UK miners' strike (1984–85)
| Date | 6 March 1984 - 3 March 1985 |
|---|---|
| Description | Bitter strike with a major victory for Thatcher and the Conservative Party, with the Thatcher government able to consolidate their neoliberal economic programme. |
The miners' strike of 1984–1985 was a major industrial action to shut down the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent colliery closures. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who wanted to reduce the power of the trade unions.
In order to win, the government used its legal, intelligence and security apparatus, including using agents provocateurs in the miners' leadership to damage the image of the unions, freeze their funds, and entangle them in legal battles.[citation needed]
Stella Rimington, who was head of the MI5 branch responsible for 'monitoring' unions and strike activity at operation, later became head of the entire MI5.
Intelligence gathering during the miners' strike of 1984-85 was helped by the fact that during the 1970s MI5's F Branch had made a special effort to recruit industrial correspondents — with great success, according to Stephen Dorril, author of a history of MI6. Guardian journalist 'Seumas Milne claimed that three quarters of Fleet Street's industrial correspondents were at that time agents for MI5 or for Scotland Yard's Special Branch.[1]
