ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the creation of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1944 and the constitution under which it was to operate in the post-war period. It then examines the various schemes for the industry's future put forward during the Second World War, all of which recognised the inevitability of state reorganisation of the coal industry. Whether or not the industry remained in private hands depended on the result of the general election held in 1945.
