Jim Phillips has written an important book about the 1984-85 miners’ strike in Scotland, published by Edinburgh University Press.
As well as setting out many details about this watershed industrial struggle in our country, and providing a considered analysis of the class struggle dynamics at play, Coalfield Justice recounts the long but successful campaign which pushed the Scottish government to provide the broad-based collective and posthumous pardon that was won in Parliament in 2022.
The Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Act recognised the distinct injustices facing Scottish strikers: twice as likely to be arrested as those in England and Wales - and three times as likely to be sacked.
Phillips, who is Professor of Economic and Social History at the University Of Glasgow, analyses the injustices of the strike, and shows how the pardons were won, using thirty oral history testimonies from former strikers and family members. They describe the injustices of arrest, conviction and employment dismissal. They emphasise how the National Coal Board, police and courts operated as confederates of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, silencing union voice and closing pits deemed unprofitable, to maximise returns from intended privatisation.
The Democratic Left Scotland website will carry a review of the book in due course – but for now we thought people would like to know of the upcoming dates comprising the current ‘wee tour’ which sees Phillips speaking about his book at several locations.
Click below for more details.
Edinburgh (Fort Kinnaird): Sunday 3 November, 16.30: Waterstones, 31B Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh, EH15 3RD
Other dates and venues are to be announced.
Illustration – Pickets (and police) at Bilston Glen colliery: from the book by Jim Phillips.