The Battle of Saltley Gate

[bodie]

Just to highlight the 40th anniversary of 'The Battle of Saltley Gate'  http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9694000/9694645.stm

So what was it?   Back in 1972 our Conservative government under Ted Heath seriously underestimated the solidarity of the working class.  The miners wages had not been rising with inflation,  so much so,  that by 1972 they were estimated to be 40% lower than other industries.  Arthur Scargill led the miners to their first strike in fifty years.

My fair City of Birmingham was once a thriving centre of industry.  Huge numbers of the work force belonged to trade unions. 

On the morning of 10th Feb 1972 the Saltley Coke Works was picketed and closed.  After a vote whereby there was 98% support,  thirty thousand workers in brum chose to 'down tools'  to support the miners.

Just think about that for a moment -  thirty thousand workers,  not miners but sparky's, engineers etc all downed tools   NOT to increase their own salaries BUT to support the rights of the miners.   I don't know if we have ever showed such camaraderie since that day.

It was a victory of the working class v the government.  Ted Heath crumbled. The police could not stop the pickets and there was no more coal going out the National Grid.  Across the UK lights were literally going out.  The government cracked and gave the miners a 27% pay rise.  It was a battle won,  in a war that was lost against the next PM - the Iron Lady.

Thatcher effectively 'broke the link of dirty hands' and took powers away from trade unions.  She convinced the silent majority of the UK that it was the Unions who had crippled the country.  But who had been printing money left right and centre then blaming unions for the inflation and then freezing peoples pay? -  it was her government!!

And who is responsible for todays economic crissis?  Can't blame the Trade Unions or the Miners for this mo fo!   The banks and financial institutions have done more damage to this country than a bunch of underpaid miners ever could.

I just love to see the underdog win.  I am a rebel at heart and on every level i seem to clash with authority.  School,   work,  even my brief spell in the army where my Sargent told me i had an 'inbuilt aversion to authority'

For me i have always felt that the people who are the big decision makers are quite often - unworthy.  I love the whole 'people power' thing.  I supported the student demo's even when there were a few 'violent clashes' and the rest of the UK turned away in shame.  When do peaceful demonstrations make the headlines.    I thought the students were spot on when they came across Prince Charles and Camilla on a night out in their limousine -  they didn't harm the royals at all .... but the limo got a bit battered.  Many thought they went too far.  Not me.  I have something in my blood that drives me to support such events.  I am a rebel.

[Calavera]

A violent uprising against capitalism and all the governments in the world may do the trick. But a lot of costs involved, and the world is not yet ready for it.

You're better off doing a rebellion against poor old me.

[bodie]

You would have to do me a wrong first


I will just wait,  simmering,  until the time is right for
a revolution

[Calavera]

You would have to do me a wrong first

There's always role play.

[Al Swearegen]

What I see in politics is a job that weeds out good people. Those who are promoted are those who are manageable and able to lie and bullshit and misrepresnt and cover their arse and compromise any value put to them. All done with a confident smile.

[bodie]

What I see in politics is a job that weeds out good people. Those who are promoted are those who are manageable and able to lie and bullshit and misrepresnt and cover their arse and compromise any value put to them. All done with a confident smile.

That is a damn accurate description

[McGiver]

Scabs are the lowest form of being.  People sacrifice to make a better life for heir families and h next generation and when the time comes people are willing to do it for less.
It usually doesn't take long for a scab to realize that they should be doing better.  By then its too late and they have already proven whores for the oligarchy.

People need to respect each other and stand next to one another for the betterment o peasants world wide. 

[Queen Victoria]

In New Orleans in 1923 - 24 there were growing tensions between the bus/streetcar operators and NOPSI (New Orleans Public Service Inc.).  My grandfather was hired as a security guard to make sure the vehicles weren't damaged overnight.  On February 6, 1924, he was murdered by "Boss", a black man.  It wasn't so much that Grandpa Larry was working for NOPSI, it was that his brother was working both sides of the fence and the operators decided to take him out.  Larry and Uncle Pat looked a lot alike. Tragic mistake.  I often wonder how my Mom and Grandma Teenie's life would have been different if Grandpa Larry hadn't been killed.

Boss was arrested and found not guilty, almost unheard of in the South in the 1920's.  Years later the neighborhood cop told my Mom that she was always watched over by the police.  He also said that Boss "drowned" trying to swim the Mississippi River.  I also wonder if Boss had a wife and family and how their lives had been affected. 

I don't have much sympathy in general for either side in a trade dispute.  It all depends on the particulars of that dispute.

[Scrapheap]

American miners went through similar shit and had an actual armed rebelion in 1921. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

[bodie]

Miners have had to work in the poorest of conditions.  It appears the exploitation of them by governments seems common.

The worst part is how they get misrepresented to the public.  Thatchers government fed the media full of bullshit.  The message was our miners were greedy and the pits were uneconomical.  The truth was they had not had any rise in pay for many years and the government had stopped investing in the pits.  Our European counterparts recieved much more investment and had better and more advanced equipment than our miners. 

Economically viable or not, the plan to close these industries down should have gone hand in hand with redevelopment projects, regeneration and retraining.  A phasing down over time.  Instead,  Maggie stuck them on the dole.  She trampled her way across the Midlands, The North, Scotland, and parts of Wales and ripped the heart out of communities.  Towns that had been built around and for the mining industry were suddenly faced with mass unemployment.  These folks had been raising families,  they knew no other trade and therefore could no longer support them.  A whole generation had to grow up in these places of hopelessness.  Many of these places have still not recovered thirty years later.