117-658: The Socialist Campaign Group , also simply known as the Campaign Group , is a UK parliamentary caucus of the Labour Party including Members of Parliament in the House of Commons . The group also includes some MPs who formerly represented Labour in Parliament but have had the whip withdrawn or been expelled from the party. The group was formed in 1982 following the 1981 Labour deputy leadership election when
234-484: A Policy Review, which many on the left thought would lead to an abandonment of the party's commitment to Clause IV , public ownership and the transformation of society. At a meeting of the Campaign Group following this election defeat, it was agreed that Tony Benn should stand against Kinnock in a leadership election, although Benn himself was reluctant to run. The decision to run led to a number of MPs leaving
351-551: A Special National Delegate Conference was held where there was a vote on whether to hold a national ballot or not. The NUM delegates voted 69–54 not to have a national ballot, a position argued for by Arthur Scargill. Scargill states: "Our special conference was held on 19 April. McGahey , Heathfield and I were aware from feedback that a slight majority of areas favoured the demand for a national strike ballot; therefore, we were expecting and had prepared for that course of action with posters, ballot papers and leaflets. A major campaign
468-506: A ballot from January 1981, in which 85.6% of the members voted to strike if any pit was threatened with closure on economic grounds. The motion was passed with regard to the closure of Orgreave Colliery, which prompted a two-week strike. The NUM executive approved the decision in Yorkshire to invoke the ballot result as binding on 8 March 1984. Nicholls ruled that the 1981 ballot result was "too remote in time [with]... too much change in
585-423: A contest. Rules introduced following Tony Benn 's 1988 leadership challenge meant that candidates would have to secure nominations from 55 MPs to make it onto the ballot paper. Three candidates sought nominations: John Smith , the favourite, regarded as being "from the right" of the party, Bryan Gould , from the "centre-left" and Ken Livingstone , the Campaign Group candidate. Bernie Grant sought nominations as
702-477: A decentralised regional structure and certain regions were seen as more militant than others. Scotland, South Wales and Kent were militant and had some communist officials, whereas the Midlands were much less militant. The only nationally coordinated actions in the 1984–1985 strike were the mass pickets at Orgreave . In the more militant mining areas, strikebreakers were reviled and never forgiven for betraying
819-587: A decisive victory for the Conservative government and allowed the closure of most of Britain's collieries (coal mines). Many observers regard the strike as "the most bitter industrial dispute in British history". The number of person-days of work lost to the strike was over 26 million, making it the largest since the 1926 General Strike . The journalist Seumas Milne said of the strike that "it has no real parallel – in size, duration and impact – anywhere in
936-696: A farmer and property developer with libertarian political beliefs, did much to organise and fund working miners. On 25 May, a writ issued in the High Court by Colin Clark from Pye Hill Colliery, sponsored by Hart, was successful in forbidding the Nottinghamshire area from instructing that the strike was official and to be obeyed. Similar actions were successful in Lancashire and South Wales. In September, Lord Justice Nicholls heard two cases, in
1053-449: A fast and loose way, mainly to ensure that left candidates are excluded or defeated." Labour Party historian Alex Nunns described how "Left-wing hopefuls, like Christine Shawcroft or Mark Seddon, were stopped at all costs. Party workers were tasked with personal lobbying for the leadership's preferred choice, or were even told to chase up certain postal votes but not others." Blair's strategist Peter Mandelson reportedly described wanting
1170-493: A generation of poorer children to ghettos of collapsing schools". 14 Campaign Group MPs, working with other Labour backbenchers, sought to block the plans by proposing an alternative plan for education. John McDonnell , then Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, argued "Our sincere hope is that the prime minister desists from relying upon a [David] Cameron coalition to force his education policies through in
1287-531: A leadership election on the grounds that they did not think he had campaigned sufficiently vigorously for Remain. MPs hostile to Corbyn leaked internal emails to the BBC which showed that Corbyn's team had resisted moves to pursue a more hostile line on immigration and suggested that this was evidence that Corbyn had sought to "sabotage" the remain campaign. Anti-Corbyn MPs had been briefing the media "for months to "expect movement" against Corbyn on 24 June", suggesting that
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#17327729570351404-433: A member of the Campaign Group, sought nominations to run against Gordon Brown . Both McDonnell and Meacher agreed that whichever of them had the support of fewer Labour MPs at the point of Tony Blair 's resignation would withdraw from the campaign and support the other. However, although Meacher gave his support to McDonnell following Blair's resignation not all of his supporters switched allegiance, leaving McDonnell short of
1521-526: A minority voted in favour, well short of the required 55% majority. In protest at a pay offer of 5.2%, the NUM instituted an overtime ban in November 1983, which remained in place at the onset of the strike. Thatcher expected Scargill to force a confrontation, and in response she set up a defence in depth. She believed that the excessive costs of increasingly inefficient collieries had to end in order to grow
1638-528: A national ballot was reduced from two-thirds in favour to 55% in 1971. There was then success in the national strike in 1972 , an overtime ban, and the subsequent strike in 1974 (which led to the Three-Day Week ). The NUM's success in bringing down the Heath government demonstrated its power, but it caused resentment at their demand to be treated as a special case in wage negotiations. The NUM had
1755-572: A number of soft left MPs, led by Neil Kinnock , refused to back Tony Benn 's campaign, leading a number of left-wing Benn-supporting MPs to split from the Tribune Group to form the Campaign Group. It was at a meeting of the Campaign Group in 2015 that the decision was taken that Jeremy Corbyn would contest for the leadership of the Labour Party . The Campaign Group maintains close links with Momentum . The Socialist Campaign Group
