ABSTRACT

The transition out of coal production in Scotland was managed carefully in the 1960s and 1970s, prioritising workforce voice and communal security. Under Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative governments in the 1980s, the position changed abruptly. Colliery closures and redundancies accelerated; miners and coal communities were subject to political attack. The criminalisation and victimisation of union officials and activists during the 1984–1985 strike against pit closures was disproportionately greater in Scotland than in England and Wales. The oral history testimony of strike veterans provides a powerful narrative of historical unfairness, imposed by a hostile anti-union government, National Coal Board officials, police officers and sheriffs. Their stories of injustice on picket lines and in communities nevertheless qualify a tendency in oral histories of deindustrialisation to pessimism and loss. Strike veterans spoke positively about the strike and its political meaning. Their memories constitute a usable past, present in subsequent campaigning. The Miners’ Strike (Pardons) Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2022, was an important outcome, making provision for the collective and posthumous pardon of people with strike-related convictions from 1984–1985.

摘要

苏格兰在 20 世纪 60 年代和 1970 年代对煤炭生产的转型进行了谨慎的管理，优先考虑劳动力的声音和公共安全。在 20 世纪 80 年代玛格丽特·撒切尔 (Margaret Thatcher) 的保守党政府领导下，这一立场突然发生了变化。煤矿关闭和裁员加速；矿工和煤炭社区受到政治攻击。在 1984 年至 1985 年反对关闭矿井的罢工期间，苏格兰对工会官员和活动人士的定罪和受害程度远高于英格兰和威尔士。罢工退伍军人的口述历史证词有力地叙述了敌对的反工会政府、国家煤炭委员会官员、警察和治安官强加的历史不公平现象。尽管如此，他们关于纠察线和社区中不公正现象的故事却将去工业化口述历史中的一种趋势描述为悲观和失落。罢工退伍军人积极评价这次罢工及其政治意义。他们的记忆构成了可用的过去，存在于随后的竞选活动中。苏格兰议会于 2022 年通过的《矿工罢工（赦免）法案》是一项重要成果，为 1984 年至 1985 年因罢工相关定罪的人进行集体和死后赦免做出了规定。