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

I'm from a pretty little village in South Yorkshire. It wasn't a pit village, but the one next to it used to be. I remember the strike, I was 10-11 at the time. I remember people coming over to our village, nicking clothes from washing lines. I remember my mum being afraid and keeping the doors locked in the daytime (something that was unheard of before the strike). I remember how grim and bleak the pit village became, how people struggled, how they talked about scabs that crossed picket lines with such hatred. How they hated Thatcher with a vengeance. Bleak times

No flaming from me Hickdead. The police were used and abused by Thatcher as much as anyone back then (albeit with inflated wage packets). They were, IIRC, called 'Maggie Thatcher's bootboys' and the local police who knew their communities and were reasonable, in the main, were placed in an unenviable position by 'that woman'. Again, IIRC, things got nasty when the Met police/army were drafted in.
I am sorry that she facilitated your dad's illness. I hope that things improved for him.

The Full Monty follows on from the Miner's strike with the decline in manufacturing.

Look beyond the dancing and it's an interesting analysis of roles and identity.

Love Full Monty. Really interesting film, not just as a comedy.

I grew up in a pit village and am also a 'poster girl for working class done good' My family is riddled with ill-health - white finger, cancer, respiratory disease. Not to mention alcohol-related illnesses because once the pit closed and the miners were unemployed and unemployable, the only place to go during the day was t'club.

The school I went to was surrounded by the pit houses which meant it ended up surrounded by a derelict and poverty-riddled estate. It ended up in special measures, many of my classmates had teen pregnancies and alcohol use and glue sniffing were rife. We had ex-heroin addicts come into our classroom to tell us addiction and prison scare stories at age 13.

It's not much different now - though the community has recovered somewhat, many of the social problems persist. It's difficult to have aspirations when your entire life has been squashed.

OP watch the BBC1 drama Faith which i mentioned upthread.

I'm half way through the channel 4 one, Faith is next.

Hick, that is heartbreaking about your dad. My grandad (a miner) became very depressed during the strike. He never really got better and died younger than his father did (in his early 60s).

It's an old story, isn't it? Working class men and their families with everything to lose getting baited against each other as if for the amusement of those at the top. Who no doubt lost very little sleep while people's lives fell apart.

We lived in Nottinghamshire. My DH came to collect me and our newborn DS from hospital and we had to drive through a riot outside a pit. We were stopped by a policeman who told us to keep all the windows and doors locked and even with men running across the road we had to keep driving and not stop for any reason. I was petrified, sat in the back of a 2cv with a carrycot and my tiny DS in it. Not an experience I'd ever want to repeat.

You've summed it up Mycat.

@Hick
I am truely sorry to hear about your dad. The police should never have been used as Maggie's army. As someone once said to me they had an impossible job led badly

Totally agree with your opinion of Scargill, although his predictions about mine closure and imported foreign coal were correct.

@Eezer, now we've caught your imagination, look at women at the Miners' Strike. Poetry was written, many went on into further education, some became Feminists - many were really empowered by their fighting of the adversity of the strike. Some continued with other protests. There are some great success stories.

And then look at the Greenham Common women .. they've sort of been forgotten, but we're a powerful force for change for a while - and makes you think about our warmongering relationship with the USA

I was 12 and my step dad was a miner it was just a misery of a year especially for the women trying to feed their families Pride is a cracking film i love it watch it a lot

We had miners kids stay over the summer holidays to help their families. I was quite little though.

@Diamond I'd forgotten how terrifying it was to drive through the crowds and if course at that time a car registration numer reflected where in the country a car was registered.

news.sky.com/story/miners-strike-margaret-thatchers-triumph-10449363

In 1984 I was 18 and had m first job. Lived just outside and worked in London. We all loved Margaret Thatcher and hated Neil Kinnock and Arthur Scargill. We felt sorry for the miners families but thought they were all pawns being used by Kinnock and Scargill, especially Scargill.

At that time I joined the Conservative Party along with my friends partly because we were so inspired by Maggie as she would not back down. I no longer support the Conservatives but at the time was a fervent supporter.

The 1980s were a time of great earning capacity, fantastic social life and very, very happy and fun times.

I understand that my perspective and lifestyle was in stark contrast to those directly involved in the strike.

I remember it,most of our neighbours and my parents' friends were miners or wives of miners. Df was managing director of an industrial painting firm and employed striking miners on an ad hoc basis rather than employing temporary staff at the time. He kept many local families afloat at the time, by employing men two or three days a week. Not even sure if it was legal tbh but they were neighbours and friends and desperate and his firm needed staff.
Df was a staunch Maggie supporter at the time so definitely not a political base to his actions.

Another good film is Brassed Off.

We used to get food parcels from Poland comrade i remember a lot of mystery tins of stuff

Me too mrsjayy.

We survived for a whole year on family allowance, the pay from my Saturday job and whatever my Nana could spare.

It was a horrific time.

And soup kitchens of course.

I worked with a guy a couple of years ago who was arrested and got a criminal record for something he did on a picket line. He was always very bitter about the knock on effect ithe criminal record had on his life even 30 years later.

Dh is from a mining town and even now it suffers terribly with high unemployment and everything that goes with that - low aspirations, high drug use. It seems like nothing has really replaced the mines in that area to give people who identify as working class as industry to work in or give the area local pride.

If you ever happen to be in the north east, if really recommend a visit to wooodburn colliery museum. It really gives a brilliant insight into the miners' lives. In particular there's an art gallery of pieces produced by miners who worked at wooodburn.

If you want to read more I recommend getting a hold of Harry Paterson's Look Back in Anger and Seamus Milnes's The Enemy Within.

I was a union rep in the civil Service in Essex during this period. We held collections for the miners. I remember asking my mum if a couple of miners could kip on our floor for a night or two as they had come down to speak and raise support,she said no and we had a huge row. We did a lot of secondary picketing in those days too (supporting the strikes of other industries) but that was made illegal. The unions did have a lot of power in those days and we seemed to be on strike a lot. One of the saddest places I ever visited was Corby after the steel works had closed. I never went to a pit village but I can imagine the despair.

My history lessons in the late 70s didn't to past the ruddy Crimean and Boer wars!

I would say though that much of the funds raised to support miners never reached us.

The unions kept it to organise the fight.

I often think of poor folk in the U.K. And abroad giving what little they had, thinking we might get a food parcel and we did not!

The church primary schools opened the kitchen Saturday and Sunday in winter.
You could sit in and warm up plus get rabbit chicken stew made with donations from the allotments and barley.

It felt like a tinder box.
South Yorkshire police had a few rotten apples but the consensus was the local coppers did their job, the met were brought in for violence.
I'm still undecided on the army being special forces under disguise of bobbies, civil war.
It will come out soon, more worrying is we are heading that way again, fast.