1977

Arnold, Jörg

doi:10.1093/oso/9780198887690.003.0004

Chapter

3 1977

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https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198887690.003.0004

Pages

94–129

Published:

October 2023

Abstract

This chapter charts the perceptions of the miners and their industry around the year 1977, the thirtieth anniversary of the industry’s nationalization. It considers social imaginaries in the political arena alongside miners’ self-images. It links these articulations to competing visions of the past and the future, and, indeed, the miner’s place in society. The chapter proceeds in three stages. The first section focuses on the political arena. It shows that politicians of both major parties shared in the perception that the miners wielded ‘unrivalled firepower’. Although there existed broad consensus that the miners’ power was real, the conclusions that followed from this shared understanding started to diverge. While there remained official cross-party consensus that the future of the coal industry was assured, policy advisers inside the Conservative Party came to identify the miners as an obstacle, rather than a conduit, for the realization of the industry’s potential and the renewal of Britain. The second section focuses on discussions inside the NUM. Here, the period witnessed the escalation of pre-existing tensions between moderates and militants over the question of how to use the miners’ power. Were the miners’ interests best served by constraining or by unleashing it? As the section demonstrates, the issue of power was bound up with divergent understandings of the miners’ identity. Finally, the third section looks at the self-images of ‘ordinary’ miners as recorded by social scientists, autobiographical accounts, and documentaries. It demonstrates just how disparate miners’ ideas about themselves could be.

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3 1977

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