Women’s liberation and the miners strike 40 years on

[Karensalright]

Local radio making a podcast, recorded today at my house with my striking miner husband. For the forty years on thing. Brought it all back to me. There was a song we working class women sang,

there were a few lines in it i thought you all might like. From we are women we are strong, a miners wives song

”we don’t need government approval for anything we do
we don’t need their permission to have a point of view
we don’t need anyone to tell us what to think or say
we have strength enough and wisdom of our own
to go our own way”

thats my outburst for today ….sob sob .

Yes, it was so important that the kids were protected as much as possible. Hard enough that they were in hand me downs, relied on the kitchens and parcels. I had to smile at @stomachameleon meeting the Flying Pickets. Better than sodding Billy Bragg any day.
Does anyone remember Banner Theatre? They were great and went on to do so many fundraisers for all sorts of disputes and struggles. I'll give them a mention. I'm remembering all the fund raisers now instead of cracking on with what I'm supposed to be doing.
https://www.search.connectinghistories.org.uk/details.aspx?ResourceID=836&ExhibitionPage=2&ExhibitionID=835&SearchType=2&ThemeID=17

Banner in 1981
https://www.search.connectinghistories.org.uk/details.aspx?ResourceID=836&ExhibitionPage=2&ExhibitionID=825&SearchType=2&ThemeID=17

One of the most shocking scenes in the film Billy Elliot was when the schoolkids are walking along the side of a house and the girl is dragging a stick along the wall and then the wall changes seamlessly into a line of police with riot shields (because the strike was going on). It became the backdrop to so many lives.

It was about power, and it was a strike deliberately engineered by Thatcher to destroy the unions by making an example of the NUM, arguably the most powerful union in the country.

Agree. I said in an earlier post this strike and particularly the Battle of Orgreave politicised me (along with Bloody Sunday).

And yes the very basis of Women's Liberation was (and it is really sad we have lost this) local women coming together to discuss what they had in common and from that what action / activities they wanted to take. If where you live is under threat than for local women undoubtedly this threat would be a priority, rather than the more reflective consciousness raising.

It's the organising within a stuggle that raises consciousness for most working class women. No woman is ever her former self again.

I thought some on this thread might be interested in this. Suspect aimed at theorists rather than actual participants, but could be worth sending in accounts of actual experience!

For historians, Beyond the Fragments challenges pessimistic narratives of socialist decline and Neoliberal triumph, and provides a framework for some of the extraordinary solidarity movements (around the miners strike, Greenham Common, and latterly the anti-globalisation movement) that followed.

For theorists, it raises fascinating questions about the influence of second-wave feminism on political organising, the limits of Leninism, and the value of life-writing for informing political strategy.

For contemporary activists, it may also still offer an inspiring and insightful guide to creating a socialist politics that empowers and unifies diverse and fragmentary experiences of oppression.

http://www.womensgrid.org.uk/?p=23639

Just seen this is about to start on C4 but means you can watch on C4+1 at 10pm.

Not sure if it covers all areas but first episode about Derbyshire from a quick read.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/miners-strike-1984-the-battle-for-britain

Watching it

Also watching. Many thanks for the reminder.

Hiya @LarkLane @IwantToRetire sobbed a bit maybe my age

Hiya back! A bit choked up too, I'm on the plus 1 watch. So started at 10.
Everyone so young! I felt straight back there did you?
A bit of a mixed feeling about it being Shirebrook. Not sure if it's going to really be about Community or about the ballot politics.
Let's see how it goes.

Three months for smashing a window you didn't smash.🙄

Yes a bit about scabs hey ho balance required, scab living miserable life saw hubbies face harden and sadden good he said.

pits closure and unions internals were a physical guttural battle

i see the TRAs “battle of self” so more repugnant tonight than i already did.

§

You know, I was thinking about TRA tactics too. Visits from cops and being arrested for GC beliefs.
Same old.
Those young women! I can see myself in them can you?

YES

that is the thing for me women and the magnificence of who they (us) were and and who we are now. and how we can reform whenever required.

we have our own history, sometimes tied up with our men, sometimes not.

I always thought i was a mother feminist still am i will not deny my womb, my motherhood, thats what makes me.

I think Joyce is our best speaker at the moment because class alliance is not currently required, in this struggle. Men are not affected at all and struggle to get it.

Well said sister!

Well that was a right emotional watch. Both angry and bereft.
The pit blown up at the end.
I just looked in the mirror, it seems yesterday and yet so long ago.

There is a thread is on age phobia that is a good diversion.

Is it OK if I chime in? I'm American and was in my 20s when this was all going on. It was the Reagan era (😡) and the effort to break unions was rife here, too. We all hated Thatcher on principal. Her strategy to pit (see what I did there) working class miners against mainly working class police was frighteningly effective. Have any of you seen the movie, "Pride"? It takes place right in the middle of the miners' strike and told me so much about the issues and what it was like during that time. There was a good episode of "Vera" that talked about it, too.

@SpuytenDuyvil hello to you over in the Bronx! I remember following Reagan's election campaign from afar. If ever there was a political love match it was Thatcher and Reagan.

You are right about the police tactics, Thatcher polarised everyone in the community. I found it tough going watching it last night. Especially Roland who supposedly went back down the pit, and yet there he was in an office on the phone organising strike breaking. With an alarm system from the Home Office installed in his house. Enough said!

Wasn't Reagan a Democrat at one time, he led the 1960s Actors strike didn't he?

On BBC 2 miners strike a frontline story great watch tells the story of our lives

And a different sort of feminism which ties itself to the working class.

My god i never thought i would hear our voices and how we were on the right side of history.

I just haven't found time to watch the BBC programmes, but have them taped.

In the meantime saw these articles:

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/women-militants-of-the-great-strike-reunite

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-68456803

Thanks

Blistering thread here, I've just re-read it all.

Arthur is looking well considering he must be over 90 now.

Lovely to see that photo with Betty and Anne @IwantToRetire thanks for the link.
Betty Cook went on to do a degree. A strong working class woman who found her way to an education following the strike.