1980s miners strikes?

[CaulkheadUpNorf]

I'm watching Pride, which is set 1984-5, which is before I was born, and it's made me realise I know nothing about the miners strikes.

If you remember it, were affected by it, what was it like? Or are there some things I can read to find out more? There's very little online

@CaulkheadUpNorf

What was the title of the C4 documentary you were watching before?

Just trying to find it on All4 now while working from home...

When British went to war.

There's a link to it further up the thread if that's easier.

Watching now...interesting to get more context as I was a child at the time so saw the after effects more than the actual strikes.

Clearly bad behaviour on both sides at times but it's also clear that Thatcher wanted to decimate our industry in pursuit of her free market ideals irrespective of the scale of impact on the working classes...as long as the middle class were okay then all was well.

A lot of the issues we have today come from the Tory ideology of that time IMO...rampant consumerism, individual over community, the demonisation of ordinary working class people.

If we still had stronger unions we wouldn't have wages so low ordinary working people need top ups with tax credits, zero hours contracts, etc. I don't believe Unions should hold back genuine progress but there needs to be a better balance than there is now (hence hoping Labour win the election despite being Lib Dem myself).

This thread is so fascinating, I love social history and have really enjoyed reading all the responses. I was born in West Yorkshire in 85, I think that's another reason I've such an interest in the strikes. I've had Pride on the sky box for ages, I keep meaning to watch it - I've got the Channel 4 documentary mentioned upthread on now.

Watch pride it is a brilliant film will warm your cockles

TinklyLittleLaugh

Working people only have any kind of power when they all stand together.

The NUM chose to call for area strikes which - by their rules, not "Tory laws" - required separate area ballots.

In Nottinghamshire the No vote won and the Union - the members who are the Union, not the National Executive - was against the strike. It was the outsiders who would not accept and respect that democratic decision.

I haven't read all the thread..will do later so sorry if I repeat whats already been said.

My folks ran a Miners Welfare in the early 90's. It was physically in Derbyshire, but the nearest pit was just a mile away in Nottinghamshire. This obviously caused lots of problems and my folks said there were still people who wouldn't speak to others years later

The things that leap out to me from this thread is how the government at the time used the Police as a private army and in doing so corrupted them and, in some respects, placed miners outside of the law.

I know there was wrong on both sides but an individual acting criminally is a very different thing to a government doing so. They just aren't comparable.

Mining in the UK was dying and would probably have largely disappeared by now anyway but the way this was conducted, setting whole sections of society against each other and corrupting the course of law in the process was utterly shameful. The fact that no government has had the decency to conduct a review/inquiry into some of the worst abuses is a disgrace.

Build a bonfire
Build a bonfire
Leon Brittan on the top
Maggie thatcher in the middle
And burn the bloody lot....

Led to my demise from the brownies....

😂😂

"Although i have to admit this was very chauvinist"

Im willing to bet there were many divorces like the one mentioned upthread when some of the men who ended up staying at home didnt pull their weight re. childcare and housework when their partner became the breadwinner.

There are likely many cases where the support that the miners wives showed their partners wasnt reciprocated once the gender roles were reversed after the strikes and the following years.

To the tune of 'Do They Know it's Christmas?'
'Feed the miners
Let them know it's coal not dole...' (repeat ad infinitum) was one we sang a lot in the playground.

nauticant

Although it is still different from a government criminally. Some of the groups acted in concert with each other and with the unofficial blessing of the unions.

There was a reconstruction of the Battle of Hargreaves made by the artist Jeremy Deller.
I was a student during the strike; I remember a boy whose brother was a policeman (bussed in for extra manpower), saying that they taunted the miners by waving their wage slips at them, boasting about the overtime they were being paid.
And the news was terribly biased.

I live in the midlands but not really a mining area of the midlands. Remember seeing loads on tv about it and shouting up the stairs to mum that I'd seen a news flash that the miners strike was over, I was about 11

My earliest memories are of wandering round benefit gigs for the miners with a collecting tin and 'coal not dole' stickers. Our family had no direct links to mining and didn't live in a mining community, but there was fierce support for the miners and awillingness to make sacrifices to support them, regardless. We certainly weren't alone in that. I don't think that support and sacrifice for strangers would happen now, which makes me really sad.

