregor plan will give

this country the best hope

of a good coal industry

it's ever had.

Today, we are looking at the future.

I act on behalf of you,

the taxpayers, who I think

are getting a little tired

of putting out so much money

just to keep these mines going

when you don't need them.

I was a local MP at that time.

I remember that the proposal

came forward to close Polmaise.

TV COMMENTARY: Polmaise

is under sentence of death.

Latest victim of the Coal Board's

tough new policy

of abandoning unproductive pits

with geological problems

and moving the miners

on to richer seams.

We met MacGregor,

the chairman of the Coal Board

at his headquarters in London.

We put forward a very strong case

that there were still workable

coal reserves in Polmaise.

He listened politely, perhaps,

to what we had to say.

But his mind was made up.

He wouldn't budge an inch.

Right away, people in the union

mobilised and said,

"Right, we're going to have to try

and stop this."

I'm sure, at the end of the day,

if we have to go on strike,

if we have to go and picket,

and I'm sure that you lads

along with us folk up here,

if we go to the pit heads

and we meet the miners concerned

and discuss their case,

I'm sure they'll back us 100%.

APPLAUSE

My dad was always one

for trying to make things better.

If he thought something wasnae

right, he would fight for it.

"That's no' right.

"What are you going to do?"

You know, sort of thing.

That's what he was like.

And the men in this area are...

..you could say we're right

militant.

We're militant because every other

day, we're working in the pits

and we're depending on one another.

For any mistakes made,

it's somebody's life's at stake.

He was a very gifted person.

He was a brilliant orator,

and he was also an entertainer. He

was the heart and soul of this club.

CHEERING

# For once in my life

# I won't let someone hurt me. #

He would do his MC

every Saturday night,

because he was as mad

as a brush as well.

SHE LAUGHS

I first became aware of John

McCormack when I was seeking

the nomination to become the Labour

candidate for West Stirlingshire.

And I know that some of my opponents

insinuate that this is maybe

the only club that would have me.

But may I say that this to me

is far better than the Carlton

and all these posh clubs down

in London.

John insisted

that I go down the pit,

crawl along the coal seam,

and the coal seam in Polmaise

was very, very narrow.

And I had to crawl on

my hands and knees

and meet all the miners

and chat away to them.

And I found the noise

absolutely deafening,

and the ceiling above

was creaking and groaning.

I thought it was going to be

falling on top of me.

It was a frightening experience.

And John insisted I do it,

not just once,

but I had do it for the day shift,

the back shift,

the night shift.

And for some reason or other,

another shift that Polmaise called

the ham and egg shift.

And then John insisted that I meet

every single miner that worked

at Polmaise at that time.

I'd like to send this message

to the Coal Board, to Mr MacGregor

and to Maggie Thatcher, if...

CROWD CHEERS

If they try and close down Polmaise,

which they're intending,

I can assure them they'll have

the biggest, biggest wrestle

ever had in their life.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

If a pit's exhausted,

and there's no more coal in the pit,

and it's a dilapidated pit,

by all means,

by all means move the miners.

But Polmaise doesn't come

into that category.

Polmaise has 30, 35 years there.

The Coal Board do offer fairly

generous redundancy payments

to older men, men over 50.

You would be eligible for that.

Why is it not acceptable to you?

Well, the way as I see it is,

it's not my job to sell.

We've got to fight for our jobs,

to leave a future for the young,

the younger people, the young men

in the village.

That's as I see it.

The mood in Fallin

was predictably 100%

in favour of strike action.

The bottom line was...

..if we don't fight for our jobs,

we'll not have a job.

The significance of the Polmaise

miners was their determination.

They moved very quickly.

So they were the first out

at the beginning

of what turned out to be

a national strike.

They then pursued the strike.

They were fierce.

Angry miners interrupted

a news conference

being given by their Scottish

President, Mick McGahey

in Edinburgh today.

We went to try and lobby

the Scottish NUM.

Let's get ourselves out here,

you know?

If they're coming for Polmaise,

where are they going to stop?

So, boys, I appeal to you.

Now we're in the conference.

For the Polmaise miners,

that meeting in Edinburgh

was a chance to convince delegates

from other pits in Scotland

that they ought to join

a national strike.

Because the Polmaise guys

were already out

and the worst thing that could

happen to them was to be left

hanging out to dry.

COMMENTARY: Tempers were short

from the start as about 100 men

from Polmaise pit near Stirling, one

of six closed in Scotland in a year,

tried to persuade

delegates from other pits

to vote for strike action.

But as Scottish president,

Mike McGahey, announced later,

although there'd been pressure

for an immediate stoppage over pit

closures, some delegates

have been less than enthusiastic

about an indefinite strike.

At that, the Polmaise men charged

into the room to tell area officials

face-to-face they thought

they weren't getting

the support they deserved.

There was quite a few that werenae

for it, actually, you know?

And it got a bit tasty at times

shall we say,

as far as trying

to get the point across.

I was working as the Scottish

Affairs Correspondent for BBC Radio.

It was one of the most memorable

days of my working life.

You're no' going in...

The anger and frustration

and concern

that they were going

to be left alone, out on their own.

COMMENTARY: The obvious anger

of the Polmaise men boiled over,

fuelled by reports

that other Scottish miners

wouldn't join them on strike.

There was a lot of kind of

false information.

The false information

came fae the press.

Who was there.

But the press was there mob

handed, you know what I mean?

So they're coming out telling

you different stories

and blah, blah, blah.

COMMENTARY: The angry demonstrators

turned their attentions

to cameramen, and reporters.

I could hear somebody shouting,

"You can walk oot

or be bloody carried out."

It got heated. I think two or three

people got

kind of shoved about and that,

which usually happens,

you know what I mean?

COMMENTARY: One unfortunate radio

reporter was bundled out

and kicks were aimed at him.

It was like a scene from a Western.

The batwing doors flew open

and a huge guy was standing there,

and he grabbed me by the lapels,

took me out onto the landing,

and threw me down the stairs.

Yes, there was a wee bit

of jostling and...

..people got ejected.

There was great strength

of feeling among the Polmaise miners

because they didn't get

what they wanted,

and, for a while at least,

they were hung out to dry.

They were on their own.

Relations between the National Coal

Board and the miners' leaders

deteriorated further today.

The Board announced

that they want more cuts

in the amount of coal produced.

It could mean that another 20 pits

will close in the next 12 months

with a loss of about 20,000 jobs.

"A modest rundown",

the Board called it.

We went as a delegation

fae Polmaise miners,

and, whoa, what's going on here?

It was like, every pit there.

Not just the Scottish boys, all of

Britain, Wales and everything.

And they were all up for it.

Outside were about 300 miners

from Polmaise.

They were a determined lot.

And they had their Polmaise banners.

The Polmaise banner - canary yellow!

HE LAUGHS

But it was there.

John McCormack made it a point

that wherever we went,

that banner was to be front

and centre, you know,

because it was showing everybody

what we were about,

what we needed them to do -

get on board, follow suit.

The Polmaise miners were right

at the kick-off of this.

MINERS CHANThey were there that fateful day

on March 8th, 1984,

when the Union authorised the strike

action in Scotland and in Yorkshire,

that rolled on to become

the National Pit Strike.

In accordance with Rule 41,

the strike action starts...

CROWD CHEERS LOUDLY

Arthur Scargill, of course,

is hoping that he's going to be able

to close the country down

and roll back Thatcherism.

You can well understand

that the Polmaise miners

wouldn't have had any inkling

as to what they were letting

themselves in for.

They were the pace setters

of this strike.

But what they didn't understand was

that Mrs Thatcher

had prepared herself.

The government had taken

enormous precautions

in the sense of building up

coal stocks,

in preparing the power stations to

burn oil as well as coal.

Every sort of measure

had been taken.

Miners throughout the country

are holding meetings to decide

whether or not to join

the coal strike.

In Scotland, it's thought at least

five of the ten pits still

to make up their minds

are willing to work on Monday.

If the Polmaise miners

couldn't make sure that Scotland

was 100% out,

they could then call on

other areas to support it

and you'd get the national strike.

They had a job to do.

We came into the union hut and

all the boys were ready to go.

"What's happening?"

"We're going.

We're going for Bilston Glen."

Bilston Glen was unusual

in the Scottish coalfield.

It was described as a super pit,

and the promises had been made

that Bilston Glen

had a long future ahead of it.

It's all right for Arthur Scargill

to sit there wi' his Jaguar

and his house and all his money,

and shouting for us

to come out on strike.

He'll no' lose nae money.

We'll lose the money, no' him.

They kind of thought, "We're OK. Any

closures aren't going to affect us."

That was the kind of mentality

that the miners there had.

I've got a future in the industry

and it's at Bilston Glen.

I'll work here until I'm finished.

There you are.

Because it was a new pit,

there were a lot of people there

who didn't belong

to these mining traditions

of solidarity,

these long-held views

that you don't cross a picket line.

BAD-TEMPERED EXCHANGES

Scab!

I can remember John McCormack

and other guys from Polmaise

coming over to Bilston Glen.

And what they were trying to do

was trying to speak to the men

and try to get through them,

look, this is going to happen to all

the pits. It's time to make a stand.

You can imagine how hard it is

for individuals

to decide to go on strike

for a week.

So how hard is it for them

to go on strike for a month?

And so to watch somebody else

help to undermine your effort

is going to be difficult to bear.

NEWS REPORTER: It wasn't long

before the pickets' frustration

at what they saw as a last remaining

pocket of resistance to the strike

in Scotland boiled over.

We were trying to go through there

and just stop them

getting into the pit.

We were trying to picket them out,

trying to get our point across to

them - you need to join us.

That was the whole point to try

and get them onside with the strike.

NEWS REPORTER: Trouble broke out

at Bilston Glen as some of the

200 pickets who'd collected just

after five o'clock this morning

tried to break through police lines.

I joined the police in 1976

at the age of 16 and a half.

My brother went down the pits

at Polmaise.

I think he only lasted six weeks

and he thought,

"This is not for me,

I'm out of here."

So it was a hard life.

But no appeal to me.

As the scuffles continued

and the arrests mounted,

some pickets got inside the pit yard

and were quickly rounded up.

There was a large number trying

to prevent strike breakers going in.

So the police lined the road.

It was usually just

a lot of shouting.

Previously, I suppose, these people

had been their friends

and their neighbours

and their work mates.

But it sounded vicious and nasty.

It was a total culture change

for me.

I had never been in trouble

in my life

until the strike came along.

I'd never had one charge in my life.

And my first arrest

was at Bilston Glen.

The first time I

ever went through there

and like I say, it was basically

trying to get them to come on side.

Arrested, taken into Dalkeith cells,

spent the night in Dalkeith cells.

The charge sheet was like,

unbelievable.

They were just throwing every charge

they could think about.

It was like, mobbing and rioting,

police as*ault, resisting arrest,

obstruct the Queen's highway.

And I felt, what is this?

I've never been like that.

Why would I do that, you know?

We were there to try

and defend jobs.

And this is what they were

giving you.

Went to court and they

were handing fines out

like they were dishing out confetti.

It was just... And I felt horrible.

I felt terrible because I'd never,

that's not what I was wanting.

That's not what we were about.

We were about trying to save jobs.

MINERS CHANSeveral hundred men

on the first day of the strike

report for work at Bilston Glen.

Some more try on the Tuesday,

but by the Wednesday,

it's pretty well solid.

NEWS REPORT: So after a shaky start,

the miners have largely

achieved their first objective.

The Coal Board had predicted

half Scotland's miners

would be at work today.

Tonight, there are hardly any.

The reason for the turnaround

has been effective,

though, at times ugly picketing.

There was a meeting in

the Miners' Welfare.

They decided to have a sit-in.

So they wanted four volunteers,

it could have been any one of us.

But why would the Coal Board

want to flood the pit

when they're one step away

from closing it?

The Coal Board sabotaged

a colliery at Bogside

and they're trying do

the very same here.

The reason we were underground

was so the Coal Board

wouldn't flick the switch

and put the power off,

stop the pumps

for getting rid of water

and fans for getting rid of gases.

The pit would be lost forever then.

Once you're down there, the Coal

Board can't turn the power off,

because that would be classed as

m*rder, if they'd done that.

# Go dig my grave

# Both wide and deep

# Place a marble stone... #

I went down with Alec MacCallum,

Jimmy Rennie and Jimmy Graham.

The four of us all worked together.

# And on my... #

Nobody wanted the pit to shut.

The only way you could save it

was having guys go down.

Drastic action had to be taken.

NEWS REPORTER: The four have their

normal respirators with them

and they are said

to be perfectly safe.

The Coal Board were told only once

the miners were safely in the lift

shaft on their way down.

It was freezing at the pit pump,

freezing.

We sent down T-Bone steaks

and everything

that is required on a dinner table

for the men underground,

because we think those down there

is a cause worthwhile

in regard to the Polmaise Colliery.

We just sat there for three days

and we were just lying, sleeping.

The camaraderie was great

and we were just underground

for three days,

blethering about football,

playing cards.

NEWS REPORTER: The first thought

of fellow strikers was to provide

the first meal of what the

Miners' Union pledge

will be an indefinite protest.