1872-408: A number of Labour MPs to support John Silkin in the deputy leadership election and abstain in the run-off between Healey and Benn. This sowed the seeds for a split in the left between a " soft left " supportive of Foot's leadership and a dissenting " hard left " organised principally around Benn. The Campaign Group would go on to back Eric Heffer and Michael Meacher in their unsuccessful bids for
1989-468: A proper debate about the future of the Labour Party. Two minutes before the deadline Corbyn reached the threshold of 35 nominations, having been 'lent' nominations from MPs who did not support him but were persuaded to nominate him by grassroots members and Campaign Group MPs. Margaret Beckett was one of those who nominated Corbyn despite disagreeing with him, and later described herself as a "moron" for doing so. Immediately following his success in getting on
2106-537: A result of the " demonstration effect " and trade union power in general diminished. Three deaths resulted from events related to the strike. The much-reduced coal industry was privatised in December 1994, ultimately becoming UK Coal . In 1983, Britain had 175 working pits, all of which had closed by the end of 2015. Poverty increased in former coal mining areas, and in 1994 Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire
2223-562: A shop anywhere near, they were denied the right to buy them. So, each Campaign Group member agreed to buy one set of bolt-cutters and donate to the Greenham Women. Which we duly did! Following the 1997 General Election , 7% of Labour MPs were members of the Campaign Group. Tony Blair enthusiastically carried on Kinnock's attempts to "delegitimise the left". He sought to reduce the number of left-wing Labour MPs by centralising control of candidate selections and used "open shortlists in
2340-456: A six-month supply of coal to win a strike. In 1982, NUM members accepted a 9.3% pay rise, rejecting their leaders' call for a strike. Most pits proposed for closure in 1981 were closed on a case-by-case basis by the colliery review procedure, and the NCB cut employment by 41,000 between March 1981 and March 1984. The effect of closures was lessened by transfers to other pits and the opening up of
2457-456: A speech to the NUM conference in Perth on 4 July 1983: "A fight back against this Government's policies will inevitably take place outside rather than inside Parliament. When I talk about 'extra-parliamentary action' there is a great outcry in the press and from leading Tories about my refusal to accept the democratic will of the people. I am not prepared to accept policies elected by a minority of
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#17327729570352574-498: A strike, a compromise would probably have been forced on the NCB. Files later made public showed that the government had an informant inside the Trades Union Congress (TUC), passing information about negotiations. In 2009, Scargill wrote that the settlement agreed with NACODS and the NCB would have ended the strike and said, "The monumental betrayal by NACODS has never been explained in a way that makes sense." In
2691-474: A target for aggressive and sometimes violent picketing as Scargill's pickets tried to stop local miners from working. Lancashire miners were reluctant to strike, but most refused to cross picket lines formed by the Yorkshire NUM. Picketing in Lancashire was less aggressive and is credited with a more sympathetic response from the local miners. The ' Battle of Orgreave ' took place on 18 June 1984 at
2808-483: A two-week local strike over the closure of Orgreave Colliery , but the ballot result was later invoked to justify strikes over other closures, including Cortonwood in 1984. In February 1981, the government announced plans to close 23 pits across the country but the threat of a national strike was enough to force a back down. Coal stocks would last only six weeks, after which Britain would shut down and people would demand concessions. Thatcher realised she needed at least
2925-764: The Selby Coalfield where working conditions and wages were relatively favourable. Localised strikes occurred at Kinneil Colliery in Scotland and Lewis Merthyr Colliery in Wales. The industry's Select Committee heard that 36,040 of the 39,685 redundancies between 1973 and 1982 were of men aged 55 and over, and redundancy pay was increased substantially in 1981 and 1983. The NUM balloted its members for national strikes in January 1982, October 1982 and March 1983 regarding pit closures and restrained wages and each time
3042-746: The leadership and deputy leadership in 1983. The Campaign Group subsequently organised itself around opposition to the direction the party took under the leadership of Kinnock and his successors. An advertisement in Tribune (24 April 1983) gave the membership of the Campaign Group as: Norman Atkinson , Tony Benn , Ron Brown , Dennis Canavan , Bob Cryer , Don Dixon , Martin Flannery , Stuart Holland , Bob Litherland , Joan Maynard , Willie McKelvey , Andy McMahon , Bob McTaggart , Michael Meacher , Bob Parry , Reg Race , Allan Roberts , Ernie Roberts , Dennis Skinner , and John Tilley . Neil Kinnock
3159-489: The 1972 agreement which led to a second ballot. MacGregor suggested that deputies could be replaced by outsiders as Ronald Reagan had done during the 1981 airline strike . In September, for the first time, NACODS voted to strike with a vote of 81% in favour. The government then made concessions over the review procedure for unprofitable collieries, much to the anger of MacGregor, and a deal negotiated by North Yorkshire NCB Director Michael Eaton persuaded NACODS to call off
3276-402: The British electorate. I am not prepared quietly to accept the destruction of the coal industry, nor am I willing to see our social services decimated. This totally undemocratic Government can now easily push through whatever laws it chooses. Faced with possible parliamentary destruction of all that is good and compassionate in our society, extra-parliamentary action will be the only course open to
3393-406: The Campaign Group candidate for Deputy Leader . John Prescott , Ann Clywd and Margaret Beckett were the other deputy leadership contenders. It quickly became clear that the 20% nomination threshold risked eliminating all candidates except Smith. "The '20 per cent' rule was introduced in 1989 specifically to exclude the Campaign Group – the left – from future leadership elections. At that time
3510-409: The Campaign Group did not require members to adhere to a particular set of policies, the group did occasionally set out statements of principle. The February 1988 edition of Campaign Group News included "The Aims and Objectives of the Labour Party" a statement agreed by the Campaign Group of Labour MPs and circulated "to provide a focus for political discussion and education within the party ... and to be
