Abstract
The 1972 miners’ strike caused a remarkable change in public attitude towards the miners. When it began in January over 50 per cent of the public sympathized with their demand for a pay rise substantially higher than that for other workers, which was restricted by government to a norm of 8 per cent. When it ended on 25 February the miners had achieved a rise of 27 per cent, but by then the public feeling had swung heavily against them and has remained so.1 This swing in public opinion followed the wide publicity given to the violence on the picket line at the Saltley Coke Depot, on the outskirts of Birmingham, between 5 and 10 February 1972.
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Notes and References
See Alfred Robens, Ten Year Stint (London: Cassell, 1972).
Though not without a strike involving about one third of the miners and the loss of over a million working days (Eric Wigham, Strikes and the Government 1893–1974 (London: Macmillan, 1976) p. 176).
Alan Law, ‘The Miners are Coming’, The Miner, April 1972. He gives a vivid and emotional picture of the last day at Saltley.
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© 1983 Richard Clutterbuck
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Clutterbuck, R. (1983). The Battle of Saltley, 1972. In: The Media and Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06580-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06580-6_2
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