Britain has turned its back on deep-coal mining. ibid.
A machine called a Shearer tears the coal from its seams. ibid.
They produced over a half of the world’s coal supply. ibid.
‘The smell of burning of nowt to worry about’. ibid.
By, I like your fancy suit. Is that what they’re wearing up in Yorkshire now? Tungsten carbide drills? What the bloody hell’s tungsten carbide drills? … Your bloody fancy talk since you left London … Hampstead wasn’t good enough for you, was it? … You and your coal-mining friends … Monty Python’s Flying Circus s1e2, BBC 1969
In most cultures where there are coal miners, middle-class people and above think they're animals. Literally. And treat them that way. American Experience: The Mine Wars, PBS 2016
Strangers rarely found their way into the coal camps of West Virginia. So when a matronly older woman walked into a camp one Fall morning in 1901 the local store keeper was curious … She was the notorious Mother Jones there to convince the coal miners in the region to join her union – United Mine Workers of America. ibid.
Miners in southern West-Virginia had been beaten down by the mine owners. ibid.
The largest armed insurrection since the civil war … A blood-soaked war zone. ibid.
Nearly three quarters of a million men across the country spent ten or twelve hours a day in coal mines. ibid.
There were no elected officials, no independent police forces. ibid.
They forced mining families to shop exclusively at the company store. ibid.
Thousands of West Virginia miners decided to stand with the strikers in Pennsylvania and to fight for their own rights. ibid.
[Justus] Collins like all the West Virginia coal operators saw himself as a man under siege. ibid.
Each mining town was a feudal dominion with the company acting as lord and master … The laws were the company’s rules. Plutocracy: Political Repression in the USA I: Divide & Rule, 2015
1907: The most deadly mine disaster in US history occurred when an explosion killed 361 men and boys in a West Virginia coal mine. ibid.
In 2012 coal miners in Kanawha Country in West Virginia issued a list of demands including a shorter workday, the right to organise, recognition of a worker’s constitutional rights to free speech and assembly, an end to the blacklisting of union organisers, and alternatives to company stores. The requested pay raise would have cost the company fifteen cents per miner per day. Instead of negotiating, the company hired a private militia to break the strike. ibid.
[Mother] Jones had been declared The Most Dangerous Woman in America. ibid.
Union organisers were blacklisted and beaten. ibid.
The West Virginian mine wars were part of a broader conflict between the forces of labour and the forces of capital. A struggle that claimed the lives of thousands of American workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; thousands more were beaten, maimed, imprisoned, tortured and sent to early graves due to poor working conditions and dismal safety standards. ibid.
Day of Blood at Lattimer! Lower End Mine Strike Takes a Terrible Turn … They fire on Marching Strikers with Terrible Effect … Deputies Use Rifles! … 16 killed 70 wounded. Plutocracy II: Solidarity Forever, Mother Jones, newspaper report
Australia is now one of the biggest exporters of coal in the world. Australia with Simon Reeve III, BBC 2020
Now suppose a corporation engages in illegal activity while operating a coal mine. And that illegal activity leads to the death of 29 of its workers.
Here’s another sure bet – that corporation will not be convicted of a crime. And it will not be punished.
The reality is that we live in a two-tier criminal justice system in America, with one level for corporations and one for living, breathing humans.
It’s a system that undermines deterrence and allows corporate criminals to inflict their damage – pollution, corruption, fraud, worker and consumer injury and death – unchecked.
The coal mine corporation is a real one, Massey Energy. In April 2010, a huge explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia killed 29 workers. Reuters online article Russell Mokhiber 30th April 2013
But on one terrible occasion the Queen failed to speak and it proved to be the biggest regret of her reign: In 1966 an horrific mining accident in the Welsh mining village of Aberfan killed over 100 children. The Queen in Her Own Words, Channel 5 2020
Coal mining is the basic industry of Britain. The coal mines of the country employ 750,000 men. Head stocks, winding gear, conveyer belts, washing sprays, shunting yards, slag heaps … Coal Face, short 1935
The principle by-products of coal are gas, coke, tar, dyes, oil, benzol. ibid.
