Coalfield Justice
The 1984-85 Miners' Strike in Scotland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23464919 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jim Phillips (0000-0002-5183-9469, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-31 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | BOOK |
| Venue | Coalfield Justice (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1515/9781399536516 |
| OpenAlex | W4401774584 |
| ISBN | 9781399536516 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Discover how oral histories helped achieve justice for Scottish miners victimised during the 1984-85 strike A novel analysis of the 1984-85 miners’ strike, examining the distinct injustices encountered by strikers in Scotland, who were twice as likely to be arrested as strikers in England and Wales, and three times as likely to be sacked Organised around the oral history testimonies of 30 former strikers and family members, mostly recorded during the pardons campaign in 2021-22, examining in detail the injustices encountered by strikers on picket lines and in the communities which they were defending in 1984-85 Examines the relationship between history and policy in devolved Scotland, with detailed analysis of the former strikers’ campaign for restorative justice, culminating in the Scottish Parliament’s collective and posthumous pardon for those who acquired public-order convictions during the strike Written from within the campaign by a leading authority on the strike in Scotland, whose previous publications and evidence to the Scottish government and MSPs based on the oral history testimonies examined in this book, helped secured the collective and posthumous pardon In June 2022, former miners secured through the Scottish Parliament a collective pardon for convictions acquired during the 1984-85 miners’ strike. The Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Act recognised the distinct injustices facing Scottish strikers: twice as likely to be arrested as those in England and Wales and three times as likely to be sacked. This book analyses the injustices of the strike, and shows how the pardons were won, using thirty oral history testimonies from former strikers and family members. They remembered the injustices of arrest, conviction and employment dismissal. They emphasised how the National Coal Board, police and courts operated as confederates of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, silencing union voice and closing pits deemed unprofitable, to maximise returns from intended privatisation. These testimonies were used in the successful campaign which pushed the Scottish government to provide the broad-based collective and posthumous pardon that was won in Parliament in 2022.
Economic Justice · Political science · Sociology · Canadian Identity and History · Law
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |