The Battle of Saltley Gate 10th February 1972
53 years ago today one of the most famous labour disputes of the post-1945 period concluded with a victory for the workers over a Tory Government.
The workers involved were the coal miners- then a mass industry. The dispute, the first national coal strike since 1926, was about a substantial pay rise. The mines had been nationalised by the Labour Government in 1948 but wages had fallen far behind an appropriate rate for what was a dirty and dangerous job.
After the miners struck in January 1972 all pits were shut but supplies of fuel, coke then being essential, were still getting through. The focus became a coke depot in Birmingham, which by early February was the main source of fuel for the country.
Picketing started but large numbers of police were deployed to keep the depot open. Several thousand Yorkshire and Welsh miners arrived to build a mass picket but it was not enough. Arthur Scargill, then a Yorkshire miners official, and part of an informal left in the NUM, spoke to meetings of union reps in Birmingham engineering factories. Some of this was organised by the Communist Party, and Labour, much by shop stewards with rank and file pressure. On 10th February the engineering factories struck unofficially and several thousand marched to join the picket. The police were out-numbered. There were two ways forward for the Government. They could call the army in and risk bloodshed or they could close the gates. The latter course was taken and the miners had won.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saltley_Gate
The miners continued to organise and in February 1974 beat the Tories again with further industrial action. Tory PM Ted Heath called a General Election with the slogan ‘who governs Britain?’ Labour won, the electorate giving the answer ‘not you’. The Tories took their revenge in 1984/5 and 1992.
Saltley Gate is now part of British history though not a bit one suspects the lovers of all British history with nothing left out will be celebrating. There are few pits and the NUM is a small union. The Communist Party still exists but is certainly not currently in a position to call a strike in Birmingham engineering factories, where post-Thatcher they exist. Coal is no longer a key source of fuel in most areas.
Its not just history though because there are lessons for 2025. Firstly that mass working class action, organised not from a union HQ but from lower down can win. Secondly it was action outside of Parliament based in working class workplaces and communities that won, not a vote in Parliament. Both of these things can happen again.
Arthur Scargill interview in the Morning Star on the 50th anniversary of Saltley Gate:
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/arthur-scargill-saltley-gate-was-proudest-moment-my-life
Scargill calls for monument to be erected in Birmingham: An important part of history
One thing that I will be asking is that a monument to that event be erected in Birmingham because it runs alongside the General Strike, the Suffragettes, any event we can think about. They really did march into history.”
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