This event originated when a few, and I mean a few, of us at
Cardiff University wanted to do something to remember what some see as that
great nadir of the post war trade unionism movement, the 1984 -85 miners’ strike. I for one had been very active during the
strike. Although from a mining area of
South Wales and from a mining family, where both of my grandfathers had been
miners, at the time of the strike, and for some five years previously, I had
been living in Sheffield South Yorkshire.
Of course Sheffield was in the centre of the Yorkshire mining area and
was also the location of the HQ of the national union of mineworkers the NUM. Sheffield was a hub of activity for demonstrations
at other activities during the strike many of which I was involved in and of
course I still had strong family connections in South Wales, so the events of
that time are deeply ingrained in to my memory.
At the end of the dispute I was deeply disappointed that the
miners had not been successful in their aim of protecting their industry, their
jobs and their communities. Although I
felt a strong antipathy to Thatcher and her other Tory cronies at the time that
was nothing new. I was and still am a
proud product of the community that created me where the values of socialism, mutualism
and working class solidarity provided a firm bases for meaningful community
cohesion. No, what give me a deep and gnawing disappointment, to the extent
that I sometimes had difficulty getting up to face the day after the strike,
was the way that people who should have supported the strike were often very mealy
mouthed in that support or outrightly collaborated with the Tory press and
Government in their strategy of portraying the miners as mindless militant thugs
intent on bringing down the government through violence and intimidation; the
so called “Enemy Within” as the Tory government successfully marketed it as.
You had the high profile turncoats and naysayers like Neil Kinnock and Kim
Howells but I also had members of my own family and people who prior to the strike
I would have considered radical and intelligent individuals but who quickly
subsumed to the mindless manta of the time “I cannot condone the violence”. Have a look at this news report from the time
from 7.35 on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTbBr4qIT6A
. I was at a number of these demonstrations
which many people who had made their mind up through watching events in the
comfort of their living room had not.
Kinnock in that news excerpt talks about the “missile throwers and the
battering ram carriers” I wonder how many of those demonstrations he had been
at the frontline on.
There was violence, of that nobody can deny but the picture
of miners going in to demonstrations hell bent on throwing missiles and
engaging in violent activity is not one I recognise. I would say that nearly
all, if not all the violence I witnessed during that strike that came from the miners’
side was in retaliation to violence and provocation from the police. I have recounted my experiences from Orgreave
elsewhere where increasingly it is being recognised that rather than being the
pitched “Battle of Orgreave” as it is referred to it was an outright ambush
staged by the police from beginning to end.
The image that the police provided at the time of the air being blac
with missiles coming in their direction simply did not happen as they were
later forced to admit.
Orgreave was but one and not an isolated incident of what
can ol be described as what felt at the time an out an out attack on the
organised working classes. For example prior to Orgreave a rally had been held
outside the Memorial Hall Sheffield followed by a march to Weston Park I and a
number of Welsh miners, who were intending to set off in their coaches to
return to Wales, stayed near the hall after the main body of marchers had left to go to the park. Without warning and with no provocation and to
our total surprise a number of police vans came speeding in to the square area
and just started assaulting and dragging off for arrest some of the miners. I
tried to intervene myself only to be pinned to the wall by a particularly burly
copper and told “don’t even think about it”.
Some of the miners fought back valiantly particularly as they were taken
by complete surprise and were then punched and beaten with truncheons. These were proud strong working men; would you
really expect them to meekly take a beating for no reason?
One of the things I remember from that day and that still
pains me to this; I think it was a Saturday afternoon in central Sheffield that
this happened so it was very busy; there were plenty of people about. Members of the public could see what was
happening, it was obvious. Now I am not
expecting people to intervene directly but I remember imploring passers-by to
look at what was happening but I also remember, with anguish, the look on their
faces. They didn’t want to look, they
didn’t want to see, they preferred not to know.
If ever there was a time in my life when I truly understood the meaning
of the saying “all that it takes for evil to triumph is for good
people to do nothing” it was then.
As I said at the beginning of this piece the outcome of the
miners’ strike did leave me disheartened and disillusioned and not least with
my fellow human beings and generally with the society around me. However, it is true time is a great healer. The miners’ strike was a battle that we lost
and to be honest I wonder if we could ever have won it as Thatcher had primed
herself well, but still we had to fight, just rolling over and capitulating was
not an option. The loss of a battle though does not mean you
have lost the war and you are only ever truly defeated when you stop trying. The way I look at it know is the experiences
of the miners’ strike are all part of the learning process and what is
important is that we learn from and build on those experiences. People don’t want to know about the
inequalities and injustices that go on around them because if they did they
might feel that they should try to do something about them and that would make
the feel uncomfortable and who would want that?? There is poverty and injustice
in this world where there shouldn't and it is important that we shout about it
from the roof tops (and on Twitter as well ;-)) so that people find it
difficult to walk on by and ignore it.
Photos form 1984-5 Miners’ Strike Keith Pattison
