Thatcher wanted the pits closed and the miners soundly thrashed and that's what she got. Scargill wanted to bring down Thatcher just like his predecessors brought down Ted Heath. He failed totally. I lived in a mining village during the strike. The miners I knew just wanted a good wage and a steady job. Coal mines are unpleasant and dangerous places in which to work. Most of the lads I knew who were pitmen didn't want their sons to have to go down the pit. But for generations there was very little opportunity for employment except the pits. The miners were let down by everybody in the end. The Tory Government who they would have fought and died for in a war let them down. The Labour Opposition who they voted for let them down. The police service let them down. The Trade Union Movement let them down. The NUM Leadership let them down. As is usually is the case for working class people, they were crapped on from a great height. Working in a sandwich factory or a warehouse may not have kudos or machismo or middle class, rose tinted spectacle, glamour. But it is safer and cleaner than working down a pit. It doesn't pay as much. It should. But companies and the shareholders want more profits. The Bosses want bigger bonuses. The consumers want cheap sandwiches and free delivery. The politicians want an easy life. I haven't been to a mining community fA lot of the people living in those former mining communities helped vote Boris Johnson in to power in the last election. No doubt they will help put Keir Starmer in to power in the next election. But will the change of Government bring new hope and new life to those old mining communities? I doubt it.
and now Reform. The government has been more interested in promulgating a culture war and finding people to scapegoat (immigrants/trans people etc) than speaking to people within these communities. The mainstream parties are too scared to talk about these issues because of the feral gangs of keyboard warriors (on the left and right( waiting to pounce. Not to mention the non-dom millionaire donors and mates running right-wing haterags.
We're just turning into the US and we'll have poor rundown communities which will just be left to fester and die.
I was a journalist, communist party membet and supporter of the strike at the time. Our adopted pit was in Blyth. What happened here was deeply destructive and brutal: pits and steel works were closing across Europe, especially the Rhur. But in Germany there was a transition plan to ease the pain. But that was made possible because of the cooperative culture between management and trade unions.
The UK at the time of the pit closures was beconing ungovernable. Headlines in the Heath era posed the very question..Who governs Britain?
Post the miners strike it became clear that King Arthur, hero to so many (myself at the time) had made confrontation with the powers of the state all but inevitable. Interviews we carried out with members of the NUM executive were clear, Arthur wanted conflict and confrontation: minutes of meetings were amended without notice, funds moved around in unaccountable ways…. This was a class war, not an attempt at finding a mediated solution to an intractable problem.
No one has done a documentary on that because that would cast a very different light on the story. SY police have a deservedly dreadful reputation….as the abused young women “groomed” in Rotherham will testify.
I was proud to stand on picket lines, report honestly what I saw…but I believe that Arthur used the NUM and the miners to pursue a political goal: the overthrow of an elected government. Let’s see a documentary on that.
I went to see it yesterday at The Showroom. The miners who recounted their memories on the day at Orgreave, were very moving. The documentary helped to inform and jolt my memories of the strike as I saw it in the news. My closest association with the miners, was that two of them, who were touring the area to collect funds for the miner's welfare, came to stay a night at our house. They talked to me and my husband about what was happening. My only other connection to the police brutality was that in 1968, I was a student living in London and went with a group from my Art College, to join the Anti-Vietnam protest march which ended up in Grosvenor Square. Everyone around me were peacefully protesting and chanting 'Hey hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today', when mounted police started charging the crowd and a horse trod on my foot badly bruising on of my toes. My friends and I fled down a side street with to get away but a horse kept galloping after us. I was terrified and dived into an open doorway. The started owners who'd been peering out to see what was going on, were telling me to get out but I clung onto a sofa back and wouldn't leave until the coast was clear.
Another interesting and different take on something which remains a major and unforgettable time in my life.
I worked in the coal industry (coal face worker) at the time of the strike and that year remains deeply etched for lots of reasons.
My pit was the nearest one to Orgreave and we were picketing there well before the awful violence was orchestrated. It was peaceful and reasonably good natured, something that changed in the course of a day ...
I saw stuff that day which will stick in my minds eye forever, I felt fear the like which I've rarely felt since.
Without going into specific detail on certain incidents I witnessed, I and numerous others, after fleeing the infamous horse charge, ended up posing as shoppers in Handsworth Asda, the only way to avoid arrest..(there were lots of abandoned full shopping trollies in the aisles of Asda that day!)
My lifelong hatred of Thatcher and the Tories has never abated since.
No doubt I will get to see Daniel Gordon's documentary.
The premiere was a very moving occasion. It's a brilliantly well-made film. The accompanying book, with fantastic p[photos by Michael Donald, is superb too.
Thatcher called them the enemy within, deployed her forces and smashed the miners and their communities into oblivion. Totally shocking. Looking forward to a real enquiry.
It is all too painful to even read about it. 1979 and 1984 are the years that ended any chance working people could hold genuine determination over their own lives in a collective sense.
And of course there was no cost benefit analysis for shutting down allegedly unprofitable mines. It cost the govt far far more toclose them than subsidise them.
All the extra dole, housing benefits, nhs mental health services, the dependent shops that also closed, the asb and drug use and crime that resulted, and still had to buy coal (from China which needs extra emmissions scrubbers).
Obviously the govt needs to delay any inquiry until the people responsible have retired or preferably died so they cant be made liable (pensions lost, sentancing, fines etc).
