Simon Pirani (Essex) and Terry Brotherstone (Aberdeen), "Were there alternatives? Movements from below in the Scottish coalfield, the Communist Party, and the development of Thatcherism, 1981-1985."

The paper will show how the movement against pit closures began amongst the Scottish miners in 1981, and developed at the Bogside, Cardowan, Polmaise and Monktonhall collieries during the following three years. It will review the role of the Scottish coalfield strike wave in January-March 1984 in the genesis of the 1984-85 national strike. It will discuss the tensions between local activists and the official trade union hierarchy, and the part played in this story by the decline of the Communist Party as the determining political force in the Scottish NUM. It will look at new forms of action that emerged during the strike - notably those initiated by women's organisations - and at how these raised questions about the limitations of traditional trade-union structures. Finally a preliminary attempt will be made to analyse the extent to which the action of Scottish miners during the early 1980s may be interpreted as posing a serious challenge to the Thatcherite dogma, 'There is no alternative'.