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

Both sides, to get a full picture

That was to Eezer

Anyone who was there is probably only writing from one point of view which is why I suggested reading a whole load of different stuff

Pride is a superb film.

My university boyfriend came from a mining village. His dad had lost his (skilled manual) job in the mid 1980s as a direct result of the strikes, and had spent the following 8/9 years on the dole. His relative owned a chippy and had often offered him full time work, but he'd turned his nose up at it. I can understand why, but he had 3 children to support so probably should have taken it for their sakes. In the mid 1990s his benefits were stopped so he reluctantly found a menial factory job and ended up enjoying it, making new friends and getting promoted twice before retiring.

There was an older cousin whose husband had been a striking miner. She had worked part time in a drudge job, but managed to get full time hours when the strike started. However, her husband still expected her to come home and do all the housework and cooking, and her mum was still expected to take care of their baby daughter whilst she worked even though he was at home. She didn't want her daughter raised in this sexist environment so they divorced. When I first met her several years later she had a decent job and the little girl was doing well at school. This thread has inspired me to look for them on Facebook to find out what they're up to, but no joy.

My MA research was about women and 1984 Miners' Strike. It was done retrospectively in 2001
My first DH was a miner. We were newly married, he earned a good wage, but the strike battered us financially.
In 1984 I worked with many Miners' wives and daughters of both working and striking miners. We supported one another and were gobsmacked at the generosity of strangers from across the country. Especially the gay community who were themselves vilified at the time.

Remember it as a time of great tension, with a sense of underlying violence as striking miners and their supporters from Yorkshire came to the Notts pits that continued working. I know of family members pitted against one another on opposite sides of the strike and rifts in families that have never healed.Ex FIL died having never spoken to one son since 85.

At the time we developed a massive hatred and distrust of the police and the Met in particular - this never really left us.

ExDH lost his career as mining engineer afterwards as pits closed and skills went.
The devastation left afterwards, bitterness, loss of jobs, loss of community and loss of identity - especially for the miners has lasted a very long time
Thatcher and her cronies have an awful lot to answer for.

Why did thatcher want to close down all the mines? What did she think all the men would do for work?

A lot of people will say that Thatcher didn't genuinely want to close the mines, what she really wanted to do was break the Unions.

At one stage during the miners' strikes, the government wrangled to stop gas being supplied to peoples' homes so that there was no power, and public opinion would turn against the miners. I can't remember the full details exactly, but I read a lot about it during my undergrad. Sadly I haven't still got my notes, otherwise I'd send you all my sources!

There are loads of books & old newspaper articles about the strike and about what it was like living in Thatcher's Britain. I've got a feeling I started by reading biographies (Tebbit, Heseltine, Scargill etc)

I wasn't born until 85 but my mum's from a mining family (central Scotland) and her dad and brothers were miners. She used to secretly give a chunk of her salary (teacher) to my granny for whoever needed it most in the family. Pretty much every family in that village had a miner in it, the miners' welfare was the centre of village life. After my granny died they put on her wake there. That was 15 years ago, it's gone now. The village as it was doesn't exist anymore, after the pit closed. Almost 100% unemployment of men at first, whichever led to drink, drugs, crime, the lot.

My mum hated Thatcher so completely, so viscerally. When I told her Thatcher had died she pretty much jumped for joy out in the street and I could understand why. Clearly coal was never going to be sustainable longterm but how can you just rip the livelihood off so many families without putting any kind of back up infrastructure in place or at least turn serious attention to rebuilding employment in the area? How do you expect communities to function? If the whole point of a government isn't to try to maintain a decent standard of living for voters, then what is it?

I'm aware how ridiculous this might sound, but I didn't realise why people hated Thatcher so much until reading this thread.

(Born ('86) and raised by parents who were aspiring to be middle class and believed that you didn't think about politics and only voted Tory.)

Well there's a lot of stuff out there if you have the time to read it

I think that Thatchers closing of the pits was cruel and wrong. I think the greed of the unions was largely what contributed to it.

I was a child at the time but I remember watching it on the news every night. My grandparents lived with us and there were many heated debates around the dining room table.
I recall being totally shocked at the violent scenes between the police and striking miners.
My father loathed the politicisation of the police under Thatcher.
As a family though, I remember having sympathy with miners who went back to work and hated the scenes of them being called scabs.
As we weren't directly involved with mining communities, there was a feeling that mining was a pretty dangerous, unpleasant job and that ultimately Arthur Scargill didn't really have the best interests of these communities at heart. The Unions had so much power back then.
But equally, the way Thatcher went about taking away that power was brutal for the people, families and communities involved.

I'm aware how ridiculous this might sound, but I didn't realise why people hated Thatcher so much until reading this thread

Yes, it pissed me off around the time of her time of her death when the likes of India Knight and Russell Brand were pontificating about how terrible it was that people still hated Thatcher as she was an old woman etc, etc.

