Strike! The Village That Fought Back (2024) Movie Script
That's me at the front there.
I'm only, what? 20 then.
I had a bit more hair in those days.
I was a bit of an Iron Maiden buff.
I was 23.
It was more like a fun day out.
Everybody's smiling.
Oh, there's quite a few who have
passed away now in that photograph.
You'll never see a gathering
like that again.
I must say....
..I didn't realise
what was in front of us.
I didn't realise what was, how...
How rotten it was going to turn.
The men in this area, you could say
we're right militant.
We all know one another.
There's no way that anybody
would let anybody else down.
There was a hit list
and Polmaise was on it.
The miners at Polmaise
never wasted any time
in trying to do something about it.
If they try and close down Polmaise,
which they are intending,
I can assure them, there'll be
the biggest, biggest wrestle
they ever had in their life.
CHEERING
They were the first pit out
on strike, actually...
This is where it all began.
..and the last pit to go back.
It's been called the most
militant pit in Scotland,
and the first rumblings of a
national strike were heard here.
The significance of the
Polmaise miners
was their determination.
They were a little bit scary,
actually, at times
because they were so determined.
MARGARET THATCHER: I must tell you
that what we have got
is an attempt to substitute
the rule of the mob
for the rule of law.
And it was not successful.
AUDIENCE CHEERS
We would go anywhere
and do what we needed to do
to try and get our message across.
You're fighting for your livelihood,
you're fighting for your jobs,
you're fighting for your community.
Polmaise was 100% solid.
No scab workers.
Everybody was on strike for a year.
Every single man.
COMMENTARY: Try as it may,
a Scotch mist cannot camouflage
the beauty of Scotland's daughters.
Sheena Drummond is today's
Miss United Kingdom.
Scotland's Coal Queen
is Joyce Brown.
Both girls live near Stirling,
so, more suitably clad
against the weather, Joyce takes
Sheena with her to meet
some of the men at nearby
Polmaise Colliery,
the men who helped to vote her in
as the country's Coal Queen.
It's a long time fae I've been here.
But there was three shafts -
three, four and five.
The men went down one,
the coal came up one
and supplies went down the other.
And it was a busy, busy place.
Busy. About 200 men.
DOG BARKS
Oh, what comes back to me is just
getting up in the morning
and coming out on a day shift and
not realising how good a job it was.
It was a great, a great job.
And all these guys that went
down the pits were brave guys,
and it was a brilliant atmosphere.
It was a laugh a minute with them,
and I've never seen nothing
like it since.
PROMO COMMENTARY: If you know
what a coal mine looks like,
get a job in Britain's modern mining
industry and get more out of life.
# Hey there, miner
# Live a life the way
you want it to be
# Come on now, miner
# There's money, lots of money
and security. #
I left the school right away.
And my dad took me down
on a pit visit.
And I thought to myself, "Aye.
This'll do me, aye.
"I'll have a bash at this."
I wasnae academic at school.
Dennis Canavan,
before he became an MP,
was a maths teacher
and he pulled me oot in the corridor
and says, "You want
to go down the pit?"
And I'd already seen a poster says
job security for life.
Join the NCB.
I says, "Aye, that'll do for me."
Well, my dad worked there.
My grandad worked there.
My dad's brother worked there.
All the, most of the Rennies,
the Rennie family worked there
in some capacity in their day.
So it was like, "I've got
a job, I'm leaving school.
"I'm going to a job."
Growing up in the '80s
in a mining village,
it actually was a really happy time
for a child of four.
Everybody knew each other and
everybody looked out for each other.
You just felt like you were in one
great, big, huge family growing up.
Gala days were huge in the '80s.
And if you were in the gala,
you really decorated
your house all up,
so when the procession was passing,
they knew all the people
who were in the gala.
So this is my mum and dad's house,
which my mum's still in.
It was a great place, and it just,
everybody looked out for each other.
I mean, there was gala days,
there was parties for the bairns
in the club,
and loads and loads of stuff.
And it was a tight, tight community.
If you were brought up in Fallin,
nine times out of ten,
you would have been a miner.
You'd have went doon the pit.
Everybody worked there,
full families worked there.
You had the likes of maybe three
sons and the father worked there,
the mum worked in the canteen.
It was a village pit.
It was built first
and then they built the houses.
Fallin and Polmaise
go hand-in-hand.
They always have, fae when the pit
started to when the pit shut.
It was a militant pit and I think
that was down to the people
that worked here. They were so
united in their beliefs
and what they thought
was right and wrong.
It was born of just the industry
itself, you know, it was so tough,
and you had to fight for everything
that you could get.
Scotland was one of the most
productive coalfields in the UK.
The goal was always to get as much
production
out of the ground as you could get.
Then when we came into the '80s,
another dimension came along.
It didn't matter how much
you produced,
it was - what was the cost
of that production?
The Coal Board described their
latest financial results
as disastrous.
They lost 875 million in 1983.
Ian MacGregor had already
been employed with British Steel.
He had a reputation for cutting jobs
and reducing loss makers.
And that's the way
that Mrs Thatcher saw it.
A man who would come along
and defeat the unions.
The MacGregor plan will give
this country the best hope
of a good coal industry
it's ever had.
Today, we are looking at the future.
I act on behalf of you,
the taxpayers, who I think
are getting a little tired
of putting out so much money
just to keep these mines going
when you don't need them.
I was a local MP at that time.
I remember that the proposal
came forward to close Polmaise.
TV COMMENTARY: Polmaise
is under sentence of death.
Latest victim of the Coal Board's
tough new policy
of abandoning unproductive pits
with geological problems
and moving the miners
on to richer seams.
We met MacGregor,
the chairman of the Coal Board
at his headquarters in London.
We put forward a very strong case
that there were still workable
coal reserves in Polmaise.
He listened politely, perhaps,
to what we had to say.
But his mind was made up.
He wouldn't budge an inch.
Right away, people in the union
mobilised and said,
"Right, we're going to have to try
and stop this."
I'm sure, at the end of the day,
if we have to go on strike,
if we have to go and picket,
and I'm sure that you lads
along with us folk up here,
if we go to the pit heads
and we meet the miners concerned
and discuss their case,
I'm sure they'll back us 100%.
APPLAUSE
My dad was always one
for trying to make things better.
If he thought something wasnae
right, he would fight for it.
"That's no' right.
"What are you going to do?"
You know, sort of thing.
That's what he was like.
And the men in this area are...
..you could say we're right
militant.
We're militant because every other
day, we're working in the pits
and we're depending on one another.
For any mistakes made,
it's somebody's life's at stake.
He was a very gifted person.
He was a brilliant orator,
and he was also an entertainer. He
was the heart and soul of this club.
CHEERING
# For once in my life
# I won't let someone hurt me. #
He would do his MC
every Saturday night,
because he was as mad
as a brush as well.
SHE LAUGHS
I first became aware of John
McCormack when I was seeking
the nomination to become the Labour
candidate for West Stirlingshire.
And I know that some of my opponents
insinuate that this is maybe
the only club that would have me.
But may I say that this to me
is far better than the Carlton
and all these posh clubs down
in London.
John insisted
that I go down the pit,
crawl along the coal seam,
and the coal seam in Polmaise
was very, very narrow.
And I had to crawl on
my hands and knees
and meet all the miners
and chat away to them.
And I found the noise
absolutely deafening,
and the ceiling above
was creaking and groaning.
I thought it was going to be
falling on top of me.
It was a frightening experience.
And John insisted I do it,
not just once,
but I had do it for the day shift,
the back shift,
the night shift.
And for some reason or other,
another shift that Polmaise called
the ham and egg shift.
And then John insisted that I meet
every single miner that worked
at Polmaise at that time.
I'd like to send this message
to the Coal Board, to Mr MacGregor
and to Maggie Thatcher, if...
CROWD CHEERS
If they try and close down Polmaise,
which they're intending,
I can assure them they'll have
the biggest, biggest wrestle
ever had in their life.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
If a pit's exhausted,
and there's no more coal in the pit,
and it's a dilapidated pit,
by all means,
by all means move the miners.
But Polmaise doesn't come
into that category.
Polmaise has 30, 35 years there.
The Coal Board do offer fairly
generous redundancy payments
to older men, men over 50.
You would be eligible for that.
Why is it not acceptable to you?
Well, the way as I see it is,
it's not my job to sell.
We've got to fight for our jobs,
to leave a future for the young,
the younger people, the young men
in the village.
That's as I see it.
The mood in Fallin
was predictably 100%
in favour of strike action.
The bottom line was...
..if we don't fight for our jobs,
we'll not have a job.
The significance of the Polmaise
miners was their determination.
They moved very quickly.
So they were the first out
at the beginning
of what turned out to be
a national strike.
They then pursued the strike.
They were fierce.
Angry miners interrupted
a news conference
being given by their Scottish
President, Mick McGahey
in Edinburgh today.
We went to try and lobby
the Scottish NUM.
Let's get ourselves out here,
you know?
If they're coming for Polmaise,
where are they going to stop?
So, boys, I appeal to you.
Now we're in the conference.
For the Polmaise miners,
that meeting in Edinburgh
was a chance to convince delegates
from other pits in Scotland
that they ought to join
a national strike.
Because the Polmaise guys
were already out
and the worst thing that could
happen to them was to be left
hanging out to dry.
COMMENTARY: Tempers were short
from the start as about 100 men
from Polmaise pit near Stirling, one
of six closed in Scotland in a year,
tried to persuade
delegates from other pits
to vote for strike action.
But as Scottish president,
Mike McGahey, announced later,
although there'd been pressure
for an immediate stoppage over pit
closures, some delegates
have been less than enthusiastic
about an indefinite strike.
At that, the Polmaise men charged
into the room to tell area officials
face-to-face they thought
they weren't getting
the support they deserved.
There was quite a few that werenae
for it, actually, you know?
And it got a bit tasty at times
shall we say,
as far as trying
to get the point across.
I was working as the Scottish
Affairs Correspondent for BBC Radio.
It was one of the most memorable
days of my working life.
You're no' going in...
The anger and frustration
and concern
that they were going
to be left alone, out on their own.
COMMENTARY: The obvious anger
of the Polmaise men boiled over,
fuelled by reports
that other Scottish miners
wouldn't join them on strike.
There was a lot of kind of
false information.
The false information
came fae the press.
Who was there.
But the press was there mob
handed, you know what I mean?
So they're coming out telling
you different stories
and blah, blah, blah.
COMMENTARY: The angry demonstrators
turned their attentions
to cameramen, and reporters.
I could hear somebody shouting,
"You can walk oot
or be bloody carried out."
It got heated. I think two or three
people got
kind of shoved about and that,
which usually happens,
you know what I mean?
COMMENTARY: One unfortunate radio
reporter was bundled out
and kicks were aimed at him.
It was like a scene from a Western.
The batwing doors flew open
and a huge guy was standing there,
and he grabbed me by the lapels,
took me out onto the landing,
and threw me down the stairs.
Yes, there was a wee bit
of jostling and...
..people got ejected.
There was great strength
of feeling among the Polmaise miners
because they didn't get
what they wanted,
and, for a while at least,
they were hung out to dry.
They were on their own.
Relations between the National Coal
Board and the miners' leaders
deteriorated further today.
The Board announced
that they want more cuts
in the amount of coal produced.
It could mean that another 20 pits
will close in the next 12 months
with a loss of about 20,000 jobs.
"A modest rundown",
the Board called it.
We went as a delegation
fae Polmaise miners,
and, whoa, what's going on here?
It was like, every pit there.
Not just the Scottish boys, all of
Britain, Wales and everything.
And they were all up for it.
Outside were about 300 miners
from Polmaise.
They were a determined lot.
And they had their Polmaise banners.
The Polmaise banner - canary yellow!
HE LAUGHS
But it was there.
John McCormack made it a point
that wherever we went,
that banner was to be front
and centre, you know,
because it was showing everybody
what we were about,
what we needed them to do -
get on board, follow suit.
The Polmaise miners were right
at the kick-off of this.
MINERS CHANThey were there that fateful day
on March 8th, 1984,
when the Union authorised the strike
action in Scotland and in Yorkshire,
that rolled on to become
the National Pit Strike.
In accordance with Rule 41,
the strike action starts...
CROWD CHEERS LOUDLY
Arthur Scargill, of course,
is hoping that he's going to be able
to close the country down
and roll back Thatcherism.
You can well understand
that the Polmaise miners
wouldn't have had any inkling
as to what they were letting
themselves in for.
They were the pace setters
of this strike.
But what they didn't understand was
that Mrs Thatcher
had prepared herself.
The government had taken
enormous precautions
in the sense of building up
coal stocks,
in preparing the power stations to
burn oil as well as coal.
Every sort of measure
had been taken.
Miners throughout the country
are holding meetings to decide
whether or not to join
the coal strike.
In Scotland, it's thought at least
five of the ten pits still
to make up their minds
are willing to work on Monday.
If the Polmaise miners
couldn't make sure that Scotland
was 100% out,
they could then call on
other areas to support it
and you'd get the national strike.
They had a job to do.
We came into the union hut and
all the boys were ready to go.
"What's happening?"
"We're going.
We're going for Bilston Glen."
Bilston Glen was unusual
in the Scottish coalfield.
It was described as a super pit,
and the promises had been made
that Bilston Glen
had a long future ahead of it.
It's all right for Arthur Scargill
to sit there wi' his Jaguar
and his house and all his money,
and shouting for us
to come out on strike.
He'll no' lose nae money.
We'll lose the money, no' him.
They kind of thought, "We're OK. Any
closures aren't going to affect us."
That was the kind of mentality
that the miners there had.
I've got a future in the industry
and it's at Bilston Glen.
I'll work here until I'm finished.
There you are.
Because it was a new pit,
there were a lot of people there
who didn't belong
to these mining traditions
of solidarity,
these long-held views
that you don't cross a picket line.
BAD-TEMPERED EXCHANGES
Scab!
I can remember John McCormack
and other guys from Polmaise
coming over to Bilston Glen.
And what they were trying to do
was trying to speak to the men
and try to get through them,
look, this is going to happen to all
the pits. It's time to make a stand.
You can imagine how hard it is
for individuals
to decide to go on strike
for a week.
So how hard is it for them
to go on strike for a month?
And so to watch somebody else
help to undermine your effort
is going to be difficult to bear.
NEWS REPORTER: It wasn't long
before the pickets' frustration
at what they saw as a last remaining
pocket of resistance to the strike
in Scotland boiled over.
We were trying to go through there
and just stop them
getting into the pit.
We were trying to picket them out,
trying to get our point across to
them - you need to join us.
That was the whole point to try
and get them onside with the strike.
NEWS REPORTER: Trouble broke out
at Bilston Glen as some of the
200 pickets who'd collected just
after five o'clock this morning
tried to break through police lines.
I joined the police in 1976
at the age of 16 and a half.
My brother went down the pits
at Polmaise.
I think he only lasted six weeks
and he thought,
"This is not for me,
I'm out of here."
So it was a hard life.
But no appeal to me.
As the scuffles continued
and the arrests mounted,
some pickets got inside the pit yard
and were quickly rounded up.
There was a large number trying
to prevent strike breakers going in.
So the police lined the road.
It was usually just
a lot of shouting.
Previously, I suppose, these people
had been their friends
and their neighbours
and their work mates.
But it sounded vicious and nasty.
It was a total culture change
for me.
I had never been in trouble
in my life
until the strike came along.
I'd never had one charge in my life.
And my first arrest
was at Bilston Glen.
The first time I
ever went through there
and like I say, it was basically
trying to get them to come on side.
Arrested, taken into Dalkeith cells,
spent the night in Dalkeith cells.
The charge sheet was like,
unbelievable.
They were just throwing every charge
they could think about.
It was like, mobbing and rioting,
police assault, resisting arrest,
obstruct the Queen's highway.
And I felt, what is this?
I've never been like that.
Why would I do that, you know?
We were there to try
and defend jobs.
And this is what they were
giving you.
Went to court and they
were handing fines out
like they were dishing out confetti.
It was just... And I felt horrible.
I felt terrible because I'd never,
that's not what I was wanting.
That's not what we were about.
We were about trying to save jobs.
MINERS CHANSeveral hundred men
on the first day of the strike
report for work at Bilston Glen.
Some more try on the Tuesday,
but by the Wednesday,
it's pretty well solid.
NEWS REPORT: So after a shaky start,
the miners have largely
achieved their first objective.
The Coal Board had predicted
half Scotland's miners
would be at work today.
Tonight, there are hardly any.
The reason for the turnaround
has been effective,
though, at times ugly picketing.
There was a meeting in
the Miners' Welfare.
They decided to have a sit-in.
So they wanted four volunteers,
it could have been any one of us.
But why would the Coal Board
want to flood the pit
when they're one step away
from closing it?
The Coal Board sabotaged
a colliery at Bogside
and they're trying do
the very same here.
The reason we were underground
was so the Coal Board
wouldn't flick the switch
and put the power off,
stop the pumps
for getting rid of water
and fans for getting rid of gases.
The pit would be lost forever then.
Once you're down there, the Coal
Board can't turn the power off,
because that would be classed as
murder, if they'd done that.
# Go dig my grave
# Both wide and deep
# Place a marble stone... #
I went down with Alec MacCallum,
Jimmy Rennie and Jimmy Graham.
The four of us all worked together.
# And on my... #
Nobody wanted the pit to shut.
The only way you could save it
was having guys go down.
Drastic action had to be taken.
NEWS REPORTER: The four have their
normal respirators with them
and they are said
to be perfectly safe.
The Coal Board were told only once
the miners were safely in the lift
shaft on their way down.
It was freezing at the pit pump,
freezing.
We sent down T-Bone steaks
and everything
that is required on a dinner table
for the men underground,
because we think those down there
is a cause worthwhile
in regard to the Polmaise Colliery.
We just sat there for three days
and we were just lying, sleeping.
The camaraderie was great
and we were just underground
for three days,
blethering about football,
playing cards.
NEWS REPORTER: The first thought
of fellow strikers was to provide
the first meal of what the
Miners' Union pledge
will be an indefinite protest.
There was negotiations between
the Coal Board
and our guy, John McCormack.
At the end of the day, they decided,
well, if they're not coming up,
we can't switch the power off,
so we'll keep the power on.
Get the men out the pit.
We come up in the cage
and just went for a shower,
and the pit stayed open.
A couple of weeks later,
the four of us were sacked.
So it was quite,
it was quite brutal.
But I would do it again.
I would do it again.
You just can't accept
your pit's going to shut.
Ken, you've got to fight.
# Wild boys, wild boys... #
Because there was never any need
of a picket line at Polmaise,
the Polmaise miners under
John McCormack's leadership,
they were encouraged
to become flying pickets.
They would go to places
where there were allegations
of some scabs
trying to break the strike.
We were flying pickets
all of a sudden.
We would go anywhere
and do what we needed to do
to try and get our message across.
# Wild! #
We were known as the
Polmaise Piranhas.
It became a way of life.
Just became a way of life.
# Wild boys falling
far from glory
# Reckless and... #
My cousin, Billy Armitage,
myself. I was 23.
You're a single man, aren't you,
so you're not getting any benefits
at all. How are you coping,
financially?
Kind of hard.
You don't get nothing at all.
The girl keeps me going with fags.
But as regards as getting, like,
you cannae go for a pint
or nothing like that, you know.
You're in the house all the time.
The only time I'm out is when
I'm going picketing or rallying
or anything like that.
One of the reasons that I didn't
spend a lot of time in Polmaise
during the strike was that
that's not where the action was.
They were the action often enough,
but it wasn't happening
at their own colliery.
# Wild boys
# Never lose it... #
I've not got my glasses on, mate.
I'm there. That's me there, mate.
# Wild boys... #
Anywhere we went,
the Polmaise miners,
they used to open the gate and let
us go at the front,
which was, "Oh, this is brilliant,"
you know what I mean?
But it was like, that wasn't
what they were saying, like,
do you know what I mean? It was
like, "Here they're coming."
We were known through other pits,
everybody got to ken the Piranhas
like, you know.
POLICE SIREN WAILS
NEWS REPORTER: Officers have been
busy stopping cars since dawn.
The police had been organised to a
level that we'd never seen before.
Now there's a big question
as to whether
the Scottish chief constables
are prepared to do
what the English and Welsh chief
constables have been doing.
There's political interference
going on behind the scenes.
So are you saying that any groups
of miners who hire a bus
and head for either of these
locations can expect to be stopped?
In large numbers bent on disorder,
yes.
We were actually then being told
that you cannae travel about
in the country.
Basically
what they were saying is,
you travelling in the country
isn't going to be allowed.
So what is that? You're into a
police state then
and it's...
That's what it told me there.
There was one occasion,
several busloads of miners,
including a strong contingent
from Polmaise,
they were stopped.
It was early in the morning
and we were on the first bus.
There was one lone fat cop
in a car.
And he stopped the bus and he says,
"Where do you think you're going."
And John McCormack says,
"We're going to Largs for a picnic."
He says, "Aye, that'll be right.
Everybody off."
We all got off the bus and sat down
in the middle of the road.
There's no way on earth
they can arrest us all.
Nearly 300 miners were arrested
this morning as Scottish police
changed their tactics.
Every single one of us was arrested.
300 men sitting in the road
and they lifted us all.
HE CHUCKLES
I think, in all, 300 were arrested
and charged with,
not breach of the peace,
but conduct likely to lead
to breach of the peace.
That big mass arrest,
that took place two days after
a cabinet subcommittee meeting
when Margaret Thatcher
was asking why it is
that the Scottish police forces
are not taking similar action
against the miners as, for example,
the chief constables in certain
areas of England.
What we have seen in this country
is the emergence of an organised
revolutionary minority
who are prepared to exploit
industrial disputes,
but whose real aim is the breakdown
of law and order
and the destruction of democratic
parliamentary government.
APPLAUSE
Hunterston was very rough.
That was my first insight into how
actually big this was getting.
NEWS REPORTER: By midday, about
a thousand miners had collected
at the Hunterston Coal Depot to meet
lorries returning from the first
successful run to Ravenscraig.
There was a lot of miners there.
There was a lot of miners,
but there was even more police.
It's the first time during
the strike
that I'd felt danger, in danger,
afraid.
There was hundreds of miners
on the roads, on the pavements.
And they weren't caring,
they were coming through
and you had to get oot the way.
I've actually seen people almost run
over with these lorries coming in,
absolute, total disregard
for safety.
They'd go through you
or over the top of you, or whatever.
It was scary.
NEWS REPORTER: Mounted police
charged a picket line
in Scotland today as miners tried
to stop lorries of coal destined
for Ravenscraig steel plant.
Four pickets were hurt
and treated in hospital
for superficial injuries.
A total of 65 pickets were arrested.
I couldn't believe the situation
we had landed in and how,
determined is probably the word,
that the government were
to beat the miners.
I was like, God, almighty, ken,
if this is what
it's going to be like,
it's going to be some ride,
like, you know.
Because it was scary.
It was just scary.
NEWS REPORTER: This is where it
first began and where there's still
no talk of ending the strike, for
this has always been a militant pit.
This was the soup kitchen
used during the miners' strike.
There were up to 300 people a day
got fed in here.
The children and the ladies first,
and then the pickets would come
in after doing their picket duty.
Came in and got fed
on a daily basis.
NEWS REPORTER: The food is cooked by
the men who once dug coal
and paid for from funds collected
during the strike.
We actually went to a place not very
far from Fallin
and took some pheasants
for the soup pot.
Helped ourselves. We stole tatties,
we got turnips,
we took a couple of sheep.
Didn't have money to buy anything,
so what were you meant to do?
SHEEP BLEAAye, we had the sheep and that.
Took them back to the... A couple of
boys took them to the saunas
in the Miners' Welfare,
butchered them up.
Fresh lamb on the plate.
Where do you come to?
Fallin Miners' Welfare.
My mother-in-law was talking,
I says to her,
"Did you get that lamb at the club?"
"That was lovely.
Where did they get that fae?"
And I kind of gave a smile
and she went,
"No, no."
"Aye, aye." But she ate it!
Well, it may not be in the Good Food
Guide, but it's still the most
popular eating place
in Fallin today.
At 7:45 am,
two busloads
of pickets crossed into Strathclyde
on their way to Ravenscraig,
joined by a police transit.
Ravenscraig was important
in the context of the strike.
The NUM had to stop the supply
of coal getting into Ravenscraig,
to show that they
had industrial muscle.
CROWD APPLAUDS AND WHISTLES
NEWS REPORTER: The faithful took to
the streets for the STUC's
day of action
in support of the miners.
But behind the banners
and the slogans,
the acrimonious dispute over coal
for the Lanarkshire steelworks
was tearing the heart
out of union solidarity.
Something very, very important
was happening.
A lot of the workforce
at Ravenscraig
came from former mining families.
So there was sympathy
for the miners' cause.
But equally from the point of view
of the steelworkers,
helping the miners
might kill their own industry.
Miners were set
against steelworkers.
The Transport Workers' Union
was becoming embroiled
as some of its road haulage members
continued to defy picket lines
to keep Ravenscraig's coal run
going.
If they beat the miners
and they shut these pits,
the steel industry's next.
They just didn't get it.
They didn't want to know.
It was so frustrating how
they couldn't see what was coming.
It was, "We're safe,
we're all right."
Bugger off, like, you know.
We went through as usual en masse,
the Piranhas, the flying pickets
and that, and the presence
of the police was unbelievable.
NEWS REPORTER: Throughout the
morning, tension rose gradually,
as the convoy of lorries
was expected.
ANGRY SHOUTING
There were several outbreaks
of violence.
31 men were arrested.
One policeman was injured.
I don't know what the violence
and suchlike was achieving, really.
I was acting on behalf
of the government.
I was just doing what
my job told me to do
and that was try and keep the peace
and keep things sensible.
As the first vehicle arrived,
the main body of pickets
surged forward.
And despite the police horses,
two miners broke through
and were arrested.
The boys that were on strike,
they obviously had a cause
and a purpose,
but I couldn't see the point
of fighting the police
cos the police weren't the enemy.
But the lorries swept on past
the group of union officials
whose attempts to halt the
20-tonne loads were ignored.
Arthur Scargill had gone
into the strike
confident that they would stop the
delivery of coke to the steelworks,
that they would stop the delivery
of coal to the power stations,
that the other workers would
come out in their support.
The steelworkers were not going to
let the furnaces at Ravenscraig
go out because they knew that would
be the end of the steel industry.
So what was quite clear,
Arthur Scargill had failed
to take the rest of the trade union
movement with him.
Convoy after convoy took coal
into the steel plant.
For the second day running,
Ravenscraig should get
all the coal it needs.
Let's not just put your head
in the sand and say,
"I'm all right,
it's not happening to me."
And I've never forgiven them since.
The miners' action
is now into its 14th week,
but one pit in Scotland
has been on strike
for three weeks longer than that.
Mike Smart has visited one
mining family
to see how they've been coping.
Friends and relatives help
with the big bills,
and the family exists on snacks
instead of full meals.
But after 17 weeks on strike,
there's no lack of determination
in the Ray household.
I think the only way we're going
to win this struggle
is by staying out even longer.
There won't be a short term solution
to this.
We probably will need to do
as Arthur Scargill suggests
and stay out until to Christmas.
But at the end of that time, if
we've got a reasonable settlement,
it will certainly be worthwhile
because I'll have a job.
Three and five - 35.
Six and four...
Even an evening's bingo
is a boost for the strikers.
No lavish prizes here,
just groceries collected
by the women's support group.
I had my three kids by then.
Three kids under school age.
So my husband was struggling
with all that.
Nobody had a penny to buy anything,
but the Women's Committee
supported all that and
tried to help families
that were maybe struggling
more than others.
Most of the things that you see here
on any night at all are donated.
Then it's only a matter
of organising it
and laying it out, you know.
We used to get van loads of stuff
sent over from Poland.
There was a big table right in the
middle and it was all clothes,
and it was all just dumped on the
table and everybody...
Everybody was to help themselves.
..just came up and helped
themselves.
We wouldn't have managed as long
and we wouldn't have been able
to be as supportive
as we were to our men
had we no' all the support
that we were given.
We did not feel the financial
struggle as children.
I sometimes remember it being,
you're all going round to your
Auntie Marion's for dinner tonight.
But we had no idea that it was
because there wasn't enough money
in that house that week for dinner.
Despite the fact that there was
never any need of a picket line
at Polmaise Colliery, there was
nevertheless a very heavy
police presence in the village
throughout the period
of the strike.
Miners felt that they
were being followed,
that they were being spied upon,
that local trade union activists
were being targeted,
and sometimes harassment
by the police,
wrongful arrest,
periods of detention to keep
them out of the community.
All sorts of complaints like that.
And as a result, the relationships
between the police and the community
became very, very strained indeed.
The 18th of June, '84.
I'll always remember it.
We were the first bus down there
and the last bus away.
At that time, I didn't realise
what was in front of us.
I didn't realise how rotten
it was going to turn.
Barley was swaying in the fields.
Thousands and thousands of police.
They were goading you.
There was mounted police everywhere,
there was dogs,
there was police in riot gear.
There was no opportunity
or chance to even explain
or try and talk to people.
It was just an assault.
All you could see was dust.
There was horses charging.
Because we were hemmed in,
we couldn't do a thing.
NEWS REPORTER: Today on the fields
of battle around Orgreave,
the police were involved in some
of the most vicious hand-to-hand
fighting of the entire
miners' dispute.
The attacks on policemen
were horrific,
but the riot squads gave no quarter,
using their batons liberally.
It turned into a battle
because the way we were treated,
the way we were corralled, the way
we were bullied, intimidated.
And then eventually assaulted.
Miners were brutalised.
Look at that, look at that.
Truncheon.
Minding my own business, mate.
First day on picket line
is this for this lad.
It was like lambs being led
to the slaughter.
It was like a bloody civil war.
But the day was a victory
for the police horses
in the eyes of the rank
and file policemen.
They applauded and rattled
their riot shields in tribute
as the horses returned
through their lines.
In previous strikes, the police
observed some kind of neutrality.
But during the '84, '85 strike,
it was really the police
against the miners.
Who did that, then?
How's this happened? Truncheon.
It was a thing
I hope to never see again.
Christ. Have you got a bandage?
It was an all out war.
And it would need an
unconditional surrender,
either by Arthur Scargill
or by Margaret Thatcher.
I must tell you that what
we have got is an attempt
to substitute the rule of the mob
for the rule of law.
And it must not succeed.
AUDIENCE CHEERS
She and her fellow cabinet ministers
were obviously trying to demonise
the miners
to destroy their reputation.
NEWS REPORTER: Mrs Thatcher, giving
her traditional end of term speech
to the Conservatives'
1922 committee,
said that during the Falklands War
they'd had to fight
the enemy without.
Now they had to fight
the enemy within.
That's our men you're talking about.
That's men that's working down
a blinkin' black hole o' a pit
for hours on end to try
and keep a family.
You're talking about them
as if they were nothing.
It convinced me that
the government at that time
was determined to use
every dirty trick in the book
to try to defeat the miners.
This government will not weaken.
This nation will meet
that challenge.
We'd powered the land for centuries.
And we were getting rubbished
and vilified
for trying to keep jobs
and people's work and livelihoods.
And that's how
it was getting portrayed.
NEWS REPORTER: The number of pickets
outside Scottish collieries
this morning was considerably fewer
than expected.
The biggest turnout
was at Bilston Glen,
where 50 strikers got a soaking
as they watched 191 men
report for work.
What are the feelings of
the ordinary everyday miner now?
Isn't he sick fed up with
this industrial action?
Isn't he wanting now to get
back to work?
The miner in the first place
didn't want to go on strike.
We've been forced on strike by
the National Coal Board
and this Tory government.
Yes, we want to go back to work.
But I'll say this, and I'll make
it point and clear,
they won't be going back to
our work,
whether it be at Polmaise
or any other pit in Britain,
until the negotiating round that
table is suitable to the miners.
Rent, rates and electricity
bills have been piling up
for almost a year.
The Parks have had to adjust
to a dramatic drop in their income.
With one child at home,
they now live on just 15 a week.
Well, you say you're coping
on 15 a week.
You still obviously have quite
a good lifestyle.
I mean, you've still got, for
example, a colour television,
video recorder, stereo set.
These are all ready to go.
Well, these are, these are...
These are things we'd bought...
We had bought these things
well before the strike,
and used all my savings,
you know.
And it's just, if it means selling
this, that and the next thing,
I mean, they'll go.
I mean, I don't care.
Suppose I'm sitting in a bare house,
I'm prepared to let everything go.
Christmas Day has meant business
as usual for the miners' president,
Arthur Scargill.
He urged striking miners
to stand firm in the dispute.
The longer the strike goes, the more
militant, more harder were getting.
Young lads in the pit here,
at age 20, up to 30-odds.
And if the pit closes down,
there's nae chance of a job for them
anywhere.
The Coal Board has indicated
that there is transfers
and jobs for everybody.
That's nothing but a pack of lies.
It was a difficult time for a
mine worker to decide what to do.
A lot of them said to me,
"We'd love to come back,
"but we don't want to be seen
as people
"who don't support their movement."
NEWS REPORTER: The Coal Board has
launched a national advertising
campaign in a bid to get
striking miners back to work.
There was an increase of more
than 200 in the number of miners
reporting for work in Scotland
this morning.
They wanted to be loyal
to their trade union,
but at the same time,
they never thought
that they were going to have
to go on strike for a year.
ANGRY SHOUTING
CHANTING: Scab! Scab! Scab! Scab!
TELEPHONE RINGS
NEWS REPORTER: Each colliery manager
or his deputy rings here
every morning and afternoon to pass
on the number of men
who have turned up for work.
There's no doubt at the time
was that the government
was manipulating the statistics.
As soon as Mrs Thatcher
could produce a figure to say
that half the miners were back
at work, she could claim victory.
Once the figures have been checked
and fed into the board's computer
system, they are sent out
to radio and television.
This way, the board gets
maximum propaganda advantage.
This morning, 119 more men
reporting at the pit head.
We were talking up
the return to work.
We were swept along with
the storyline that the heroes
were the people
who were breaking the strike.
I'm just determined no man's
going to stop me
going to my work
in this day and age.
That's why the reporters
like myself from the BBC,
that's why we were so hated,
because we were seen to be
the cheerleaders for Mrs Thatcher.
Scabs, their former
workmates call them.
Scabs?
They are lions.
APPLAUSE
People were struggling,
there's no doubt about it.
And people's thoughts might have
been changing a wee bit
and they were offering us cash
and it was like, oh, you know.
And I was a bit scared that people
would grab it.
Not one person in Polmaise,
not one person.
It became abundantly clear
that the cards were stacked
against the miners.
It was going to end
with blood on the floor.
NEWS REPORTER: Miners delegates
meeting in special session
at Congress House voted
to end the strike
without an agreement
on pit closures.
We faced not an employer,
but a government
aided and abetted by the judiciary,
the police and you people
in the media.
And at the end of this time,
our people are suffering
tremendous hardship.
From the union's point of view,
the strike ends tragically
when the men decide to go back
to work without an agreement at all.
Total surrender.
I was absolutely just flabbergasted.
I was, I really was.
I was angry.
I was disappointed.
I was... Loads of emotions
all going on at once.
It was, "What had we been doing?
"And yous are selling us out here."
REPORTER: Polmaise Colliery
near Stirling in Scotland
have been fighting the Coal Board's
decision to close their pit
for well over a year, and many of
them said this afternoon
they wouldn't be going back to work
even if miners elsewhere
had decided to.
We'll be fighting to
the last breath in our bodies.
Within Polmaise, there was
also the issue of getting
four of their local heroes,
if you like, reinstated.
And they were determined
not to let it go easily.
Which, of course, is why the
Polmaise miners carry on the strike
even after the vote
to return to work.
The race had been run. We came
second and we had to go back.
It was a horrible feeling,
but you had to go back.
NEWS REPORTER: As the wheels turned
for the first time in 13 months,
local union officials said they
could see no reason for ceremony.
That was a sad day, sad day
when we had to go back.
But we went back
with our heids held high.
So the men of Polmaise Colliery,
the first pit in Britain
to go out on strike, become the
last to decide to return.
They say there's plenty underground
to keep this pit going
for many years.
I can't even really believe
it lasted for a whole year.
And I look back now with not one
single regret about it at all.
Oh, it was worth it,
definitely, 100%.
Do it today, do it tomorrow,
any day. Definitely.
Arthur Scargill told you
the truth from day one,
that they were shutting every pit.
They knew if they got Fallin first,
the militant pit...
..it would have been easy for them.
But we made it hard.
They were trying to shut Polmaise.
We prevented it with that strike.
We held it back.
I remember them saying, "Aye,
but they'll still shut them."
But we got a reprieve, we got
a couple of years out of it.
And that's what makes it...
..feel we beat them.
In my eyes, I say,
"Aye, we beat them."
I would do it again.
If it means that kept guys
in employment
for another three years, you know.
I never knew it'd be three years.
I thought maybe 33 years, you know.
Didnae know that it would
just be three years,
and it just closed
at one fair Friday.
It's disastrous.
There is no industry.
There's unemployment at 27%.
There's 50% youth unemployment
in Fallin.
This is what's facing us.
Defeated on the battlefield? No.
Through politics? Yes.
The biggest part of it for my dad
was the fight was over, basically.
We didnae win, and the pit's
going to close.
You know, it's a big loss that,
a big, big loss.
I could see changes in my dad
when the fight was kind of over,
when that was kind of finished.
# For many long years now
the pit's done its best
# And sets have rolled out o' flats
north, east and west
# And all of the rumours
that closing was due
# Now they've all been put down
# For, alas, it is true... #
This guy here, Jim 'Sodger' Forsyth.
I did my underground training
with this guy.
He was a good guy, and he trained me
for my first 20 days underground.
This one here, that's my
brother-in-law, Sonny McCall.
Married to my sister. Great guy.
Worked in this pit all his life
until he died.
That's his dad.
It's all family, all community.
And every single one of them
represents somebody
that worked really hard in Polmaise.
# Got transferred away
# To the pits to the south
# For the rest of our days. #
I feel the strike actually for me
was a tragedy.
The outcome didn't seem fair
after what everybody here
had went through and what everybody
here had put into it.
And the way the pits
were dealt with
at the end of the strike,
and the conduct of some people -
police, Coal Board -
just, it left a bad taste
in my mouth for years.
In fact, even to this day.
We were demonised on TV, on radio.
The country as a whole
wouldnae listen at the time.
Although we,
especially in Polmaise,
done our best to try and get that
message across,
it just wasn't listened to.
And this here is the outcome.
This is the last wee bit of Polmaise
that's left.
It's a fundamental right to work,
to provide for your family.
Just fight for it
or they'll have you over a barrel.
And I'm sure, at the end of the day,
that if we have to go on strike...
When the pit shut,
this place got hit hard, tae,
because this was the place everybody
came to.
The village got wiped out, like.
It just changed your life
completely.
A lot of young men, tae, passed
away.
60-year-old, 50s.
Working men, they just didnae
ken what to dae.
And there's no' many of the old boys
left noo either.
But the strike was 40 year ago,
and this is still here.
The decor's changed,
but you can still see their faces,
they're still here.
And people remember the way
it was, tae.
Life goes on.
"I shall always remember the
positive aspects of that experience.
"Particularly the courage
and comradeship of workers...
"..involved in a desperate struggle
to save their industry."
OK?
I'm only, what? 20 then.
I had a bit more hair in those days.
I was a bit of an Iron Maiden buff.
I was 23.
It was more like a fun day out.
Everybody's smiling.
Oh, there's quite a few who have
passed away now in that photograph.
You'll never see a gathering
like that again.
I must say....
..I didn't realise
what was in front of us.
I didn't realise what was, how...
How rotten it was going to turn.
The men in this area, you could say
we're right militant.
We all know one another.
There's no way that anybody
would let anybody else down.
There was a hit list
and Polmaise was on it.
The miners at Polmaise
never wasted any time
in trying to do something about it.
If they try and close down Polmaise,
which they are intending,
I can assure them, there'll be
the biggest, biggest wrestle
they ever had in their life.
CHEERING
They were the first pit out
on strike, actually...
This is where it all began.
..and the last pit to go back.
It's been called the most
militant pit in Scotland,
and the first rumblings of a
national strike were heard here.
The significance of the
Polmaise miners
was their determination.
They were a little bit scary,
actually, at times
because they were so determined.
MARGARET THATCHER: I must tell you
that what we have got
is an attempt to substitute
the rule of the mob
for the rule of law.
And it was not successful.
AUDIENCE CHEERS
We would go anywhere
and do what we needed to do
to try and get our message across.
You're fighting for your livelihood,
you're fighting for your jobs,
you're fighting for your community.
Polmaise was 100% solid.
No scab workers.
Everybody was on strike for a year.
Every single man.
COMMENTARY: Try as it may,
a Scotch mist cannot camouflage
the beauty of Scotland's daughters.
Sheena Drummond is today's
Miss United Kingdom.
Scotland's Coal Queen
is Joyce Brown.
Both girls live near Stirling,
so, more suitably clad
against the weather, Joyce takes
Sheena with her to meet
some of the men at nearby
Polmaise Colliery,
the men who helped to vote her in
as the country's Coal Queen.
It's a long time fae I've been here.
But there was three shafts -
three, four and five.
The men went down one,
the coal came up one
and supplies went down the other.
And it was a busy, busy place.
Busy. About 200 men.
DOG BARKS
Oh, what comes back to me is just
getting up in the morning
and coming out on a day shift and
not realising how good a job it was.
It was a great, a great job.
And all these guys that went
down the pits were brave guys,
and it was a brilliant atmosphere.
It was a laugh a minute with them,
and I've never seen nothing
like it since.
PROMO COMMENTARY: If you know
what a coal mine looks like,
get a job in Britain's modern mining
industry and get more out of life.
# Hey there, miner
# Live a life the way
you want it to be
# Come on now, miner
# There's money, lots of money
and security. #
I left the school right away.
And my dad took me down
on a pit visit.
And I thought to myself, "Aye.
This'll do me, aye.
"I'll have a bash at this."
I wasnae academic at school.
Dennis Canavan,
before he became an MP,
was a maths teacher
and he pulled me oot in the corridor
and says, "You want
to go down the pit?"
And I'd already seen a poster says
job security for life.
Join the NCB.
I says, "Aye, that'll do for me."
Well, my dad worked there.
My grandad worked there.
My dad's brother worked there.
All the, most of the Rennies,
the Rennie family worked there
in some capacity in their day.
So it was like, "I've got
a job, I'm leaving school.
"I'm going to a job."
Growing up in the '80s
in a mining village,
it actually was a really happy time
for a child of four.
Everybody knew each other and
everybody looked out for each other.
You just felt like you were in one
great, big, huge family growing up.
Gala days were huge in the '80s.
And if you were in the gala,
you really decorated
your house all up,
so when the procession was passing,
they knew all the people
who were in the gala.
So this is my mum and dad's house,
which my mum's still in.
It was a great place, and it just,
everybody looked out for each other.
I mean, there was gala days,
there was parties for the bairns
in the club,
and loads and loads of stuff.
And it was a tight, tight community.
If you were brought up in Fallin,
nine times out of ten,
you would have been a miner.
You'd have went doon the pit.
Everybody worked there,
full families worked there.
You had the likes of maybe three
sons and the father worked there,
the mum worked in the canteen.
It was a village pit.
It was built first
and then they built the houses.
Fallin and Polmaise
go hand-in-hand.
They always have, fae when the pit
started to when the pit shut.
It was a militant pit and I think
that was down to the people
that worked here. They were so
united in their beliefs
and what they thought
was right and wrong.
It was born of just the industry
itself, you know, it was so tough,
and you had to fight for everything
that you could get.
Scotland was one of the most
productive coalfields in the UK.
The goal was always to get as much
production
out of the ground as you could get.
Then when we came into the '80s,
another dimension came along.
It didn't matter how much
you produced,
it was - what was the cost
of that production?
The Coal Board described their
latest financial results
as disastrous.
They lost 875 million in 1983.
Ian MacGregor had already
been employed with British Steel.
He had a reputation for cutting jobs
and reducing loss makers.
And that's the way
that Mrs Thatcher saw it.
A man who would come along
and defeat the unions.
The MacGregor plan will give
this country the best hope
of a good coal industry
it's ever had.
Today, we are looking at the future.
I act on behalf of you,
the taxpayers, who I think
are getting a little tired
of putting out so much money
just to keep these mines going
when you don't need them.
I was a local MP at that time.
I remember that the proposal
came forward to close Polmaise.
TV COMMENTARY: Polmaise
is under sentence of death.
Latest victim of the Coal Board's
tough new policy
of abandoning unproductive pits
with geological problems
and moving the miners
on to richer seams.
We met MacGregor,
the chairman of the Coal Board
at his headquarters in London.
We put forward a very strong case
that there were still workable
coal reserves in Polmaise.
He listened politely, perhaps,
to what we had to say.
But his mind was made up.
He wouldn't budge an inch.
Right away, people in the union
mobilised and said,
"Right, we're going to have to try
and stop this."
I'm sure, at the end of the day,
if we have to go on strike,
if we have to go and picket,
and I'm sure that you lads
along with us folk up here,
if we go to the pit heads
and we meet the miners concerned
and discuss their case,
I'm sure they'll back us 100%.
APPLAUSE
My dad was always one
for trying to make things better.
If he thought something wasnae
right, he would fight for it.
"That's no' right.
"What are you going to do?"
You know, sort of thing.
That's what he was like.
And the men in this area are...
..you could say we're right
militant.
We're militant because every other
day, we're working in the pits
and we're depending on one another.
For any mistakes made,
it's somebody's life's at stake.
He was a very gifted person.
He was a brilliant orator,
and he was also an entertainer. He
was the heart and soul of this club.
CHEERING
# For once in my life
# I won't let someone hurt me. #
He would do his MC
every Saturday night,
because he was as mad
as a brush as well.
SHE LAUGHS
I first became aware of John
McCormack when I was seeking
the nomination to become the Labour
candidate for West Stirlingshire.
And I know that some of my opponents
insinuate that this is maybe
the only club that would have me.
But may I say that this to me
is far better than the Carlton
and all these posh clubs down
in London.
John insisted
that I go down the pit,
crawl along the coal seam,
and the coal seam in Polmaise
was very, very narrow.
And I had to crawl on
my hands and knees
and meet all the miners
and chat away to them.
And I found the noise
absolutely deafening,
and the ceiling above
was creaking and groaning.
I thought it was going to be
falling on top of me.
It was a frightening experience.
And John insisted I do it,
not just once,
but I had do it for the day shift,
the back shift,
the night shift.
And for some reason or other,
another shift that Polmaise called
the ham and egg shift.
And then John insisted that I meet
every single miner that worked
at Polmaise at that time.
I'd like to send this message
to the Coal Board, to Mr MacGregor
and to Maggie Thatcher, if...
CROWD CHEERS
If they try and close down Polmaise,
which they're intending,
I can assure them they'll have
the biggest, biggest wrestle
ever had in their life.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
If a pit's exhausted,
and there's no more coal in the pit,
and it's a dilapidated pit,
by all means,
by all means move the miners.
But Polmaise doesn't come
into that category.
Polmaise has 30, 35 years there.
The Coal Board do offer fairly
generous redundancy payments
to older men, men over 50.
You would be eligible for that.
Why is it not acceptable to you?
Well, the way as I see it is,
it's not my job to sell.
We've got to fight for our jobs,
to leave a future for the young,
the younger people, the young men
in the village.
That's as I see it.
The mood in Fallin
was predictably 100%
in favour of strike action.
The bottom line was...
..if we don't fight for our jobs,
we'll not have a job.
The significance of the Polmaise
miners was their determination.
They moved very quickly.
So they were the first out
at the beginning
of what turned out to be
a national strike.
They then pursued the strike.
They were fierce.
Angry miners interrupted
a news conference
being given by their Scottish
President, Mick McGahey
in Edinburgh today.
We went to try and lobby
the Scottish NUM.
Let's get ourselves out here,
you know?
If they're coming for Polmaise,
where are they going to stop?
So, boys, I appeal to you.
Now we're in the conference.
For the Polmaise miners,
that meeting in Edinburgh
was a chance to convince delegates
from other pits in Scotland
that they ought to join
a national strike.
Because the Polmaise guys
were already out
and the worst thing that could
happen to them was to be left
hanging out to dry.
COMMENTARY: Tempers were short
from the start as about 100 men
from Polmaise pit near Stirling, one
of six closed in Scotland in a year,
tried to persuade
delegates from other pits
to vote for strike action.
But as Scottish president,
Mike McGahey, announced later,
although there'd been pressure
for an immediate stoppage over pit
closures, some delegates
have been less than enthusiastic
about an indefinite strike.
At that, the Polmaise men charged
into the room to tell area officials
face-to-face they thought
they weren't getting
the support they deserved.
There was quite a few that werenae
for it, actually, you know?
And it got a bit tasty at times
shall we say,
as far as trying
to get the point across.
I was working as the Scottish
Affairs Correspondent for BBC Radio.
It was one of the most memorable
days of my working life.
You're no' going in...
The anger and frustration
and concern
that they were going
to be left alone, out on their own.
COMMENTARY: The obvious anger
of the Polmaise men boiled over,
fuelled by reports
that other Scottish miners
wouldn't join them on strike.
There was a lot of kind of
false information.
The false information
came fae the press.
Who was there.
But the press was there mob
handed, you know what I mean?
So they're coming out telling
you different stories
and blah, blah, blah.
COMMENTARY: The angry demonstrators
turned their attentions
to cameramen, and reporters.
I could hear somebody shouting,
"You can walk oot
or be bloody carried out."
It got heated. I think two or three
people got
kind of shoved about and that,
which usually happens,
you know what I mean?
COMMENTARY: One unfortunate radio
reporter was bundled out
and kicks were aimed at him.
It was like a scene from a Western.
The batwing doors flew open
and a huge guy was standing there,
and he grabbed me by the lapels,
took me out onto the landing,
and threw me down the stairs.
Yes, there was a wee bit
of jostling and...
..people got ejected.
There was great strength
of feeling among the Polmaise miners
because they didn't get
what they wanted,
and, for a while at least,
they were hung out to dry.
They were on their own.
Relations between the National Coal
Board and the miners' leaders
deteriorated further today.
The Board announced
that they want more cuts
in the amount of coal produced.
It could mean that another 20 pits
will close in the next 12 months
with a loss of about 20,000 jobs.
"A modest rundown",
the Board called it.
We went as a delegation
fae Polmaise miners,
and, whoa, what's going on here?
It was like, every pit there.
Not just the Scottish boys, all of
Britain, Wales and everything.
And they were all up for it.
Outside were about 300 miners
from Polmaise.
They were a determined lot.
And they had their Polmaise banners.
The Polmaise banner - canary yellow!
HE LAUGHS
But it was there.
John McCormack made it a point
that wherever we went,
that banner was to be front
and centre, you know,
because it was showing everybody
what we were about,
what we needed them to do -
get on board, follow suit.
The Polmaise miners were right
at the kick-off of this.
MINERS CHANThey were there that fateful day
on March 8th, 1984,
when the Union authorised the strike
action in Scotland and in Yorkshire,
that rolled on to become
the National Pit Strike.
In accordance with Rule 41,
the strike action starts...
CROWD CHEERS LOUDLY
Arthur Scargill, of course,
is hoping that he's going to be able
to close the country down
and roll back Thatcherism.
You can well understand
that the Polmaise miners
wouldn't have had any inkling
as to what they were letting
themselves in for.
They were the pace setters
of this strike.
But what they didn't understand was
that Mrs Thatcher
had prepared herself.
The government had taken
enormous precautions
in the sense of building up
coal stocks,
in preparing the power stations to
burn oil as well as coal.
Every sort of measure
had been taken.
Miners throughout the country
are holding meetings to decide
whether or not to join
the coal strike.
In Scotland, it's thought at least
five of the ten pits still
to make up their minds
are willing to work on Monday.
If the Polmaise miners
couldn't make sure that Scotland
was 100% out,
they could then call on
other areas to support it
and you'd get the national strike.
They had a job to do.
We came into the union hut and
all the boys were ready to go.
"What's happening?"
"We're going.
We're going for Bilston Glen."
Bilston Glen was unusual
in the Scottish coalfield.
It was described as a super pit,
and the promises had been made
that Bilston Glen
had a long future ahead of it.
It's all right for Arthur Scargill
to sit there wi' his Jaguar
and his house and all his money,
and shouting for us
to come out on strike.
He'll no' lose nae money.
We'll lose the money, no' him.
They kind of thought, "We're OK. Any
closures aren't going to affect us."
That was the kind of mentality
that the miners there had.
I've got a future in the industry
and it's at Bilston Glen.
I'll work here until I'm finished.
There you are.
Because it was a new pit,
there were a lot of people there
who didn't belong
to these mining traditions
of solidarity,
these long-held views
that you don't cross a picket line.
BAD-TEMPERED EXCHANGES
Scab!
I can remember John McCormack
and other guys from Polmaise
coming over to Bilston Glen.
And what they were trying to do
was trying to speak to the men
and try to get through them,
look, this is going to happen to all
the pits. It's time to make a stand.
You can imagine how hard it is
for individuals
to decide to go on strike
for a week.
So how hard is it for them
to go on strike for a month?
And so to watch somebody else
help to undermine your effort
is going to be difficult to bear.
NEWS REPORTER: It wasn't long
before the pickets' frustration
at what they saw as a last remaining
pocket of resistance to the strike
in Scotland boiled over.
We were trying to go through there
and just stop them
getting into the pit.
We were trying to picket them out,
trying to get our point across to
them - you need to join us.
That was the whole point to try
and get them onside with the strike.
NEWS REPORTER: Trouble broke out
at Bilston Glen as some of the
200 pickets who'd collected just
after five o'clock this morning
tried to break through police lines.
I joined the police in 1976
at the age of 16 and a half.
My brother went down the pits
at Polmaise.
I think he only lasted six weeks
and he thought,
"This is not for me,
I'm out of here."
So it was a hard life.
But no appeal to me.
As the scuffles continued
and the arrests mounted,
some pickets got inside the pit yard
and were quickly rounded up.
There was a large number trying
to prevent strike breakers going in.
So the police lined the road.
It was usually just
a lot of shouting.
Previously, I suppose, these people
had been their friends
and their neighbours
and their work mates.
But it sounded vicious and nasty.
It was a total culture change
for me.
I had never been in trouble
in my life
until the strike came along.
I'd never had one charge in my life.
And my first arrest
was at Bilston Glen.
The first time I
ever went through there
and like I say, it was basically
trying to get them to come on side.
Arrested, taken into Dalkeith cells,
spent the night in Dalkeith cells.
The charge sheet was like,
unbelievable.
They were just throwing every charge
they could think about.
It was like, mobbing and rioting,
police assault, resisting arrest,
obstruct the Queen's highway.
And I felt, what is this?
I've never been like that.
Why would I do that, you know?
We were there to try
and defend jobs.
And this is what they were
giving you.
Went to court and they
were handing fines out
like they were dishing out confetti.
It was just... And I felt horrible.
I felt terrible because I'd never,
that's not what I was wanting.
That's not what we were about.
We were about trying to save jobs.
MINERS CHANSeveral hundred men
on the first day of the strike
report for work at Bilston Glen.
Some more try on the Tuesday,
but by the Wednesday,
it's pretty well solid.
NEWS REPORT: So after a shaky start,
the miners have largely
achieved their first objective.
The Coal Board had predicted
half Scotland's miners
would be at work today.
Tonight, there are hardly any.
The reason for the turnaround
has been effective,
though, at times ugly picketing.
There was a meeting in
the Miners' Welfare.
They decided to have a sit-in.
So they wanted four volunteers,
it could have been any one of us.
But why would the Coal Board
want to flood the pit
when they're one step away
from closing it?
The Coal Board sabotaged
a colliery at Bogside
and they're trying do
the very same here.
The reason we were underground
was so the Coal Board
wouldn't flick the switch
and put the power off,
stop the pumps
for getting rid of water
and fans for getting rid of gases.
The pit would be lost forever then.
Once you're down there, the Coal
Board can't turn the power off,
because that would be classed as
murder, if they'd done that.
# Go dig my grave
# Both wide and deep
# Place a marble stone... #
I went down with Alec MacCallum,
Jimmy Rennie and Jimmy Graham.
The four of us all worked together.
# And on my... #
Nobody wanted the pit to shut.
The only way you could save it
was having guys go down.
Drastic action had to be taken.
NEWS REPORTER: The four have their
normal respirators with them
and they are said
to be perfectly safe.
The Coal Board were told only once
the miners were safely in the lift
shaft on their way down.
It was freezing at the pit pump,
freezing.
We sent down T-Bone steaks
and everything
that is required on a dinner table
for the men underground,
because we think those down there
is a cause worthwhile
in regard to the Polmaise Colliery.
We just sat there for three days
and we were just lying, sleeping.
The camaraderie was great
and we were just underground
for three days,
blethering about football,
playing cards.
NEWS REPORTER: The first thought
of fellow strikers was to provide
the first meal of what the
Miners' Union pledge
will be an indefinite protest.
There was negotiations between
the Coal Board
and our guy, John McCormack.
At the end of the day, they decided,
well, if they're not coming up,
we can't switch the power off,
so we'll keep the power on.
Get the men out the pit.
We come up in the cage
and just went for a shower,
and the pit stayed open.
A couple of weeks later,
the four of us were sacked.
So it was quite,
it was quite brutal.
But I would do it again.
I would do it again.
You just can't accept
your pit's going to shut.
Ken, you've got to fight.
# Wild boys, wild boys... #
Because there was never any need
of a picket line at Polmaise,
the Polmaise miners under
John McCormack's leadership,
they were encouraged
to become flying pickets.
They would go to places
where there were allegations
of some scabs
trying to break the strike.
We were flying pickets
all of a sudden.
We would go anywhere
and do what we needed to do
to try and get our message across.
# Wild! #
We were known as the
Polmaise Piranhas.
It became a way of life.
Just became a way of life.
# Wild boys falling
far from glory
# Reckless and... #
My cousin, Billy Armitage,
myself. I was 23.
You're a single man, aren't you,
so you're not getting any benefits
at all. How are you coping,
financially?
Kind of hard.
You don't get nothing at all.
The girl keeps me going with fags.
But as regards as getting, like,
you cannae go for a pint
or nothing like that, you know.
You're in the house all the time.
The only time I'm out is when
I'm going picketing or rallying
or anything like that.
One of the reasons that I didn't
spend a lot of time in Polmaise
during the strike was that
that's not where the action was.
They were the action often enough,
but it wasn't happening
at their own colliery.
# Wild boys
# Never lose it... #
I've not got my glasses on, mate.
I'm there. That's me there, mate.
# Wild boys... #
Anywhere we went,
the Polmaise miners,
they used to open the gate and let
us go at the front,
which was, "Oh, this is brilliant,"
you know what I mean?