3627-504: The Campaign Group including Clare Short , Margaret Beckett , Jo Richardson and Joan Ruddock . Labour's electoral college was weighted 40% to affiliated unions , 30% to Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) and 30% to MPs in the Parliamentary Labour Party . Benn secured only 11.4% of the vote (17.2% of MPs, 19.6% of CLPs and 0.2% of affiliated unions). The scale of this defeat was a surprise to Benn, in particular
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3744-470: The Campaign Group, opposed these plans, speaking and voting against them in Parliament. Blair ally Patricia Hewitt was alleged to have described the rebellion as a "conspiracy organised by the Socialist Campaign Group" 47 Labour MPs voted against the proposals including Campaign Group members Ken Livingstone , Ronnie Campbell , Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, Ann Cryer , Alan Simpson , John McDonnell , Dennis Skinner , Audrey Wise , and Diane Abbott . Despite
3861-485: The Commons and put forward Remain arguments during interviews on Sky, BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Analysis from academics at Loughborough University found that the BBC had excluded Labour voices during the campaign and instead covered the campaign as a Conservative Party civil war. When the result of the referendum was announced Corbyn's opponents on the right and centre of the Parliamentary Labour Party sought to trigger
3978-594: The Kurds. UK parliamentary caucus UK parliamentary caucuses are political organisations in the House of Commons . Parliament has currently dissolved due to the 2024 United Kingdom general election , names and numbers of the groups and parties reflect the situation at the dissolution of Parliament . Conservative Party (UK) (121) Labour Party (UK) (205) Liberal Democrats (UK) (15) 1984%E2%80%9385 miners%27 strike Arthur Scargill Ian MacGregor The 1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike
4095-848: The Labour Party (including Blair himself) celebrated this reform, believing that the changes would mean that "the next Labour leader will be a Blairite". At a meeting of the Socialist Campaign Group on 3 June it was decided that, with McDonnell and Abbott both ruling themselves out after having stood previously, Jeremy Corbyn should be the left's candidate for leader. Corbyn was immediately nominated by Campaign Group MPs including John McDonnell (who became chair of his campaign), Diane Abbott , Ronnie Campbell , Kelvin Hopkins , Michael Meacher , Dennis Skinner , Richard Burgon , Clive Lewis and Cat Smith . The campaign quickly mobilised grassroots Labour members and activists to pressure MPs to nominate Corbyn, even if they disagreed with him, in order to ensure
4212-522: The NCB announced that the agreement reached after the 1974 strike was obsolete, and that to reduce government subsidies, 20 collieries would close with a loss of 20,000 jobs. Many communities in Northern England , Scotland and Wales would lose their primary source of employment. Scargill said the government had a long-term strategy to close more than 70 pits. The government denied the claim and MacGregor wrote to every NUM member claiming Scargill
4329-555: The NCB. The calculation of these operating losses was disputed, with the Marxist historian John Saville declaring costs other than operating losses were included in the data as part of a scheme to undermine trade unions. By 1984, the richest seams of coal had been increasingly worked out and the remaining coal was more and more expensive to reach. The solution was mechanisation and greater efficiency per worker, making many miners redundant due to overcapacity of production. The industry
4446-678: The NUM funds, except in Scotland, because the judges deemed that the Scottish area had acted within the rules of the Union" – David Hamilton MP, Midlothian. Scargill claims "It was essential to present a united response to the NCB and we agreed that, if the coal board planned to force pit closures on an area by area basis, then we must respond at least initially on that same basis. The NUM's rules permitted areas to take official strike action if authorised by our national executive committee in accordance with Rule 41." The Nottinghamshire NUM supported
4563-488: The NUM was led by Arthur Scargill , a militant trade unionist and socialist, with strong leanings towards communism. Scargill was a vocal opponent of Thatcher's government. In March 1983, he stated "The policies of this government are clear – to destroy the coal industry and the NUM". Scargill wrote in the NUM journal The Miner : "Waiting in the wings, wishing to chop us to pieces, is Yankee steel butcher MacGregor. This 70-year-old multi-millionaire import, who massacred half
4680-617: The NUM's support for the regional strikes in Yorkshire and Scotland, and called for action from NUM members in all other areas but decided not to hold a nationwide vote which was used by his opponents to delegitimise the strike. The strike was almost universally observed in South Wales , Yorkshire , Scotland , North East England and Kent , but there was less support across the Midlands and in North Wales. Nottinghamshire became
4797-466: The NUM. Unlike Nottinghamshire, the leadership in Leicestershire never attempted to enforce the strike, and an official, Jack Jones, had publicly criticised Scargill. At some pits in Nottinghamshire – Ollerton, Welbeck and Clipstone – roughly half the workforce stayed in the NUM. The TUC neither recognised nor condemned the new union. The UDM was eventually de facto recognised when
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4914-704: The National Coal Board. He had turned the British Steel Corporation from one of the least efficient steel-makers in Europe to one of the most efficient, bringing the company into near profit. Success was achieved at the expense of halving the workforce in two years and he had overseen a 14-week national strike in 1980. His tough reputation raised expectations that coal jobs would be cut on a similar scale and confrontations between MacGregor and Scargill seemed inevitable. On 19 April 1984
5031-557: The Orgreave Coking Plant near Rotherham , which striking miners were attempting to blockade. The confrontation, between about 5,000 miners and the same number of police, broke into violence after police on horseback charged with truncheons drawn – 51 picketers and 72 policemen were injured. Other less well known, but bloody, battles between pickets and police took place, for example, in Maltby, South Yorkshire . During
