Arthur Scargill joins miners' strike's 40th anniversary rally

Former miners' leader Arthur Scargill was the guest of honour at a rally marking 40 years since the year-long strikes.

Mr Scargill was involved in major industrial action to prevent pit closures in Yorkshire and the rest of the UK in the mid-1980s.

He gave a 40-minute speech at Dodworth Miners Welfare near Barnsley at a rally marking 40 years since the strikes.

He told the BBC the lesson for trade unionists was to "fight like we did".

Mr Scargill, 86, worked as a coal miner at Woolley Colliery from the age of 15 and joined the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) when he was 19.

He went on to become an activist and rose to national prominence after the so-called Battle of Saltley Gate in 1972, when he led an initial group of 400 Yorkshire miners on a picket of the Saltley Gate coal depot in Birmingham.

The strike led to the Conservative government at the time agreeing to meet the miners' demands for increased pay and better working conditions.

Mr Scargill stepped down as president of the NUM in 2002.

Speaking outside the rally, he said: "It's important to come today to pay tribute to the miners, their families and the women against pit closures who fought so hard during 1984 and 1985.

"The important thing is, people stood together - all over Britain and all over the world we became known for sticking to principles.

"It was an important part of history.

"People took part in an historic dispute - they marched into the pantheon of the trade union movement."

Earlier in the day, hundreds of people gathered by Dodworth mining memorial to reflect on the strike and all those who had lost their lives to the industry.

Bagpipes were played and The Reverend Canon Keith Farrow led the service.

He added: "There are painful stories still being told but there is a sense of people coming to terms with the past.

"I don't see great divisions."

Mr Scargill said there was a "lesson" for all trade union leaders today.

"Fight like we did, don't give in and fight consistently... not in bits and pieces," he said.

"I've miss two medical appointments because I'm iust not prepared to cross a picket line.

"That's called class consciousness."

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