miners' strike

British strike against pit closures that lasted almost a year from April 1984. The prime minister Margaret Thatcher was determined to make a stand against the miners and in April 1995 members of the National Union of Miners (NUM) returned to work.

The NUM, led by its Marxist president, Arthur Scargill called the strike in April 1994 without a ballot, in protest against pit closures and as part of a campaign for a better basic wage. Support was strong in south Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, and Kent but pits in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire continued to operate. Some NUM members left the union and founded the Union of Democratic Mineworkers.