Miners Strike
- Thread starter ChocolateTeapot
- Start date
Ryazan said:
How about being angry, not just because of the effects of the strike and the pit closures on the communities directly affected, but also the fact that the breaking of the miners paved the way for all the fucking blairite/thatcherite shit that has now not just shafted the working class in this country but is also being activley exported around the world?
handy1
A certain Man U fan ; )
pilchardman said:
Thank You for those quotes,classics some of them.
I was 19-20 when the strike was on and i can't describe the hate i had for Thatcher (or more importantly the people behind her pulling her strings because, to this day i dont believe she was behind it all,she allways struck me as being thick) and her sanctimoious drivellings on t.v. interviews at the time ranting on that she was keeping the enemy at bay.
And the Metro cops,as you get older you start to accept the innevitabilaty of some things,a neccessary police force is one of those things.
I will never accept the met at that time though,shame on them for all time for their underhanded,smug,wageslip waving cowardness.
The splitting of Fathers and Sons, Brothers from Brothers etc is the one thing that breaks my heart even now,thinking about it.
A bit pissed.......H
I have resisted posting in this thread until now but I think I should stick in a few words to see how it moves on the discussion.
I was 15 years old when the strike started, I was not especially political at the time. Though I do remember the miners strike.
Where I grew up if you were going to work it would be at the local mine. It was set out the men from the women (women worked in factories and the home) but men went underground. The sounds of mineworking were fantastic, the sounds of the shunters on the sidings, the sirens calling the shift that could be heard for miles and the general buzz of an industry that is doing something, something big. I was hypnotised by mining from early childhood.
I was going to be a miner, I was going to work in the pits as did my father, his father and my greatgrandad.
When you look at the layout of a pit village it all becomes clear. Houses are built around a hole in the ground. It is the purpose of the village, constructed by the coalowners to house their labour. In a way the purpose of parenthood in mining villages was not to produce city lawyers or financiers but to produce a new generation of miners. I was a child of this.
Strikes were not new to mining villages. As Tyrone O'Sullivan once put to me the underground culture bred a culture of solidarity, we work underground together we watch each others backs. The solidarity stretched beyond the workplace. People who worked underground drank in the same pubs, lived in the same communities as their comrades, mining families often holidayed in the same places such as Barry or Porthcawl.
Bonds were built that ran far deeper than those in workplaces today, we have as a society become more atomised as has the world of work.
While it is easy to hold with a stereotype of the poor miner it must be remembered that the miners were within our communities very well paid. To the extent that the concept of the housewife and single breadwinner could thrive. In a way this makes what came next far more pitiful.
By the time the strike had started my father had left the mines, but his father was still underground. I was heading towards my mock o levels.
The change in the community wasn't immediate.
But over the weeks it became clear that the fight was going to be longer than maybe many had expected. Many of my friends went onto dinner tickets and collection buckets were brought door to door on a daily basis, Eastern Bloc solidarity and solidarity from elsewhere gave many of the kids a holiday but on the whole the children of miners had it tough. Wives formed support groups and the community on the whole pulled together behind the union. NACODS sat out the strike and I personally hope that this is a decision that they regret to this day, and hang their head in shame.
The picket in the village was a man and his dog affair, NACODS aside there were no scabs so a mass picket (of the order of Ogreave) was not required at the time.
The NUM had been important to our community, and before that the SWMF. The union was behind our carnival, our football team and to be honest most community events. Where the community, union and Labour Party blurred was at village level (though interesting to note the Communist Party probably fulfilled this role more in Maerdy and the top of the Rhondda in the early bit of the 20th century). When the strike began the union had these levers within the community to draw on- events were organised as they always were but now the emphasis were on fundraising.
There were no coppers on the picket line in our village, the picket was largely symbolic anyhow. The strike held 100% as it had in previous strikes.
The mood was always positive.
As the strike started to run on the mood was starting to change. Solidarity held but there was more emphasis on the basics of survival. Things were getting desparate.
Despite the fact that many family members of mine were on strike I was to an extent insulated as my dad had been working in a factory for a few years. I didn't have to eat stewing steak from the Polish government every day.
