The Decline of UK Mining Unions Undermined Labour’s “Red Wall”
Since the 2019 election, commentators have noted the demise of Labour’s "red wall" in the heartlands. But few have focused on the central role once played by miners unions in sustaining a strong sense of working-class community.
Miners with banners and bands parade through Durham, England in the 1950s. (Durham Miners Gala)
Eighteen months have passed since the 2019 General Election, but Labour is going backward in the so-called “red wall.” Labour’s disastrous campaign in Hartlepool perfectly demonstrated how the new leadership’s obsession with vanquishing the Left has eliminated any attempt to engage with disillusioned working-class voters; a staunch Remainer with shady links to the closure of Hartlepool’s hospital was imposed on the CLP of a 70 percent+ Leave-voting area. The results were depressingly predictable.
Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson are premier coalfield social scientists, and their new book is essential reading for anyone who wants to dig deeper beyond vague generalizations about the “red wall” that have proliferated since December 2019. The book charts the rise of miners’ trade unionism in South Wales and Durham since the turn of the twentieth century, and by placing these case studies in their historical context, Beynon and Hudson encourage us to explore the long-term trends that have shaped the bewildering political situation we find ourselves in now — and to resist the rush to blame Labour’s failures on individuals or any niche concerns.
Coal and Community
The Shadow of the Mine documents the rise in the power of the mining trade unions over the twentieth century; what started off as a Liberal-orientated, localist federation of unions developed into the national powerhouse of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) following nationalization and achieved a stunning victory in 1972 upon which Edward Heath lost the 1974 general election. The book also pieces together various accounts of the 1984–85 strike from participants, deeming it “the last moment when trade union power was exercised as a coherent force in Britain.”
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