FOREIGN FUEL, FOREIGN SHIPS AND DISORGANIZED TRADE-UNIONISM - AN ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION OF THE DEFEAT OF THE MINERS IN 1984-5

The defeat of the miners' strike has been variously attributed to the role of the state, inappropriate and ill-conceived tactics used by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and bureaucratic trade union prac tices. Through a detailed analysis of the magnitude of fuel imports an d how they were organised, this paper argues that the strike was defea ted by the ability of the major energy users to substitute without hin drance imported coal and oil for domestically-produced coal. It is fur ther argued that if the NUM had been well-organised it would have been able to predict the evasive logistics of the energy users and adjuste d its tactics. The organisational defects of the NUM are seen as a man ifestation of structured organisational inadequacies in British trade unions.