I do not know what inspired the guy, was it MI5? Was it a payoff from the government? Was it that he thought that his kid were going off stewing steak?
I dont know whay the guy chose to go back to work but back to work he went.
The scab in question went into work despite the fact that there was no work for him to do. Without the hundreds of others he worked with he must have got paid for sitting around eating his sandwiches and drinking tea. However symbolically what he did was important.
However, and this may have suprised the guy, what happened later was not a drift back to work but a solidifying of resolve. The gloves came off.
All of a sudden our village turned into a police state.
There were coppers whos faces we didnt know running all over the place. Stuff was thrown at a certain car a lot and windows were frequently smashed.
It was about this time I started joining the picket. We had been warned by teachers enough times because stones had been thrown too many times over the school fence at the coppers but the mood had changed in the classroom too.
It was later that year that I learned of the political potential of the working class. I was as always heading towards the village to hang out for my school dinner break. I noticed that there were more coppers than usual.
As I arrived at the bridge over the river I saw a wall of coppers, they were formed up like romans in one of those sword and sandal movies. Heading towards them was a march (not resembling those liberal marches against the war). This march had no banners, no placards, it was a march of miners, many of which I recognised. They were pretty pissed off.
When the police and march met there was a bit of pushing and then a wall got pulled down. There was a rain of rocks (bits of wall) and the miners broke through. Just a thought but I am thankful they never got hold of the scab in that mood because there would have been a murder conviction.
Elsewhere in the country it seemed events were taking over, there was an apparent drift back to work. The village remained solid, though as I mentioned above the neighbouring village had a scab.
His name is not forgotten.
Its now 20 years since the strike and things have changed a lot, apart from Tower Colliery (a workers co-op) South Wales has no deep mines. True to its recent history this mine pays well. Work is mainly in the service sector- from call centres to transport. There is some manufacturing but very little. The scab has fucked off to Nottinghamshire (or did after the strike anyhow).
There is more heroin than I'd like to see about, alcoholism is rife as is car crime, buglary and car crime. Despite all that I do not plan to leave, its home.
Whatever prompted the solitary scab I don't know, but I would love him to see how many are tied to loan sharks or skag dealers, he could wallow in the squalor and marvel at the suicides. He could think to himself that hes played a small but significant part in creating that kind of world.
I was 15 years old when the strike started, I was not especially political at the time. Though I do remember the miners strike.
Where I grew up if you were going to work it would be at the local mine. It was set out the men from the women (women worked in factories and the home) but men went underground. The sounds of mineworking were fantastic, the sounds of the shunters on the sidings, the sirens calling the shift that could be heard for miles and the general buzz of an industry that is doing something, something big. I was hypnotised by mining from early childhood.
I was going to be a miner, I was going to work in the pits as did my father, his father and my greatgrandad.
When you look at the layout of a pit village it all becomes clear. Houses are built around a hole in the ground. It is the purpose of the village, constructed by the coalowners to house their labour. In a way the purpose of parenthood in mining villages was not to produce city lawyers or financiers but to produce a new generation of miners. I was a child of this.
Strikes were not new to mining villages. As Tyrone O'Sullivan once put to me the underground culture bred a culture of solidarity, we work underground together we watch each others backs. The solidarity stretched beyond the workplace. People who worked underground drank in the same pubs, lived in the same communities as their comrades, mining families often holidayed in the same places such as Barry or Porthcawl.
Bonds were built that ran far deeper than those in workplaces today, we have as a society become more atomised as has the world of work.
While it is easy to hold with a stereotype of the poor miner it must be remembered that the miners were within our communities very well paid. To the extent that the concept of the housewife and single breadwinner could thrive. In a way this makes what came next far more pitiful.
By the time the strike had started my father had left the mines, but his father was still underground. I was heading towards my mock o levels.
The change in the community wasn't immediate.
