Obituaries: Paul Whetton and George 'Geordie' Brooks, Notts sacked miners

The Grim Reaper has been up to his old tricks again, taking three stalwarts from us in as many weeks.

Betty Heathfield, the founder of Women Against Pit Closures during the strike, left us on February 16th 2006, aged 78. Then came two blows from Nottingham hitting us within a week of each other. We hadn't time to assimilate the death on March 3rd, 2006, of Paul Whetton, Notts victimised miner and founder-member of the Justice Campaign, when the news came through that Geordie Brooks, another Notts victimised miner and Justice founder, had died suddenly on 8th March 2006. Both men were only in their sixities. These two deaths now bring to three the number of Notts sacked miners who have died recently – in July 2004 Keith Frogson had been brutally murdered by Robert Boyer, 43, a former scab from the Notts coalfield (see the November 2004 newsletter in this website).

The Obituaries

1. Paul Whetton: victimised Notts miner

When Paul Whetton was sacked from Bevercotes colliery in 1985 the incident summed up both the viciousness and the unbelievable pettiness of the National Coal Board. Paul, who was secretary of Bevercotes NUM, managed to survive the strike itself where many other NUM branch officials had been summarily dismissed on completely trumped-up charges. But after the return to work on March 5th 1985, the management at his local colliery made absolutely certain this omission would soon be rectified.
.....After the strike, the Coal Board management in the Notts area refused to recognise the NUM as the trade union at any of their pits, giving sole negotiating rights instead to the newly formed UDM. The UDM – the Union of so-called Democratic Miners – was created from men who'd scabbed during the strike, and the 'union' was even given the buildings, bank accounts and all other assets of the NUM by the courts. It was a boss's union in all but name and would later be investigated by the police for financial irregularities (see the newsletters for June 2005 and March 2004 in this website).
.....The NUM members at these pits now found themselves in the minority and with no negotiating or any other rights to fall back on. When Paul, who was still the Secretary of Bevercotes NUM branch, posted an NUM leaflet on the pit notice board, the bosses pounced and sacked him on the spot. He was even removed from his position as a trustee of his local miners' welfare club by the UDM dominated committee.
.....Paul had many admirable qualities which were evident to all who knew and worked with him. For a start, there was his unshakable loyalty to the NUM and his lifelong socialist beliefs. But what characterised Paul Whetton above all else was a steadfast determination never to give up. He took his case to an industrial tribunal, won a verdict of unfair dismissal, and after two years of legal battles was even given a job at another pit, albeit in the Yorkshire, and not the Notts, coalfield.
.....Even when a serious accident eventually forced Paul out of work, he never gave up his political activities and campaigning, travelling the country for speaking engagements and solidarity visits to other workers in dispute. Paul died in March this year, just five weeks after being told that what had initially been diagnosed as pleurisy was in fact lung cancer. He will be sorely missed, and our deepest sympathies go out to his family.

Here is a memory of Paul Whetton from Peter Radcliff :

