Lawrence Daly

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Lawrence Daly was born in Fife on 20 October 1924, the son of a miner. His father James was a foundation member of the Communist Party. Lawrence began work as a miner at Glencraig colliery in 1939.

As a good communist he was soon active in the Scottish Mineworkers Union. His initial involvement was in the labour movement's youth wing; amongst other activities he represented the British TUC on an international youth delegation to Moscow in 1945, was chair of the Scottish TUC's Youth Committee, and later was elected chair of the NUM's Scottish Youth Committee. He held a variety of offices in the Glencraig NUM Branch, probably the most important for an aspiring activist was his ten years as Workman's Inspector, an appointment provided for under the coal mines safety legislation.

Although active in the Party from 1940, he was having differences with party doctrine from the late 1940s. Despite these differences, in 1951 Daly spent some time as fulltime party agent in West Fife. He eventually left the Party in 1956, shortly before the mass exodus of membership over the Soviet invasion of Hungary.

In 1957 Daly helped to found the Fife Socialist League. He was elected a County Councillor for the Ballingry division in May 1958, but when the FSL disbanded in 1964 he joined the Labour Party.

Daly's rise through the ranks was rapid. He was elected to the National Union of Mineworkers Scottish Area Executive Committee in 1962, became the full time agent for the Fife, Clackmannan and Stirling District a year later, and then General Secretary of the Scottish Area NUM in 1965. Daly was part of the movement in the mid-1960's for the abolition of piecework at the coalface, and its replacement by a national daywage structure - the National Power Loading Agreement (NPLA)of 1966.

In 1968 he was elected General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, and following what had by then almost become a tradition in the NUM, worked with two right-of-centre Presidents, Sid Ford and Joe Gormley. He steered the union through two major strikes in 1972 and 1974. Both strikes were a response to a massive falling behind of miners wages generally, and of coalface workers wages particularly; these occassioned by the effects of the "standstill" clauses in the NPLA, where the highest paid colliers in the Midlands and Nottinghamshire gave up any real pay increases as they waited until faceworkers shift rates in Scotland, Wales and other areas caught up. Following the 1974 strike, prime minister Edward Heath called a general election over the issue of "who governs Britain". He lost. It is held by many that this defeat was instrumental in Margaret Thatcher's Tory Party, post 1975, taking a "revenge" position that the NUM must be comprehensively defeated when the opportunity arose, and developing a strategy to the achievement of that end.

Daly sustained serious injury in a road accident in 1975, and had prolonged leave of absence following it. He was succeeded as NUM General Secretary by Peter Heathfield from the Derbyshire Area in 1984.

In the tradition of Communists particularly, but many working class activists generally, Daly was an autodidact who's secondary and tertiary alma mater was the Party and the mineworkers union, and the many able and intellectual activists within them. His grasp of Scottish history, and poetry and literature was phenomenal, and he was an inspiring speaker. He entertained many guests and visitors to 222 Euston Road with his recitations, songs and stories from history, often doing this in the NUM's favorite pub behind the Euston Road headquarters.

Original Source: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/ead/302.htm#N1099