Scottish Coal Miners in the Twentieth Century

Throughout the twentieth century Scottish miners resisted deindustrialisation through collective action and by leading the campaign for Home Rule. This book shows that coal miners occupy a central position in Scotland’s economic, social and political history. It highlights the role of miners in formulating labour movement demands for political-constitutional reforms that helped create the conditions for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. The book examines the moral economy, which prioritised communal security and collective voice. Three different generations of Scottish coal miners are identified, shaped by successive predominant forms of coal mining unit across the twentieth century. The Village Pit generation, born in the 1900s, defined the terms of the moral economy, and secured nationalisation in 1947. The New Mine generation, born in the 1920s, enforced the moral economy and made nationalisation work in the interests of miners. It advanced Home Rule arguments to protect economic security in the struggle against deindustrialisation. The Cosmopolitan Colliery generation, born in the 1950s, tried to protect the moral economy and communal security in the coalfields in the great strike of 1984-85. The experiences of miners are used to explore working class wellbeing more broadly throughout the prolonged and politicised period of deindustrialisation that culminated in the Thatcherite assault of the 1980s