The Enemy Within

Bishopsgate Institute Podcast

Thirty years ago, miners went on strike across Britain to resist the Tory government's plans for sweeping pit closures. The strike remains the longest mass industrial dispute in British history - a war between Margaret Thatcher and the labour movement, and the miners’ union she branded "the enemy within" in particular. The strike’s outcome signalled a profound change in Britain’s social and economic landscape and its aftershocks can still be felt throughout the country today. The Enemy Within, Seumas Milne’s classic account of the miners’ strike and its aftermath, reveals the astonishing lengths to which Thatcher’s government and its security machine were prepared to go to destroy the power of the trade unions. Recently declassified government papers have provided further revelations about the secret war against organised labour and political dissent, reflected in today's undercover police operations. Seumas Milne will be joined in discussion by Arthur Scargill, former president of the NUM from 1982-2002, union organiser Ewa Jasiewicz, Owen Jones, author of Chavs, for a special event looking at the legacy of the miners’ strike and its lessons for the future, chaired by journalist Dawn Foster.