The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

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Borrobil
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by Borrobil »

Very good interview.
In case people don't know, Alan Cummings (interviewed) was NUM Branch secretary and Leader (Head) of Easington Council in 1984/5.
Inevitably, he is the template for pretty much everything "George" does in BE.
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Barry Appleby
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by Barry Appleby »

Looks like what would be the last deep coal mine left after next year, at Hatfield, unless it gets any more funding, will close also. The Kellingley and Thoresby mines are already to close.This was announced on BBC TV.
kport
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by kport »

Am I correct in thinking that coal is now imported for the UK's coal-fired power stations, which have not been closed down?

The mind boggles. Even Thatcher would raise an eyebrow. Or maybe a scowl.

(Who else remembers sooty scab lorries trundling scab-imported coal to Didcot Power Station along the A34 in 1984? Even BR backed the miners.)

One never forgets.
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StevenKing
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by StevenKing »

kport wrote:Am I correct in thinking that coal is now imported for the UK's coal-fired power stations, which have not been closed down?

The mind boggles. Even Thatcher would raise an eyebrow. Or maybe a scowl.

(Who else remembers sooty scab lorries trundling scab-imported coal to Didcot Power Station along the A34 in 1984? Even BR backed the miners.)

One never forgets.
Nope it's the reason they were being closed down for decades...cheaper to Import it(from Poland I believe). And today coal is a four letter word anyway with its high co2 output so in the long run it was going to die anyway...even here fracking is making it shrink.(offset partly by China exports).
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by Barry Appleby »

Most coal is imported from Russia, Poland and Columbia, the largest port for this is Immingham on the River Humber, by the way the largest port in the U.K. to the power Stations in the North of England which are a bit more modern, and have cleaning systems, than in the South of England, yet eventually most of these will close, up to 24 train loads leave Immingham every day, Hull and River Tyne Port also import. The have now got funding to pump the CO 2s back in a pipe line into the old oil fields in the North Sea. Drax, the largest power Station in Europe is converting its boilers into burning Bio Mass which is imported in to Hull, Immingham and Middlesbrough on the River Tees, again delivered by train.
Remember the old English saying "Coals from Newcastle" its now "Coals to Newcastle" Crazy World
kport
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by kport »

A similar situation is happening in Harlan County, Kentucky, where the coal mines are fast closing, rendering the county to becoming an economically disadvantaged one. There are two differences and one similarity between Harlan County and the Durham coalfields: the miners blame the closures on Obama and the EPA (even the Democrat running against Mitch Mitchell is attacking Obama on this), while it was Thatcher who was targeted in 1984; the KY mines are privately held (not nationalized, as were the UK mines. The similarity is that money (profit) was the factor in both eras.
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Borrobil
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by Borrobil »

You have to bear in mind the miners strike was deliberately triggered for political reasons by Thatcher and Scargill. Pits had been closing steadily since the 1960's, and coal was being imported anyway. In fact Scargill was accused of not condeming Polish imports as he sympathised with their workers. Admittedly subsidised coal was being dumped on the UK market, but that wouldn't have killed the industry if the government had accounted for that in their figures.

On the other side of the page you had McGregor (Coal board chairman) arranging a contract to export coal to the Americans from the North West coalfields, which was of a particular quality. With this contract he PROMISED that he could keep Durham area pits including Easington open for "10 years" :idea: . I am sure this was instrumental in getting scabs such as Easington's famous or infamous Paul Wilkinson (no relation to Debbies dad :roll:) back to work.
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Sheepdog
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by Sheepdog »

The electricity worker's union's* strikes drove Edward Heath from office.

Mrs Thatcher wasn't going to be vulnerable to strikes by coal miners.

Answer: Close the mines.
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by kport »

Sheepdog wrote:The electicity worker's union's strikes drove Edward Heath from office.

Mrs Thatcher wasn't going to be vulnerable to strikes by coal miners.

Answer: Close the mines.
I may be wrong, but it was a number of issues that lost Heath his PM role, including two miners' strikes:
Heath also attempted to curb the power of trade unions with the Industrial Relations Act 1971, and had hoped to deregulate the economy and make a transfer from direct to indirect taxation. However, rising unemployment in 1972 caused Heath to reflate the economy at the cost of high inflation, which he attempted to control by a prices and incomes policy. Two miners' strikes, in 1972 and another at the beginning of 1974, proved damaging to the government, with the latter causing the implementation of the Three-Day Week to conserve energy. Heath eventually called an election for February 1974 in an attempt to win a public mandate to face down the miners' wage demands, but this instead resulted in a hung parliament, in which the Tories had the most votes but Labour had slightly more seats. Following a failed attempt to establish a coalition government with the Liberal Party, Heath was forced to resign as Prime Minister in favour of Harold Wilson, whose minority government won a small majority in a second election in October that year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Heath

Thatcher thought Heath to be a 'wet', and (as a Cabinet member in his government (remember school kids chanting 'Thatcher! Thatcher! Milk Snatcher! after she ended free milk for primary school kids?) ultimately she was the one who toppled him from the leadership of the Tories. She vowed to challenge the miners' (and every) union before it destroyed her, once in power.
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Re: The Easington Miners' Strike 30 Years On

Post by ERinVA »

Welcome to the forum, Sheepdog. I hope you'll enjoy it here. :D
Ellen



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