5148-507: The PLP. He also made it clear that public repudiation of the group would be amply and swiftly rewarded. Jeremy Corbyn , Labour MP for Islington North and for many years Campaign Group Secretary, remarked that the group was the biggest job creation scheme in the Palace of Westminster. Nearly every one of the twenty-odd ex-members of the Campaign Group sitting in the 1987–92 Parliament was appointed to
5265-459: The Socialist Campaign Group also led a "direct action protest" in the House of Commons by refusing to sit down in order to force a debate on the strike. In 1989, the third Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher announced plans to introduce a flat-tax to fund local Government. The planned tax became known as the poll tax and was thought by many to be intended to save the rich money and move
5382-591: The Socialist Campaign Group produced a pamphlet called "Winning the Future", which proposed solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic . There have been nine Labour leadership elections since the formation of the Socialist Campaign Group: 1983 , 1988 , 1992 , 1994 , 2007 , 2010 , 2015 , 2016 , and 2020 . The Campaign Group backed Eric Heffer and Michael Meacher in their unsuccessful bids for
5499-567: The Socialist Campaign Group until he stood down as an MP at the 2001 General Election ) were among the most high profile of the initial sponsors of the Stop the War Coalition at the meeting on 21 September 2001, along with figures such as Tariq Ali , Harold Pinter , Andrew Murray and Lindsey German , who became the convenor of Stop the War. The Coalition organised what is widely thought to be
5616-634: The UK's economy. The mining industry was effectively a closed shop . Although not official policy, employment of non-unionised labour would have led to a mass walkout of mineworkers. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) came into being in 1945 and in 1947 most collieries in Britain were nationalised (958 nationalised, 400 private). Demand for coal was high in the years following the Second World War, and Polish refugees were drafted to work in
5733-628: The Yorkshire Area, which was later challenged in court. The NUM President, Arthur Scargill , made the strike official across Britain on 12 March 1984, but the lack of a national ballot beforehand caused controversy. The NUM strategy was to cause a severe energy shortage of the sort that had won victory in the 1972 strike . The government strategy, designed by Margaret Thatcher , was threefold: to build up ample coal stocks, to keep as many miners at work as possible, and to use police to break up attacks by pickets on working miners. The critical element
5850-461: The anti-poll tax unions and the federation that brought them together, for without their brilliant leadership and the mass rallies which they organised the Tories might just have got away with it. This campaign had no support at all from the Labour Party at a national level, no official party rallies being organised, and those who rallied were singled out for disciplinary action, many being expelled from
5967-515: The arms trade throughout the world and for a new international economic order which will start to reverse the transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest. Until that is done the Gulf War will be the first of many such wars where Western countries declare war on Third World countries, allegedly for reasons of international law but in reality for an unjust economic order and against people attempting to claim their right to self-determination – like
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#17327729570356084-524: The ballot Corbyn attended a protest against the treatment of women detained at Yarls Wood Detention Centre and against the 13-year detention by the US of British resident Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo Bay without charge. Corbyn outlined an anti-austerity domestic agenda and an international agenda opposed to military intervention. He campaigned on issues with wide popular support that had been outside of
6201-445: The basis of our long-term political work". The statement set out the ideological basis for Benn's 1988 campaign to be Labour leader. The document outlines a socialist, internationalist, and democratic agenda and starts by listing the rights that members thought out to be fought for: "WE BELIEVE: That there should be certain rights which must be won and maintained: We need a campaign for peace and disarmament in Europe, and for an end to
6318-563: The branch membership of the Area since then for that ballot to be capable of justifying a call to strike action two and a half years later." He ruled that the Yorkshire area could not refer to the strike as "official", although he did not condemn the strike as "illegal" as he did in the case of the national strike and the North Derbyshire strike. Scargill referred to the ruling as "another attempt by an unelected judge to interfere in
6435-816: The campaign against the Poll Tax as a "huge victory" for the Labour left who campaigned in alliance with the extra-parliamentary socialist left "against one of the most reactionary pieces of legislation dreamt up in the modern age". Tony Benn described the relationship of the campaign against the Poll Tax with the Labour Party: "The main credit for defeating this monstrosity [the Poll Tax] must go to those, first in Scotland and then in England and Wales, who organised
6552-519: The coal-mining industry continued to fall from 180,000 in 1985 to 70,000 in the year 2000. Coal mining, nationalised by Clement Attlee 's Labour government in 1947, was managed by the National Coal Board (NCB) under Ian MacGregor in 1984. As in most of Europe, the industry was heavily subsidised. In 1982–1983, the operating loss per tonne was £3.05, and international market prices for coal were about 25% cheaper than that charged by
6669-536: The community. In 1984, some pit villages had no other industries for many miles around. In South Wales , miners showed a high degree of solidarity, as they came from isolated villages where most workers were employed in the pits, had similar lifestyles, and had an evangelical religious style based on Methodism that led to an ideology of egalitarianism. The dominance of mining in these local economies led Oxford professor Andrew Glyn to conclude that no pit closure could be beneficial for government revenue. From 1981,
6786-436: The crossing of picket lines even without a NACODS union vote for strike action. Initially the threshold for striking was not met; although a majority had voted for strike action, it was not enough. However, later during the strike 82% did vote for strike action. In January 1981, the Yorkshire area of the NUM held a successful ballot to approve strike action over any pit threatened with closure on economic grounds. This led to
