Andersontown News, August 4, 2004
The struggle was the real victory
Legendary NUM leader Arthur Scargill
delivered this week’s Frank Cahill memorial lecture
“Our people here instinctively sided with the miners, with the mining
communities, with the women who were so valiant in the struggle, and people
here actively supported in any way they could, by fund-raising, by
organising speaking events, by being involved in solidarity and support
activity.”
(Gerry Adams)
Arthur Scargill proved one thing during his Frank Cahill Memorial Lecture on
Monday night – age is not a barrier to passion.
With a supreme confidence that inspired those present, the union firebrand
led the capacity hall at St Mary’s College on a fascinating tour of the
British imperialist project over the last four decades.
Constantly anchoring the tactics used to oppress the working class in terms
of a broader strategic world-view, the legendary National Union of Miners
(NUM) leader wove together golden threads of memory and analysis from the
1970s, through the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike, and into the present day.
An ever-present theme of his stimulating address was the link between the
socialist struggle for an equal society in Britain and the freedom struggle
for national independence in Ireland.
Alongside pointed questions over the future of socialism in the new South
Africa and the ravaging of the global environment, Mr Scargill was also
warmly received for his criticism of the invasion of Iraq.
Welcoming Mr Scargill to West Belfast, local MP Gerry Adams reminded the
meeting that Kitsonian theology – which became key to Britain’s management
of the conflict in the North - had first been developed to deal with civil
agitation in Britain.
And while praising the solidarity shown by Irish people with the miners, Mr
Adams also recalled that there were NUM members in the anti-internment
protest rally outside Connolly House on the day Sean Downes was shot dead by
the RUC.
“Our people here instinctively sided with the miners, with the mining
communities, with the women who were so valiant in the struggle, and people
here actively supported in any way they could, by fund-raising, by
organising speaking events, by being involved in solidarity and support
activity,” said Gerry Adams.
Before introducing Mr Scargill, Fr Des Wilson brought laughter to the
audience when he commented – with characteristic irony – that “rather an
opponent of Mrs Thatcher, I’m afraid, Arthur has, I know, reservations about
the Labour Party’s swing to the right.
“He also has reservations about The Cook Report and the connections that
they have. Conway Mill, which is just up the road, had the same experience
when The Cook Report, with all its connections, tried to destroy us too,”
said Fr Des.
In opening his address, Arthur Scargill said that when he first received the
invitation from the joint Conway Mill/West Belfast Economic Forum (sponsored
by Unison), he asked, “Why me?”
“And the organisers said, ‘we thought it would be appropriate in these days
of militancy and extremism to have a moderate and reasonable man like you
deliver the annual Frank Cahill Memorial Lecture’.”
The son of a miner, Mr Scargill explained that his grandparents were Irish
and – but for the culture of the period (“my parents were not allowed to get
married in time!”) – his real name should have been McQuillan.
Turning to the events of the 1970s and 1980s, Mr Scargill explained that
“the programme to butcher the coal mining industry in Great Britain… was
part and parcel of the programme to butcher the coal-mining industry of
Europe.
“It had been set in place when the European Union was first established, and
if you don’t believe me, my advice would be to look back and see what the
position was when the European Union was first established.
“There were 10 pits in Ireland – members incidentally of the NUM. Today
there are none. In Italy there were 137 pits. Today there are none. In
Belgium there were 177 pits. Today there are none. In Holland there were 34
pits. Today there are none. In Germany – East and West united – between
nearly 600 pits. Today there are twenty, and dwindling. In Britain we had
1,000 collieries and a million mineworkers, and the programme – even without
being members of the European Community – was that they had to conform to an
agenda determined to follow market forces.
“The miners’ dispute began in November 1983 when the miners demanded an end
to pit closures and a decent living wage.
“We were having an impact and that was one of the reasons why Thatcher and
the Tory government were determined to crush not only the National Union of
Mineworkers, but any voice that protests. That meant they had to do anything
and everything. That meant invoking any tactic, any measure – irrespective
of whatever was tried before – in order that the miners should not win.
“We knew there was a challenge. In February 1984 the Coal Board announced
they were going to close five pits with immediate effect.
“What’s been written about how the struggle suddenly took place, the
romantics believe it took place because of a genuine surge of anger and rage
amongst miners.
“But you know from your struggle that things are a bit different from that.
“I wrote the strike resolution. I ensured that it was presented to the
Yorkshire miners and in turn – together with Mick McGahey - ensured that it
was presented to the Scottish miners, and we presented to the NUM a
recommendation that each area should take strike action if it so determined
in accordance with our rule book.
“We suddenly found – not to my surprise – the ruthless nature of the state.
Some people will know that some of us, like yourselves, have been victims.
“Yes, there were attempts to kill me. Yes, they arrested me along with
others – five times. Yes they put me in hospital – along with others.
“But as we took that action we understood that there would be every attempt
to try and destroy us,” said Mr Scargill.
“They had spies in our midst. They were operating in every possible way, in
breach of the law as people understood it.
“We had liberal-minded lawyers bleating ‘they can’t do this’. But, of
course, they can. They did it in Ireland, didn’t they?”
In outlining the detailed nature of Margaret Thatcher’s programme of
oppression against the miners, Mr Scargill recalled anecdotes that threw the
struggle into sharp relief.
Some were outrageous, such as the miner who was jailed for two years for
putting one foot over a white line painted on the ground.
Some were bizarre, such as the policeman who claimed a miner had thrown a
brick that then bounced up and hit him in the nether-regions – “I’ve got
news for you, a brick doesn’t bounce!”
Some were simply hilarious, such as the policeman who arrested a miner and
then had to justify in court why he objected to being called a particular
word that begins with W and ends with R. (For the record, defence barrister
Mike Mansfield went into such excruciating detail that the charge was thrown
out.)
And some were deeply angering – not to say familiar – such as the policeman
who stood in court and read from his notebook that he arrested a particular
miner at precisely 8:01am.
The case, of course, fell apart when the defence produced a separate log
demonstrating that the same policeman had actually been booking another
miner into custody at 8:02am, twenty-five miles away!
Mr Scargill said that as well as attempts to break the NUM financially, “the
cost of the Miners’ Strike really was that 13,000 were arrested, 10,000 were
hospitalised and eleven died”.
“I’ll tell you one thing that is crystal clear tonight, I’ll never accept
that the NUM was defeated. The struggle itself was the major victory. The
fact that I’m here tonight speaking in West Belfast and Thatcher is behind
the stage is proof of that,” Mr Scargill declared to roars of approval.
Before the evening concluded, the annual Community Achievement Award was
made to Cristóir de Baróid and a special presentation was also made in
memory of the late Oliver Kearney.
