Arthur Scargill

Arthur Scargill ( born January 11, 1938 in Worsbrough Dale, South Yorkshire ) Between 1981 and 2002, the head of the British National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), founded in 1996, the Socialist Labour Party and has been its chairman. He became famous mainly due to the miners strike 1984/1985 and his relentless political opposition to Margaret Thatcher.

Scargill worked after school since 1953 as a miner in the Woolley Colliery in West Yorkshire. In 1955 he began his organized political commitment as a member of the Young Communist League, inspired by his father, who was also a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1962, he stepped out of this but again, because he had distanced himself from his radical views, and was a member of the Labour Party. From 1973 he was the leader of the Yorkshire Miners Union, while he was also instrumental in the organization of the miners' strike of 1973, which to overthrow the government led Edward Heath. In 1981 he was promoted to head of the NUM. In 2010 he was ruled out, according to a BBC report as a full member of the NUM.

Scargill is famous as an emotional and effective speaker. He gained national prominence during the miners' strike in 1984/1985, which ended with a crushing defeat for the union. This split then. Scargill remained until 2002 Chairman of the powerless become due to the almost complete disappearance of the mining industry from the UK NUM and was then honorary chairman.

In 1996, Scargill, the Socialist Labour Party, after the Labour Party under Tony Blair in his opinion over to the right -oriented ( New Labour ), ie the policy of deregulation, privatization and increased emphasis on personal initiative pursued instead of a strong welfare state and strong trade unions. The immediate cause was the object of Clause IV of the party program, which provided that the party striving for the nationalization of the means of production and enterprises. However, his party hardly ever find success in elections. He met twice unsuccessfully for election to the British House of Commons at: in the elections in 1997 against Alan Howarth and 2001 against Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool.

Controversial views

The Socialist Labour Party was thought by Scargill initially as a left alternative to Labour ( similar as the WASG in Germany ), but became a rallying point for Trotskyist, anarcho - syndicalist and Stalinist groups. Scargill initially distanced himself from these ideas, but then again since 2001 even took to radical views: he defended the Soviet communism and the October Revolution, relativized the crimes of Stalin and criticized the Solidarity for having destabilized the positive basically socialist system. The SLP remained an insignificant splinter party, as left split from Labour in 2003 was founded Respect The Unity Coalition important.