Has Arthur Scargill issued a statement yet?

[Ken Burch]

The man has his flaws, but he was clearly in the right and Maggie in the wrong on the miners' strike...and it would be interesting to hear what he had to say today.

[steve2470]

1. revised: my mistake

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/mrs-thatchers-biggest-conflict-home-2572617

I think this article only has history.

[steve2470]

2. Analysis: Arthur Scargill's silence over Thatcher death

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079887

One survivor of the Thatcher decade whose voice was not heard reflecting on the death of the former Prime Minister was that of Arthur Scargill, leader of the National Union of Mineworkers during the fateful pit dispute of 1984-5.

Scargill, now 75, has refused all requests to comment on Margaret Thatcher's premiership and his epic struggle with her government.

In recent years he has rarely answered reporters' questions and made a point of not talking about either himself or his health; he does appear occasionally in public at miners' events and has also been engaged in a protracted court case over his continued use of a union-owned flat in London's Barbican.

I could not help but reflect on Scargill's absence, as I spent two hours on the BBC's local radio circuit on the Tuesday morning after her death, giving interviews to the local radio stations serving the former coalfields of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, the presenters told their listeners Scargill had rejected all requests for interviews and they asked me why.

[Ken Burch]

4. The writer of the piece sounds like a vindictive Thatcherite bastard.

What alternative did Scargill have to the strike? No union anywhere could have accepted the loss of jobs for 20,000 of its members without the slightest peep of resistance, which is likely what that reporter thinks the NUM SHOULD have done.

The working people of the UK lost their dignity when the miners were defeated.

[T_i_B]

3. Your best hope here IMHO.....

Last edited Wed Apr 10, 2013, 03:05 AM - Edit history (1)

...Would be to find out what the Socialist Labour Party are saying.

http://www.socialist-labour-party.org.uk/

The Socialist Labour Party was formed by Scargill after Blair abolished clause 4. They are even further to the left then the SWP, don't seem to co-operate with the other far left splinter groups and last time I looked were quite parochial in outlook. By that I mean they were focused mainly on the old mining communities.

I haven't come across them in some time, and in all honesty I'd rather not have much to do with them but they should be the best way to find out what Scargill thinks. The Socialist Labour Party always struck me as an Arthur Scargill vanity project.

Regardless of my own feelings about Arthur Scargill, I would doubt that he has any trust in the press.

[Ken Burch]

5. No reason he SHOULD trust them, is there?

To a man and woman, the UK press were boot-licking lackeys of Mag the Knife.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. I would say that the SWP are more left-wing than the SLP

The SLP expelled its Marxist elements in the late 90s / early 00s.

You're right to say that it is very much centred on Scargill personally, though I would regard the SLP's politics to be of the democratic socialist variety.

[T_i_B]

7. Well, at the time of the 2003 anti Iraq war demos....

Socialist Labour leaflets and literature was very strongly pro Kim Jong Il. They seemed to think of North Korea as some sort of Nirvana.

So, the expulsion of the extreme left elements in the SLP can't have been until late 2003 at the very earliest.

I will reply to your far left thread when I get the time.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

8. I think you're right about the dates

I checked again. The far-left were expelled in 2004 which went on to found CPGB-ML.

The CPGB-ML retained the North Korea love.