I still feel strong emotions about the strikes. Ordinary people who just wanted to live and feed their kids - miners and many local police officers too - were led to a senseless vicious, war by people who were playing a game of political 'dare' and who went home to their lovely safe homes and nice dinners at the end of the day.. Scargill and Thatcher both.

I agree with PP that Hillsborough would not have happened without the media discourse demonising the working classes which was established during the strikes. The legacy now is seen in media vilification of those on benefits and absolute hounding of bebefit cheats whilst totally ignoring multi million tax evaders...

Argh, I have become over emotional and it's late ...sorry for typos/nonsense. Feelings still strong so many years later...

Thank you for the link Agoddess. I've not seen this before. Very emotional here.

@HelenaDove

My marriage ended in 86. In part due to the strike. We married in 82, lived near his parents and wider family. I am not from mining stock. We were 'lucky' in that I had a good public sector job and so we coped better than most.
The strike changed him, and consumed him. He became hard, bitter and sort of feral. His life revolved around the strike. I lived in constant fear of something happening to him. He was young and very idealistic about 'the fight'.

What had been our shared dreams seemed to get lost in it all.

At the same time work were sending me to college, I met people with a different mindset and different ambitions and studying took my mind off all that was going on at home. We quickly drifted apart and yes, I was resentful that I was working, supporting us and he was wasn't. I'd come home and find our house full of his friends, I was treated, I felt, like a spare part.
So
the strike changed the dynamics of our marriage but looking back I reckon we wouldn't have lasted long - we were from very different backgrounds, and over time this would have escalated.
Participating in this thread has brought back some bittersweet memories and made me really think about the girl/woman I was back then. It seems a world away.

I was at a miners benefit gig in Newcastle where the Poison Girls were supported by a colliery brass band.

My father was a policeman at the time and earned so much money doing overtime whilst the miners strike was on. My parents and lots of other policemens families in our area had a saying that all the new items they bought were paid for by Arthur. Being older now and understanding more it seems very wrong that some families were thrilled with new electrical goods, holidays etc whilst miners families were struggling to eat

I'd just like to inject a little light humour here. I was living in Burnley at the time (not through choice) and flying pickets arrived to picket Bank Hall pit.

But the pit had been closed in the early 1970s (a 'gassy' pit and iron pyrite are not a good mix) and had been landscaped. It's actually quite a pretty spot, all green and trees.

Andrewofgg

I did thank you for correcting me but the post seems to have, well not posted, so thank you again

I was living in Burnley at the time (not through choice)

I live in a town on the edge of a coal field so wasn't that much involved.
My exh was an electrician and looked at getting a job down the pits to get more money.

I told him he must be mad . Never smoked, so why would he want to expose his virgin lungs to coal dust.

My great grandfather was a Scottish miner in fife and moved down here to get away from the pits

I remember miners having food stalls where we could donate in town and the power going off for three to four hours a day.
Was not good.
Must have been horrendous living among it.
I had a lot of friends seriously injured in the pits . I'm pleased that we hopefully won't see that again.
I met my exh as he was a friend of s chap who was paralysed down the pit.

I turned 10 in the middle of the strike; dad was a striking miner and I remember the huge support from the public - food parcels, toy collections for the miners' children, fruit and veg donations from local suppliers. We weren't a rich family anyway so getting hand me down clothes and toys wasn't a problem; we were just happy to get Christmas presents. Even now, when I hear the word 'solidarity', I think of the strike and the way that people pulled together.

My outstanding memory from the strike was going down to London for a march to Trafalgar Square, where Arthur Scargill was speaking; both parents, younger sister, toddler brother in his pram. There was some trouble near us, so my parents rushed us to safety. It might just have been a scuffle (scary enough to a ten year old) but I'm sure there were mounted police involved. There was quite a lot of police brutality back then; Orgreave is the most famous incident but it wasn't an isolated one by any means.

I was aged about 32 during the strike and finding it really hard going with three children under four and a half , the baby with special needs so I never truly grasped what was going on..
I always say the 80s were a blur.