Coalfield Justice

In June 2022, former miners secured through the Scottish Parliament a collective pardon for convictions acquired during the 1984-85 miners’ strike. The Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Act recognised the distinct injustices facing Scottish strikers: twice as likely to be arrested as those in England and Wales and three times as likely to be sacked. This book analyses the injustices of the strike, and shows how the pardons were won, using thirty oral history testimonies from former strikers and family members. They remembered the injustices of arrest, conviction and employment dismissal. They emphasised how the National Coal Board, police and courts operated as confederates of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, silencing union voice and closing pits deemed unprofitable, to maximise returns from intended privatisation. These testimonies were used in the successful campaign which pushed the Scottish government to provide the broad-based collective and posthumous pardon that was won in Parliament in 2022.