THE LAUNCH of Ian Isaac’s book, When We Were Miners, marking the 25th anniversary of the ending of the 1984/85 miners’ strike has coincided with the publication of a number other books and articles, not all accurate or sympathetic, to the greatest strike movement in Britain since the 1926 General Strike.
The difference with this book, while primarily a personal account of Ian Isaac’s role in the South Wales coalfield and National Union of Mineworkers from 1974 to 1991, is that it is written from the standpoint of a young ‘Militant’ miner and socialist activist.
Most of the individuals mentioned in his book will be unknown even to the new generation of Ian’s valleys home town of Maesteg, but for those young workers entering into struggle today, the lessons surrounding the miners’ strike outlined in this book - preparing for battle, organising the workforce, mobilising public support and the willingness to struggle, will be inspirational for the fight that lies ahead.
Ian was elected as a full-time lodge (NUM branch) secretary in 1978 at the age of 26, a year before Thatcher took office and at a time when the industry was being run down and pit closures were speeding up.
The miners were the vanguard of the trade union movement, and in order for Thatcher and the Tory government to pursue their monetarist agenda they consciously aimed to obliterate the NUM. That meant implementing the plan prepared by the right-wing Tory strategist Nicholas Ridley in 1978 with the view of defeating a major strike in a nationalised industry.
Whilst the Tories prepared to confront the unions, the right-wing leaders of the NUM, led by President Joe Gormley, allowed pit after pit to close without lifting a finger of opposition.
From afar at the NUM’s Euston Road headquarters in London, “all they were concerned with was to give the pit a decent burial”. Joe Gormley was rewarded for his treachery by being made a Lord under the Thatcher Government, a prize undoubtedly awaiting those trade union leaders today who prefer a funeral march when a factory closes instead of organising a fight back to keep it open!
The battle against pit closures was hamstrung by this right-wing leadership and Ian played a key role in developing the rank-and-file Miners’ Broad Left in South Wales and nationally, which became instrumental in giving a voice to the best miner activists and transforming the union.
As a Militant supporter (the forerunner of the Socialist Party), Ian had to combat the old Communist Party regime in the NUM, and took a principled socialist stand on many political and tactical issues, especially when he was elected onto the South Wales NUM executive.
Against the bitter opposition of full time officials he put forward the Miners’ Broad Left demand of the regular election of all full-time officials.
Ian led by example: “Although I was elected full-time lodge secretary for life in 1978, by 1980 I had given up my right of lifetime tenure of office in favour of a more democratic five-yearly election’.
When Ian moved the regular election of full-time officials at the NUM’s South Wales conference, Emlyn Jenkin, a full-time official in the area went to the rostrum and said: “Over my dead body will this be passed”!
He reflected the position of many full time trade union leaders of today because for Jenkin and his like, “Their better conditions, their ‘socialism’, had already arrived from within the bosom of the NUM, with higher pay, assisted car purchase and conditions that ordinary members could only dream about”.
Ironically, while it narrowly failed to get a two-thirds majority at the South Wales conference, the rabbit was out of the bag and in a mood of growing militancy it was ultimately passed two years later at national conference.
The year long miners’ strike is analysed in detail from a Marxist standpoint in Ken Smith’s excellent book A Civil War Without Guns, but Ian also gives a real feel of the sacrifices, the hard work and the comradeship of not only the miners but of the millions of working-class people who supported them.
A million pounds a week was raised for the striking miners by trade unionists and the public! The miners were betrayed by the now millionaire Kinnock and the right-wing trade union leaders.
A Miners Support Group was established in the Llynfi and Afan valleys and was quickly replicated around the country playing a vital role in sustaining the strike.
The defeat of the strike was a huge setback for the NUM and the trade union movement.
The following year, as pit closures proceeded at a rapid pace Ian stood as the rank-and-file candidate for president of the South Wales NUM under the slogan ‘A Miners’ President on a Miner’s Wage’.
This infuriated NUM officials who vetoed his election address leaflet and removed that slogan but not before they had been delivered to a third of the coalfield! Nevertheless in his contest against two prominent officials Ian explained: “I had 26% of the first-preference votes cast, which I considered at the time to be a significant result and an affirmation of our ideas within the Miners’ Broad Left,which included active rank and file miners, Militant and the Labour Party Young Socialists in the coalfield.”
Ian was singled out for special victimisation in South Wales by the Coal Board and hostile NUM officials who ensured he would not be transferred to another pit after the battle to stop the closure of St John’s had been lost. He was ultimately transferred to a Methane plant, in reality a caravan up a mountain, where he worked on his own for three years while continuing his trade union work until he left the industry.
Ian Isaac played an outstanding role as a ‘Militant’ miner over 15 years -especially during the great strike. But like hundreds of miners who were involved with Militant in those tumultuous years the defeat, the mass redundancies and the collapse of Stalinism which followed also had a disorientating political impact.
Ian points out that
“In October 1988 I was expelled from the Labour Party. This was a culmination of attacks upon me for the role I had played during the strike and afterwards and for my association with Militant before and during the strike”.
However, many of those who read this book along with his former comrades will be surprised and bemused when Ian then explains that he actually rejoined the Labour Party in 1998 “without conceding any of my socialist principles”.

But after understanding that “it has been saddening to see the drift to the right by Labour in recent decades”, he may draw the conclusion of the need for a new workers’ party to represent working class people.
Nevertheless, When We Were Miners gives a valuable, personal insight of what it meant to be a ‘Militant’ miner at the height of Thatcherism and the importance of a clear Marxist programme and approach.
It is well worth a read, alongside Ken Smiths’ book, by the young and older generation of activists.
Alec Thraves

Also see:

A Civil War Without Guns by Ken Smith:w