The Miners’ Strike Taught Me to Think Critically - Gabriel Byrne on RAI (2/4) 

I realize this sounds a bit crazy but..there is something deep and special about Gabriel Byrne. Not many young men dealve into critical thought at such a young time in their lives, as he did..and still continues to do. Who knew?

Wake up !!! He produced a clip full of inaccuracies, and cliches. You are telling the world that you are as clueless as Byrne.

Andrew Wright 28th November 1990 is when John Major started office

Exactly - and this bloody so called documentary ignores all this and leavesit out and is worse than the propaganda is proports to expose. I'm Irish and remember how the unions destroyed Britian in the 70's.

The mines were profitable bar a few that could easily be carried...it was the Unions they wished to crush...to do that, you imply put all the miners out of work...and others followed

Good for you, man.

@@dodgro8342 I was on the streets every week collecting money for the Ayrshire miners in Paisley. One time we were at a demo outside Beith MOD Telecomms. We had to cross the main road to get up there. There was a Police escort and a convoy of Yuill and Dodds trucks bringing scab coal from Hunterston to Ravenscraig steel works. We ran in front of them and the bastards sped up and nearly got us killed. We got the local bands to do a few fund raisers for free as well. Not to mention the funds we raised for the ANC. Happy days!

@@jamesgraham4242 very very interesting. Why do you think they shut down the coal mines? Why did they kill off that industry in England?

@@dodgro8342 Revenge. During the 1970's the Miners were striking and working 3 day weeks. There were power cuts all over the country. lol I've still got bags of candles up in the loft. It was lights out, tellies off and out with the Primus stove. There was an economic crisis. I think inflation went up to over 20%. So, real wages were falling. Labour had to go to the IMF for a lone. The Tories blamed the Unions claiming they were holding the country to ransom. It all led up to the so called "Winter of Discontent." Then the environmental concerns were rising...but it was really all about crushing the unions and the miners were communist led by Scargill down South and McGahey in Scotland. At the same time the communists were splitting between the tankies and the Eurocommunists. McGregor was Thatcher's hatchet man.

@@jamesgraham4242 in "Das Kapital", Karl Marx, apart from other things, proved that all capitalist crises are crises of (relative) overproduction. Think of global material production. It´s divided into three massive sectors: 1. consumer products 2. production of the means of production (machinery,tools,conveyor belts,etc etc) 3. extraction and processing of raw materials. These three sectors are interdependent. The consumer products have to be sold non-stop, there have to be no delays, no hold-ups. If there are, then "surpluses" begin to appear and pile up. And why would there be a hold-up in sales of consumer products? Because under the current mode of production, the purchasing power of the vast majority of people is confined within extremely narrow limits (why it is this way, is a different topic, but it is a fact and we can see it all around us all the time in our everyday life, most people don´t have the money to buy most things presented on the consumer market, ranging from household appliances and furniture to cars and building materials). The overproduction is relative. This means that an excess of commodities exists only in relation to demand effective in terms of money, but not at all in relation to the actual requirements of society. So anyway, "surpluses" begin to pile up, overcrowding warehouses and leading to additional expenses. But the worst of all is that the price on that product begins to collapse, since everyone is trying to sell the "surplus", this leads to a catastrophic fall in price. In this case, the only thing that the private owners of plants, factories etc that produce this or that product can do is to cut or stop production, in order to let the "surplus" products gradually dissolve. When they do that, the sector that produces raw materials which this or that plant,factory etc were consuming (in order to make this or that product; for example, to make a fridge you need steel, oil, gas, sometimes coal etc). also begins to experience hold-ups, because when dozens or hundreds of fridge factories shut down, it means less steel,oil,gas etc is needed. "Surpluses" begin to pile up in the raw materials sector of production. It´s a domino effect. And that is what happened with coal and other raw materials during the energy crisis back in the 70-80s and that is what´s happening now. Read Ostrovitianov´s "Political Economy", chapter "Economic crises" (available on the Internet). It´s a Soviet textbook from 1954.

Exactly. Gabriel Byrne is extremely inaccurate. The Falklands were settled by mostly Scots in the early 1800s. They were British. They were occupied by a military dictator. And Thatcher was correct to kick the military dictator. Byrne is NOT a critical thinker. Byrne IS a professional pretender. And that is is evident. He is only as good as his lines. And unfortunately, for Byrne his lines are inaccurate.

My take on this was not so much the circumstances of the war itself as HOW the war was portrayed for the British public. That headline -- GOTCHA-- which involved the sinking of a ship and all aboard it (is that part true? Did an Argentinian battle ship get sunk, with everyone on board lost?) indicates the tone of the government and its opinion about its enemies and those who do not "tow the line." Rupert Murdoch is a blight on the world of journalism. FOX News is a malignant propaganda machine in the US. Mr. Byrne is pointing out how he learned about these issues as a young man. You can carp about details, but I find his experience instructive. Wish we'd had more critical thinkers during the 2016 election!

@@themsmloveswar3985 funny thing Ireland was also planted with settlers...look at all the "troubles" that caused over the centuries. Was Thatcher correct to protect Pinochet the Chilean dictator?? A nice retirement was sorted out for him!!!! Lol wasn't there some whisky presented to said dictator who disappeared and killed thousands, Maggie"s new best mate, Pinochet!!

@@StellaKuru I also recall reading before the War...a small section in a daily on a page 7 I think it was. It said that forces have been removed from the Falklands...and it was as though the British were begging the Argies to invade...now who would want a war? A Tory party that is heading out of power...backed by the Neoliberlaists who the interviewee mentioned...doubtless including the US war machine...and with big plans for the UK...but again...as he rightly said...the country was then carried away on a wave of jingoism. I was in the pub at the time...and looked at the lads ringing out the national anthem...these were miners...who were about to receive the same treatment...I just knew intuitively...and I recall thinking how people are so easily led...not everyone of course. I had just been on a management course for the NCB...where we told that Scargill would soon be done and dusted...and at least over 80 pits were destined for foreclosure...despite most being viable. And then I heard of new faces being set up with millions of pounds of taxpayers money...but no new coal was extracted...simply to fix the accounts...and label a fit and healthy fit as decrepit. The lies in the Strike was unbelievable...it was then I realised that you cannot trust your govy, the police, none of the authorities...nor the gutter press, Despots...almost the lot of them. After all I saw in that Strike...I became a more critical analyst of life...and there is nothing better than being free within. FREEEEEDDDOOMMMM...

Jesus did not want you to sin...love thy neighbour as thyself...

you can never learn anything if you won't listen

Some people (Dan Howard) don't want to think critically. Even when they're shown how and the repeated need to

@Geoff Whyte - Was that even a sentence? Should I also take advice from dolts who can't write proper English?

Your simple minded generalities are absurd. Actors are citizens,and many,as with all groups of people,have political and philosophical positions. Often,many of them are artists and bring a heightened perspective ,such as mister Byrne does.

Consider the petition to remove CNN from airports Your prognosis is very very harsh ! Peace

And replace it with Al Jazeera.

Since when did critical thinking become about endorsing every anti British cliche that the Irish speak of. At least state the counter argument before summizing an opinion. 'Critical thinking = Thatcher was pure evil'...come on FFS!

wait until you get laid off and thrown out into the street or lose your pension. "Leftist nonsense" lol. You live in a fantasy land inside your head.