The enemy within : the secret war against the miners / Seumas Milne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Milne, Seumas.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Scargill, Arthur.

Great Britain. MI5.

Great Britain.

National Union of Mineworkers.

Espionage--Great Britain.

Espionage.

Political ethics--Great Britain.

Political ethics.

Labor unions--Great Britain--Miners.

Labor unions.

Miners.

Physical Description:

xx, 439 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 20 cm

Edition:

Third edition.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Verso, 2004.

Summary:

Margaret Thatcher branded Arthur Scargill and other leaders of the 1984-5 miners' strike 'the enemy within'. With the publication of this bestselling book a decade later, the full irony of that accusation became clear. There was an enemy within. But it was not the National Union of Mineworkers that was out to subvert liberty. It was the secret services of the British state - operating inside the NUM itself. Seumas Milne revealed for the first time the astonishing lengths to which the government and its intelligence machine were prepared to go to destroy the power of Britain's miners' union. Using phoney bank deposits, staged cash drops, forged documents, agents provocateurs and unrelenting surveillance, M15 and police Special Branch set out to discredit Scargill and other miners' leaders. Planted tales of corruption were seized on by the media and both Tory and Labour politicians in what became an unprecednetedly savage smear campaign. In this new edition, published for the twentieth anniversary of Britain's most important postwar social confrontation, new material brings the story up to date - and, in the wake of the Iraq war intelligence scandals, highlights the continuing threat posed by the security services to democracy today. Seumas Milne is the Comment Editor and a columnist on the Guardian. He was previously the Guardian's Labour Editor and a staff journalist on The Economist. He is a joint winner of the What the Papers Say scoop of the year award and the co-author of Beyond the Casino Economy.

Contents:

Introduction: The Secret War Against the Miners 1

Chapter 1 Operation Cyclops 37

Chapter 2 A Hidden Hand 73

Chapter 3 Dangerous Liaisons 125

Chapter 4 The Strange World of Roger Windsor 169

Chapter 5 All Maxwell's Men 215

Chapter 6 Moscow Gold-Diggers 255

Chapter 7 Stella Wars 302

Conclusion: Who Framed Arthur Scargill? 352.

Notes:

Originally published: 1994.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1844675084

OCLC:

56450761