Tower of Strength, 20 Nov 2002

Books about the miners’ strike seem to be experiencing a flush of popularity in Britain today and there can hardly be anybody who was not aware of the drama being enacted at Tower Colliery in the mid 1990’s. We all saw the news and read the papers, but what really went on behind the scenes. Because of the part he played in the struggle, Tyrone O’Sullivan became a kind of folk hero of the 90’s and this book is written by him from the inside looking out.

A good proportion of this book is taken up by setting the scene,
describing the background of the miners’ strike, basically the desire of the Conservative Government to close all the mines on the grounds of cost against the wishes of the miners to keep the mines open to ensure continuity of employment and retain an industry that had, for hundreds of years, ensured that Britain maintained its place as a major manufacturing nation.

Margaret Thatcher, Arthur Scargill, Mick MaGahey, Ian MacGregor, Kim Howells, Emlyn Williams and Neil Kinock and many more players in the drama are named, praised or shamed. No matter what side you are on, this is a warts and all story, mainly warts. Tyrone comes across as a committed socialist, a David facing Goliath, a valley boy who went from mining apprentice to union official and finally to company chairman. He is committed to the fair distribution of profit amongst the workers and to supporting the local community.

The saga of how the miners, in 1995, against all odds bought Tower Colliery, with their redundancy money from British Coal is well known. What is not so well known is the blackmail, connivance and just sheer ill will that the miners were up against. Raising the money was never going to be easy, 238 miners each put £8000 of their own money into the pot. Money which could have been used to pay off loans or supplement their dole money. Instead they all took an enormous risk and invest