I've just managed to go and see this film. It felt like a very important documentary, very well made. For someone who wasn't alive when it happened, It gave me a beer understanding of a bit of local and national recent history, highly recommend it to anyone thinking about going to watch it
Thatcher wanted the pits closed and the miners soundly thrashed and that's what she got. Scargill wanted to bring down Thatcher just like his predecessors brought down Ted Heath. He failed totally. I lived in a mining village during the strike. The miners I knew just wanted a good wage and a steady job. Coal mines are unpleasant and dangerous places in which to work. Most of the lads I knew who were pitmen didn't want their sons to have to go down the pit. But for generations there was very little opportunity for employment except the pits. The miners were let down by everybody in the end. The Tory Government who they would have fought and died for in a war let them down. The Labour Opposition who they voted for let them down. The police service let them down. The Trade Union Movement let them down. The NUM Leadership let them down. As is usually is the case for working class people, they were crapped on from a great height. Working in a sandwich factory or a warehouse may not have kudos or machismo or middle class, rose tinted spectacle, glamour. But it is safer and cleaner than working down a pit. It doesn't pay as much. It should. But companies and the shareholders want more profits. The Bosses want bigger bonuses. The consumers want cheap sandwiches and free delivery. The politicians want an easy life. I haven't been to a mining community fA lot of the people living in those former mining communities helped vote Boris Johnson in to power in the last election. No doubt they will help put Keir Starmer in to power in the next election. But will the change of Government bring new hope and new life to those old mining communities? I doubt it.
and now Reform. The government has been more interested in promulgating a culture war and finding people to scapegoat (immigrants/trans people etc) than speaking to people within these communities. The mainstream parties are too scared to talk about these issues because of the feral gangs of keyboard warriors (on the left and right( waiting to pounce. Not to mention the non-dom millionaire donors and mates running right-wing haterags.
We're just turning into the US and we'll have poor rundown communities which will just be left to fester and die.
I was a journalist, communist party membet and supporter of the strike at the time. Our adopted pit was in Blyth. What happened here was deeply destructive and brutal: pits and steel works were closing across Europe, especially the Rhur. But in Germany there was a transition plan to ease the pain. But that was made possible because of the cooperative culture between management and trade unions.
The UK at the time of the pit closures was beconing ungovernable. Headlines in the Heath era posed the very question..Who governs Britain?
Post the miners strike it became clear that King Arthur, hero to so many (myself at the time) had made confrontation with the powers of the state all but inevitable. Interviews we carried out with members of the NUM executive were clear, Arthur wanted conflict and confrontation: minutes of meetings were amended without notice, funds moved around in unaccountable ways…. This was a class war, not an attempt at finding a mediated solution to an intractable problem.
No one has done a documentary on that because that would cast a very different light on the story. SY police have a deservedly dreadful reputation….as the abused young women “groomed” in Rotherham will testify.
I was proud to stand on picket lines, report honestly what I saw…but I believe that Arthur used the NUM and the miners to pursue a political goal: the overthrow of an elected government. Let’s see a documentary on that.
And by making it into a class struggle Scargill handed Thatcher her throne. Both egos more interested in their own self-interests than this country.
I went to see it yesterday at The Showroom. The miners who recounted their memories on the day at Orgreave, were very moving. The documentary helped to inform and jolt my memories of the strike as I saw it in the news. My closest association with the miners, was that two of them, who were touring the area to collect funds for the miner's welfare, came to stay a night at our house. They talked to me and my husband about what was happening. My only other connection to the police brutality was that in 1968, I was a student living in London and went with a group from my Art College, to join the Anti-Vietnam protest march which ended up in Grosvenor Square. Everyone around me were peacefully protesting and chanting 'Hey hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today', when mounted police started charging the crowd and a horse trod on my foot badly bruising on of my toes. My friends and I fled down a side street with to get away but a horse kept galloping after us. I was terrified and dived into an open doorway. The started owners who'd been peering out to see what was going on, were telling me to get out but I clung onto a sofa back and wouldn't leave until the coast was clear.
I was at Grosvenor Square too, and those horses were scary. I managed to hide behind a tree when they charged!
Good to hear from you Teresa!
Another interesting and different take on something which remains a major and unforgettable time in my life.
I worked in the coal industry (coal face worker) at the time of the strike and that year remains deeply etched for lots of reasons.
My pit was the nearest one to Orgreave and we were picketing there well before the awful violence was orchestrated. It was peaceful and reasonably good natured, something that changed in the course of a day ...
I saw stuff that day which will stick in my minds eye forever, I felt fear the like which I've rarely felt since.
Without going into specific detail on certain incidents I witnessed, I and numerous others, after fleeing the infamous horse charge, ended up posing as shoppers in Handsworth Asda, the only way to avoid arrest..(there were lots of abandoned full shopping trollies in the aisles of Asda that day!)
My lifelong hatred of Thatcher and the Tories has never abated since.
No doubt I will get to see Daniel Gordon's documentary.
The premiere was a very moving occasion. It's a brilliantly well-made film. The accompanying book, with fantastic p[photos by Michael Donald, is superb too.
Thatcher called them the enemy within, deployed her forces and smashed the miners and their communities into oblivion. Totally shocking. Looking forward to a real enquiry.
It is all too painful to even read about it. 1979 and 1984 are the years that ended any chance working people could hold genuine determination over their own lives in a collective sense.
Excellent. Can't wait to see it.
And of course there was no cost benefit analysis for shutting down allegedly unprofitable mines. It cost the govt far far more toclose them than subsidise them.
All the extra dole, housing benefits, nhs mental health services, the dependent shops that also closed, the asb and drug use and crime that resulted, and still had to buy coal (from China which needs extra emmissions scrubbers).
Proof it was never about saving money.
Obviously the govt needs to delay any inquiry until the people responsible have retired or preferably died so they cant be made liable (pensions lost, sentancing, fines etc).
I've just managed to go and see this film. It felt like a very important documentary, very well made. For someone who wasn't alive when it happened, It gave me a beer understanding of a bit of local and national recent history, highly recommend it to anyone thinking about going to watch it
Powerful piece. I shall do my best to see the film.