A pardon at last for arrested miners
Holyrood review of strikers nicked in‘84
Local miners convicted during the 1980s Miners’ Strike will be among those officially pardoned by Scottish Ministers, it was confirmed this week.
Around 1400 miners were arrested and more than 500 convicted during the year-long nationwide action which began in 1984 following a dispute between the miners’ trade union and the state-run National Coal Board over planned colliery closures. Opposition was led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government in a bid to break the power of the trade unions, but there were flashpoints with police on picket lines. Thousands of miners across the UK were convicted and some were dismissed and blacklisted from working elsewhere.
The pardon, which will also apply to miners who have since died, follows the findings of an official review sanctioned by Holyrood into the policing of the strike.
The review team, headed by John Scott QC, included local man and former MSP Dennis Canavan, former assistant chief constable Kate Thomson and Jim Murdoch, professor of public law at Glasgow University.
It revealed that many of the miners would not face prosecution under breach of the peace legislation today and proposed that those living under the spectre of those charges be pardoned for those offences.
In his book “Polmaise: The Fight for a Pit”, former Polmaise NUM delegate John Mccormack described a number of instances of miners from the local area being arrested at pickets across the country. Mr Mccormack, who passed away earlier this year, said in the book, coauthored with Simon Pirani:
“Polmaise, like every other pit, had our share of arrests on pickets.
“My brother James was among the 65 miners lifted at Hunterston. He was flung into jail and kept there for ten hours and ended up being fined £150 for breach of the peace. His ‘crime’ was that he was standing there when the horses charged and was knocked down.
“On the day after that, we were all arrested trying to get to Hunterston, in the biggest mass round-up in the miners’ strike.
“We were going through Stepps, in Glasgow, with six bus-loads of men – nearly 300 of us all together. A single police car came along. We all got out and sat on the road. Police reinforcements were called, and they shoved us all back on the buses.
“They took us all to different police stations around Glasgow, took our names, and charged a total of 292 of us.” Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf announced the results of the review in the Scottish Parliament this week.
He said: “The pardon is intended to acknowledge the disproportionate impact arising from miners being prosecuted and convicted during the strike – such as the loss of their job.
“It will also recognise the exceptional circumstances that resulted in former miners suffering hardship and the loss of their good name through their participation in the strike.
“It is also vital to acknowledge that many officers involved in policing the strike found it an incredibly difficult time – being rooted in their communities and having family members who were miners.”
T h e move was welcomed by the mineworkers’ union and by Stirling’s MSP, Bruce Crawford, who said : “A great number of local miners from Fallin, and across the Eastern Villages, have suffered for years due to the excessive convictions handed out during the strike.
“The strike may have taken place 35 years ago, but there is still much anger in many of our communities about how the miners were treated – and rightly so.”
Mid Scotland and Fife regional Green MSP Mark Ruskell MSP paid tribute to “the dignity and determination of the miners to see justice done”.
He said: “The report notes that much of the burden was carried by women in mining communities like Fallin, often overlooked victims of this injustice.
“It’s also essential that government examines what programmes can be put in place in former mining communities to continue the restorative justice work and educate the next generation about the struggles of the past and their rights today.”