ABSTRACT
The National Executive Committee (NEC) could have called a Special Conference, but this was rejected because it might throw out the offer and in the intervening time unofficial strikes might begin. The NEC's meek acceptance of the National Coal Board’s offer after so much ‘fighting talk’ and preparation for industrial action created frustration and threatened a severe bout of internal conflict between left and right. The 1970 strike campaign sees the change in the Yorkshire miners’ mood. National and Area leaders misjudged the mood of the Yorkshire miners. After the disasters of the 1960s the membership was to some extent suspicious of the NEC's rapid conversion to industrial militancy in 1970. The leadership’s adherence to the joint system of conciliation was often interpreted as 'selling out' by their members, which in turn contributed to the emergence of a climate of dissatisfaction and then militancy in the Yorkshire Area.
