Injustice in Communities, from October 1984 to March 1985

Strikers were criminalised and victimised in their own communities as well as on picket lines. Two stories vividly illustrate this, each involving a pair of friends, Billy Fraser and Jim Tierney in Clackmannanshire, and Watty Watson and Doddy McShane in Fife. The contrast between picket-line and community injustice was important. In October 2021 the Scottish government initially proposed pardons for offences committed on picket lines but not for those that took place within communities. The Clackmannanshire and Fife stories demonstrate that this distinction was unrealistic as well as unfair. Mining communities were rendered disputatious by the NCB’s unprecedented and provocative practice of organising a Back to Work movement during an official industrial dispute. This created anger and divisions within communities which bubbled up in sporadic and unavoidable conflict between strikers and strike-breakers. Jim, Watty and Doddy were sacked following arrest and subsequent conviction for breach of the peace. Their stories inspired justice campaigners in 2021-22 to demand that the Pardons Bill be applied to all strikers with public order convictions, regardless of where they were arrested.