ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the year-long dispute in the coal industry.1 Its central theme is the fragmentation of the NUM and the reasons for the absence of the solidarity and unity of 1972 and 1974. The first part considers the events immediately prior to the start of the dispute in March 1984. It was clear at the time that events in the industry were moving to a crisis as the NUM, government and NCB adopted stances that could only be described as confrontational. Under its newly elected President the NUM was pledged to resist the closure of any colliery on economic grounds by industrial action if necessary; the NCB and government were equally determined to close uneconomic pits as a prelude to privatisation. The NUM leadership's main difficulty was that it was unable to mobilise its membership around resistance to closures which led directly to the decision not to call a national pithead ballot in March 1984, a failure then exploited by the NCB and government.