But it was like, that wasn't
what they were saying, like,
do you know what I mean? It was
like, "Here they're coming."
We were known through other pits,
everybody got to ken the Piranhas
like, you know.
POLICE SIREN WAILS
NEWS REPORTER: Officers have been
busy stopping cars since dawn.
The police had been organised to a
level that we'd never seen before.
Now there's a big question
as to whether
the Scottish chief constables
are prepared to do
what the English and Welsh chief
constables have been doing.
There's political interference
going on behind the scenes.
So are you saying that any groups
of miners who hire a bus
and head for either of these
locations can expect to be stopped?
In large numbers bent on disorder,
yes.
We were actually then being told
that you cannae travel about
in the country.
Basically
what they were saying is,
you travelling in the country
isn't going to be allowed.
So what is that? You're into a
police state then
and it's...
That's what it told me there.
There was one occasion,
several busloads of miners,
including a strong contingent
from Polmaise,
they were stopped.
It was early in the morning
and we were on the first bus.
There was one lone fat cop
in a car.
And he stopped the bus and he says,
"Where do you think you're going."
And John McCormack says,
"We're going to Largs for a picnic."
He says, "Aye, that'll be right.
Everybody off."
We all got off the bus and sat down
in the middle of the road.
There's no way on earth
they can arrest us all.
Nearly 300 miners were arrested
this morning as Scottish police
changed their tactics.
Every single one of us was arrested.
300 men sitting in the road
and they lifted us all.
HE CHUCKLES
I think, in all, 300 were arrested
and charged with,
not breach of the peace,
but conduct likely to lead
to breach of the peace.
That big mass arrest,
that took place two days after
a cabinet subcommittee meeting
when Margaret Thatcher
was asking why it is
that the Scottish police forces
are not taking similar action
against the miners as, for example,
the chief constables in certain
areas of England.
What we have seen in this country
is the emergence of an organised
revolutionary minority
who are prepared to exploit
industrial disputes,
but whose real aim is the breakdown
of law and order
and the destruction of democratic
parliamentary government.
APPLAUSE
Hunterston was very rough.
That was my first insight into how
actually big this was getting.
NEWS REPORTER: By midday, about
a thousand miners had collected
at the Hunterston Coal Depot to meet
lorries returning from the first
successful run to Ravenscraig.
There was a lot of miners there.
There was a lot of miners,
but there was even more police.
It's the first time during
the strike
that I'd felt danger, in danger,
afraid.
There was hundreds of miners
on the roads, on the pavements.
And they weren't caring,
they were coming through
and you had to get oot the way.
I've actually seen people almost run
over with these lorries coming in,
absolute, total disregard
for safety.
They'd go through you
or over the top of you, or whatever.
It was scary.
NEWS REPORTER: Mounted police
charged a picket line
in Scotland today as miners tried
to stop lorries of coal destined
for Ravenscraig steel plant.
Four pickets were hurt
and treated in hospital
for superficial injuries.
A total of 65 pickets were arrested.
I couldn't believe the situation
we had landed in and how,
determined is probably the word,
that the government were
to beat the miners.
I was like, God, almighty, ken,
if this is what
it's going to be like,
it's going to be some ride,
like, you know.
Because it was scary.
It was just scary.
NEWS REPORTER: This is where it
first began and where there's still
no talk of ending the strike, for
this has always been a militant pit.
This was the soup kitchen
used during the miners' strike.
There were up to 300 people a day
got fed in here.
The children and the ladies first,
and then the pickets would come
in after doing their picket duty.
Came in and got fed
on a daily basis.
NEWS REPORTER: The food is cooked by
the men who once dug coal
and paid for from funds collected
during the strike.
We actually went to a place not very
far from Fallin
and took some pheasants
for the soup pot.
Helped ourselves. We stole tatties,
we got turnips,
we took a couple of sheep.
Didn't have money to buy anything,
so what were you meant to do?
SHEEP BLEAAye, we had the sheep and that.
Took them back to the... A couple of
boys took them to the saunas
in the Miners' Welfare,
butchered them up.
Fresh lamb on the plate.
Where do you come to?
Fallin Miners' Welfare.
My mother-in-law was talking,
I says to her,
"Did you get that lamb at the club?"
"That was lovely.
Where did they get that fae?"
And I kind of gave a smile
and she went,
"No, no."
"Aye, aye." But she ate it!
Well, it may not be in the Good Food
Guide, but it's still the most
popular eating place
in Fallin today.
At 7:45 am,
two busloads
of pickets crossed into Strathclyde
on their way to Ravenscraig,
joined by a police transit.
Ravenscraig was important
in the context of the strike.
The NUM had to stop the supply
of coal getting into Ravenscraig,
to show that they
had industrial muscle.
CROWD APPLAUDS AND WHISTLES
NEWS REPORTER: The faithful took to
the streets for the STUC's
day of action
in support of the miners.
But behind the banners
and the slogans,
the acrimonious dispute over coal
for the Lanarkshire steelworks
was tearing the heart
out of union solidarity.
Something very, very important
was happening.
A lot of the workforce
at Ravenscraig
came from former mining families.
So there was sympathy
for the miners' cause.
But equally from the point of view
of the steelworkers,
helping the miners
might kill their own industry.
Miners were set
against steelworkers.
The Transport Workers' Union
was becoming embroiled
as some of its road haulage members
continued to defy picket lines
to keep Ravenscraig's coal run
going.
If they beat the miners
and they shut these pits,
the steel industry's next.
They just didn't get it.
They didn't want to know.
It was so frustrating how
they couldn't see what was coming.
It was, "We're safe,
we're all right."
Bugger off, like, you know.
We went through as usual en masse,
the Piranhas, the flying pickets
and that, and the presence
of the police was unbelievable.
NEWS REPORTER: Throughout the
morning, tension rose gradually,
as the convoy of lorries
was expected.
ANGRY SHOUTING
There were several outbreaks
of violence.
31 men were arrested.
One policeman was injured.
I don't know what the violence
and suchlike was achieving, really.
I was acting on behalf
of the government.
I was just doing what
my job told me to do
and that was try and keep the peace
and keep things sensible.
As the first vehicle arrived,
the main body of pickets
surged forward.
And despite the police horses,
two miners broke through
and were arrested.
The boys that were on strike,
they obviously had a cause
and a purpose,
but I couldn't see the point
of fighting the police
cos the police weren't the enemy.
But the lorries swept on past
the group of union officials
whose attempts to halt the
20-tonne loads were ignored.
Arthur Scargill had gone
into the strike
confident that they would stop the
delivery of coke to the steelworks,
that they would stop the delivery
of coal to the power stations,
that the other workers would
come out in their support.
The steelworkers were not going to
let the furnaces at Ravenscraig
go out because they knew that would
be the end of the steel industry.
So what was quite clear,
Arthur Scargill had failed
to take the rest of the trade union
movement with him.
Convoy after convoy took coal
into the steel plant.
For the second day running,
Ravenscraig should get
all the coal it needs.
Let's not just put your head
in the sand and say,
"I'm all right,
it's not happening to me."
And I've never forgiven them since.
The miners' action
is now into its 14th week,
but one pit in Scotland
has been on strike
for three weeks longer than that.
Mike Smart has visited one
mining family
to see how they've been coping.
Friends and relatives help
with the big bills,
and the family exists on snacks
instead of full meals.
But after 17 weeks on strike,
there's no lack of determination
in the Ray household.
I think the only way we're going
to win this struggle
is by staying out even longer.
There won't be a short term solution
to this.
We probably will need to do
as Arthur Scargill suggests
and stay out until to Christmas.
But at the end of that time, if
we've got a reasonable settlement,
it will certainly be worthwhile
because I'll have a job.
Three and five - 35.
Six and four...
Even an evening's bingo
is a boost for the strikers.
No lavish prizes here,
just groceries collected
by the women's support group.
I had my three kids by then.
Three kids under school age.
So my husband was struggling
with all that.
Nobody had a penny to buy anything,
but the Women's Committee
supported all that and
tried to help families
that were maybe struggling
more than others.
Most of the things that you see here
on any night at all are donated.
Then it's only a matter
of organising it
and laying it out, you know.
We used to get van loads of stuff
sent over from Poland.
There was a big table right in the
middle and it was all clothes,
and it was all just dumped on the
table and everybody...
Everybody was to help themselves.
..just came up and helped
themselves.
We wouldn't have managed as long
and we wouldn't have been able
to be as supportive
as we were to our men
had we no' all the support
that we were given.
We did not feel the financial
struggle as children.
I sometimes remember it being,
you're all going round to your
Auntie Marion's for dinner tonight.
But we had no idea that it was
because there wasn't enough money
in that house that week for dinner.
Despite the fact that there was
never any need of a picket line
at Polmaise Colliery, there was
nevertheless a very heavy
police presence in the village
throughout the period
of the strike.
Miners felt that they
were being followed,
that they were being spied upon,
that local trade union activists
were being targeted,
and sometimes harassment
by the police,
wrongful arrest,
periods of detention to keep
them out of the community.
All sorts of complaints like that.
And as a result, the relationships
between the police and the community
became very, very strained indeed.
The 18th of June, '84.
I'll always remember it.
We were the first bus down there
and the last bus away.
At that time, I didn't realise
what was in front of us.
I didn't realise how rotten
it was going to turn.
Barley was swaying in the fields.
Thousands and thousands of police.
They were goading you.
There was mounted police everywhere,
there was dogs,
there was police in riot gear.
There was no opportunity
or chance to even explain
or try and talk to people.
It was just an assault.
All you could see was dust.
There was horses charging.
Because we were hemmed in,
we couldn't do a thing.
NEWS REPORTER: Today on the fields
of battle around Orgreave,
the police were involved in some
of the most vicious hand-to-hand
fighting of the entire
miners' dispute.
The attacks on policemen
were horrific,
but the riot squads gave no quarter,
using their batons liberally.
It turned into a battle
because the way we were treated,
the way we were corralled, the way
we were bullied, intimidated.
