The year 1972 was a decisive one for the Labour movement. At the beginning of 1972, the Heath government faced the first official national strike of mineworkers since the 1926 General Strike. It was a historic moment. A pithead ballot had returned a 58.8 per cent majority in favour of industrial action. On 9 January, given the high levels of inflation at the time, and the falling behind of miners’ pay in relation to the national wages’ league, 280,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers took action demanding a 47 per cent wage increase. The action was preceded by a two-month over-time ban. Although the right wing still dominated the NUM national executive by 26 to 8, a layer of younger militant activists at Area level had tapped into the mood of discontent throughout the coalfields. Above all in the decisive Yorkshire coalfield, the tradition of flying pickets developed in the unofficial 1969 strike, was extended on a national scale. With trade unionists in other industries observing the TUC guidelines to respect NUM picket lines, the movement of coal was halted. The miners’ strike of January and February 1972 had a profound impact in boosting the confidence of the working class and, conversely, in undermining the confidence of the ruling class.
Prime Minister Heath recognised that “sure handling of the dispute was of critical importance in the government’s continuing success in holding down wage levels”. Heath considered the use of troops against the NUM, but feared that this would aggravate and deepen the strike. But, he insisted in Cabinet, “It is important that the government is not seen to be weakening.” Yet the government was soon to find itself completely paralysed. A top secret Cabinet report recognised the dangers confronting them: “If this sort of attitude is pressed too far, the social consequences are unpredictable.” In other words, the Tories could face a social explosion, if not another general strike.
The miners’ union marched as one. With the mines at a complete standstill, no picket lines were required at the pitheads, so attention was turned to coal stocks. Compared to the past, the use of flying pickets was made more effective by the widespread ownership of cars and other transport. Up to 300 pickets disrupted coal supplies to Scottish power stations. The story was repeated in Kent, South Wales, Derbyshire and Yorkshire. Miners hoped that electricity power workers would join them in their own pay battle, but they came to a settlement independently on 7 February.
“Driven into a corner by the magnificent struggle of the miners, with the support of the whole working class”, wrote Alan Woods, who was giving assistance to miners in South Wales at the time, “the Tory government has lashed out with blind class hatred. The panic measures of Heath and Co. are intended to bludgeon the miners back to work by turning their fellow workers against them. But the crocodile tears shed by Heath over the fate of the aged, the sick and the millions who will be laid off because of the government’s measures, will fool no-one.”
He went on: “The miners’ strike is an inspiration to the whole of the working class. Every section of the trade union and labour movement has given practical assistance to the miners. Even the Tory press has had to reflect the massive sympathy of millions of ordinary people.
It is high time the TUC followed the lead of the rank and file! The organised strength of 10 million workers must be used to force the Tory government to back down.
The government of big business is prepared to inflict terrible suffering on millions of people, in order to bear down on the miners and the whole Labour movement. The TUC alone has the strength to stay its hand. Already, sections of workers have staged sympathy strikes in solidarity with the miners. Let the TUC call a one-day strike in support of the miners![1]
Solidarity action from below began to spread. On the 1 February some 150 men took spontaneous strike action at a British Leyland subsidiary, the SU Carburettors in Birmingham. They felt that giving £1 a week out of their pay was insufficient. As Brother Iredale (who was on the TGWU Regional Committee) stated: “The miners are not going to win by kind words and collections, only by forcing the government to back down.” This strike was symptomatic of the support for the miners across industry. It was a foretaste of what was about to take place on a massive scale in the West Midlands.
The attention of the striking miners soon turned to the coke depot at Saltley Gasworks in Birmingham, the last big fuel depot to remain open in the region. The number of pickets at the gate steadily increased. On Tuesday, 8 February, 1,800 Midland car delivery workers struck in sympathy with the miners. The following day, the government declared a state of emergency. On the Thursday, a meeting of about 200 shop stewards in the Midlands’ engineering industry called for solidarity action from the 40,000 engineering workers and a mass march on the Saltley depot to close the plant. The secretary of the West Birmingham AEU District Committee stated: “We saw what happened to the postal workers last year. We are not going to let it happen to the miners.”[2]