Yet what you need is not marches, demonstrations, rallies or wide associations, all of them are important. What you need is direct action. The sooner people understand that, the sooner we'll begin to change things.

We will pave the way for a transformation and roll back the years of Thatcherism...We will turn economic ruin into economic recovery, and above all pave the way for a General Election to elect a Labour Government.

All too often miners, and indeed other trade unionists, underestimate the economic strength they have.

You may see the emergence of a new political party from the body of the trade union movement which represents a very clear-cut socialist alternative policy and which gives expression to the views of the trade union movement in parliament.

The trade unions and the Labour Party... failed miserably. Instead of giving concrete support, and calling upon workers to take industrial action, they did nothing.

Parliament itself would not exist in its present form had people not defied the law.

I have never been an idealist - that implies you aren't going to achieve something.