Gramsci at the miners' strike: remembering the 1984-1985 Eurocommunist alternative industrial relations strategy

The great British miners' strike of 1984-1985 began 30 years ago. This personal reflection centres on the debate over trade union strategy during the strike. The Communist Party of Great Britain (CP) had long been an important influence in the leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers, but the strike also coincided with and exacerbated divisions within the CP and the wider left about how to respond to the ‘New Right' Thatcher Conservative Government. This article focuses on the distinctive Eurocommunist analysis of the journal Marxism Today. The political atmosphere of the time is recalled, and then the Gramscian industrial relations strategy of winning the political argument through a ‘broad democratic alliance' is reconstructed. Arguably, this ‘social movement' approach could have produced a better outcome to the strike, while it provides lasting lessons about the limitations of a narrowly economistic view of trade union power.