Justice and the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike in Scotland
Miners in Scotland were unfairly criminalised and victimised when defending their jobs and community economic security in the strike of 1984-85. Convictions and employment dismissals were followed after the strike by the acceleration of pit closures. The UK government made no provision for alternative economic activity in the coalfields. In analysing the strike and bringing it to wider public attention, Professor Jim Phillips has helped former miners and their families to attain a measure of restorative justice.
The Research
Jim Phillips has shown that strikers in Scotland were twice as likely to be arrested as strikers in England and Wales, and three times as likely to be sacked by their employer, the National Coal Board. Union officials and activists were targeted for this mistreatment, to reduce the effectiveness of the strike and soften opposition to pit closures.
Using UK government documents from 1984-85, Jim has demonstrated that Margaret Thatcher and her UK Cabinet colleagues micro-managed the coercive action against strikers by police officers and Coal Board officials. Prime Ministerial and Cabinet interventions directly influenced the targeting of strikers for arrest and led to 206 miners in Scotland being dismissed from employment.
Jim’s oral history interviews with coalfield men and women have highlighted a range of injustices experienced by strikers in 1984-85, including the indignities of lost employment and social esteem. The interviews have looked forward as well as back. The strike memories are an important ‘usable past’, sustaining present and potentially future campaigns for economic security and social justice.
The Impact
Jim helped ex-miners and their campaigning supporters to persuade the Scottish government in 2018 to establish an Independent Review examining the impact of policing on communities during the strike, led by John Scott QC. Jim worked closely with the Review, which provided former strikers and family members with a transformational opportunity to place their stories of injustice in the public domain. Their voices were heard in open meetings in miners’ welfare clubs and civic halls in 2018. In 2020 the Review recommended a collective and posthumous pardon for miners convicted of selected public order offences during the strike.
The Scottish government accepted this recommendation in principle, then published its Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill in 2021. Jim gave detailed evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee at Stage 1 of the Bill in January 2022. This led to the Scottish government making important amendments to the Bill at Stage 2 in May 2022, widening the scope of pardon to include those convicted following incidents in communities as well as on official picket lines and demonstrations.