Forty years ago Britain was hurtling towards the pivotal industrial struggle of the postwar era. The National Coal Board, backed by Margaret Thatcher’s government, wanted to close pits deemed to be uneconomic. The leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers opposed the plan.
The scene was set for a strike that went on for a year and which ended in defeat not just for the miners but for the trade union movement as a whole. The NUM had a formidable record of winning its battles and in the early 1970s had twice inflicted defeats on Ted Heath’s government.
