Material and moral resources

This article contributes to debates about the economic framework of industrial politics by examining aspects of the 1984-5 miners' strike in Britain, focusing on developments in Scotland. It focuses on strike endurance and pit-level variations in strike endurance by examining the contrasting quantity and quality of the material and moral resources available to the strikers at different collieries and in different communities. Powerful local variables in building or inhibiting strike commitment included pre-strike pit-level production, industrial relations, and the impact of debates about the economics and finances of coal-getting; incomes gained for households during the strike by married women in part-time and full-time employment; expenditure saved by households in local authority housing where rents were in effect deferred by sympathetic local authorities; communal attitudes to pits, jobs, and redundancies; the character and weight of political tradition; and the cultural as well as economic role of women. By focusing on developments at community and colliery level the article challenges dominant narratives of the strike, which remain wedded to high politics, the strategy of the union leadership, changes in energy supply and policy, and public order

Economic rent · Economics · Economy · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Industrial relations · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies

• The salvation of this district and far beyond’

  Open Access•Andrew Perchard•Northern Scotland•2013

  Incluir item

• Family stories and secrets in memories of the UK 1984–1985 miners’ strike

  Open Access•Carly Guest•Memory Studies•2025

  Incluir item

• Making Sense of Social Movements

  Nick Crossley•Making Sense of Social Movements•2002

  Incluir item

• Rethinking Industrial Relations

  John Kelly, John E Kelly•Rethinking Industrial Relations•2012

  Incluir item

• Culture and Composure

  Penny Summerfield•Cultural and Social History•2004

  Incluir item

• Workplace Conflict and the Origins of the 1984-85 Miners' Strike in Scotland

  Jim Phillips•Twentieth Century British History•2009

  Incluir item

• The Mine Management Professions in the Twentieth-Century Scottish Coal Mining Industry

  Geoffrey Tweedale•Social History of Medicine•2008

  Incluir item

• The Miners' Strike

  Martin Adeney, John Lloyd•Labour / Le Travail•1988

  Incluir item

• United we stand

  Open Access•Colin P Griffin, Colin Griffin•The Economic History Review•2005

  Incluir item

• The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century

  Edward P Thompson•Past & Present•1971

  Incluir item