6903-567: The decline in support from CLPs since the 1983 election, and strengthened Kinnock's position, which he used to take the party further towards centrism. Following this election, the party rules were changed to quadruple the number of MPs required to nominate a candidate to launch a leadership challenge from 5% to 20% (lowered in 1993 to 12.5% for elections where the incumbent had resigned). Neil Kinnock resigned just three days after he lost his second general election , and tried to persuade candidates other than John Smith to stand aside so as to avoid
7020-451: The economy. She planned to close inefficient pits and depend more on imported coal, oil, gas and nuclear. She appointed hardliners to key positions, set up a high level planning committee, and allocated funds from the highly profitable electrical supply system to stockpile at least six months' worth of coal. Thatcher's team set up mobile police units so that forces from outside the strike areas could neutralise efforts by flying pickets to stop
7137-475: The executive voted for him to do so. By the end of January 1985, around £5 million of NUM assets had been recovered. A Court of Session decision in Edinburgh ruled that Scottish miners had acted within their rights by taking local ballots on a show of hands and so union funds in Scotland could not be sequestered. "During the strike, the one area they couldn't touch was Scotland. They were sequestering
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#17327729570357254-569: The expenses onto the poor. Only 15 Labour MPs supported the Anti Poll Tax Federation . Socialist Campaign Group MPs made up a significant number of these including Tony Benn , who gave his full support to the campaign and spoke at the 200,000 strong anti-Poll Tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square, and Jeremy Corbyn who appeared at Highbury Magistrates' Court in 1991 for not paying his poll tax bill of £481. Corbyn
7371-445: The face of this overwhelming opposition within the parliamentary Labour party." With Tory support, the reforms were eventually passed by 422 to 98 votes; however, this was the largest rebellion a Labour government had ever suffered at the third reading of a Bill . Members of the Campaign Group have been the first to be at the forefront of mass campaigns on trade union rights, private equity, council housing, public services and against
7488-539: The first month of the strike, the NCB secured a court injunction to restrict picketing in Nottinghamshire, but the Energy Minister , Peter Walker forbade MacGregor from invoking it as the government considered it would antagonise the miners and unite them behind the NUM. Legal challenges were brought by groups of working miners, who subsequently organised as the Working Miners' Committee. David Hart ,
7605-488: The first, North Derbyshire miners argued that the strike was illegal both at area level, as a majority of its miners had voted against, and at national level, as there had been no ballot. In the second, two miners from Manton Colliery , in the Yorkshire area but geographically in North Nottinghamshire, argued that the area-level strike in Yorkshire was illegal. Miners at Manton had overwhelmingly voted against
7722-420: The front bench shortly after leaving the group." During the 1984–85 miners' strike , MPs from the Socialist Campaign Group took action to support the striking miners by visiting picket lines and raising money to be donated to the miners' relief centres. This put pressure on the Labour Party leadership to support the strike, something Neil Kinnock resisted until 10 months after the start of the strike. Members of
7839-494: The largest demonstration in British history, when on 15 February 2003 , over a million people marched against the Iraq War . Campaign Group MP Alan Simpson launched Labour Against The War to coordinate parliamentary opposition to Tony Blair 's decision to follow George W. Bush in invading Iraq. Although Blair was able to win these votes with the support of Conservative MPs, 139 Labour MPs voted against his plans for war, one of
7956-544: The largest rebellions ever seen in the Commons. In 2005, Blair's government announced plans to encourage every school to become an independent self-governing trust. These schools would, like academies , determine their own curriculum and ethos, appoint the governing body, control their own assets, employ their own staff and set their own admissions policy. These plans were described as intending to "all but abolish local authority involvement in state schools" and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott argued that it would "condemn
8073-443: The leadership and deputy leadership in 1983. Tony Benn could not stand because he was not currently in Parliament at the time, having just lost his seat. During his time as Leader Neil Kinnock moved the Labour party to adopt centrist politics. In the 1987 general election , Margaret Thatcher 's Conservatives won a landslide victory and were nearly 12% ahead of Labour in the popular vote. Following this defeat Kinnock introduced
8190-537: The leadership election.. Abbott secured the first-preference votes of 7 MPs: Diane Abbott , Katy Clark , Jeremy Corbyn , Kelvin Hopkins , John McDonnell , Linda Riordan and Mike Wood . The 2015 leadership election was the first held under new rules introduced by Ed Miliband following the Collins Review which recommended moving to a one-member one vote (OMOV) system. This reduced the previous weighting in favour of MPs and Trade Unions. The Blairite wing of
8307-758: The left on the NEC predicted that the new rule would rebound against democracy in the entire party – including the soft left who voted for it. As soon as it became clear that John Smith was the front runner, more and more MPs simply jumped on his bandwagon. After all the leader will be handing out front bench appointments for the rest of this Parliament! As the deadline for nominations approached it started to look as though all other candidates would be excluded – not only Livingstone and Grant but also Ann Clwyd , Bryan Gould and John Prescott ." Not only have they stitched up who will win but they have also stitched up who will lose and in what order. To avoid this party officials changed
8424-528: The miners. Sensitive to the impact of proposed closures, miners in various coalfields began strike action. In Yorkshire , miners at Manvers , Cadeby , Silverwood , Kiveton Park and Yorkshire Main were on unofficial strike for other issues before official action was called. More than 6,000 miners were on strike from 5 March at Cortonwood and Bullcliffe Wood, near Wakefield. Neither pit's reserves were exhausted. Bullcliffe Wood had been under threat, but Cortonwood had been considered safe. Action
