Britain: Bloody Strike

Miners'fury brings anguish

As the bloody confrontation between militants of the 180,000-member National Union of Mineworkers and the state-owned National Coal Board entered its 36th week, the most disruptive labor unrest the country has witnessed since the General Strike of 1926 was no longer just a power struggle between miners and mine managers over the issue of unproductive collieries. Instead, with economic losses mounting and with television providing scenes of charging mounted police and rock-throwing strikers, the dispute had become a national trauma.

Although some of the most dramatic fighting yet between strikers...

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