MINERS' STRIKE
NUM vindicated
WORKERS, FEB 2014 ISSUE
Thirty years ago miners fought against a government conspiracy to wreck the industry.
Workers
The opening of state files relating to the 1984-85 Miners' Strike vindicates every statement made by the National Union of Mineworkers.
That goes for the pit closure list, the intention to use troops to move coal, that the much lauded return to work by scabs was a fiction, the machinations by the security services, the smear campaigns, the threat of a state of emergency, the attacks on dock and rail workers, the police riot at Orgreave, the police occupation of many mining villages especially in Yorkshire, and so on.
Thatcher led the government during this period. Responsibility for the destruction of the coal industry and the decimation of the coal and steel communities lies with her and her minions. Future generations will judge her actions in the same context as other war crimes against humanity.
It took 80 years for the war crimes committed by the British armed forces in Kenya to see the light of day. How many years before class crimes on British soil are fully revealed? ■