And then eventually assaulted.
Miners were brutalised.
Look at that, look at that.
Truncheon.
Minding my own business, mate.
First day on picket line
is this for this lad.
It was like lambs being led
to the slaughter.
It was like a bloody civil war.
But the day was a victory
for the police horses
in the eyes of the rank
and file policemen.
They applauded and rattled
their riot shields in tribute
as the horses returned
through their lines.
In previous strikes, the police
observed some kind of neutrality.
But during the '84, '85 strike,
it was really the police
against the miners.
Who did that, then?
How's this happened? Truncheon.
It was a thing
I hope to never see again.
Christ. Have you got a bandage?
It was an all out war.
And it would need an
unconditional surrender,
either by Arthur Scargill
or by Margaret Thatcher.
I must tell you that what
we have got is an attempt
to substitute the rule of the mob
for the rule of law.
And it must not succeed.
AUDIENCE CHEERS
She and her fellow cabinet ministers
were obviously trying to demonise
the miners
to destroy their reputation.
NEWS REPORTER: Mrs Thatcher, giving
her traditional end of term speech
to the Conservatives'
1922 committee,
said that during the Falklands War
they'd had to fight
the enemy without.
Now they had to fight
the enemy within.
That's our men you're talking about.
That's men that's working down
a blinkin' black hole o' a pit
for hours on end to try
and keep a family.
You're talking about them
as if they were nothing.
It convinced me that
the government at that time
was determined to use
every dirty trick in the book
to try to defeat the miners.
This government will not weaken.
This nation will meet
that challenge.
We'd powered the land for centuries.
And we were getting rubbished
and vilified
for trying to keep jobs
and people's work and livelihoods.
And that's how
it was getting portrayed.
NEWS REPORTER: The number of pickets
outside Scottish collieries
this morning was considerably fewer
than expected.
The biggest turnout
was at Bilston Glen,
where 50 strikers got a soaking
as they watched 191 men
report for work.
What are the feelings of
the ordinary everyday miner now?
Isn't he sick fed up with
this industrial action?
Isn't he wanting now to get
back to work?
The miner in the first place
didn't want to go on strike.
We've been forced on strike by
the National Coal Board
and this Tory government.
Yes, we want to go back to work.
But I'll say this, and I'll make
it point and clear,
they won't be going back to
our work,
whether it be at Polmaise
or any other pit in Britain,
until the negotiating round that
table is suitable to the miners.
Rent, rates and electricity
bills have been piling up
for almost a year.
The Parks have had to adjust
to a dramatic drop in their income.
With one child at home,
they now live on just 15 a week.
Well, you say you're coping
on 15 a week.
You still obviously have quite
a good lifestyle.
I mean, you've still got, for
example, a colour television,
video recorder, stereo set.
These are all ready to go.
Well, these are, these are...
These are things we'd bought...
We had bought these things
well before the strike,
and used all my savings,
you know.
And it's just, if it means selling
this, that and the next thing,
I mean, they'll go.
I mean, I don't care.
Suppose I'm sitting in a bare house,
I'm prepared to let everything go.
Christmas Day has meant business
as usual for the miners' president,
Arthur Scargill.
He urged striking miners
to stand firm in the dispute.
The longer the strike goes, the more
militant, more harder were getting.
Young lads in the pit here,
at age 20, up to 30-odds.
And if the pit closes down,
there's nae chance of a job for them
anywhere.
The Coal Board has indicated
that there is transfers
and jobs for everybody.
That's nothing but a pack of lies.
It was a difficult time for a
mine worker to decide what to do.
A lot of them said to me,
"We'd love to come back,
"but we don't want to be seen
as people
"who don't support their movement."
NEWS REPORTER: The Coal Board has
launched a national advertising
campaign in a bid to get
striking miners back to work.
There was an increase of more
than 200 in the number of miners
reporting for work in Scotland
this morning.
They wanted to be loyal
to their trade union,
but at the same time,
they never thought
that they were going to have
to go on strike for a year.
ANGRY SHOUTING
CHANTING: Scab! Scab! Scab! Scab!
TELEPHONE RINGS
NEWS REPORTER: Each colliery manager
or his deputy rings here
every morning and afternoon to pass
on the number of men
who have turned up for work.
There's no doubt at the time
was that the government
was manipulating the statistics.
As soon as Mrs Thatcher
could produce a figure to say
that half the miners were back
at work, she could claim victory.
Once the figures have been checked
and fed into the board's computer
system, they are sent out
to radio and television.
This way, the board gets
maximum propaganda advantage.
This morning, 119 more men
reporting at the pit head.
We were talking up
the return to work.
We were swept along with
the storyline that the heroes
were the people
who were breaking the strike.
I'm just determined no man's
going to stop me
going to my work
in this day and age.
That's why the reporters
like myself from the BBC,
that's why we were so hated,
because we were seen to be
the cheerleaders for Mrs Thatcher.
Scabs, their former
workmates call them.
Scabs?
They are lions.
APPLAUSE
People were struggling,
there's no doubt about it.
And people's thoughts might have
been changing a wee bit
and they were offering us cash
and it was like, oh, you know.
And I was a bit scared that people
would grab it.
Not one person in Polmaise,
not one person.
It became abundantly clear
that the cards were stacked
against the miners.
It was going to end
with blood on the floor.
NEWS REPORTER: Miners delegates
meeting in special session
at Congress House voted
to end the strike
without an agreement
on pit closures.
We faced not an employer,
but a government
aided and abetted by the judiciary,
the police and you people
in the media.
And at the end of this time,
our people are suffering
tremendous hardship.
From the union's point of view,
the strike ends tragically
when the men decide to go back
to work without an agreement at all.
Total surrender.
I was absolutely just flabbergasted.
I was, I really was.
I was angry.
I was disappointed.
I was... Loads of emotions
all going on at once.
It was, "What had we been doing?
"And yous are selling us out here."
REPORTER: Polmaise Colliery
near Stirling in Scotland
have been fighting the Coal Board's
decision to close their pit
for well over a year, and many of
them said this afternoon
they wouldn't be going back to work
even if miners elsewhere
had decided to.
We'll be fighting to
the last breath in our bodies.
Within Polmaise, there was
also the issue of getting
four of their local heroes,
if you like, reinstated.
And they were determined
not to let it go easily.
Which, of course, is why the
Polmaise miners carry on the strike
even after the vote
to return to work.
The race had been run. We came
second and we had to go back.
It was a horrible feeling,
but you had to go back.
NEWS REPORTER: As the wheels turned
for the first time in 13 months,
local union officials said they
could see no reason for ceremony.
That was a sad day, sad day
when we had to go back.
But we went back
with our heids held high.
So the men of Polmaise Colliery,
the first pit in Britain
to go out on strike, become the
last to decide to return.
They say there's plenty underground
to keep this pit going
for many years.
I can't even really believe
it lasted for a whole year.
And I look back now with not one
single regret about it at all.
Oh, it was worth it,
definitely, 100%.
Do it today, do it tomorrow,
any day. Definitely.
Arthur Scargill told you
the truth from day one,
that they were shutting every pit.
They knew if they got Fallin first,
the militant pit...
..it would have been easy for them.
But we made it hard.
They were trying to shut Polmaise.
We prevented it with that strike.
We held it back.
I remember them saying, "Aye,
but they'll still shut them."
But we got a reprieve, we got
a couple of years out of it.
And that's what makes it...
..feel we beat them.
In my eyes, I say,
"Aye, we beat them."
I would do it again.
If it means that kept guys
in employment
for another three years, you know.
I never knew it'd be three years.
I thought maybe 33 years, you know.
Didnae know that it would
just be three years,
and it just closed
at one fair Friday.
It's disastrous.
There is no industry.
There's unemployment at 27%.
There's 50% youth unemployment
in Fallin.
This is what's facing us.
Defeated on the battlefield? No.
Through politics? Yes.
The biggest part of it for my dad
was the fight was over, basically.
We didnae win, and the pit's
going to close.
You know, it's a big loss that,
a big, big loss.
I could see changes in my dad
when the fight was kind of over,
when that was kind of finished.
# For many long years now
the pit's done its best
# And sets have rolled out o' flats
north, east and west
# And all of the rumours
that closing was due
# Now they've all been put down
# For, alas, it is true... #
This guy here, Jim 'Sodger' Forsyth.
I did my underground training
with this guy.
He was a good guy, and he trained me
for my first 20 days underground.
This one here, that's my
brother-in-law, Sonny McCall.
Married to my sister. Great guy.
Worked in this pit all his life
until he died.
That's his dad.
It's all family, all community.
And every single one of them
represents somebody
that worked really hard in Polmaise.
# Got transferred away
# To the pits to the south
# For the rest of our days. #
I feel the strike actually for me
was a tragedy.
The outcome didn't seem fair
after what everybody here
had went through and what everybody
here had put into it.
And the way the pits
were dealt with
at the end of the strike,
and the conduct of some people -
police, Coal Board -
just, it left a bad taste
in my mouth for years.
In fact, even to this day.
We were demonised on TV, on radio.
The country as a whole
wouldnae listen at the time.
Although we,
especially in Polmaise,
done our best to try and get that
message across,
it just wasn't listened to.
And this here is the outcome.
This is the last wee bit of Polmaise
that's left.
It's a fundamental right to work,
to provide for your family.
Just fight for it
or they'll have you over a barrel.
And I'm sure, at the end of the day,
that if we have to go on strike...
When the pit shut,
this place got hit hard, tae,
because this was the place everybody
came to.
The village got wiped out, like.
It just changed your life
completely.
A lot of young men, tae, passed
away.
60-year-old, 50s.
Working men, they just didnae
ken what to dae.
And there's no' many of the old boys
left noo either.
But the strike was 40 year ago,
and this is still here.
The decor's changed,
but you can still see their faces,
they're still here.
And people remember the way
it was, tae.
Life goes on.
"I shall always remember the
positive aspects of that experience.
"Particularly the courage
and comradeship of workers...
"..involved in a desperate struggle
to save their industry."
OK?