There was negotiations between

the Coal Board

and our guy, John McCormack.

At the end of the day, they decided,

well, if they're not coming up,

we can't switch the power off,

so we'll keep the power on.

Get the men out the pit.

We come up in the cage

and just went for a shower,

and the pit stayed open.

A couple of weeks later,

the four of us were sacked.

So it was quite,

it was quite brutal.

But I would do it again.

I would do it again.

You just can't accept

your pit's going to shut.

Ken, you've got to fight.

# Wild boys, wild boys... #

Because there was never any need

of a picket line at Polmaise,

the Polmaise miners under

John McCormack's leadership,

they were encouraged

to become flying pickets.

They would go to places

where there were allegations

of some scabs

trying to break the strike.

We were flying pickets

all of a sudden.

We would go anywhere

and do what we needed to do

to try and get our message across.

# Wild! #

We were known as the

Polmaise Piranhas.

It became a way of life.

Just became a way of life.

# Wild boys falling

far from glory

# Reckless and... #

My cousin, Billy Armitage,

myself. I was 23.

You're a single man, aren't you,

so you're not getting any benefits

at all. How are you coping,

financially?

Kind of hard.

You don't get nothing at all.

The girl keeps me going with f*gs.

But as regards as getting, like,

you cannae go for a pint

or nothing like that, you know.

You're in the house all the time.

The only time I'm out is when

I'm going picketing or rallying

or anything like that.

One of the reasons that I didn't

spend a lot of time in Polmaise

during the strike was that

that's not where the action was.

They were the action often enough,

but it wasn't happening

at their own colliery.

# Wild boys

# Never lose it... #

I've not got my glasses on, mate.

I'm there. That's me there, mate.

# Wild boys... #

Anywhere we went,

the Polmaise miners,

they used to open the gate and let

us go at the front,

which was, "Oh, this is brilliant,"

you know what I mean?

But it was like, that wasn't

what they were saying, like,

do you know what I mean? It was

like, "Here they're coming."

We were known through other pits,

everybody got to ken the Piranhas

like, you know.

POLICE SIREN WAILS

NEWS REPORTER: Officers have been

busy stopping cars since dawn.

The police had been organised to a

level that we'd never seen before.

Now there's a big question

as to whether

the Scottish chief constables

are prepared to do

what the English and Welsh chief

constables have been doing.

There's political interference

going on behind the scenes.

So are you saying that any groups

of miners who hire a bus

and head for either of these

locations can expect to be stopped?

In large numbers bent on disorder,

yes.

We were actually then being told

that you cannae travel about

in the country.

Basically

what they were saying is,

you travelling in the country

isn't going to be allowed.

So what is that? You're into a

police state then

and it's...

That's what it told me there.

There was one occasion,

several busloads of miners,

including a strong contingent

from Polmaise,

they were stopped.

It was early in the morning

and we were on the first bus.

There was one lone fat cop

in a car.

And he stopped the bus and he says,

"Where do you think you're going."

And John McCormack says,

"We're going to Largs for a picnic."

He says, "Aye, that'll be right.

Everybody off."

We all got off the bus and sat down

in the middle of the road.

There's no way on earth

they can arrest us all.

Nearly 300 miners were arrested

this morning as Scottish police

changed their tactics.

Every single one of us was arrested.

300 men sitting in the road

and they lifted us all.

HE CHUCKLES

I think, in all, 300 were arrested

and charged with,

not breach of the peace,

but conduct likely to lead

to breach of the peace.

That big mass arrest,

that took place two days after

a cabinet subcommittee meeting

when Margaret Thatcher

was asking why it is

that the Scottish police forces

are not taking similar action

against the miners as, for example,

the chief constables in certain

areas of England.

What we have seen in this country

is the emergence of an organised

revolutionary minority

who are prepared to exploit

industrial disputes,

but whose real aim is the breakdown

of law and order

and the destruction of democratic

parliamentary government.

APPLAUSE

Hunterston was very rough.

That was my first insight into how

actually big this was getting.

NEWS REPORTER: By midday, about

a thousand miners had collected

at the Hunterston Coal Depot to meet

lorries returning from the first

successful run to Ravenscraig.

There was a lot of miners there.

There was a lot of miners,

but there was even more police.

It's the first time during

the strike

that I'd felt danger, in danger,

afraid.

There was hundreds of miners

on the roads, on the pavements.

And they weren't caring,

they were coming through

and you had to get oot the way.

I've actually seen people almost run

over with these lorries coming in,

absolute, total disregard

for safety.

They'd go through you

or over the top of you, or whatever.

It was scary.

NEWS REPORTER: Mounted police

charged a picket line

in Scotland today as miners tried

to stop lorries of coal destined

for Ravenscraig steel plant.

Four pickets were hurt

and treated in hospital

for superficial injuries.

A total of 65 pickets were arrested.

I couldn't believe the situation

we had landed in and how,

determined is probably the word,

that the government were

to beat the miners.

I was like, God, almighty, ken,

if this is what

it's going to be like,

it's going to be some ride,

like, you know.

Because it was scary.

It was just scary.

NEWS REPORTER: This is where it

first began and where there's still

no talk of ending the strike, for

this has always been a militant pit.

This was the soup kitchen

used during the miners' strike.

There were up to 300 people a day

got fed in here.

The children and the ladies first,

and then the pickets would come

in after doing their picket duty.

Came in and got fed

on a daily basis.

NEWS REPORTER: The food is cooked by

the men who once dug coal

and paid for from funds collected

during the strike.

We actually went to a place not very

far from Fallin

and took some pheasants

for the soup pot.

Helped ourselves. We stole tatties,

we got turnips,

we took a couple of sheep.

Didn't have money to buy anything,

so what were you meant to do?

SHEEP BLEAAye, we had the sheep and that.

Took them back to the... A couple of

boys took them to the saunas

in the Miners' Welfare,

butchered them up.

Fresh lamb on the plate.

Where do you come to?

Fallin Miners' Welfare.

My mother-in-law was talking,

I says to her,

"Did you get that lamb at the club?"

"That was lovely.

Where did they get that fae?"

And I kind of gave a smile

and she went,

"No, no."

"Aye, aye." But she ate it!

Well, it may not be in the Good Food

Guide, but it's still the most

popular eating place

in Fallin today.

At 7:45 am,

two busloads

of pickets crossed into Strathclyde

on their way to Ravenscraig,

joined by a police transit.

Ravenscraig was important

in the context of the strike.

The NUM had to stop the supply

of coal getting into Ravenscraig,

to show that they

had industrial muscle.

CROWD APPLAUDS AND WHISTLES

NEWS REPORTER: The faithful took to

the streets for the STUC's

day of action

in support of the miners.

But behind the banners

and the slogans,

the acrimonious dispute over coal

for the Lanarkshire steelworks

was tearing the heart

out of union solidarity.

Something very, very important

was happening.

A lot of the workforce

at Ravenscraig

came from former mining families.

So there was sympathy

for the miners' cause.

But equally from the point of view

of the steelworkers,

helping the miners

might k*ll their own industry.

Miners were set

against steelworkers.

The Transport Workers' Union

was becoming embroiled

as some of its road haulage members

continued to defy picket lines

to keep Ravenscraig's coal run

going.

If they beat the miners

and they shut these pits,

the steel industry's next.

They just didn't get it.

They didn't want to know.

It was so frustrating how

they couldn't see what was coming.

It was, "We're safe,

we're all right."

Bugger off, like, you know.

We went through as usual en masse,

the Piranhas, the flying pickets

and that, and the presence

of the police was unbelievable.

NEWS REPORTER: Throughout the

morning, tension rose gradually,

as the convoy of lorries

was expected.

ANGRY SHOUTING

There were several outbreaks

of violence.

31 men were arrested.

One policeman was injured.

I don't know what the violence

and suchlike was achieving, really.

I was acting on behalf

of the government.

I was just doing what

my job told me to do

and that was try and keep the peace

and keep things sensible.

As the first vehicle arrived,

the main body of pickets

surged forward.

And despite the police horses,

two miners broke through

and were arrested.

The boys that were on strike,

they obviously had a cause

and a purpose,

but I couldn't see the point

of fighting the police

cos the police weren't the enemy.

But the lorries swept on past

the group of union officials

whose attempts to halt the

20-tonne loads were ignored.

Arthur Scargill had gone

into the strike

confident that they would stop the

delivery of coke to the steelworks,

that they would stop the delivery

of coal to the power stations,

that the other workers would

come out in their support.

The steelworkers were not going to

let the furnaces at Ravenscraig

go out because they knew that would

be the end of the steel industry.

So what was quite clear,

Arthur Scargill had failed

to take the rest of the trade union

movement with him.

Convoy after convoy took coal

into the steel plant.

