Murder of a militant miner
During and after the 1984-85 miners’ strike we received numerous
lectures from the wise and the good about violence, and how violent
the strikers were. We always pointed out that the first people killed
in the dispute were two pickets, for which nobody has every been
held accountable. We pointed out also that a couple of kids who
died scrabbling for coals on a railway outcrop only perished because
of the strike and the attempts to starve back the miners. The violence
of their deaths was not the sort they cared about - only our counter-violence
and in particular the accidental death of the scab-herding taxi
driver in Wales.
Twenty years down the line and another picket dies, killed by a
scab. It was quite intentional and was done in vengeance against
the National Union of Mineworkers militant because of his loyalty
to his class and class struggle. Not content with that, there then
follows a further attempted murder of the man’s family, which
fails, but not for want of trying. We suspect the same scab or scabs
are responsible for both the murder and the attempted murders.
|
Enjoy this article?
How about showing
us your appreciation? Producing the Weekly Worker costs a
substantial amount of money. Our only source for that financial
backing comes from people like you: readers and supporters of our
newspaper. You may not agree with the CPGB on every dot and comma,
but we know that 1000s of comrades appreciate our open, critical
and democratic press.
Click
here to find out how you can donate to the Summer Offensive
2004, our annual fundraising drive.
|
|
Keith Frogson, 62, a pit militant in the Nottingham coalfield,
known to one and all as ‘Froggy’, was a stalwart of the
84-85 strike. He stood his ground in the worst of conditions in
a coalfield which was suffering an epidemic of ‘leprosy’,
with most miners scabbing. Froggy had continued to support the NUM
after the strike and after being finished in the industry he never
lost his disgust at not only losing the strike, but the handing
over the running of the miners’ interests to a group of bosses’
goons in the so-called Union of Democratic Mineworkers. He always
supported the miners’ galas and demonstrations and never ceased
to berate the men who he felt betrayed our union and our way of
life.
On July 19 he was found dead in a pool of blood outside his Annesley
Woodhouse home. A fierce argument was heard at the time, just yards
away from his home. A TV documentary about the 1984-85 strike may
have led to murder by re-igniting the feud on opposing sides of
the dispute. Police investigating the death are exploring a possible
link with a film which was shown on television 24 hours before the
killing.
The documentary, aired to mark the 20th anniversary of the strike,
is thought to have been watched by Keith. Detectives want to question
Robert Boyer, 42, who vanished on the night of the July 19 murder.
He was an 84-85 scab. Like many of his ilk he is an oddball, much
taken with knives and crossbows and killing and wounding things.
Neighbours say he was obsessed with hunting, often disappearing
into nearby fields and woods late in the evening or early in the
morning. He had a criminal record for shoplifting and had also been
seen firing an airgun at cats and dogs from his bathroom window.
It is thought that he may be living rough in nearby woodland and
the Nottinghamshire force is receiving assistance from search experts,
behavioural scientists and geographic profilers.
A helicopter with heat-seeking equipment is also involved in the
operation. They could perhaps try waving a full wage packet about,
as that never failed to work last time in getting such blokes to
break cover and run. Boyer is a reclusive loner. He had worked in
the pits after leaving school at the age of 16 until he was made
redundant at 23, one year after helping to break the strike and
cripple the coal industry.
The two former miners lived in terraced houses 50 yards apart in
the close-knit village of Annesley Woodhouse, where Froggy, a father
of three, was a popular and well-known character. Police say that
Froggy and Boyer had been engaged in a bitter personal dispute for
several years and they believe that it may have exploded into violence
if the two men crossed paths on the night of the killing.
Froggy was later found lying on the pavement with fatal head injuries
inflicted by at least two sharp-bladed weapons and may also have
been attacked with arrows fired from a crossbow. Police think a
crossbow found in a nearby garden may have been used in the attack.
The scab ex-miner, who worked at the Linby and New Hucknall pits,
is also suspected of torching Froggy’s home on July 29, just
10 days after the murder. Keith’s daughter, Rachel, 33, was
in the house with her partner when the blaze took hold.
The ITV documentary Real life, shown 24 hours earlier, had followed
the struggle of a mother in a nearby mining community to save her
son from the epidemic of heroin addiction which swept though former
pit villages after the collapse of the coal industry. Froggy’s
opinion of those he blamed for aiding and abetting the mass closure
of Britain’s coalfields, never far from the surface, had been
given a particularly vocal airing after he watched the programme,
according to villagers.
The gregarious grandfather worked as an odd-job man in the village
and, in a community which has long been accustomed to sorting out
its own problems, was also regarded as something of a local enforcer
of law and order, often warning petty criminals to clean up their
behaviour.
Froggy’s family, comrades and workmates are determined to give
him a big, defiant send-off at his funeral, the details of which
are yet to be announced. Clearly there will have to be an inquest
which, given the fact that murder will be a probable cause, must
then be adjourned pending the arrest of the suspect and the outcome
of his trial. The body will though be allowed to be released once
all the evidence related to it is known.
We are hoping NUM branches will turn out with their banners and
we hope at least one band might be present. The left in Britain
if it is serious at all, should turn out in force to mark the contribution
and ultimate sacrifice made by our dear comrade and friend, Keith
Frogson.
His fate is somewhat similar to that of the NUM nationally itself,
a hero murdered by cowards and scabs.
David Douglass
|
