A chronology of events in the UK
(See also Welcome to 1984; February 1984)
1984 started with various strikes, including the early rumblings of what would soon become the national miners strike. The armed conflict was continuing in the North of Ireland, with the row continuing about the mass escape of IRA prisoners in the previous September. The movement against nuclear weapons was focused particularly on Greenham Common in Berkshire, where women had established a peace camp...
Tues. 3 January: 110 workers go on strike over pay at Phillips Rubber Ltd, Dantzic street, Manchester [Hansard, 5.7.84]
(See also Welcome to 1984; February 1984)
1984 started with various strikes, including the early rumblings of what would soon become the national miners strike. The armed conflict was continuing in the North of Ireland, with the row continuing about the mass escape of IRA prisoners in the previous September. The movement against nuclear weapons was focused particularly on Greenham Common in Berkshire, where women had established a peace camp...
Tues. 3 January: 110 workers go on strike over pay at Phillips Rubber Ltd, Dantzic street, Manchester [Hansard, 5.7.84]
Tues. 3 January: 21
Greenham women arrested after sit-in at Little Chef restaurant in Newbury. They
were protesting about being banned from the premises, the nearest to the peace
camp [GH, 4 Jan)
Thurs. 5 January:
planned national shipyard strike called off by unions [T.6.1.84]; Land Rover
workers vote to strike (but this is also later called off by unions).
Mon. 9 January: Sarah
Tisdall, a 23 year old civil servant, charged under the Official Secrets
Act for leaking information to the
Guardian last October about the arrival of cruise missiles at Greenham Common.
Mon 9 January: 24 hour
strike against new working procedures by 1800 Edinburgh bus drivers, only three
of whom turn up to work (GH)
Mon. 9 – Tues. 10
January : Riot at Peterhead prison with
prisoners breaking on to the roof (GH
11.1.84)
Tues. 10 January:
policeman shot dead in Newry, County Down.
Tues. 10 Jan: Motherwell
District Council vote to ban a planned march by the Troops Out Movement,
scheduled to take place in Wishaw on June 21 (GH 11.184)
Wed. 11 January: British
Rail Engineering Ltd announces that 3500 engineering jobs are to be axed, on
top of a similar number lost in the previous year (GH 12.1.84)
Sat. 14 January –
national planning meeting in London for Stop the City 2 at the Ambulance Station squat, 306 Old
Kent Road (RR)
Mon. 16 January – 31 people appear before High Wycombe magistrates courts charged in relation to sit-down blockade of nearby USAF Daws Hill on Dec. 19 ’83 where cruise missiles are controlled (at least 113 were arrested)
Mon. 16 January – Ford
announce the closure of its Thames foundry in Dagenham, with the loss of 2000
jobs. They claim its is cheaper to buy in castings made elsewhere (GH)
Mon. 16 January – miners
walk out at High Moor colliery in Derbyshire in protest at visit by National Coal Board chairman, Ian MacGregor.
Mon 16 January – 19,000
workers stage one day strike at Britain’s eleven Royal Ordnance factories, in
protest against plans to privatise them.
Tues. 17 January:
Parliament passes rate-capping bill, giving Government powers to intervene to
control spending by local Councils.
Tues. 17 January: 200
workers walk out at Volvo bus and truck plant in Irvine, Ayrshire in pay
dispute.
17 January: a 38 year old man dies in a police cell at Camberwell
magistrates court (Insurrection)
Wed. 18 January: the
national council of print union National Graphical Association agrees to purge
its contempt of court in the Stockport Messenger dispute, effectively ending
support for the dispute, which started in July 1983 with the dismissal of the ‘Stockport
Six’ for striking at the newspaper owned by Eddie Shah.
 |
| Tony Dubbins, NGA General Secretary (centre front) with the 'Stockport Six' in December 1983 |
Wed. 18 January: James Prior,
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced a public inquiry into
the child abuse scandal at the Kincora Boy's Home in Belfast.
Thurs. 19 January:
British Leyland announces 1000 jobs to go at its truck plants (GH)
Thurs. 19 January: seven
journalists who refused to cross printers’ picket lines during the Stockport
Messenger dispute are sent dismissal notices (GH)
Thursday 19 January: police clear protestors from Bracknell Town Council meeting after 200 protest against threat to close Easthampstead Adventure Playground and East Lodge Play Centre. The next dday users and staff occupied both places and staged a roof-top demonstration.
