Policing Industrial Disputes: 1893 to 1985

The re-emergence of prolonged and bitter industrial violence during the 1984-85 miners’ dispute prompted many onlookers to speculate that British society was rushing headlong into anarchy. Others, more fearful of order than chaos, felt that they were witnessing the emergence of a police state. In this 1985 study, Dr Geary provides a fascinating and detailed account of the changing nature of industrial violence, in which historic episodes such as the Featherstone Shootings and Tonypandy Riots are examined as part of a general analysis of the shifting patterns of industrial confrontation. His central contention is that both police and strikers are subject to many, sometimes contradictory, political pressures in the industrial context. As these political constraints tighten or relax so the nature of industrial disorder and the corresponding tactics of police control change. This balanced appraisal of industrial violence illumintes what has become a political issue of the utmost significance.