Seumas Milne - The Enemy Within

What they said about The Enemy Within:

Seumas Milne has subjected this story to one of the most remarkable demolition jobs ever committed to hard covers meticulously argued. Spectator

A real-life thriller which debunks the Robert Maxwell-organized smear against Arthur Scargill, Peter Heathfield and the miners union. Evening Standard

Riveting. It knocks spots off the usual whodunnit It is not the role of MI5 to act as agents provocateurs, nor to plant newspaper reports The allegation about the use of GCHQ in the United Kingdom must be cleared up. Merlyn Rees, former Home Secretary, Guardian

Excellent Seumas Milne possesses reportorial skills and tenacities which will one day make him what he seems least to care about being a famous and admired journalist an important, perhaps very important, book. Christopher Hitchens, London Review of Books

An astonishing book Milnes appalling story shows secret government in full and evil flower. The Nation (US)

Milnes book is a tribute to detailed journalistic investigation. It strips away the myths and lies about Scargill Milne rightly focuses on MI5. New Statesman & Society

When Stella Rimington was elevated to her present eminence, there were some who wondered why she had received such preferment. Now, courtesy of The Enemy Within we are beginning to have an inkling. Observer

This thriller-like book proves that, in the turmoil of conflict, lies possess more vigour than truth. Independent on Sunday

If the disturbing allegations in The Enemy Within are shown to be well-founded, Stella Rimington is not a fit person to run the security service and should be dismissed. House of Commons motion signed by 50 MPs

If you want to savour the tang of corruption, sense the odour of industrial decay and feel the steamy heat of class warfare, this is the book for you. Time Out

The most important expos of contemporary political Britain I have read. Journalism owes Seumas Milne a debt for elevating the craft of fine reporting above vicious untruth. John Pilger, New Statesman

Until Seumas Milne published this book, no one could have known the full extent of the treachery, deception and crude skulduggery that was practised by the establishment in its determination to secure the victory that it won Seumas Milne has written a major work He has told us how Britain is really governed. Tony Benn, Tribune

Seumas Milne meticulously strips away the thin veneer to reveal those who are truly unaccountable, corrupt and subversive. Michael Mansfield QC

If you like conspiracy theories, youll love this book. It is on strong ground when it argues that Arthur Scargill was subject to a succession of smears in particular when he is tracing what happened to Russian donations to the miners cause, Seumas Milne is entirely convincing. The Economist

A cracking story a stunning piece of work. Wakefield Express

This is a brilliant, thrilling but disturbing book Seumas Milne flinches at nothing. He has unravelled a spy thriller that makes Le Carr look superficial. Morning Star

This cannot be dismissed simply as the stuff of conspiracy theorists dreams. It is indeed a most important expos of contemporary political Britain. Gloucestershire Echo

Seumas Milne has produced a book to match any fictional best-seller. It has it all But the most disturbing aspect of The Enemy Within is that this is no work of fiction, but a meticulously researched piece of journalism. Bolton Evening News

The Enemy Within is compulsive reading and I recommend it wholeheartedly. Read it, analyse it and then tell your friends to read it. Camden New Journal

This book is a must. Scottish Trade Union Review

Dogged research and incontrovertible evidence. Stoke Evening Sentinel

Seumas Milne has written an important book, and a brave one. Socialist Review

The Enemy Within is a tribute to every NUM member and Women Against Pit Closures activist who has fought over the past decade to save pits and miners jobs and to sustain mining communities. 1995 NUM Annual Report

Part detective thriller and part political primer, The Enemy Within should be read by every trade unionist. NUCPS Journal

The definitive account of the strike the best book on the Thatcher era. Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine

Seumas Milne is a columnist and Associate Editor at the Guardian and the papers former Comment Editor. He was previously the Guardians Labour Editor and a winner of the What the Papers Say Scoop of the Year Award. He studied economics and politics at Oxford and London universities and worked as a staff journalist on the Economist. He is the author of The Revenge of History and co-author of Beyond the Casino Economy.

This fourth edition paperback first published by Verso 2014
First published by Verso 1994
Seumas Milne 1994, 1995, 2004, 2014

All rights reserved

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

Verso
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Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

ISBN-13: 978-1-78168-342-2
eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-636-2 (UK)
eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-343-9 (US)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

v3.1

The aftershocks of the miners strike of 19845 can still be felt in Britain thirty years later. The strike was without doubt a watershed in the countrys postwar history. Indeed, it has had no real parallel in size, duration and impact anywhere in the world. It was the decisive domestic confrontation of the Thatcher years: a conflict which pitted the most powerful and politicized trade union in the country against a hard-right Conservative administration bent on class revenge and prepared to lay waste to the countrys industrial heartlands and energy sector in the process, regardless of cost. It convulsed Britain, turned coalfield communities into occupied territory, and came far closer than was understood at the time to breaking the Thatcher governments onslaught on organized labour.

The year-long strike was a defensive battle to protect livelihoods and communities that the miners could not have avoided. But it was also a challenge to the destructive profit- and market-driven transformation of economic life already then in full flow. And it raised the alternative of a different kind of Britain, rooted in solidarity and collective action, against the individualism and private greed of the Thatcher years symbolized by the wads of overtime cash her riot squads waved at the miners picket lines.