But over the weeks it became clear that the fight was going to be longer than maybe many had expected. Many of my friends went onto dinner tickets and collection buckets were brought door to door on a daily basis, Eastern Bloc solidarity and solidarity from elsewhere gave many of the kids a holiday but on the whole the children of miners had it tough. Wives formed support groups and the community on the whole pulled together behind the union. NACODS sat out the strike and I personally hope that this is a decision that they regret to this day, and hang their head in shame.
The picket in the village was a man and his dog affair, NACODS aside there were no scabs so a mass picket (of the order of Ogreave) was not required at the time.
The NUM had been important to our community, and before that the SWMF. The union was behind our carnival, our football team and to be honest most community events. Where the community, union and Labour Party blurred was at village level (though interesting to note the Communist Party probably fulfilled this role more in Maerdy and the top of the Rhondda in the early bit of the 20th century). When the strike began the union had these levers within the community to draw on- events were organised as they always were but now the emphasis were on fundraising.
There were no coppers on the picket line in our village, the picket was largely symbolic anyhow. The strike held 100% as it had in previous strikes.
The mood was always positive.
As the strike started to run on the mood was starting to change. Solidarity held but there was more emphasis on the basics of survival. Things were getting desparate.
Despite the fact that many family members of mine were on strike I was to an extent insulated as my dad had been working in a factory for a few years. I didn't have to eat stewing steak from the Polish government every day.
I do not know what inspired the guy, was it MI5? Was it a payoff from the government? Was it that he thought that his kid were going off stewing steak?
I dont know whay the guy chose to go back to work but back to work he went.
The scab in question went into work despite the fact that there was no work for him to do. Without the hundreds of others he worked with he must have got paid for sitting around eating his sandwiches and drinking tea. However symbolically what he did was important.
However, and this may have suprised the guy, what happened later was not a drift back to work but a solidifying of resolve. The gloves came off.
All of a sudden our village turned into a police state.
There were coppers whos faces we didnt know running all over the place. Stuff was thrown at a certain car a lot and windows were frequently smashed.
It was about this time I started joining the picket. We had been warned by teachers enough times because stones had been thrown too many times over the school fence at the coppers but the mood had changed in the classroom too.
It was later that year that I learned of the political potential of the working class. I was as always heading towards the village to hang out for my school dinner break. I noticed that there were more coppers than usual.
As I arrived at the bridge over the river I saw a wall of coppers, they were formed up like romans in one of those sword and sandal movies. Heading towards them was a march (not resembling those liberal marches against the war). This march had no banners, no placards, it was a march of miners, many of which I recognised. They were pretty pissed off.
When the police and march met there was a bit of pushing and then a wall got pulled down. There was a rain of rocks (bits of wall) and the miners broke through. Just a thought but I am thankful they never got hold of the scab in that mood because there would have been a murder conviction.
Elsewhere in the country it seemed events were taking over, there was an apparent drift back to work. The village remained solid, though as I mentioned above the neighbouring village had a scab.
His name is not forgotten.
Its now 20 years since the strike and things have changed a lot, apart from Tower Colliery (a workers co-op) South Wales has no deep mines. True to its recent history this mine pays well. Work is mainly in the service sector- from call centres to transport. There is some manufacturing but very little. The scab has fucked off to Nottinghamshire (or did after the strike anyhow).
There is more heroin than I'd like to see about, alcoholism is rife as is car crime, buglary and car crime. Despite all that I do not plan to leave, its home.
Whatever prompted the solitary scab I don't know, but I would love him to see how many are tied to loan sharks or skag dealers, he could wallow in the squalor and marvel at the suicides. He could think to himself that hes played a small but significant part in creating that kind of world.
PrinceToad
Visiting this planet
I think eveyone in the country was affected by it, and by the outcome. Obviously those who were more personally affected get more angry. The point is he doesn't need to apologise really.Ryazan said:
fishfingerer
sultan of cringe
Oh fuck off.Ryazan said:
Phototropic
Active Member
Jesus Ryazan you really are a waste of space aren't you?
Cheers for posting that herman, it is interesting.
Cheers for posting that herman, it is interesting.