For the second day running,

Ravenscraig should get

all the coal it needs.

Let's not just put your head

in the sand and say,

"I'm all right,

it's not happening to me."

And I've never forgiven them since.

The miners' action

is now into its 14th week,

but one pit in Scotland

has been on strike

for three weeks longer than that.

Mike Smart has visited one

mining family

to see how they've been coping.

Friends and relatives help

with the big bills,

and the family exists on snacks

instead of full meals.

But after 17 weeks on strike,

there's no lack of determination

in the Ray household.

I think the only way we're going

to win this struggle

is by staying out even longer.

There won't be a short term solution

to this.

We probably will need to do

as Arthur Scargill suggests

and stay out until to Christmas.

But at the end of that time, if

we've got a reasonable settlement,

it will certainly be worthwhile

because I'll have a job.

Three and five - 35.

Six and four...

Even an evening's bingo

is a boost for the strikers.

No lavish prizes here,

just groceries collected

by the women's support group.

I had my three kids by then.

Three kids under school age.

So my husband was struggling

with all that.

Nobody had a penny to buy anything,

but the Women's Committee

supported all that and

tried to help families

that were maybe struggling

more than others.

Most of the things that you see here

on any night at all are donated.

Then it's only a matter

of organising it

and laying it out, you know.

We used to get van loads of stuff

sent over from Poland.

There was a big table right in the

middle and it was all clothes,

and it was all just dumped on the

table and everybody...

Everybody was to help themselves.

..just came up and helped

themselves.

We wouldn't have managed as long

and we wouldn't have been able

to be as supportive

as we were to our men

had we no' all the support

that we were given.

We did not feel the financial

struggle as children.

I sometimes remember it being,

you're all going round to your

Auntie Marion's for dinner tonight.

But we had no idea that it was

because there wasn't enough money

in that house that week for dinner.

Despite the fact that there was

never any need of a picket line

at Polmaise Colliery, there was

nevertheless a very heavy

police presence in the village

throughout the period

of the strike.

Miners felt that they

were being followed,

that they were being spied upon,

that local trade union activists

were being targeted,

and sometimes harassment

by the police,

wrongful arrest,

periods of detention to keep

them out of the community.

All sorts of complaints like that.

And as a result, the relationships

between the police and the community

became very, very strained indeed.

The 18th of June, '84.

I'll always remember it.

We were the first bus down there

and the last bus away.

At that time, I didn't realise

what was in front of us.

I didn't realise how rotten

it was going to turn.

Barley was swaying in the fields.

Thousands and thousands of police.

They were goading you.

There was mounted police everywhere,

there was dogs,

there was police in riot gear.

There was no opportunity

or chance to even explain

or try and talk to people.

It was just an as*ault.

All you could see was dust.

There was horses charging.

Because we were hemmed in,

we couldn't do a thing.

NEWS REPORTER: Today on the fields

of battle around Orgreave,

the police were involved in some

of the most vicious hand-to-hand

fighting of the entire

miners' dispute.

The attacks on policemen

were horrific,

but the riot squads gave no quarter,

using their batons liberally.

It turned into a battle

because the way we were treated,

the way we were corralled, the way

we were bullied, intimidated.

And then eventually assaulted.

Miners were brutalised.

Look at that, look at that.

Truncheon.

Minding my own business, mate.

First day on picket line

is this for this lad.

It was like lambs being led

to the slaughter.

It was like a bloody civil w*r.

But the day was a victory

for the police horses

in the eyes of the rank

and file policemen.

They applauded and rattled

their riot shields in tribute

as the horses returned

through their lines.

In previous strikes, the police

observed some kind of neutrality.

But during the '84, '85 strike,

it was really the police

against the miners.

Who did that, then?

How's this happened? Truncheon.

It was a thing

I hope to never see again.

Christ. Have you got a bandage?

It was an all out w*r.

And it would need an

unconditional surrender,

either by Arthur Scargill

or by Margaret Thatcher.

I must tell you that what

we have got is an attempt

to substitute the rule of the mob

for the rule of law.

And it must not succeed.

AUDIENCE CHEERS

She and her fellow cabinet ministers

were obviously trying to demonise

the miners

to destroy their reputation.

NEWS REPORTER: Mrs Thatcher, giving

her traditional end of term speech

to the Conservatives'

1922 committee,

said that during the Falklands w*r

they'd had to fight

the enemy without.

Now they had to fight

the enemy within.

That's our men you're talking about.