They never had to live through the strike though. Their communities were not still feeling the force of Thatchers actions 20 years down the line

@Livia you asked whether miners wives worked.
I did and so did most my age - early 20s but this was in Notts and there had been a tradition of lace and hosiery work, which paid well, this in part I think made Nottinghamshire different from the traditional mining villages of Yorkshire. Women had the potential to be economically independent
But then after the mines went so did the place and hosiery factories.

Mmmmm, i have an inbred hatred for Thatcher, but in all honesty, Scargill (although what he said came to pass), was not all sweetness and light. I do think he was determined to be the one to bring down the government, and failed.

This is a subject i am passionate about, because i lived through it, and continue to live with the fallout.

I personally know a (now retired) policeman whose family went nc with him because he was on duty when the shit was kicked out of his brother and father by his workmates. His family were living in poverty and he was making a bomb with overtime payments. He wanted to help them out, but they refused his 'blood money'.

Unless you lived through it, you really cannot imagine the devastation it caused.

@Eezer
Lots of bands were politicised in the 80s also worth having a Google

And off topic but to also give you a flavour of the times read about Liverpool

Why did thatcher want to close down all the mines?

She wanted to destroy the unions. The mines and British Industry were collateral damage. The winter of discontent was hard and she played on that in order to become PM. I think that the destruction of the British manufacturing industry was a side effect of her "divide and conquer" strategy to kill trade unions stone dead.

I'm in the NE and remember them well, although I'm not from a mining community so didn't know anyone directly effected at the time, although know people now. My exes family were all miners and his bil served time for tipping over a police car.

It does have a lasting effect on small villages and very much crippled them, although they're starting to pick up again now.

I don't disagree with the closure of the pits as such, they were not economically viable, (over simplification) however it could've been dealt with better in both sides. Not enough help was offered but what help was offered was often refused.

I was in Kent, aged 16.
My family was poor but we sent food parcels to the Kentish miners.
Then, my Dad (a Printer) went on strike re Wapping.
The miners sent us food parcels even though they had nothing to give.
I remember my Mother crying with gratitude.

This is a very interesting knowledgeable and heartrending thread and its a pity its going to disappear in 12 weeks. Could it be saved to MN Classics if other posters are in agreement.
Im in Essex and i was 10/11 in 1984. The miners strikes on the news was one of the first news items i ever paid attention to and i was horrified at the way they were treated.

Over the years ive watched a few programmes about the miners strike There was one on ITV1 three years ago , I remember 3 women talking about how they fed many miners and their families in the village hall with one very basic small cooker.

More4 did one about the miners several years ago and i remember a BBC1 drama made over 10 years ago i think. Cant remember the titles of these programmes though.

I'm from NE England and was 6/7 at the time. I'll stick my neck out and probably get flamed for saying daughter of a police officer here. It was a truly shit time for all concerned. Truly awful and as a a family we saw both sides of this.

My dad was often collected before 6am in the morning and got home at 9/10pm at night. We never saw him and when we did, he wasn't the dad we knew and loved, he was an exhausted shell. He had a complete nervous breakdown after the strike and I can vividly remember the night a police psychiatrist came to our home, he was sectioned and taken for an in-patient stay. He was away almost 3 months and we didn't see him all that time, my mum obviously did but was advised not to take us. He was off work for 9 months. At the time of the strike he had 10 years service.

On the other hand my DM's sister was married to a labour councillor and big union man and they lived in a mining area. They often had the miners families in their house and some of the stories were heartbreaking. We all as a family used to collect for food parcels and all our old clothes were given to my aunt to distribute. Neither men fell out with each other, although sometimes things could get a little heated. However they both share a deep hatred of Arthur Scargill, to them he turned out to be the biggest scab of all. My DF often recounts the story of how he used to send his minions out for M&S sandwiches which was a big bloody luxury in the 80's, abhorrent man. So there you go flame away.

The Miners Strike saw a massive shift in the law, concerning the right to strike, picket and protest.

Indeed it did: it established the right not to strike, to cross the picket line, and to ignore the protests. Good thing too.

EastMids that makes a lot of sense, thank you. I wasn't sure whether there were specific industries which were large in mining communities iyswim

If you're interested in the long term impacts of Thatcher's policies in regards to the closure of the pits, steel works and docks I'd highly recommend reading the book 'Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class'.

Hickdead your poor dad. Was he able to return to work?

I've found it incredibly helpful to see more than one side here, so thank you for your honesty. I have no issue with it being in classics, or history if thats better. Obviously it's v recent history though!

I read that Owen Jones book two years ago. I remember him saying in it that one of the miners wives collapsed and died of a heart attack due to the stress of it all. She was only in her early thirties.

It pissed me off that he didnt even name her in the book though She was just referred to as (miners) wife.

Maxine Peake wrote a play called Queens of the Coal Age for Radio 4 that told the story of Annie Scargill and three other women who tried to occupy a coal mine during the 1980s Miners Strike.