The coal face is a mile from the shaft. Temperature often reaches 80 degrees. ibid.
Every working day four miners are killed, and over 450 injured and maimed. ibid.
The miner’s house is often owned by the pit. The life of the village depends on the pit. ibid.
With the coal strike now in its 32nd week, Ian MacGregor and Arthur Scargill are still a long way apart. World in Action: The Coal War, ITV 1984
Ten years ago Ian MacGregor took on the mighty American Miners’ Union and broke them in the coal-rich western states … Mr MacGregor and Mr Scargill then have both tasted victory and now they seem just as determined to win again. ibid.
Kentucky 1974: A company foreman opened fire on pickets after a year-long strike. ibid.
A critical week for the miners’ strike. Would it flare up into an all-out war between the unions and the government? Or will it fizzle out as government ministers are predicting privately with the divided miners drifting back to work? Panorama: The Coal War, BBC 1984
This dispute has turned miners in some areas once regarded as moderate into the strike’s staunchest backers. ibid.
Since privatisation pits have closed all over Durham. ibid.
The miners fear that far from being the end, these closures may be the prelude to even more. ibid.
The Wilberforce Settlement had recognised the special physical discomforts and dangers of the miner’s life. But by ’73 average earnings in the coal fields had fallen behind the national figure of £38 per week. This Week, re Winter Dispute 1973/4, Thames TV 1978
The coal board made an offer which was bound to be rejected … The miners were in no mood to be placated or to respond to appeals to their national duty. ibid.
On 22nd September 1934 at Gresford Colliery, Wales, an explosion killed 266 men & boys underground. 6 survived and only 11 bodies were ever recovered. The wages of all were docked by half a days pay by the owners because the men had ‘failed to complete their shift’. Ragged Trousered Philanderer, tweet 6 September 2023
You couldn’t not be aware of the tension and anger that was bubbling. Miners’ Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain I: Community, scab, Channel 4 2024
In 1984 Britain changed for ever. A year that divided communities. Transformed the way we are policed. And revealed who really runs the country. ibid. captions
More than half of Britain’s miners are now on strike. ibid.
Plans are announced to close 20 coal mines resulting in the loss of 20,000 jobs. Arthur Scargill, president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), calls for a strike. ibid.
One town in Derbyshire would become known as the most divided in Britain – Shirebrook. ibid.
June 1984: Two-thirds of Britain’s miners are out on strike. ibid.
In March 1985 the NUM calls off the year-long dispute. ibid.
Orgreave is number one disaster in my brain. Miners’ Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain II: Law and Order, miner
Across the country violence between police and miners is increasing. In South Yorkshire the bloodiest day of the strike is about to begin: the Battle of Orgreave. ibid.
Since the start of the strike, police roadblocks have stopped striking miners travelling to working areas. ibid.
‘Orgreave: They [rozzers] even put signs up like an antiques fair so everyone could find their way.’ ibid. miners
The police line pushes the miners away from the plant towards the nearby village … The village is now the front line. ibid. caption
55 miners were charged under the Riot Act. ibid.
This is the Orwellian bit. This is 1984. ibid.
You are causing it by your very presence here. ibid. angry woman to rozzers
The mass corruption in the taking of witness statements. ibid. woman
Their own film does not show miners attacking police. ibid. Michael Mansfield
No officer involved at Orgreave has ever faced disciplinary action. ibid.
Some view Scargill’s strike as an attempt to overthrow Margaret Thatcher’s government. Miners’ Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain III: Power, caption
I had great trouble in convincing the Nottinghamshire miners to get involved. ibid. NUM officer
Shortly after the strike Nottinghamshire miners break away from the NUM and form their own union. They force out those still loyal to Arthur Scargill. ibid. caption
Arthur Scargill issued a naked threat to the state. ibid. David Hart