8541-534: The mobilisation of members by Momentum Corbyn refused to resign. Owen Smith secured the required nominations to run against him. Corbyn's opponents in the National Executive Committee were alleged by Robert Peston to have sought to fix the results, by increasing the fee for becoming a registered supporter from £3 to £25 and excluding from voting the 130,000 new members who had joined in the previous 6 months. On 24 September 2016, Corbyn
8658-571: The nominations required and leading to Gordon Brown becoming leader unopposed. As part of his campaign, John McDonnell published his manifesto as a book entitled Another World Is Possible: A Manifesto for 21st Century Socialism. In 2010 nominations from 33 MPs (12.5% of the Parliamentary Labour Party) were required to make it onto the ballot paper. Socialist Campaign Group MPs John McDonnell and Diane Abbott both sought nominations to run; however, McDonnell withdrew from
8775-637: The opposition to Corbyn was not primarily motivated by his actions during the referendum. In the days following the referendum a number of Corbyn's critics resigned from the Shadow Cabinet and the parliamentary party passed a vote of no confidence in Corbyn by 172 votes against to 40 for. Corbyn promoted a number of Campaign Group MPs to fill his Shadow Cabinet including Richard Burgon , Rebecca Long-Bailey , Grahame Morris and Clive Lewis , and with their support along with that of other left wing MPs and
8892-540: The parliamentary left to become "a sealed tomb". Alan Simpson , a member of the Campaign Group during the New Labour years, described it as "the only bolt-hole of real political thought that I found throughout my parliamentary years ... they were the MPs you would always find on picket lines , at trade union and social movement rallies, on anti-war marches and at the forefront of campaigns to restore rather than exploit
9009-399: The party constitution should stop. No Campaign Group MPs backed Tony Blair , who went on to win the contest. In 2007, only 24 of 353 Labour MPs were members of the Socialist Campaign Group and party rules required nominations from 45 MPs (12.5% of the Parliamentary Labour Party) to make it onto the ballot paper. Both John McDonnell , then Chair of the Campaign Group, and Michael Meacher ,
9126-534: The party just because they were active in the movement, and some prospective local and parliamentary candidates were refused endorsement by the NEC merely for their principled refusal to pay." In one hilarious meeting [of the Socialist Campaign Group], the Greenham [Common] Women addressed us. They were trying to buy bolt-cutters to cut the fences at Greenham Common, but anytime they turned up at
9243-560: The pits. Over time, coal's share in the energy market declined relative to oil and nuclear. Large-scale closures of collieries occurred in the 1960s, which led to migration of miners from the run-down coalfields (Scotland, Wales, Lancashire, the north-east of England) to Yorkshire and the Midlands coalfields. After a period of inaction from the NUM leadership over employment cuts, there was an unofficial strike in 1969 , after which many more militant candidates were elected to NUM leadership. The threshold for endorsement of strike action in
9360-414: The planet." Under Blair, the Labour government introduced plans to cut lone parent benefit, a measure which members of the Campaign Group believed would disproportionately harm women. The cut was brought in by Harriet Harman , Secretary of State for Social Security , who championed the cut despite the majority of people affected being women and children who were already poor. Backbench Labour MPs, led by
9477-520: The political mainstream for many years, including rail re-nationalisation, free higher education, regional investment and a higher minimum wage. On 12 September 2015 Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party in a landslide victory , with 59.5% of first-preference votes . During the 2016 referendum Corbyn led Labour in campaigning to remain. Corbyn spoke at 15 rallies from London to Hastings to Aberdeen, reached more than 10 million people with his Remain messages on social media, made six statements in
9594-460: The power of the trade unions . The NUM was divided over the action, which began in Yorkshire , and some mineworkers, especially in the Midlands , worked through the dispute. Few major trade unions supported the NUM, primarily using the argument of the absence of a vote at national level. Violent confrontations between flying pickets and police characterised the year-long strike, which ended in
9711-523: The race after it became clear he would not receive sufficient nominations, and instead supported Abbott to give her the best chance of making it onto the ballot. Abbott, the first black woman to ever contest the Labour leadership, secured the necessary 33 nominations after being 'lent' nominations from a number of MPs who were not supporting her campaign but wanted to ensure that the contest was not exclusively white and male. It has been suggested that this practice of lending nominations to left candidate to widen
9828-440: The rules mid-contest, at the suggestion of Gould, to allow MPs who had already nominated a candidate to withdraw and support another instead. This ensured that Gould received enough nominations to ensure a contest between him and Smith, and that Ken Livingstone and Bernie Grant were kept off the ballot. Margaret Beckett described this change as "unprecedented". John Smith won the electoral college vote against Gould with 91% of
9945-578: The same as the attitude of the working class in Germany when the Nazis came to power. It does not mean that because at some stage you elect a government that you tolerate its existence. You oppose it". He also said he would oppose a second-term Thatcher government "as vigorously as I possibly can". After the election, Scargill called for extra-parliamentary action against the Conservative government in
10062-538: The scale of the opposition from Labour MPs and campaigners, Harman continued to implement the cuts. She was sacked from Cabinet the following year. The Stop the War Coalition was founded in the weeks following 9/11 , when George W. Bush announced the " War on terror ", and has since campaigned to oppose and end the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere. Socialist Campaign Group MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Tam Dalyell , along with Tony Benn , (who had been in
10179-412: The scope of debate "set a precedent" for Jeremy Corbyn 's run for Leadership in 2015. Despite beating both Andy Burnham and Ed Balls in total number of first preference votes cast (35,259 individual first preferences for Abbott compared to 28,772 for Burnham and 34,489 for Balls), Abbott was eliminated in the first round of voting, as she received fewer votes from MPs, and Ed Miliband went on to win