Paul was the leading figure amongst the striking miners in the Notts coalfield during the historic miners strike of 1984/5. I had the privilege – and it was a privilege – to know Paul from that time onwards.
.....But I actually knew of Paul before the strike. It was in 1982 during the selection of a general election Labour candidate for the Nottingham South constituency that I first saw him. Paul represented a tradition of militancy in the Notts NUM that few at that meeting had any knowledge of.
.....I knew of a number of left-wing miners ... And whilst many of those militant miners, like Paul, were in the Labour Party, the Regional and County Labour Parties were still comparatively right wing dominated and inert.
.....So we didn't know Paul at the time of the selection meeting either; and when he spoke passionately about the need for the Labour Party to carry through the change that had begun in 1980-1 by openly embracing class politics, it had an electric effect ...
.....When the strike began two years later both the left in Nottingham as well as the left in the Notts NUM were thrown into disarray.
.....The traditions of political militancy in the NUM and other industrial unions in Nottinghamshire were undoubtedly weaker than in many other parts of the country. But they were there, and within the Notts NUM there were some of the best political militants.
.....A clear lead was very desperately needed within the Notts coalfield. That lead was to come after about 4 weeks of chaos with the moves made to form the Notts Rank and File Strike committee. The formation of that unofficial body was an historic act, still insufficiently recognized by histories of the dispute. At times it managed to pull nearly half of the Notts miners out on strike, under the most adverse circumstances. Paul was to be both the central figure in the creation of the Strike Committee as well as its secretary.
.....I remember going with Paul to the meeting where he proposed the formation of the Strike Committee at the beginning of April. It brought together 25 to 30 miners from across a number of North Notts pits. I remember the speeches of anguish, almost despair, from some of the strikers who couldn't see a way forward. Who could blame them? They were a militant, initially small minority, unofficially on strike whilst facing a police occupation and the refusal of their Area officials to back them.
.....I remember Paul's dialogue with them. His words were clearly carefully chosen to relate to their pride. But he also reminded them of the existence and power of working class solidarity, imploring them to respond to their situation with organisation and a determination to win.
.....It was one of many meetings during the great strike that was shaped by Paul's optimism and commitment. I know that many of us felt privileged then and feel privileged now to have seen Paul on such occasions.
.....Many activists in the socialist and trade union movement model themselves on their leaders. Particularly this was the case in the NUM with militants copying the style and approach of Scargill. Paul, I feel, always had a different style. When Paul spoke it was more of a dialogue with his audience. He always showed empathy with his members and their position.
.....I particularly remember going with Paul to visit one of his members who was talking about going back to work after many months on strike.
.....I remember going to the young miner's family's house. It was clear that most of the furniture had been repossessed. And I remember Paul's sympathy and approach. No hectoring or recrimination but patient reasoning. Appealing to the man's pride, not only in himself, but also in his union and in his class.
.....Paul never gave up his politics. Every time I saw him I would literally feel a thrill of excitement. Every time Paul spoke it was clear that he had lost none of his beliefs or his politics. Every time it brought back vivid memories of his speeches in that heroic and tragic year.
.....I rang him this last week when I was planning to go to visit a picket line of a dispute at Cottam Power station, only a few miles from his home. That dispute is a wonderful display of working class solidarity, with British workers coming out on strike in support of a Hungarian brother. I knew it was the sort of dispute that Paul would have treasured. It was then that I found out about Paul was very seriously ill with cancer.
.....Paul was a huge hero to me. I will never forget him. I regret not being able to say that to him as directly as I would have wanted. Our deepest sympathies go to his wife, Mo and the rest of his family.

Peter Radcliff

Massive Turnout at Paul Whetton's final day

Area and National Officials of the NUM and a solid block of Nottingham NUM miners and their families turned out for Paul's funeral, Saturday 18th March.
.....Led by Notts NUM banners, the funeral procession thronged the roads and closed Tuxford town centre. Well known characters from the miners' movement were everywhere in evidence among the sea of faces.
.....The packed church had the service relayed to the crowds standing outside for over an hour in freezing temperatures. The tears froze in our eyes as we listened to Paul's voice, talking about the meaning of pit life and the strength of pit communities.
.....The music and the speeches were absolutely heart-wrenching, Arthur Scargill making one of the most impassioned and moving eulogies I think I have ever heard, although the most sorrowful parts were those where he quoted from the words of Paul's kids. It was deeply upsetting.
.....Paul was a hero of the workers movement, a committed Communist and trade unionist. His coffin was draped in the Soviet flag and his fur Bolshevik hat, with the badge of Communist Party CCCP, of which he had been so proudly presented in the Soviet Union, was laid on top of the flag.
.....During the strike Paul had thrown himself into the Nottingham offensive, fighting as all Notts strikers did on the hardest front of all, in the worse strike-breaking county, which had been made the scene of counter-attack by the Tories and the state's special forces. At the end of the strike he was victimised.
.....It took two years of battles in tribunals before Paul was reinstated, albeit at Manton Colliery in the Yorkshire Area of the NUM, but within the actual geological coal county of Nottingham. In his final working years Paul sustained a serious accident which forced him to finish in the industry a couple of years early. This allowed him to devote the bulk of his time to the Justice For Miners Campaign and efforts to rebuild the NUM in Nottingham.
.....Paul was a great mate, a great story-teller, a man of justice and common sense. We have lost too many like him in recent years and sadly they are not being replaced. God Speed, Paul marra. The vicar told amusingly how Paul in his first encounter with her welcomed her and called her 'Comrade' and she had been a bit taken aback, but then recognised it had been a great compliment. She supposed Paul might be engaged with 'Comrade Christ' at this very moment.
.....We aren't sure about that, but if it were true, doubtless Christ won't get a word in for the first few days.

Dave Douglass

2. George 'Geordie' Brooks

Geordie Brooks started his working life in pits in Tyne and Wear before moving to the Nottigham coalfield in the 1960s, taking his North East nickname with him in the process.

[A fuller obituary of George Brooks will follow in due course.]