That's men that's working down

a blinkin' black hole o' a pit

for hours on end to try

and keep a family.

You're talking about them

as if they were nothing.

It convinced me that

the government at that time

was determined to use

every dirty trick in the book

to try to defeat the miners.

This government will not weaken.

This nation will meet

that challenge.

We'd powered the land for centuries.

And we were getting rubbished

and vilified

for trying to keep jobs

and people's work and livelihoods.

And that's how

it was getting portrayed.

NEWS REPORTER: The number of pickets

outside Scottish collieries

this morning was considerably fewer

than expected.

The biggest turnout

was at Bilston Glen,

where 50 strikers got a soaking

as they watched 191 men

report for work.

What are the feelings of

the ordinary everyday miner now?

Isn't he sick fed up with

this industrial action?

Isn't he wanting now to get

back to work?

The miner in the first place

didn't want to go on strike.

We've been forced on strike by

the National Coal Board

and this Tory government.

Yes, we want to go back to work.

But I'll say this, and I'll make

it point and clear,

they won't be going back to

our work,

whether it be at Polmaise

or any other pit in Britain,

until the negotiating round that

table is suitable to the miners.

Rent, rates and electricity

bills have been piling up

for almost a year.

The Parks have had to adjust

to a dramatic drop in their income.

With one child at home,

they now live on just 15 a week.

Well, you say you're coping

on 15 a week.

You still obviously have quite

a good lifestyle.

I mean, you've still got, for

example, a colour television,

video recorder, stereo set.

These are all ready to go.

Well, these are, these are...

These are things we'd bought...

We had bought these things

well before the strike,

and used all my savings,

you know.

And it's just, if it means selling

this, that and the next thing,

I mean, they'll go.

I mean, I don't care.

Suppose I'm sitting in a bare house,

I'm prepared to let everything go.

Christmas Day has meant business

as usual for the miners' president,

Arthur Scargill.

He urged striking miners

to stand firm in the dispute.

The longer the strike goes, the more

militant, more harder were getting.

Young lads in the pit here,

at age 20, up to 30-odds.

And if the pit closes down,

there's nae chance of a job for them

anywhere.

The Coal Board has indicated

that there is transfers

and jobs for everybody.

That's nothing but a pack of lies.

It was a difficult time for a

mine worker to decide what to do.

A lot of them said to me,

"We'd love to come back,

"but we don't want to be seen

as people

"who don't support their movement."

NEWS REPORTER: The Coal Board has

launched a national advertising

campaign in a bid to get

striking miners back to work.

There was an increase of more

than 200 in the number of miners

reporting for work in Scotland

this morning.

They wanted to be loyal

to their trade union,

but at the same time,

they never thought

that they were going to have

to go on strike for a year.

ANGRY SHOUTING

CHANTING: Scab! Scab! Scab! Scab!

TELEPHONE RINGS

NEWS REPORTER: Each colliery manager

or his deputy rings here

every morning and afternoon to pass

on the number of men

who have turned up for work.

There's no doubt at the time

was that the government

was manipulating the statistics.

As soon as Mrs Thatcher

could produce a figure to say

that half the miners were back

at work, she could claim victory.

Once the figures have been checked

and fed into the board's computer

system, they are sent out

to radio and television.

This way, the board gets

maximum propaganda advantage.

This morning, 119 more men

reporting at the pit head.

We were talking up

the return to work.

We were swept along with

the storyline that the heroes

were the people

who were breaking the strike.

I'm just determined no man's

going to stop me

going to my work

in this day and age.

That's why the reporters

like myself from the BBC,

that's why we were so hated,

because we were seen to be

the cheerleaders for Mrs Thatcher.

Scabs, their former

workmates call them.

Scabs?

They are lions.

APPLAUSE

People were struggling,

there's no doubt about it.

And people's thoughts might have

been changing a wee bit

and they were offering us cash

and it was like, oh, you know.

And I was a bit scared that people

would grab it.

Not one person in Polmaise,

not one person.

It became abundantly clear

that the cards were stacked

against the miners.

It was going to end

with blood on the floor.

NEWS REPORTER: Miners delegates

meeting in special session

at Congress House voted

to end the strike

without an agreement

on pit closures.

We faced not an employer,

but a government

aided and abetted by the judiciary,

the police and you people

in the media.

And at the end of this time,

our people are suffering

tremendous hardship.

From the union's point of view,

the strike ends tragically

when the men decide to go back

to work without an agreement at all.

Total surrender.

