The enemy within

The secret war against the miners (30th anniversary edition)

Seumas Milne, Verso Books, 472 pages, paperback, £12.99

Margaret Thatcher branded the leaders of the 1984–85 miners’ strike “the enemy within.” 

In this classic account, Seumas Milne reveals the astonishing lengths to which her government and its intelligence machine were prepared to go to destroy the power of Britain’s miners’ union. No one who lived through or fought through the strike will ever forget it — the heroism of the miners and their families, the enormous well of solidarity inside the working class, the determination of the NUM leaders.

And ranged against this were the lies of the media and the vicious brutality of the Tories, the courts and the police. In the course of the strike there were over 11,000 arrests, 7,000 people were injured and 11 died.

Whole communities were besieged and occupied by the police. Strikers were banned from traveling and placed under house arrest. But the book shows how close the miners came to victory.

The 30th anniversary edition of this classic book has new material that brings the story up to date with further revelations about the secret war against organised labour and political dissent, and the devastating price paid by communities across Britain for the Thatcher administration’s onslaught.

Reviews contributed by the Bookmarks socialist bookshop. Order online at www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk