Original subtitles

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 CHANT

They 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 CHANT

Several 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 BLEAT

Aye, 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?