I was absolutely just flabbergasted.

I was, I really was.

I was angry.

I was disappointed.

I was... Loads of emotions

all going on at once.

It was, "What had we been doing?

"And yous are selling us out here."

REPORTER: Polmaise Colliery

near Stirling in Scotland

have been fighting the Coal Board's

decision to close their pit

for well over a year, and many of

them said this afternoon

they wouldn't be going back to work

even if miners elsewhere

had decided to.

We'll be fighting to

the last breath in our bodies.

Within Polmaise, there was

also the issue of getting

four of their local heroes,

if you like, reinstated.

And they were determined

not to let it go easily.

Which, of course, is why the

Polmaise miners carry on the strike

even after the vote

to return to work.

The race had been run. We came

second and we had to go back.

It was a horrible feeling,

but you had to go back.

NEWS REPORTER: As the wheels turned

for the first time in 13 months,

local union officials said they

could see no reason for ceremony.

That was a sad day, sad day

when we had to go back.

But we went back

with our heids held high.

So the men of Polmaise Colliery,

the first pit in Britain

to go out on strike, become the

last to decide to return.

They say there's plenty underground

to keep this pit going

for many years.

I can't even really believe

it lasted for a whole year.

And I look back now with not one

single regret about it at all.

Oh, it was worth it,

definitely, 100%.

Do it today, do it tomorrow,

any day. Definitely.

Arthur Scargill told you

the truth from day one,

that they were shutting every pit.

They knew if they got Fallin first,

the militant pit...

..it would have been easy for them.

But we made it hard.

They were trying to shut Polmaise.

We prevented it with that strike.

We held it back.

I remember them saying, "Aye,

but they'll still shut them."

But we got a reprieve, we got

a couple of years out of it.

And that's what makes it...

..feel we beat them.

In my eyes, I say,

"Aye, we beat them."

I would do it again.

If it means that kept guys

in employment

for another three years, you know.

I never knew it'd be three years.

I thought maybe 33 years, you know.

Didnae know that it would

just be three years,

and it just closed

at one fair Friday.

It's disastrous.

There is no industry.

There's unemployment at 27%.

There's 50% youth unemployment

in Fallin.

This is what's facing us.

Defeated on the b*ttlefield? No.

Through politics? Yes.

The biggest part of it for my dad

was the fight was over, basically.

We didnae win, and the pit's

going to close.

You know, it's a big loss that,

a big, big loss.

I could see changes in my dad

when the fight was kind of over,

when that was kind of finished.

# For many long years now

the pit's done its best

# And sets have rolled out o' flats

north, east and west

# And all of the rumours

that closing was due

# Now they've all been put down

# For, alas, it is true... #

This guy here, Jim 'Sodger' Forsyth.

I did my underground training

with this guy.

He was a good guy, and he trained me

for my first 20 days underground.

This one here, that's my

brother-in-law, Sonny McCall.

Married to my sister. Great guy.

Worked in this pit all his life

until he died.

That's his dad.

It's all family, all community.

And every single one of them

represents somebody

that worked really hard in Polmaise.

# Got transferred away

# To the pits to the south

# For the rest of our days. #

I feel the strike actually for me

was a tragedy.

The outcome didn't seem fair

after what everybody here

had went through and what everybody

here had put into it.

And the way the pits

were dealt with

at the end of the strike,

and the conduct of some people -

police, Coal Board -

just, it left a bad taste

in my mouth for years.

In fact, even to this day.

We were demonised on TV, on radio.

The country as a whole

wouldnae listen at the time.

Although we,

especially in Polmaise,

done our best to try and get that

message across,

it just wasn't listened to.

And this here is the outcome.

This is the last wee bit of Polmaise

that's left.

It's a fundamental right to work,

to provide for your family.

Just fight for it

or they'll have you over a barrel.

And I'm sure, at the end of the day,

that if we have to go on strike...

When the pit shut,

this place got hit hard, tae,

because this was the place everybody

came to.

The village got wiped out, like.

It just changed your life

completely.

A lot of young men, tae, passed

away.

60-year-old, 50s.

Working men, they just didnae

ken what to dae.

And there's no' many of the old boys

left noo either.

But the strike was 40 year ago,

and this is still here.

The decor's changed,

but you can still see their faces,

they're still here.

And people remember the way

it was, tae.

Life goes on.

"I shall always remember the

positive aspects of that experience.

"Particularly the courage

and comradeship of workers...

"..involved in a desperate struggle

to save their industry."

OK?