Phototropic
Active Member
Ryazan said:
You just never seem to post anything of worth that's all. You rant, blither, lie and witter with no style and substance. You say 'let's return topic' when you were the one who took it off topic. You generally have a negative effect on threads and it is all rather tiresome.
Ryazan said:
What has that got do with anything
Surely most people now accept the coal industry in Britain would have come to an end at some point in the last 30 years, however it was played.
We all accept that, don't we?
We all accept that, don't we?
Sorry, hadn't realised this thread had gone to a second page, and wanted to comment on this.......
Excellent and interesting post, Herman. I'm guessing you are about five years older than me, so my memories are hazier. And coal mining was never as big a part of the Derbyshire economy as it was in other parts of the UK (nowhere more so than south Wales) so the alternatives were already there to some extent. But would you seriously want to go back to a world where all men went down the mine, and all women were stay-at-home housewives.
(not saying the whole thing wasn't handled in an appalling way, but that world *had* to die, was already dying 20 years ago)
herman said:
Excellent and interesting post, Herman. I'm guessing you are about five years older than me, so my memories are hazier. And coal mining was never as big a part of the Derbyshire economy as it was in other parts of the UK (nowhere more so than south Wales) so the alternatives were already there to some extent. But would you seriously want to go back to a world where all men went down the mine, and all women were stay-at-home housewives.
(not saying the whole thing wasn't handled in an appalling way, but that world *had* to die, was already dying 20 years ago)
dylanredefined
Not a house elf a tiger
Twenty years ago I had just left school .The miners strike didn''t effect me at all . The lights stayed on .The whole workers solidarity thing completely
alien to me .Didn't understand or care one way or the other though the family
paper was the daily mail
so probably thought maggie was right
alien to me .Didn't understand or care one way or the other though the family
paper was the daily mail
so probably thought maggie was right Brilliant post herman, my family were miners in the Dulais Valley and I was a little younger than you when the strike started. I don't think there's anything I can add to what you've already said.
I don't know what I'd do know if I met a scab. I doubt I would physically attack him, which for many years I would have done; but I can never forget and never forgive their betrayal.
I don't know what I'd do know if I met a scab. I doubt I would physically attack him, which for many years I would have done; but I can never forget and never forgive their betrayal.
Donna Ferentes said:
Sorry Donna, but the article you refer to in that blog http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1431523,00.html is basically right.
Whats more deep down I think you know it's right too.
fishfingerer
sultan of cringe
It was about not about the coal industry, it was about destroying the trade union movement. Class war waged from above.mrtambourineman said:
fishfingerer said:
I guess my next point would be, could the union movement (in the old sense of the word) have survived the switch from industrial to service industries in any case?
fishfingerer
sultan of cringe
Yes, as in Germany and Sweden for example.mrtambourineman said:
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
mrtambourineman said:
I suppose that depends on how you look at the current situation.
One of the main reasons (IIRC) that Thatch was happy to send coal into oblvion (excluding the obviously ideological reason of breaking the most powerful British trade union) was the availability of cheap (lower quality) coal imports from Eastern Europe and Chile to fuel power generation. However, the savings weren't as significant as had been estimated because of the extra costs of "scrubbing" emissions. Add to that the "commonsense" notion that it never does to become a captive market (and without major domestic coal production that is exactly what happened) and I think there were good logical economic reasons to keep coal production in Britain alive.
As it is we have a situation where, given that we are now (at least partially) a captive market for gas and oil imports for power generation, and any commissioning of nuclear reactors will probably only match the decommissioning of old capacity, coal may very well become a viable resource for power generation. The problem being that we've now lost a whole generation of knowledge, not only of "coal face" techniques, but of the various quirks of local geology at individual pits.
One thing that people often forget is that Britain still mines a hell of a lot of coal through the Open Cast system (or Strip Mining as it should be known).
Its the most environmentally destructive process imaginable and was I believe only introduced as an emergency measure during WW2.
Its the most environmentally destructive process imaginable and was I believe only introduced as an emergency measure during WW2.
Donna Ferentes said:
what the fuck is that tosh
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