Fri. 20 January: nurses
and other staff strike against the threatened closure of the Dreadnought
Seaman’s Hospital in Greenwich [T.21.1.1984]
20 Jan: Irish National Liberation Army shoot dead
UDR soldier in Dunmurry
Sat 21 January – Stokely Carmichael (now called Kwame Ture) refused entry to Britain when he
arrived at Heathrow for a ten day speaking tour as a guest of Hackney Black
People’s Association. He had last visited in 1983 and made speeches apparently
supportive of riots. The Home Office declared that ‘his presence in the United
Kingdom would not be for the public good’ (GH)
Sat 21 January: 500
people take part in die-in at Holy Loch, the US polaris missile base near
Dunoon. 27 people are arrested (GH)
Monday 23 January:
workers at Scott Lithgow begin a ‘work on’ with laid off workers reporting for
work, and their wages being paid for out of a levy collected from other workers
(GH)
Monday 23 January: 40
ferry services across the Channel and the Irish Sea are cancelled as 3,000
members of the National Union of Seamen stage an unofficial 12 hour strike
against the closure of the Dreadnought Seaman’s Hospital in Greenwich (Times,
24.1.84)
25 January – Thomas
Kelly, a shipyard worker and Scottish republican, jailed for ten years for sending a letter bomb to Conservative government minister Norman Tebbit last
year, following evidence from a Special Branch informer Bernard Goodwin (GH)
Wednesday 25 January:
Government announces ban on 7000 civil servants at GCHQ in Cheltenham from
belonging to unions or going on strike (GH). They claimed the strike action by civil
servants there in 1981 had put security at risk – seemingly the decision to ban
union had been taken at the time, but was postponed until after the 1983
election (GH 1.2)
Wed. 25 Jan – British
Shipbuilders announce closure of Henry Robb shipyard in Leith; unions in other
years agree to more flexible working practices (GH)
Thurs. 26 January: The
Hennessy Report, into the mass escape of 38 Republican prisoners from the Maze
Prison on 25 September 1983, was published. Most of the responsibility for the
escape was placed on prison staff. James Prior, then Secretary of State for
Northern Ireland, stated that there would be no ministerial resignations as a
result of the report.
Thurs. 26 January: NCB
announce closure of Polmaise colliery near Stirling
Thurs 26 January: News
International - publishers of the Times - dismiss 750 members of SOGAT 82, for taking part in a two week unofficial
sympathy action in support of clerical staff striking over staffing in the
library. The Times failed to appear for four days.
Thurs 26 January: tens
of thousands of civil servants in DHSS offices and other workplaces walk out in
protest at GCHQ ban.
Thurs 26 January: miners
walk out and occupy surface buildngs at Bogside pit in Fife after management
downgrade 12 workers for ‘not developing new seam quick enouhg’ (GH 28/1)
Thurs 26 January:
students occupy the library at Strathclyde University in protest agains changes
to travel allowances for students.
Fri 27 January: workers
occupy the Henry Robb shipyard, where 390 jobs have been cut as a result of
decision to close: ‘A Royal Navy sub-marine, under repair at the
yard, will not released by the men’ (GH 28.1).
Fri 27 Jan – strike
stops the Times appearing for second day. Courts unfreeze assets of NGA print union relating to Stockport Messenger dispute
Sat 28 January – 20+
women stage a Reclaim the Night walk in Reading.
Sun 29 January: 1500 -2000 people demonstrate at Cocksparrow fur farm in Warwickshire, surrounding the site and attempting to break through fences and police cordon. Mounted police are deployed and 25 people arrested (Hansard)
Mon. 30 January : The
Prison Governors' Association and the Prison Officers Association both claimed
that political interference in the running of the Maze Prison resulted in the
mass escape on 25 September 1983. Nick Scott, then Minister for Prisons,
rejected the allegations.
Mon 30 January: a man is
shot dead by the British Army in Springfield Road, Belfast (GH 31.1.1984)
Tues 31 January: Two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers killed in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) land mine attack on their police near Forkhill, County Armagh (GH 1.2).
date not confirmed:
30
arctic foxes rescued from Cocksparrow fur farm near Nuneaton, and a similar
number from Bould Farm, Oxford, in Animal Liberation Front raids (SO)
1000
demonstrate in the snow at new Hazleton vivisection laboratory in Harrogate;
fences are pulled down and police snowballed (SO).
Sources: Glasgow Herald (GH), Times (T), Red Rag (RR - a Reading radical paper), Socialist Opportunist (SO - a chronology published at the time); Insurrection (anarchist paper); Hansard (official record of UK Parliament)
