hen mineworkers took strike action in 1984 to save their industry from a government policy aimed at its total destruction, Margaret Thatcher was quick to refer to them and their families as the “enemy within”. As strikes take place across Britain, the government’s response echoes the past.
Whether it be rail workers, train drivers, Royal Mail workers, barristers, postal workers, refuse workers, London Underground workers, air transport workers or our wonderful NHS nurses, the government finds itself determined to force through cuts in wages. These cuts in working-class living standards follow continued cuts since the financial crash of 2008, a crash not brought about by those who suffered most, but for which they continue to pay the price.
During the pandemic, we saw Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak standing on the steps of Downing Street applauding our courageous NHS workers and urging the rest of the nation to do the same, while staff inside No 10 enjoyed beer- and wine-swilling parties. How long will it be before our NHS workers are called the enemy within?
Many of those taking action today are fighting not only for increased wages, but to save their industries, just as the miners did in 1984 and 1985. The constant cuts to our NHS and the privatisation by stealth of our health services represents a threat to its existence and to the nation’s health. Aneurin Bevan’s dream of a health service that was free to everyone who needed it is being whittled away, little by little, by people who never liked it in the first place, in the hope that no one notices until it is gone.
Many workers are being offered pay increases way below inflation. The latest offer to rail workers is 8%, spread over two years. That’s only 4% in each of the two years. The retail prices index (RPI) stands at 14%, so this offer amounts to a real-terms pay cut of 10%. Even if the consumer prices index (CPI) is used as the measure of inflation, now running at 10.7%, the offer is still a considerable wage cut of 6.7%. Most workers across the UK are being expected to take massive real-terms wage cuts, even while the cost of living is soaring. Heating a typical three-bedroom home will cost £2,100 over the 12 months from October 2022 due to increased energy bills, regardless of the government’s cost of living support package.
We usually hear two mantras from government when it makes wage increase offers, or in this case wage decrease offers. First, that the wage cut is “generous” and second that it is all that can be afforded. An MP’s salary as at April 2022 was £84,144 a year plus allowances. In contrast, NHS workers, including nurses, have to pay parking charges in hospital car parks while they are at work.
This month, Kelvin MacKenzie, the former editor of the Sun, accused ambulance staff of “organised hatred” for going on strike. Ambulance workers save lives every day. They are dedicated people. Such derision is a naked attempt to draw striking workers into a fruitless low-level exchange that only the tabloids, with their power, can win. If the tabloids and the government are resorting to smearing ordinary people striking against pay cuts as the “enemy within”, it means they’ve already lost the argument.
A protest at Downing Street during the second day of strike action by nurses on 20 December.
A protest at Downing Street during the second day of strike action by nurses on 20 December. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
During the miners’ strike we were subjected to daily misleading articles, downright lies and abuse from the gutter press. Yes, sometimes it hurt, but it was always best to ignore it and try not to stoop to that level. It was far better to use all the means we had to try to present what we believed to be a compelling case every time we had the opportunity. I think the unions have done very well in their dealings with the media; union figureheads such as Mick Lynch have made a calm and compelling case for why strikes are a rational response to this unprecedented squeeze on workers’ living conditions.
Of course, you still try to counter a false narrative. Criticism that is born out of misunderstanding of the issues must be challenged. It was important during the miners’ strike to take every opportunity to present what we believed to be a compelling case.
It would be a dereliction of intelligent thought not to mention the war in Ukraine, which is at the very root of the spiralling inflation we are seeing across Europe. Energy and food prices are important drivers of inflation along with soaring petrol costs, all of which can be attributed to this unnecessary war, from which there will be no winners. Runaway inflation is causing real hunger, and supporting Ukraine has already cost the UK £2.3bn. The war is a disaster, a sickening loss of life and a complete failure of diplomacy. The search for peace must begin now, or every lost life will be laid at the door of incompetent and obstinate leaders.
The strikes by those working in essential services across Europe are justified in the face of rising living costs and out of control inflation brought about by incompetent governments. But the press can’t see this – so it sticks to its old, easy, divisive solutions: attacking working people, attacking unions and failing to see how warped and biased coverage perpetuates injustice and heaps hardship on to communities. Those who fought to save their jobs and homes and families in the 1980s look at the rightwing media today and recognise this playbook. I hope that this time the public understands what the unions are fighting for, and see this strategy of sabotage for what it really is.
Ken Capstick is the former Yorkshire vice-president of the National Union of Mineworkers and currently a trustee of the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme (MPS). He is writing here in a personal capacity
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