First published in 1975, South Wales Miners starts with the War of Empires, when nearly 50,000 Welsh miners, almost one-fifth of the total manpower of their coalfield, responded to the call and voluntarily enlisted in the British armed forces. The author uncovers how the coalowners in the meantime took advantage of the war emergency to deny the remaining miners a fair recompense for their toil and of the bitter strife that followed. The book tells the story of what led up to the General Strike and here the author uses hitherto hidden sources of information. The picture is revealed of what was a virtual conspiracy between the Baldwin-Churchill Government and the mineowners, not only to cut wages and lengthen hours, but to cripple British trade unionism. When the miners held out through a seven-month lockout the efforts of these highly placed conspirators recoiled on their own heads and on the whole economy of British Empire. This book will be of interest to students of history, labour studies, economics and political science.

First published in 1979, The Miners: A History of the National Union of Mineworkers 1939-46 describes the events and factors that led to the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1946. The World War had a creative as well as a destructive effect on the industry; it compressed fundamental changes into seven short years. By the end of the war, the federated trade unions had succeeded in bringing about the unification of their industry; and the various county, district and craft associations were themselves also unified in one single national body. Two rival plans emerged during 1945: a coal-owners’ plan, in conjunction with an ‘experts’ report’, approved by Churchill and his Caretaker Cabinet, and Labour’s ‘plan for the coal industry’ which came into force in 1946 as the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act. Anew epoch in management had begun, with a National Coal Board, new industrial relations and a new National Union of Mineworkers. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, economics and political science.

First published in 1953, The Miners: Years of Struggle is the official history of the British miners, which draws on original sources, moving into the stormy period when the economic bargaining of the million colliery employees with the mine owners became the concern of Parliament and people. The great strike of 1921; the stoppages of 1921 and 1926 (the latter opening with the General Strike); and how successive administrations met those crises – these form an historical matrix from which the present public ownership inevitably emerged. The conflict of ideas and personalities is shown as part of the struggles of these stormy times. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, economics and political science.

This book charts the turbulent history of the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) from its foundation in 1913, to its dissolution in 1945. Although no formal IFTU archive survives, Geert Van Goethem has drawn on a wealth of documentary sources in France, Germany, Britain, North America and Scandinavia to reconstruct a convincing and lively account of the IFTU, which is intrinsically bound up with the history of the inter-war period.

This book presents a first-hand account of the inner workings of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in its confrontation with the Tory government during the Miners’ Strike of 1984/5 that changed the face of industrial relations in the UK forever. It charts the spirited defence against mine closures and the devastating aftermath, including the privatisation of British Coal, leading inexorably to the demise of the UK coal industry.

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