‘The enemy within': football hooliganism and the Miners' Strike

ABSTRACT During the 1980s Margaret Thatcher’s government attempted to reduce the economic power of the industrial working class by legislating against the trade unions and defeating the 1984–85 Miners’ Strike, which saw her brand the miners as the ‘enemy within’. At the time English football was an important part of male working-class culture, particularly for northern industrial workers and was coming under attack from the Government and press over football hooliganism. It has often been argued that Thatcher’s trade union policies were designed to break the economic power of the industrial working class. If, through comparison, a link between this policy and the treatment of football supporters is found it will determine whether this conflict had a cultural aspect. Scholars have anecdotally made this link previously, but there has not been sufficient analysis of the comparison. This treatment will not analyse any actual links between the trade union movement and football supporters, but will focus on the Government and press treatment of football and trade unions and assess whether the Government was seeking to bind the two issues together.