10296-464: The shadow cabinet . The rule that shadow cabinet MPs could not be group members caused difficulties, and this rule was removed, allowing the group to recover to 23 members by 2019. In January 2020, the Socialist Campaign Group was reformed. It supported Rebecca Long-Bailey for Leader and Richard Burgon for Deputy Leader in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election , which was won by Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner , respectively. In October 2020,
10413-472: The steel workforce in less than three years, is almost certainly brought in to wield the axe on pits. It's now or never for Britain's mineworkers. This is the final chance – while we still have the strength – to save our industry". On 12 May 1983, in response to being questioned on how he would respond if the Conservatives were re-elected in the general election , Scargill replied: "My attitude would be
10530-533: The strike action. The results of the review procedure were not binding on the NCB, and the NUM rejected the agreement. Reviews for Cadeby in Yorkshire and Bates in Northumberland concluded that the pits could stay open but the NCB overruled and closed them. The abandonment of strike plans when most of their demands had not been met led to conspiracy theories on the motives of NACODS leaders. MacGregor later admitted that if NACODS had gone ahead with
10647-537: The strike, 11,291 people were arrested, mostly for breach of the peace or obstructing roads whilst picketing, of whom 8,392 were charged and between 150 and 200 were imprisoned. At least 9,000 mineworkers were dismissed after being arrested whilst picketing even when no charges were brought. After the 1980 steel strike, many hauliers blacklisted drivers who refused to cross picket lines to prevent them obtaining work, and so more drivers crossed picket lines in 1984–1985 than in previous disputes. Picketing failed to have
10764-526: The strike, but most of its members continued to work and many considered the strike unconstitutional given their majority vote against a strike and absence of a ballot for a national strike. As many working miners felt the NUM was not doing enough to protect them from intimidation from pickets, a demonstration was organised on May Day in Mansfield , in which the representative Ray Chadburn was shouted down, and fighting ensued between protesters for and against
10881-406: The strike, but police had advised that their safety could not be guaranteed. The NUM was not represented at the hearing. The High Court ruled that the NUM had breached its constitution by calling a strike without holding a ballot. Although Nicholls did not order the NUM to hold a ballot, he forbade the union from disciplining members who crossed picket lines. The strike in Yorkshire relied on
10998-429: The strike. In NUM elections in summer 1984, members in Nottinghamshire voted out most of the leaders who had supported the strike, so that 27 of 31 newly elected were opposed to the strike. The Nottinghamshire NUM then opposed the strike openly and stopped payments to local strikers. The national NUM attempted to introduce "Rule 51", to discipline area leaders who were working against national policy. The action
11115-602: The transport of coal to power stations. It used the National Recording Centre (NRC), set up in 1972 by the Association of Chief Police Officers for England and Wales linking 43 police forces to enable police forces to travel to assist in major disturbances. Scargill played into her hands by ignoring the buildup of coal stocks and calling the strike at the end of winter when demand for coal was declining. In 1983, Thatcher appointed Ian MacGregor to head
11232-442: The union's affairs." He was fined £1,000 (paid by an anonymous businessman), and the NUM was fined £200,000. When the union refused to pay, an order was made to sequester the union's assets, but they had been transferred abroad. In October 1984, the NUM executive voted to cooperate with the court to recover the funds, despite opposition from Scargill, who stated in court that he was only apologising for his contempt of court because
11349-406: The unions. In the post-war consensus , policy allowed for closures only where agreed to by the workers, who in turn received guaranteed economic security. Consensus did not apply when closures were enforced and redundant miners had severely limited employment alternatives. The NUM's strike in 1974 played a major role in bringing down Edward Heath 's Conservative government. The party's response
11466-416: The vote. No candidate from the Campaign Group ran in the 1994 leadership election and the group did not endorse a candidate. However, Margaret Beckett , who had been a member of the Campaign Group until 1988, was nominated by 18 Campaign Group MPs, with 5 nominating John Prescott . Beckett's campaign was supported due to her position that Tory anti-union laws should be repealed and that anti-union changes to
11583-487: The war ... We consistently raise uncomfortable issues and support campaigns that no other parliamentarians will touch, on issues like asylum, deportations, international trade union and human rights, campaigns for those killed or injured at work, safety of vulnerable workers, including sex workers, cuts in legal aid and English for speakers of other languages funding. While Corbyn was party leader, from 2015 to 2019, Socialist Campaign Group activity reduced as many members joined
11700-557: The widespread impact of earlier stoppages that led to blackouts and power cuts in the 1970s and electricity companies maintained supplies throughout the winter, the time of biggest demand. From September, some miners returned to work even where the strike had been universally observed. It led to an escalation of tension, and riots in Easington in Durham and Brampton Bierlow in Yorkshire. In April 1984, NACODS voted to strike but
11817-554: The working class and the Labour movement." Scargill also rejected the idea that pits that did not make a profit were "uneconomic": he claimed there was no such thing as an uneconomic pit and argued that no pits should close except due to geological exhaustion or safety. No mining could legally be done without being overseen by an overman or deputy. Their union, the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers (NACODS) with 17,000 members in 1984,
11934-460: The world". The NCB was encouraged to gear itself towards reduced subsidies in the early 1980s. After a strike was narrowly averted in February 1981, pit closures and pay restraint led to unofficial strikes. The main strike started on 6 March 1984 with a walkout at Cortonwood Colliery , which led to the NUM's Yorkshire Area's sanctioning of a strike on the grounds of a ballot result from 1981 in
12051-537: Was a major industrial action within the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent closures of pits that the government deemed "uneconomic" in the coal industry, which had been nationalised in 1947. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , who wanted to reduce
12168-556: Was deceiving them and there were no plans to close any more pits than had already been announced. Cabinet papers released in 2014 indicate that MacGregor wished to close 75 pits over a three-year period. Meanwhile, the Thatcher government had prepared against a repeat of the effective 1974 industrial action by stockpiling coal, converting some power stations to burn heavy fuel oil, and recruiting fleets of road hauliers to transport coal in case sympathetic railwaymen went on strike to support
12285-556: Was founded in 1982 due to a disagreement within the Labour left, traditionally organised around the Tribune Group , about whom to back in the 1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election . Tony Benn's decision to challenge Denis Healey for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party in 1981 was heavily criticised by Labour's leader Michael Foot , who had long been associated with the Labour left and Tribune Group. Tribune Group member and future Labour leader Neil Kinnock led
12402-411: Was hostile to the Campaign Group. He pursued a " carrot and stick " approach to undermining the Campaign Group by promoting MPs who were willing to leave the Campaign Group and renounce their previously held views and by isolating those who remained members. "From the day Kinnock became leader he made it clear that membership of the left wing Campaign Group of Labour MPs would be a bar to promotion within
12519-422: Was in court alongside 16 other Islington residents all opposing the levy on grounds other than inability to pay. He told The Times newspaper "I am here today because thousands of people who elected me just cannot afford to pay." The scale of public opposition in both polls and in the streets have been identified as one of the key causes of the end of Thatcher's premiership. Labour historians have identified
12636-436: Was less willing to take industrial action. Its constitution required a two-thirds majority for a national strike. During the 1972 strike, violent confrontations between striking NUM and non-striking NACODS members led to an agreement that NACODS members could stay off work without loss of pay if they were faced with aggressive picketing. Thus solidarity with striking NUM members could be shown by claims of violence preventing
12753-865: Was nicknamed the "star chamber court" by working miners (in reference to the Star Chamber in English history). It was prevented by an injunction from the High Court. Working miners in Nottinghamshire and South Derbyshire set up a new union: the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM). It attracted members from many isolated pits in England – including Agecroft and Parsonage in Lancashire, Chase Terrace and Trenton Workshops in Staffordshire, and Daw Mill in Warwickshire. Although most Leicestershire miners continued working, they voted to stay in
12870-571: Was prompted on 5 March by the NCB's announcement that five pits would be subject to "accelerated closure" in just five weeks; the other three were Herrington in County Durham, Snowdown in Kent and Polmaise in Scotland. The next day, pickets from Yorkshire appeared at pits in Nottinghamshire and Harworth Colliery closed after a mass influx of pickets amid claims that Nottinghamshire was " scabland in 1926". On 12 March 1984, Scargill declared
12987-438: Was re-elected Leader of the Labour Party in another landslide victory, increasing his share of the vote from 59.5% to 61.8%. Following the 2019 general election , the Socialist Campaign Group reformed for 2019–2024. Campaign Group members Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon ran for leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party, respectively. Both were defeated by Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner , respectively. Although
13104-697: Was ready to go for a "Yes" vote in a national strike ballot." McGahey said: "We shall not be constitutionalised out of a strike...Area by area will decide and there will be a domino effect". Without a national ballot, most miners in Nottinghamshire , Leicestershire , South Derbyshire , North Wales and the West Midlands kept on working during the strike, along with a sizeable minority in Lancashire . The police provided protection for working miners from aggressive picketing. On 6 March 1984,
13221-416: Was restructured between 1958 and 1967 in cooperation with the unions, with a halving of the workforce; offset by government and industry initiatives to provide alternative employment. Stabilisation occurred between 1968 and 1977, when closures were minimised with the support of the unions even though the broader economy slowed. The accelerated contraction imposed by Thatcher after 1979 was strenuously opposed by
13338-479: Was short of the two-thirds majority that their constitution required. In areas where the strike was observed, most NACODS members did not cross picket lines and, under an agreement from the 1972 strike, stayed off work on full pay. When the number of strikebreakers increased in August, Merrick Spanton, the NCB personnel director, said he expected NACODS members to cross picket lines to supervise their work threatening
13455-479: Was the Ridley Plan , an internal report that was leaked to The Economist magazine and appeared in its 27 May 1978 issue. Ridley described how a future Conservative government could resist and defeat a major strike in a nationalised industry. In Ridley's opinion, trade union power in the UK was interfering with market forces, pushing up inflation, and the unions' undue political power had to be curbed to restore
13572-627: Was the NUM's failure to hold a national strike ballot. The strike was ruled illegal in September 1984, as no national ballot of NUM members had been held. It ended on 3 March 1985. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, the NUM's defeat significantly weakening the trade union movement . It was a major victory for Thatcher and the Conservative Party , with the Thatcher government able to consolidate their economic programme. The number of strikes fell sharply in 1985 as
13689-472: Was the poorest settlement in the country. While more than 1,000 collieries were working in the UK during the first half of the 20th century, by 1984 only 173 were still operating and employment had dropped from its peak of 1 million in 1922, down to 231,000 for the decade to 1982. This long-term decline in coal employment was common across the developed world; in the United States, employment in
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